Jim Field visits with Mary Taggs about the Shelby County Fair.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (23.5MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Jim Field visits with Mary Taggs about the Shelby County Fair.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (23.5MB)
Subscribe: RSS
The Red Oak Police Department today (Thursday) said Thomas Oscar Anderson, age 62, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 4-p.m. Wednesday. Anderson was wanted on a Mills County warrant for Failure to Appear on an original charge of Possession of a Controlled Substance/2nd offense. He was being held for Mills County on a $25,000 bond.
Class 3-A Sub-State Finals
Class 4-A Sub-State Finals
(Radio Iowa) – The Nature Conservancy in Iowa is offering home and business owners in the state a crash course in solar power. Patrick Snell, the organization’s climate and external affairs associate, says the Grow Solar program is in its fourth year of helping Iowans navigate a course toward finding an affordable source of renewable energy. “It’s hard to know what to look for in solar, how to work with your utility, how to work with your municipality and figuring out all the right questions to ask,” Snell says. “What this program does is really put all that in front of them in a 30-minute educational series to get all those questions answered.”
Grow Solar is underway this summer in Polk County, after successful runs in Dallas, Warren, Linn, Jackson and Johnson counties. There’s also a longer program, the Solar Power Hour, where people can learn the basics of solar energy, along with some of the financial aspects. “The program is a limited group buy purchasing program, so anybody that wants to participate in the program, we basically do a bulk purchasing of individual solar systems,” Snell says. “We usually see about a 10% reduction in the price of solar for those individual homes or businesses.” The program aims to connect Iowa home and business owners with local, reputable installers, while warning them about the predatory tactics of some out-of-state solar companies.
“Good solar companies have a headquarters or an operation in the state, that’s a big one for us,” Snell says. “One other thing we look at is the number of installations they’ve done. There’s a lot of companies that will come in to just try it out, and you’ll end up paying for a lot of headaches both for that resident, as well as their local utilities.” Just because you see something on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true, and this applies to the solar industry as well. Snell says people may want to steer clear of some companies that advertise on social media about the benefits of solar power.
“It’s something that can be good for someone’s pocketbook and good for their heart, and unfortunately from that altruistic side, we do see a lot of actors have misleading ads,” Snell says. “I would say there’s a lot of good players, there’s a lot of not-so-good players in the industry, so yes, there’s some ads to be wary of.” The Solar Power Hours are being held virtually and in-person to help equip Iowans with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions. Learn more at: https://www.growsolar.org/polk-county/
(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University analysis shows rural households are being disproportionately impacted by rising inflation. The study finds disposable income for rural residents is down 38 percent — compared to 17 percent in cities. I-S-U researcher Dave Peters says that means rural communities have less of a safety net for unexpected costs. “A healthcare issue that costs extra money, you get a reduction in your hours. Big home repair that you didn’t plan for. So, any kind of these unexpected expenses, that’s only six-thousand dollars to cover that,” Peters says. He says rural households are using more gasoline to travel and fuel to heat their homes – – which are both surging in price.
And Peters says wages in small towns are growing more slowly than in other places. Peters says he’s most concerned with how long these communities can withstand inflationary costs. “If they’re for the long term, then this becomes a big crisis for rural households, you know, that disposable income cushion makes them really vulnerable to debt and bankruptcy,” he says. Peters says low-income and older residents are at even greater risk of being impacted.
(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with Cass Health reports AMC Rapid Care will be closed this (Thursday) morning (July 14), but they will re-open at noon, after staff move into their temporary home in Atlantic Medical Center. AMC Rapid Care personnel they will work out of the AMC until their space is fully renovated, the process for which is expected to be completed in early 2023.
Today: Partly cloudy. High 92. SE wind @ 10-15 mph.
Tonight: P/Cldy w/scattered showers & thunderstorms developing late. Low 72. S @ 10.
Tomorrow: Showers & thunderstorms ending; P/Cldy. High 94. SW @ 10-20 shifting to the North, late.
Saturday: P/Cldy w/late day showers and thunderstorms. High around 92.
Sunday: P/Cldy w/scattered showers and thunderstorms early. High near 92.
Wednesday’s High in Atlantic was 88. Our Low was 58. Last year on this date the High in Atlantic was 86 and the Low was 67. The Record High on this date was 112 in 1936. The Record Low was 41 in 1967.
(Radio Iowa) – A wind farm proposed for the southwest corner of Iowa has cleared one major hurdle. The Fremont County Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved Invenergy’s application for its Shenandoah Hills project. The site south of Shenandoah extends into Page County as well. Officials in Page County are still reviewing the company’s application. Mark Crowl, a development manager with Invenergy, says the turbines would generate 27 million dollars in property taxes for Fremont County — and property owners in the county will get one-and-half million dollars in annual payments for easements.
“Those dollars for the project stay here in the county,” he said. “This is a project that allows some of our participating landowners that have agricultural operations to add to that, and to have a project that allows them to kind of ride out the ups and downs and stay here in Fremont County.” The Fremont County board’s approval came after a two-hour-long public hearing Wednesday. Brian Langner of Farragut told the supervisors the only winner in the project is Invenergy.
“The energy’s going to go into the grid. It is not going to help our energy costs one bit,” he said. “It’s going to continue to tear apart our communities.” Supporters like Penny Bredensteiner of Northboro say the turbines will boost the county’s economy. “This will help the tax base, I think, a great deal,” she said. “It will bring money into our county which has no industry, no major industry, coming into it.”
Brandon Van Scyoc, of Sidney, questions the project’s impact on wildlife and on farmland enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. “They don’t care about us,” he said. “They don’t care about any of us. It’s all for the dollar.” Others raised concerns about noise from the turbines and told the board many homes located near to the proposed turbines were not included in the project map.
A Fremont County supervisor said the project fits within the county’s wind power ordinance and had been reviewed by the county’s engineer and attorney. A Page County supervisor says there are several unanswered questions about the project, including the impact the turbines might have on the signal for K-Y-F-R, an A-M radio station in Shenandoah.
The Shenandoah Hills Wind Energy Center would be located near the Missouri border, in southwestern Page and southeastern Fremont Counties, between the communities of Riverton and Coin.
New Big-12 commissioner Brett Yormark says all options are being considered in wake of the latest round of conference realignment. Yormark was named as the successor to Bob Bowlsby just days before USC and UCLA announced they were leaving the PAC-12 to join the Big Ten.
Yormark says any further expansion would need to add value to the Big-12 and says the league is in a good position.
Yormark is not focused on trying to become a super conference like the SEC and Big Ten.
Yormark on his reaction when he heard USC and UCLA were headed to the Big Ten.
(Radio Iowa) – The latest survey shows gas prices have fallen again. Triple-A says the average price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline dropped 12 cents to four dollars, 46 cents. That is down 30 cents a gallon from one month ago. The current Iowa average is 17 cents below the national average. It is still one dollar, 48 cents higher than one year ago.
Diesel prices dropped nine cents this week to five dollars, 27 cents. It’s still well above the three dollars, 11 cents a gallon for diesel one year ago.