Creston Police, Thursday night, arrested 35-year-old Robert Eugene Kibbe, III, of Creston, at his residence. Kibbe was arrested on on outside agency warrant, Possession of drug Paraphernalia, and Interference with official acts. He was transported to the Union County Jail and held without bond until seen by a judge.

(Radio Iowa) – The governor has declared April to be Safe Digging Month in Iowa. Iowa One Call’s Ben Booth says there are still people who start digging before calling 8-1-1 to located underground utilities despite all the warnings. “In a lot of cases it’s because people are not aware of the requirement. Or maybe they don’t realize what they are doing in their yard entails excavation and requires a notice,” he says. Booth says some people also get in a big hurry to do a project and dig without a call. He says calling is not optional. “It is a requirement by law that everyone notifies Iowa One Call at least 48 hours prior to beginning any digging or excavating. And that does not include Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays,” according to Booth.

Booth says the under utility location service is free — but it can cost you in damage and fines if you hit something because you didn’t know it was there. He says there are a lot of utilities buried underground — including key links to the internet during the pandemic. “People rely on their internet connectivity. It’s almost an essential service now like your gas or electric,” Booth says. ” And cutting into a fiber service line or worse yet — a main that brings the fiber communications into a community — that can be devastating to people who relay on that to get their jobs done.” You can call 8-1-1 or Booth says there is now an online option available. “We like to say click before you dig. If you go to IowaOneCall.com, you can complete your online notices, and it’s much easier. There’s a very robust mapping system, it’s very detailed and allows the user to really pinpoint where that area in their their planned excavation work,” Booth says.

He says those who come out to mark the utilities like the detail of the online system. He says you can use the precise mapping tools and the locators like to have the ticket showing exactly where you are going to excavate — and he says it helps speed up the process. He says Iowa One Call representatives handle more than 700-thousand notices and coordinate more than three-point-five million locate requests annually.

(Radio Iowa) – The monthly survey of business leaders and supply managers in Iowa and eight other Midwestern states shows a moderate drop in the region’s leading economic indicator for March. The Creighton University survey ranks the economy on a zero-to-100 scale, with 50 being growth neutral. Creighton economist Ernie Goss says it’s the tenth month in a row the region’s been above that growth neutral mark. “The Mid-America region was still a very strong 68.9, that’s down slightly from last month’s 69.6,” Goss says, “so it’s a very, very strong reading, indicating the manufacturing sector is proceeding with very strong growth.”

Iowa’s business conditions index for March also sank to 66.5, falling from 71.1 in February. The surveys in February and March found about eight in ten manufacturers reported bottlenecks in getting raw materials and supplies from vendors, curtailing what could be even stronger growth. Goss says the impacts of COVID-19 have been long-lasting. “In April, we hit a downturn in 2020 and since then, it’s been trending upward,” Goss says. “We’re still four-to-five-percent below pre-COVID levels. We’ve still got more to go. I expect us, by the end of the year, to be back to pre-COVID levels in terms of employment and overall economic activity.”

While more Iowans are starting to plan and take vacations, Goss says companies are not as quick to approve travel plans for their employees. “We think the vaccine is opening up the nation, and it is for consumer travel and family travel, but not for business travel,” Goss says. “Businesses are going to continue to do Zoom conferences and we’re not going to see as much as we’d like to see, so that’s going to hurt the hotel and restaurant industry, leisure and hospitality will be under pressure.”

He predicts those industries won’t recover and be back to pre-COVID levels until 2022. Compared to pre-COVID-19 levels, Goss says the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Iowa manufacturing employment is down 3,600 jobs, or 1.6%, while average hourly manufacturing wages are 1.8% lower.