DES MOINES, Iowa, June 24, 2021 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Acting State Director in Iowa Darin Leach today (Thursday) announced that USDA is investing $413,200 to equip, rebuild, and modernize essential services in rural areas throughout Iowa. The investments will benefit nearly 30,000 rural residents.

USDA is investing in eight projects in Iowa through the Community Facilities Direct Loan and Grant Program to ensure residents in rural areas enjoy the same quality of life and services as those in urban areas. Among them:

• Southwest Iowa Families, Inc. is receiving a $50,000 grant to purchase furnishings and equipment for a public use facility that provides essential medical services for nearly 4,500 rural residents.
• The Corning Opera House Cultural Center is receiving a $24,900 grant to build gutters on the exterior of the building to ensure that the restored historical facility remains structurally sound for public use.
• The Shenandoah Medical Center is receiving a $50,000 grant to purchase a new four-wheel-drive ambulance to replace a vehicle in the existing fleet with high mileage.
• The City of Atlantic is receiving a $26,300 grant to purchase new flooring, computer tables, a standing computer table and new computers and printers for the public library.

Today’s investments are in coordination with USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Justin Maxson’s recent announcement that USDA is investing $185 million to equip, rebuild, and modernize essential services in rural areas of 32 states, benefiting 3 million rural residents.  More than 100 types of projects are eligible for Community Facilities funding. Eligible applicants include municipalities, public bodies, nonprofit organizations and federally recognized Native American tribes. Projects must be in rural areas with a population of 20,000 or less.

For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov/ia or call (515) 284-4663. Follow us on Twitter @RD_Iowa.

DES MOINES – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Thursday (today) announced that Iowa State Patrol officers will be deployed to the U.S. Southern Border to aid law enforcement and border security efforts. The governor is responding to a request from Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC).  She says “My first responsibility is to the health and safety of Iowans and the humanitarian crisis at our nation’s southern border is affecting all 50 states. The rise in drugs, human trafficking, and violent crime has become unsustainable. Iowa has no choice but to act, and it’s why I am honoring Texas’ Emergency Management Assistance Compact following assurances from the Iowa Department of Public Safety that it will not compromise our ability to provide all necessary public safety services to Iowans.”

In May, there were roughly 180,000 border encounters, a 20 year high. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in March of 2021 there was a 233% increase in fentanyl seizures from the previous year. In May, that year over year increase climbed to 300%. In Iowa, law enforcement officials are recovering drugs, illegal narcotics, and weapons being smuggled across the nation’s southern border by drug cartels.

According to the Iowa Department of Public Safety, in the first quarter of 2021, Iowa saw the highest amounts of methamphetamine seized in any one quarter since 2018. Compare that to May of 2020 when both the purity and seizure of methamphetamine dropped significantly when the border was completely closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. As for Fentanyl, Iowa saw 532 grams seized in January – May of 2020. Over that same time period in 2021, roughly 6,641 grams of Fentanyl was seized, an increase of roughly 1,148%.

The Iowa National Guard (ING) is also currently conducting a mission with 24 soldiers from the Unit 2/34 IBCT to assist law enforcement agencies at the southern border, per an October 2020 request from the federal government under Title 10 active duty mobilization orders.  On June 10, 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey formally requested law enforcement support from all 50 states. This request was made through Iowa’s existing EMAC, a national interstate mutual aid agreement that enables states to share resources during a disaster. More information about EMAC can be found here.

The state of Iowa joins Florida, Nebraska, and Idaho, in sending law enforcement to the southern border to assist Texas and Arizona.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a deal to buy Covid-19 test kits that can be used by Iowans at home, but a spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Public Health says details of how to get those kits will be released in the coming weeks. The governor told reporters she signed the contract to buy the test kits on Tuesday. “So they will be in place as we phase out Test Iowa, which our numbers are just down to nothing right now,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds did not disclose the purchase price. The first drive through Test Iowa sites were established in late April of last year as Covid cases began to spike here. By THIS spring, just five state-run testing sites remained. The Council Bluffs site closed yesterday (Wednesday).The site in Cedar Rapids will close at the end of testing late this (Thursday) afternoon and the Waterloo Test Iowa location is closing Friday at 4 p.m. On Friday, July 16th, the final two locations in Davenport and Des Moines will close for good. The governor says the State Hygienic Lab will be involved in distributing the at home test kits for Covid 19.

“They’ll be available for anyone and there’s no preconceived conditions that quality and so we’re just moving to a better system to implement with the numbers that are going down with Test Iowa,” Reynolds says. “It doesn’t make sense to keep that infrastructure in place.”

One-hundrd-10 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed by tests reported to the state yesterday (Wednesday) and about 47 percent of eligible Iowans are fully vaccinated. In some rural counties, fewer than one in three residents are vaccinated and some medical professionals fear more contagious variants of the virus may already be circulating. Reynolds says a majority of Iowa adults statewide have had at least one dose of vaccine and she does not plan to offer the kind of incentives or prizes governors in some other states are offering to fully vaccinated residents. “We’re doing well,” Reynolds says. “I’m really proud of where we’re at and we’re just going to continue to talk about the importance of it.”

Iowa’s vaccination rate ranks 22nd among the states, with more than one-point-four million Iowans fully vaccinated according to the state’s website.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports five recent arrests and two accidents of interest.

• On a little before 1-a.m. Wednesday, June 23rd, 29-year-old Keith Patrick Schreck, of Council Bluffs, was arrested at Ebaugh and Locust Avenues. Schreck was taken into custody for two counts Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, and Possession of Contraband in a Correctional Institution. His bond was set at $7,000.
• Tuesday evening, 34-year-old William Dean Meredith, of Glenwood, was arrested at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant for Violation of Probation. His bond was set at $2,000.
• On Sunday, June 20th…36-year-old Clifford Duane Doyle, of Glenwood, was arrested at a residence on Garfield Lane, for Domestic Abuse Assault. He was being held in the Mills County Jail without bond; At around 5:15-a.m. Sunday, 21-year-old Major Alexander Fisher, of Tabor, was arrested at a location on Nims Road in Mills County, on charges that include Obstruction of Emergency Communications, False Report in a 911 call, and Interference with Official Acts; and, at around 2-a.m. Sunday, 46-year-old David James Duncan, of Glenwood, was arrested in the area of 225th and Gillens Court, for Assault/Willful Injury. His bond was set at $5,000.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office says also, a Shenandoah woman suffered minor injuries early Tuesday morning, when the 2015 Buick she was driving struck a deer on southbound Highway 59. 65-year-old Jo Beck was transported by Malvern Rescue to the Shenandoah Hospital. On June 18th, the operator of a 2008 Harley Davidson motorcycle, 33-year-old Dustin Barrett, of Nebraska City, NE., suffered unknown injuries, after the cycle went through a T-intersection, and into a corn field. The accident happened at around 9:50-p.m. at the intersection of 315th Street and Gaston Avenue.

Authorities say Barrett was northbound on 315th and approaching the intersection with Gaston Avenue. Due to the darkness, and his unfamiliarity with the area, Barrett didn’t know he was approaching the T-intersection, and was unable to stop in-time. He refused medical treatment at the scene. The motorcycle was determined to be a total loss.