WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A business services company in Waterloo has laid off dozens of workers after the coronavirus pandemic upended its recent expansion. VGM Group announced this week that it has eliminated 58 full-time jobs and 15 part-time jobs. The employee-owned company said that it had offered transfers, extended furloughs or early retirement packages to another 17 workers. VGM Group provides purchasing, insurance, health care management, marketing and other services to thousands of business customers across North America.

VGM CEO Mike Mallaro says the cuts are “very difficult for everyone in the VGM family” but necessary.

(Radio Iowa) — The site of a movable restaurant that has moved on, is destined to become a gathering place to link biking and walking trails in the Iowa Great Lakes region. Erin Reed is executive director of the Dickinson County Trails Board. “It runs right along next to our railroad trail, so we’ve been watching that property for some time,” she says. “It’s been for sale for a while and just always thought it would be a great spot to have a trail head.”

The Lake Street Diner in Spirit Lake that sat on the property was moved in December. Reed says her group has gotten a grant to cover the cost of buying and developing the property. “At this time we are looking at different design concepts for a shelter type area that would include restrooms and be somewhat unique to the old rail trail concept,” Reed says, “and also include some landscaping and clean up of the area.”

Reed expects the project to take a couple of years. The city of Spirit Lake sits on the western shore of East Lake Okoboji. The railroad trail being developed in Dickinson AND Osceola Counties will eventually run 37 miles — on land first laid with rail tracks in 1867. The 14-mile Iowa Great Lakes Trail includes a loop through Spirit Lake’s residential and downtown areas.

(Radio Iowa) — It will likely take a year or more to replace two medical marijuana dispensaries in eastern and western Iowa. Dispensaries in Council Bluffs and Davenport closed without notice on March 30th. The manager of the Iowa Department of Public Health’s medical cannabis program, Owen Parker, says the licenses of the closed dispensaries operated by the Have a Heart company are no longer valid.  “There’s no management agreement where transfers or anything like that that can be done. The licenses, once they’re closed, are rescinded. It just starts from scratch however many licenses need to be filled,” Parker says.

Parker says Have A Heart ignored the rules of their contract and failed to give six months’ notice. He says if the company had given proper notice — the re-opening process could have been faster. Parker says the license application process will be underway soon.  “And then we will award the license to somebody which then is when they would move forward with their buildout, so from beginning to end you can’t really put an exact timetable on it, it’s easy to say a year or more in all reality, ” according to Parker.

Patients in eastern Iowa will have to get their medical marijuana products from the remaining dispensaries in Sioux City, Waterloo, or Des Moines.

(Radio Iowa) — With the coronavirus moving academic life online, some researchers are shifting their work to benefit health care workers. Madeline Jensen is a University of Iowa graduate student studying sustainable water development. Her research typically focuses on chemical compounds known as PFAS (PEE-faas), but Jensen says those studies aren’t considered critical right now. “That research I pretty much had to stop when the university shut down and I could only work on reading papers about it and writing what I could on it,” Jensen says.

However, since a U-I official approached her lab, Jensen has been working to create air filters for personal protective equipment like masks. This could better safeguard health care workers from breathing in tiny particles that may carry the virus. U-I Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering David Cwiertny says his students usually make filtration devices to take pollutants out of drinking water. They’re adapting to fit with the current crisis, Cwiertny says, as anyone who does research looks for ways their work can help society. Cwiertny says, “What we’re trying to do here is, if there’s an opportunity for us to contribute our expertise and help, rather than just sitting on the sidelines, when we would take that opportunity to see what we can do.”

Cwiertny says normally he’d have about a dozen people in the lab, but now there’s just two to take proper precautions against COVID-19.

(Reporting by Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)

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Officials with Greater Regional Health, in Creston, said Thursday, a case of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been confirmed in Union County. The patient is between thee ages of 61-and 80, and is self-isolating at home with their spouse. Union County Public Health Nurse, Robin Sevier says “While this is Union County’s first case, it may not be the last, and that’s why we encourage all residents to continue to make prevention a priority.”

Recommended prevention activities :

• Stay home as much as possible. Leave only for essential errands like groceries or getting medication. When you run these errands, send only one person from the household, if possible.
• Stay home when even mildly ill (the kind of illness that normally wouldn’t prevent you from your everyday activities)
• Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or your elbow/upper arm.
• Wash hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

(Updated 9:20-a.m.) Firefighters from Shenandoah were dispatched at around 4-p.m. Thursday to a wooden bridge fire. Upon arrival, crews found heavy smoke and flames engulfing the Wabash Trace bridge over the East Nishnabotna river, on the north side of Shenandoah. According to a post on the department’s social media page, crews were able to extinguish the fire and were on scene for approximately two hours.

The Wabash Trace organization posted on social media, that over 50′ of the bridge will have to be completely torn off and rebuilt. Officials say there is no thru access, so trail users will have to cautiously use Highway 59 as a detour. Work on repairing the bridge will begin as soon as possible. If you would like to donate towards the repair, please visit www.wabashtrace.org/contribute and make a note in the memo, or you may mail a check to P.O. Box 581, Shenandoah, IA, 51601.

Photos via the Shenandoah Fire Department Facebook page.

The Page County Sheriff’s department, Page County EMA, and several members of the Wabash trace assisted Shenadoah Fire at the scene. The cause of the fire remained undetermined and was under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) — While parts of Iowa had record high temperatures in the mid-80s earlier this week, a cold front has cut those highs in half and forecasters say the chilly, unseasonable weather may be sticking around. Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub, based in Ames, says there’s no warm-up in sight. “The main part of this goes into next week where we have sub-freezing temperatures possible into next week,” Todey says. “The downside of this, unfortunately, is that this pattern could stay with us for another couple weeks.”

Todey says there is the potential for some freeze damage and — much like a year ago — a slowing of spring planting for Iowa farmers. “We could still have some repeated cold shots that plants then could be far enough along but if we get freezing temperatures we have an issue,” Todey says, “and if that cold does stay with us, and not give us too much of a warm-up over the next couple weeks, we again will have that same problem with soils not warming up quickly enough and not drying out enough that we can start getting field work done.”

Todey says it doesn’t look like much precipitation is coming with the cold, which will benefit some farmers in the short-term. “The advantage for row crop people is, you can still do a lot of prep work,” Todey says. “If you can get into the field, you can start getting ready. You just don’t want to be putting out anything except for maybe some small grains would probably be okay to get started on.”

Todey says long-range trends show both temperatures and precipitation staying below-normal for the next month or so.

(Radio Iowa) — Sioux City Police have announced several staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, but officials are not releasing the exact number of employees affected or what their positions or roles may be within the department. Sergeant Jeremy McClure says the department just learned of the positive results yesterday (Thursday). “We wanted to make sure that we’re being transparent and then also review the proceedures we have in place to ensure that we are following the best practices to protect the public and our officers,” McClure says.

“The important thing is right now our capabilities to provide essential services have not been impacted and we continue to monitor our employees’ health.” McClure says the department has enough staff to respond to 9-1-1 calls and other calls for service in Sioux City. “Officers have been sanitizing equipment and cars regularly and then as of today, officers will be wearing masks when interacting with the public and co-workers,” McClure says, “just to ensure that we’re being as safe as possible and minimizing the risk.”

Sioux City Police Department employees who tested positive for COVID-19 are recovering in isolation, according to McClure. He says the entire staff has NOT been tested. “Any employees that we think may possibly may be getting sick, we’ve been working with an over abundance of caution and providing them the resources they need to take care of themselves whether that’s self-isolating or any other resources we can provide to them,” McClure says, “just to protect them and the other staff members.”

It appears Sioux City’s police department may be the first law enforcement agency in the state to have staff test positive for COVID-19. The president of the Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association told The Des Moines Register on Wednesday he was unaware of any Iowa deputy or officer testing positive for the virus.