(Atlantic) – Crossroads of Western Iowa has taken on the new moniker of Trivium Life Services. Officials with Crossroads said Thursday (Today), “When Crossroads of Western Iowa was founded in 1975, they served just eight individuals with disabilities. Having now expanded into nine counties across two states, with further expansions on the horizon, it became apparent they needed a new, unifying name. As Trivium Life Services, the organization has adopted the mission of “Creating Hope. Empowering Lives. Inspiring Communities.”

CEO Brent Dillinger says “The new name and mission statement more fully encompass our vision for the future while honoring our history.” Trivium, which previously focused only on disability services, expanded into behavioral health and substance use disorder services in 2019. Across all service lines, Trivium serves more than 2,500 clients each year and employs approximately 400 individuals.

With this change, Dillinger says “We would like to stress that there will be no disruption to services and our clients will receive the same quality care from the same devoted staff. The clients are at the heart of everything we do and to offer them the highest quality of services, we must continue to evolve” Dillinger said also, “I see this change as a way to offer a wider variety of services on a national stage. As the organization continues to grow, we will have greater resources and more opportunities for our employees to grow with us. I am looking forward to all we will accomplish as Trivium.”

Iowa House District 21 Representative Tom Moore, Thursday, issued his weekly legislative update, “On the issues.” Moore, a Republican from Griswold, said in his report, “On Wednesday night the House passed SF 342, voting 63-30, to support Iowa Law Enforcement. This is a comprehensive bill, and some of the provisions are detailed below…”

·     Allows peace officers and their families to join the safe at home program, which keeps their name and address private.

·     Clarifies that shining a laser in another person’s eyes is assault.

·     Increases penalties for harassing peace officers, blocking roadways, disorderly conduct, and damaging property.

·     Protects state employees from civil lawsuits when they are acting within the law.

·     Protects drivers from civil lawsuits if they are exercising due care and injure someone blocking the road.

·     Makes changes to disability benefits to ensure better medical care and services to peace officers.

·     Allows peace officers to use accrued sick leave to pay for health insurance after retirement.

·     Requires that local governments allow law enforcement to enforce Iowa laws.

·     Increases penalties for rioting.

·     Clarifies that payments for medical care and vacation cannot be counted against a disability pension.”

Bills of Note

SF 546– Private Instruction Drivers Education: 2011 saw the adoption of private instruction monitored by the DOT for homeschool children. This bill clarifies that private instruction as defined by code, by any parent or guardian, qualifies as “competent private instruction.” It also changes certain provisions of parental drivers education to best utilize time within the course, maintain rigorous standards, make parentally supervised drive time equitable, and allow both parents to teach their child. On Monday, this bill passed the House 59-33. It still needs to pass the Iowa Senate.

HF 857– Butchery Fund: This bill creates a butchery fund within the Iowa Economic Development Authority. This will provide funding for new butchery businesses and meat lockers, existing facilities wishing to expand or upgrade, and a task force will be established to explore adding butchery programs to our community colleges and universities. We hope this will spur economic development in the butchery field, as Iowa needs more available lockers and butchers. Tuesday, this bill passed the House with a vote of 91-0.

HF 855– Adoptee Birth Certificates: This bill allows adoptees to obtain a copy of their birth certificates, and it allows biological parents to decide how much information should be provided to the adoptee. I ran this bill a couple years ago but did not have the support. After the change in the makeup of the House; it passed the House with a vote of 91-0.

Economic Development Budget

Representative Moore said also, “This week the Appropriations Committee passed the Economic Development Budget. This budget is subject to change during further negotiation with the Senate, but it now contains the following…”

·     A total of $78 million for Iowa’s economic development

·     $3 million for the Iowa Child Care Challenge Fund

·     $1.2 million for regional tourism and marketing

·     $750,000 for local meat processing businesses

·     $1.8 million for the Jobs Training Program

Moore on this Week: ” We spent much of this week debating bills and preparing to debate bills. The budget committees have also been meeting, trying to hammer out our yearly budget. It is a long process, since we have to deliberate within our chamber on the ideal budget numbers, and then negotiate with the Senate over the final budget.”

The Iowa Department of Public Health’s Coronavirus dashboard, as of 10-a.m., Thursday, indicated that for the fourth day in a row, there were no additional deaths from COVID-19 to report. The pandemic total stands at 5,857. Long-Term Care facility deaths account for 2,296 of the total number of deaths across the state. That is also unchanged.

There were 603 additional positive test results for COVID-19 returned from the labs, for a total of 387,805. There remain three Long-Term Care facility outbreaks, with 31 positive cases among residents and staff within those facilities.

Health officials say COVID-related hospitalizations are down slightly, to 215, and there are 49 COVID patients in an ICU, eight less than on Wednesday. The IDPH says 37 people were admitted to a hospital across the state, which is a decline of nine from Wednesday, and 19 patients are on a ventilator, compared to 14 in the previous report.

RMCC Region 4 hospitals (those in western/southwest Iowa) show: There are 21 hospitalized with COVID; 10 COVID patients are in an ICU; four people were admitted with symptoms of COVID (2 more than previously reported), and there remain two COVID patients on a ventilator.

The 14-day positivity rate is 4.7%. The seven-day rate is 4.6%.

In the KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases by County; The # of new cases since yesterday {+} – if any; and the total number of deaths in each county to date:

• Cass, 1,422 cases; {+1}; 54 deaths
• Adair, 962; {+1}; 32
• Adams, 338 {+3}; 4
• Audubon, 513 {+2}; 9
• Guthrie, 1,257 {+4}; 28
• Harrison County, 1,881; {+1}; 73
• Madison County, 1,669; {+1; 19
• Mills County, 1,745; {+1}; 20
• Montgomery, 1,079 {+0}; 37
• Pottawattamie County, 11,756; {+33}; 160
• Shelby County, 1,328 {+2}; 37
• Union County,  1,322; {+1}; 32