(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Board of Parole has approved 482 inmates for early release from the state’s prisons to reduce overcrowding during the COVID-19 pandemic. Iowa Department of Corrections director Beth Skinner says another 90 state prison inmates are approved for future release. “It’s critical each of these have safe, sustainable housing before they are released,” Skinner says. “Additionally, we are working closely with community based corrections to safely parole those that have been approved back into the community.”

A month ago, the state prison system was at 22 percent over design capacity. “We are working closely with the Board of Parole, which has the authority to release those who would likely success in a community setting,” Skinner says. “Together our agencies are working to find a balance of good public safety and safety of the institutions for our staff and those incarcerated.”

Over the weekend, officials announced an inmate transferred into the state prison system on Thursday had tested positive for COVID-19, but had never been in the general population and was in quarantine. Earlier this month a correctional officer working at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville had tested positive for the virus. Today (Monday) Skinner announced a second officer who had been around that person has also tested positive.  “The good news for the facility is this team member has not been at work since April 9,” Skinner says. “Because they started staying home before ever experiencing symptoms, we do not believe there was any exposure by inmates or staff to this individual.”

All staff AND inmates at the Coralville facility are now required to wear face masks as a precaution and temperatures are being taken twice daily to check for fever. The state agency is asking county officials to keep any inmate with COVID-19 quarantined IN THE COUNTY JAIL and to NOT transfer them into the state prison system. “We ask sheriffs to suspend admissions and revocations at this time,” Skinner says. “and this is to prevent the unnecessary exposure to jail inmates and reduce the likelihood of another opportunity to introduce COVID-19 into our prisons.”

No visitors have been allowed inside the state prisons since March 14th and inmates on work crews are no longer allowed to work outside of prison property.

(Radio Iowa) — The director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority says her agency has been largely focused on big business expansion projects, but Debi Durham says that’s about to change. “I’m going to propose to the legislature that we do a revolving loan fund for Main Street businesses,” Durham says.

Durham isn’t ready to say how large she’d like the fund to be, but she’s asked the state’s bankers if they’ll manage the loans for businesses in Iowa’s rural communities. “We think that’s the best way to do it because they have the relationship,” Durham says. “It’s ready, so it’s just a matter of when the legislature convenes, presenting something to them.”

Earlier this month, Durham’s agency distributed 24 MILLION dollars in state GRANTS to hundreds of small businesses — but nearly 14-THOUSAND business owners had applied. As she announced the grants that HAD been awarded, Durham called small businesses the backbone of Iowa communities.  “Our team has spoken with or emailed with a large percentage of our small business owners from every industry sector and region of our state,” Durham said. “To our small business owners: we heard you.'”

Beyond the addition of a small business loan fund to the state economic agency’s portfolio, Durham plans to ask lawmakers to financially support other programs aimed at Iowa’s small business sector. “Absolutely you are going to see us step up in a bigger way than we have before, because as you know we ten to play with the ‘High Quality Jobs’ (program) is a big business initiative,”Durham says. “We’ve had our ‘Main Street’ and our ‘Targeted Small Business’ (programs) but they’re very small in comparison, so you’re going to see us have a totally different focus.”

Durham made her comments this weekend on Iowa P-B-S on the “Iowa Press” program. The 2020 Iowa legislative session is currently suspended, but lawmakers must reconvene at some point to at least debate and pass a spending plan for the 12-month state budgeting year that begins July 1st.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Restaurant closures due to the coronavirus have contributed to an estimated $5 billion in losses this year for the U.S. pork industry, and almost overnight millions of hogs stacking up on farms now have little value. Some farmers have resorted to killing piglets because plunging sales mean there is no room to hold additional animals in increasingly cramped conditions. After extended trade disputes and worker shortages, this was supposed to finally be the year hog farmers hit it big with prices expected to climb amid soaring domestic and foreign demand. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is promising to send cash and buy stored pork but industry leaders say it might not be enough to stem devastating losses.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds said Monday that Iowa’s meatpacking plants will stay open and likely continue to spread the coronavirus among workers, warning that shutting them down would be devastating for farmers and the food supply. Reynolds acknowledged at a news conference that the virus spreads quickly and easily at the plants because so many workers are in close proximity. She said that “we will continue to see clusters of positive cases” in them.Reynolds said closing them wasn’t an option, calling the state’s most important objective “keeping that food supply chain moving.” Otherwise, she warned that farmers would have to euthanize animals scheduled to be sold to plants and the price of food would skyrocket.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Governors in the Midwest are working to keep large meatpacking plants operating despite coronavirus outbreaks that have sickened hundreds of workers and threaten to disrupt the nation’s supply of pork and beef. In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly has sent personal protective equipment and testing supplies to counties with meat processing plants. Gov. Kristi Noem says she doesn’t think it will be difficult to fulfill federal requirements to reopen a shuttered facility in South Dakota. And Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has warned of the dire cost of closing plants, even while acknowledging the certainty of more infection clusters at the facilities.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Milwaukee real estate company has agreed to pay $75,000 to the state of Iowa for violating asbestos regulations. The Iowa Attorney General’s Office announced Monday that Phoenix Investors LLC agreed to the consent order on Friday. The violations occurred at a former Maytag building in Newton, which was used to power the former Maytag appliance factory. The state alleged that Phoenix and a second company, JB2 Services, committed multiple violations, including not inspecting for asbestos before renovating the building. The state’s lawsuit against JB2, also of Milwaukee, remains active.

The Audubon School Board met in an electronic session Monday evening. During their session, hearings were held with regard to the proposed plans, specifications, form of contract, and estimate of cost for Phase One of the Middle School/High School Improvements. A second hearing was held with regard to the FY21 School Budget.

The Board heard some more details on the roof top HVAC unit replacement, from RDH Engineering President Rick Hiatt. He said two units that are five-to six-years old can be left in place. Two units above the weight room will be replaced; A roof-top unit above the locker room will also be replaced with a energy efficient unit. And, a rooftop unit above the elevator lobby is also set for replacement, with an energy efficient unit. The Board later set the bid letting date as May 6th. A Special Board meeting was tentatively set for May 8th to open the bids.

As for the FY21 Budget, it was approved after the Public Hearing. Superintendent Eric Trager went over all the details. What it boils down to is an increase over the last Fiscal Year, of 21-cents per thousand dollars of taxable property valuation, or from $11.69/$1,000 to $11.90/$1,000 (an increase of 12.6%).

The Audubon School Board also approved a canvass of the votes from the March 3rd Special Election. A $7.5-million bond for updating and remodeling the district facilities passed at that time by approximately 70% to 30%. In his report to the Board Superintendent Trager didn’t sugar coat the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the future financial picture.

Trager said one of the impacts will come in the form of sales tax revenue, which is expected to take a hit, and affect the District’s SAVE funds “a great deal, going forward.” He said also, “It’s likely that Income Tax at the State level will be down drastically for 2020. It’s also likely that we will see a financial impact on families in our community, which will affect our Free and Reduced Lunch rate” and other areas. “The financial impact of this,” he said, “Is gonna be significant.”

Trager said also, it’s too early to begin discussions on how to cut services or supports for our families and students. I think it’s probably the opposite of that. This is going to have an impact. This is gonna affect our bottom line. This is probably going to reduce our unspent budget authority which we worked hard to turn around. But I also think that this is a time for us to step up and say ‘yeah we’re gonna have to make some tough financial decisions, but NOT today. When we figured out how we support our families and kids through this, that’s the time to do that.”

Page County has it’s 5th confirmed case of COVID-19. According to Page County Public Health, the individual is an older adult (61 – 80 years) and has contracted the virus via community spread. They are currently hospitalized.

Health officials in Pottawattamie County, Monday evening, said the number of positive COVID-19 cases remains unchanged at 18. Twelve patients have recovered, five are self-isolating at home, and as we’ve previously mentioned, there was one death. Pott. County Public Health says they continue to work closely with the meatpacking and processing plants within the county, as well as with the Iowa Department of Public Health, so as to mitigate any potential out breaks at those facilities.

In Harrison County, they are reporting two additional cases of COVID-19, marking 15 total cases in the county. The individuals are one adult male and one adult female, both ages 41-to 60. The individuals are household contacts of a previously established Harrison County positive case, and have been in home isolation since the previous case tested positive. All contacts that have been deemed at risk have been notified.