Officials with the Iowa Finance Authority (IFA) and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently announced that 22 Iowa communities with current State Revolving Fund loans for water quality projects will save a total of $1.6 million in interest over the remaining life of their loans as a result of the their interest rate being reduced from 3% to 1.75%. The change affects the communities of Defiance, Emerson, Manning and Shenandoah, and results in an interest rate saving cost ranging from $5,313 in Manning, to $101, 450 for Shenandoah.(Defiance will save $9,275 and Emerson $83,088)

The State Revolving Fund is one of Iowa’s primary sources for financing projects designed to improve Iowa’s water quality. Two funds, one for drinking water and one for wastewater and pollution control, have provided low-cost financing to projects in 600 Iowa communities as well as to farmers, watershed groups and others for water quality projects. The program is jointly administered by the Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

IFA Executive Director Dave Jamison said “The State Revolving Fund offers communities low-cost financing, longer repayment cycles and exceptional savings. We’re able to reduce the interest rate for loans that are more than ten years old due to the success of the program and excellent financial management. Lowering interest rates on existing loans has kept nearly $18 million in local economies throughout the state.”  Iowa DNR Director Chuck Gipp said “The State Revolving Fund is a win-win for Iowa communities.This program is a successful partnership between state and local governments and we are proud to play a role in not only assisting communities in completing water quality projects, but also helping them realize substantial savings.”

Besides offering the low interest rates to finance water infrastructure projects, the State Revolving Fund offers other benefits to Iowa communities, such as lower up-front costs and no reserve requirement. For more information on the State Revolving Loan Fund, go to IowaSRF.com

he Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday), received an update from two local men with regard to the use of Utility Terrain Vehicles (UTV’s) on County roads. Dennis Murphy from Nishna Valley Cycle had appeared before the Board in May, 11, 2016, and at that time, asked the board to consider moving forward with enacting an ordinance to allow any licensed driver to operate registered (with the county recorder) and insured all-terrain and off-road utility vehicles on Cass County secondary roadways for recreational use. The ordinance would not restrict eligible ‘farm’ use. Goal is to make it legal for said vehicles to be driven on county roadways. The Board had taken the request under advisement, and asked for more research.

During today’s meeting, Murphy, and Rob Thornton, also from NVC, came back with Ordinance samples from various counties, including Carroll, Crawford, Buchanon and Iowa Counties, in northwest Iowa. He said some county ordinances specify which roads UTV can be ridden on, others are more simple. They cannot be ridden on Highways. Murphy said some counties require a current DNR registration sticker on the vehicle, some have minimum age limits, and some require insurance, etc. Those annual stickers, he said, cost $75. Cass County Engineer Charles Bechtold told the Board the same subject was covered at a recent ISAC (Iowa State Association of Counties) meeting in accordance with many different agencies.

He said as far as his office is concerned, safety is an issue, and that “politically,” he’s opposed to the use of UTV’s on county roads, but personally, he’s open to it, primarily because the machines are already being used on those roads. He likes the idea that operators of the machines have insurance, so that if there’s a collision between a County vehicle and a UTV, it’s covered and dependent upon who’s at fault.

UTV operators would have to obey the rules of the road, just like motorists. To that end, the Supervisors and Murphy agreed that the machines should have certain safety features if not already equipped, such as headlights, taillights. They could also require them to be outfitted with marker flags, turn signals, mirrors, etc. The main thing Murphy would like to see, is that the ordinance specify the machines be registered and have clearly visible tags for identification in the event they are operating illegally or irresponsibly.

Auditor Dale Sunderman says Delaware County has an ordinance that passed in May, 2016, which is thorough and a good place from where to start Cass County’s Ordinance. Dennis Murphy said he and Thornton would come back in a couple of weeks or so with a draft ordinance, incorporating some of the better ideas in the ordinances mentioned during today’s (Wednesday’s) discussion.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A consultant says the landmark Woodbury County Courthouse needs $12 million in exterior repairs. The county supervisors said Tuesday after hearing a report from consultant Pete Franks that they’ll decide at a future meeting when to start the repairs and how to pay for them. The exterior has deteriorated so much that officials have been able to pull entire bricks from the foundation in some places. County officials last year had estimated the repair price tag at $2.1 million.

The courthouse — considered the largest publicly owned Prairie School-design building in the world — was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996. The supervisors are planning 100th anniversary activities for the building next spring.

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey’s nomination to a position in the U-S-D-A cleared the committee level in the U-S Senate last week, but he isn’t sure when the final step will take place. “I’ve kind of given up making predictions, we are a step closer but still need that full Senate approval. So we’ll see when that happens — it could happen in the short term or it certainly could be awhile yet,” Northey says. Northey says he continues to work at his current job and is doing what he can to prepare when the final approval comes. “As we think about getting folks ready — whoever that next secretary is — we make sure that we have all the documents that help that next secretary learn what the department is doing to make that transition really easy,” Northey says. “We have great folks at the department. I am very blessed to have folks who know what they are doing, do a great job.”

Northey was nominated on September 1st to become the U-S-D-A Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation. He’s been waiting for the process to take its course since then. “It does seem like it is getting closer. It’s getting a little more real now as a possibility — but again — I don’t know if that’s months away are days away,” according to Northey.

Northey became Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture in 2007.

(Radio Iowa)

The Creston Police Department reports 20-year old Seth White, of Creston, was arrested Tuesday afternoon on a warrant for Failure to Appear in Court on an original charge for Possession of a Controlled Substance – Marijuana/1st offense. White was at the Union County Jail when he was placed under arrest. He was later released on a $1000 bond.

Authorities said also, at around 7:20-p.m. Tuesday, a resident of the 200 block of S. Lincoln Street in Creston, reported that sometime between Oct. 19th and 24th, someone stole the winch off of his trailer while it was parked near the storage building at 711 W Monroe. The winch was valued at $500.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Iowa has lost out on its effort to land a new Toyota-Mazda manufacturing plant and its 4,000 jobs. State officials had submitted a site in Cedar Rapids for the $1.6 billion project. Iowa Economic Development Authority spokeswoman Kanan Kappelman said Tuesday that the state apparently didn’t meet the project requirements.

Neighboring Nebraska learned earlier this month that it, too, was no longer being considered. The companies haven’t announced yet where the plant will go, but officials have said the three finalists are all situated in the Southeast.

Former Iowa Farm Bureau president Craig Lang has filed the paperwork to launch a campaign for state ag secretary. Lang, a Republican, says several months ago he told Governor Kim Reynolds he intended to run if current Ag Secretary Bill Northey resigned. Reynolds will name Northey’s replacement soon after Northey’s wins Senate confirmation for his new federal job.

“I don’t anticipate Governor Reynolds would appoint me, period, so I’ve made the decision,” Lang says. “As soon as Bill is voted affirmatively in the US Senate, I’m going to start my campaign.” That means Lang will likely face a G-O-P primary in 2018 against the governor’s choice for state ag secretary. Lang says he wants to spark a statewide conversation about diversity in agriculture, rather than relying primarily on corn and soybean production.

“We’ve spent so much time trying to develop that infrastructure, and it’s a great infrastructure. There’s none other like it in the world, but it’s not the infrastructure that’s going to support growth of a rural community,” Lang says, “because a rural community needs higher value products directly to the consumer.”

Lang says alternative crops can boost the rural economy and give more young people a reason to live in rural Iowa. Lang, who is 66 years old, farms with his two sons, a brother and his 91-year-old father. “We milk around 650 cows three times a day. We have a small cow-calf operation with about 50 cows and calves and we farm around 1200 acres,” Lang says. “We have corn, soybeans, alfalfa, pasture and cover crops.”

The milk from their farm near Brooklyn is sold to a dairy in Newton where Maytag Blue Cheese is made. Lang’s family plants cover crops on soybean ground and in fields right after corn silage is harvested. Six-hundred thousand acres of Iowa farmland is seeded with cover crops today. Lang says, as state ag secretary, he’d like to set a goal of having cover crops on five MILLION acres.

“We can improve the water quality of the state,” Lang says. “We can retain the nitrogen and the phosphorus because of less erosion.” And Lang says the science now shows soil health improves when cover plants like rye are used and it improves the yields from traditional crops planted on the same ground. Lang was the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation’s president from 2001 through 2011.

He also served as president of the board that governs the state universities, but Democrats in the Iowa Senate refused to reconfirm Lang to that post after the conflict about the Tom Harkin Institute for Public Policy at Iowa State University. The institute is now located at Drake University.

(Radio Iowa)

The teenage driver of a pickup truck escaped injury when the vehicle went out of control and rolled over Tuesday evening, in Montgomery County. The Sheriff’s Office reports 14-year old Kaden Edward Jacobs, of Villisca, was traveling southbound on Vine Avenue near 250th Street at around 5:45-p.m., when the 1998 Dodge Ram truck he was driving went out of control and entered the west ditch before rolling over. No injuries were reported immediately after the crash. Damage to the vehicle was estimated at $8,000. Jacobs was cited for Violation of his school permit.