(Radio Iowa) – Things could be changing in the labor force as we head through spring into summer. Iowa Workforce Development executive director, Beth Townsend, says there’ll be some impact as college students graduate. “We have 61-thousand open jobs, so we’ve got a lot of really great jobs to pull from or take advantage us so hopefully we’ll see more people enter into the workforce as we get closer to graduation,” she says.

The pork plant in Perry will be closing as summer starts. “The layoffs are not supposed to start until the end of June. So, you know, assuming that some of the lines close in June, it probably will be July or August before we can ascertain how many folks had lined up employment, you know, and went right into another job and how many needed some additional time to find work,” she says. Townsend says they hope many of the employees find work they can transition to after the plant closes.

“We don’t typically see every single person who gets laid off on unemployment because they’ve, you know, found other jobs,” she says. “We know there are employers out there recruiting them. There was a job fair, the first week in April. We plan to have multiple job fairs in May and June as we get closer to people actually being ready to look for work.”

Townsend says they will continue to be focused on helping the Perry workers through the plant shutdown.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A traffic stop at around 7:30-p.m. Tuesday in Montgomery County, resulted in the arrest of a man wanted on a warrant. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 48-year-old Timothy Lee Hutchison, of Decatur City, was arrested in the 1700 block of Highway 34, on a Decatur County warrant for Violation of Probation. Hutchison was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held without bond, pending extradition to Decatur County.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Legislature has approved up to eight MILLION dollars for the new Thrive Iowa program Governor Kim Reynolds proposed, to link people in need with faith-based and private sector groups that can help. It’s modeled after a similar program in Florida. In January, Reynolds said community support is just as important as government programs in helping Iowans get back and their feet and become self-sufficient.

“The good news is that many of these resources already exist across our state, from faith communities, to non-profits, and so many other wonderful organizations. They are doing life-changing work every single day,” Reynolds said. “Government’s role is not to replace these grassroots efforts, but to amplify and facilitate them.”

Republican Senator Mark Costello of Imogene says he’s not sure if the Iowa Department of Human Services will hire a company to run the Thrive Iowa program, although he says some of the eight MILLION dollars is for staff and developing an online system for requests and referrals. “It’s really the human element and using the navigators to assist Iowans that are in need. And it’s a closed loop referral system under HHS,” Costello says. “It’ll be statewide and connect the community provider to nonprofits.”

Senator Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democrat from Waukee, says the United Way already operates the 2-1-1 referral service for two MILLION dollars. “It doesn’t make sense to me to start a brand new program when the one we have right now, right here is already doing this work, especially when it’s going to cost up to $8 million for them to do the same thing,” Trone Garriott said. “That sounds like a really bad deal for Iowans.”

Trone Garriott says the extra eight MILLION dollars would have been better used feedy needy Iowa children this summer.