DES MOINES – From an archaeological site in Woodbury County to a historic school in Davenport, 11 projects in seven communities were honored with Iowa’s highest awards for historic preservation during this year’s Preserve Iowa Summit. The annual conference is presented by the State Historic Preservation Office, which is part of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. During the awards ceremony on Thursday, the State Historical Society of Iowa Board of Trustees awarded two projects in Des Moines and two in Davenport with a Preservation Project of Merit Award, which recognizes projects that exemplify the best practices of historic preservation, meet federal standards, and make use of state tax credits for historic preservation.

The historical society also honored successful efforts to stabilize a prehistoric site on the Little Sioux River near Anthon and to rehabilitate historic facades on the Winterset square. In addition, the nonprofit group Preservation Iowa presented its Preservation At Its Best Awards in five categories during the same ceremony. These annual awards honor properties and educational efforts that meet the highest standards of preservation practices. The awards in western Iowa are as follows:

State Historical Society of Iowa – Preservation Project of Merit Awards:

Certificate of Merit – Winterset Facade Rehabilitation Project, Madison County

This five-year project, completed in 2020, resulted in exterior improvements to 17 buildings in the Winterset Courthouse Historic District in Madison County.

Excellence in Archaeology and Historic Preservation Award Recipient: Dixon Site Riverbank Stabilization Project, Woodbury County
This award recognizes the best archaeology or preservation project at the local or state level.

This Dixon Site project, located on the Little Sioux River near Anthon, put an end to riverbank erosion at the site of a prehistoric Oneota village and successfully stabilized Iowa Highway 31. The award recognizes the project’s many contributors, including the Iowa Department of Transportation and eight Native American tribes, for their collaborative work in accordance with state and federal laws concerning historic preservation.

Preservation Iowa – Preservation at its Best Awards:

Best Community Effort Award Recipient: Hoff Family Arts and Culture Center/McCormick Harvesting Company Building, Council Bluffs

Pottawattamie Arts, Culture and Entertainment (PACE) spearheaded the transformation of this historic warehouse. The new center opened in spring 2020 and features a theater, culinary arts kitchen for food entrepreneurs, teaching kitchen, exhibit gallery, dance studios, artist studios, classrooms and more.

(Updated) The Cass County Fair Association has released the line-up for evening events set to take place during the 2021 Cass County Fair, in Atlantic. Fair Board President Curtis Bierbaum says among the FREE activities, is the tractor and truck pull beginning at 6-p.m. on Saturday, July 31st.

The Champion Seed Western and Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League Series pullers will be making a lot of noise as their machines work to pull a sliding load on their way to the finish line, or at least as far as they can go. The event will include:
– 85 Limited Pro Stock Tractors
– Limited Pro Stock Diesel Trucks
– Pro Farm Tractors
– Pro Street Diesel Trucks
– Super Modified 2WD Trucks

Bierbaum says the adult Team Golf Cart Races Sunday night should be a blast to watch.

He says everything is set to go, and they’re crossing their fingers nothing like COVID interferes with your enjoyment of the Fair.

(Radio Iowa) – Heyl Truck Lines is buying Holiday Express, a trucking company based in Estherville. Heyl Truck Lines is based in Akron. Its president, Bruce Koele, says both companies are family-owned. “We felt our companies matched very well with a lot of the same philosophies,” he says. “Heyl has several terminals in Florida, Texas and also northwest Iowa as well as Okotoks, Alberta, Canada.” The Holiday Express terminal in Estherville will be rebranded as a Heyl terminal.

“Our intentions are to create additional jobs,” he says. “…We’re currently looking for mechanics and technicians and to build the infrastructure and build their shop and become an even more significant player in the Estherville area.” Holiday Express, founded in 1969, has specialized in operating refrigerated trucks that carry food to 48 states. Heyl Truck Lines was founded in 1949 and currently has a fleet of over 400 trucks. Heyl also focuses on temperature controlled commodities, but it ships dry goods as well. Heyl’s purchase of Holiday Express will be final on June 14th.

(Radio Iowa) – For the third time in a month, a bicyclist in the Quad Cities has been killed by an S-U-V. Davenport police say a bicyclist was hit and killed by a hit-and-run SUV that ran a red light on Thursday afternoon. Police later caught the driver, 33-year-old Bobby Hunt of Davenport. He faces a list of charges, including homicide by reckless driving, in the death of 40-year-old cyclist Alex Marietta of Geneseo, Illinois.

During May, a 13-year-old boy on a bicycle was hit and killed by a Moline, Illinois, police SUV that was responding to a call, while a 60-year-old man on a bike was also fatally struck and killed by an SUV in Rock Island County.

(Radio Iowa) – The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics will increase rates for its services by six-percent in the coming budget year. The Board of Regents approved the new rates Thursday. U-I-H-C officials say the increase is especially needed now because of losses the health system suffered during the pandemic. Chief Financial Officer Bradley Haws says shutting down surgeries alone was extremely expensive. “My forecast of a million-and-a-half (dollars) a day was low. That was just the surgeries going away,” Haws says. “So when we forecasted a new number with declining admissions, the number came closer to two-and-a-half-million dollars per day.”

Besides the canceled surgeries and falling admissions, Haws says the added costs of handling COVID-19 dealt a blow to the state’s largest hospital. He says raising rates will help recoup some of those losses. “That impact of a rate increase brings in about $12-almost-13 million of increased revenue,” Haws says. “And so we view that as a vital way to offset, as we talked about, the CARES money and to continue our operation.”

Haws says an infusion of millions of dollars from the federal government was key to stabilizing the facility’s finances over the past year.

(reporting by Kate Payne, Iowa Public Radio)