(Radio Iowa) — An organization that represents the state’s construction industry has established a new five-MILLION dollar endowment — to award yearly grants to schools, businesses and charities for programs that promote jobs in the construction trades. Chad Kleppe president and C-E-O of the Master Builders of Iowa, says about 75-thousand people are working on construction projects in Iowa today, but the demand is growing for more skilled workers.

“Our concern is that if we’re not being more pro-active from an industry perspective that matters are only going to get worse,” Kleppe says. His organization is now accepting applications online for the grants, which will be awarded in December. The money isn’t for scholarships, but for projects or programs that promote construction jobs in carpentry, electrical and mechanical skills.

“Maybe exhibits at museums or exhibits at different locations that are construction based,” Kleppe says. “Our hope is that contractors will work with local schools to provide the capital infrastructure for construction equipment, shop equipment be it table saws or miter saws or things like that and couple with a contractor who will provide the expertise on how to work the equipment, provide the safety and then maybe some material suppliers to provide the in-kind support in that regard.”

The Associated General Contractors of America recently conducted a national survey and Kleppe says 77 percent of contractors said their number one concern was finding skilled workers. “We are seeing more people retiring and we just are not filling those positions as quickly as we necessarily need,” Kleppe says.  Governor Kim Reynolds has identified Iowa workforce shortage issues as a top priority. She attended Tuesday’s announcement of what the Master Builders of Iowa are calling their Workforce Opportunities Require Knowledge and Skills or “M-B-I WORKS” project.

“The more that we can implement these types of programs into our middle schools and high schools, it helps educate parents to see that these are phenomenal opportunities,” she said. “It gives our students an opportunity to test run some of these careers, find that they have a passion for it and they recognize that this is a great career opportunity for them.”
The Master Builders’ plan is to support up to four projects each year. The organization’s president says one of their goals is to promote more diversity among Iowa’s construction workforce, including getting more women and minorities to consider careers in the construction trades.

Firefighters from Atlantic were called to the scene of a reported residential fire early this (Wednesday) morning. The call from 1210 Locust came in just before 2:15-a.m.. The occupants were out of the home at the time of the call, thanks to being alerted by their smoke detectors. Prior to firefighters’ arrival, Atlantic Police Officer Nathan Kinney was able to extinguish flames coming from an overloaded power strip for a fish tank circulation and filtration system.

Fire crews remained on the scene until around 3:15-a.m., ventilating the home. No injuries were reported and the house sustained primarily smoke damage. The family was being assisted by the American Red Cross, following the event.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Attorney General’s office says a settlement has been reached in the first health care data breach lawsuit involving numerous states, including Iowa. The office said Tuesday the deal was reached with health care software provider Medical Informatics Engineering Inc. and NoMoreClipboard, LLC, which will pay the states $900,000 and improve data security. The case was filed in Indiana, home to Medical Informatics. The lawsuit sprang from a May 2015 data breach affecting 3.9 million people.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Des Moines City Council is taking steps to ban high-capacity magazines and trigger devices that make guns even more deadly. The Des Moines Register reports that the council unanimously backed a motion Monday to prepare ordinances prohibiting the magazines and trigger activators such as bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic assault rifles to fire nearly as fast as fully automatic weapons. Councilman Chris Coleman says city leaders want to “protect our citizens from mass shootings.”

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a suspect wanted in a May shooting in Cedar Rapids that left two dead and two others injured has been arrested. Police say 26-year-old Andre Defaunte was arrested late Tuesday morning by the U.S. Marshals Service and Cedar Rapids police after a brief foot chase in Cedar Rapids. Richardson is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and several other counts in the early May 18 shooting.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A statewide trade group representing commercial, industrial and public works construction contractors says it has established a $5 million endowment that will fund programs to attract people to construction trade jobs. Master Builders of Iowa has created a nonprofit board that will each year fund projects that introduce students and adults to the building trades and help attract them to training programs to be carpenters, electricians, welders or plumbers.

The Atlantic School Board, Tuesday afternoon, passed a Resolution approving the Contract and Bonds for the Washington Elementary School Parking lot project. The contract is with Precision Concrete Services, of Atlantic.

The Board heard from the District’s Bond Counsel Travis Squires, with PiperJaffrey, with regard to the sale of General Obligation Bonds to cover the cost of facilities improvements, and the levy of taxes for the sale. Bids for the purchase of the bonds were received at 10-a.m. Tuesday.

Squires said “In summary, over the last month we completed the bond rating process. The District was assigned an “A-Plus” rating from S&P (Standard and Poors), which is very good (and) puts (The district) in the upper half school district bond ratings in Iowa.” There were three electronically submitted bids for the bonds. Squires said he was surprised there weren’t more bids, but the economy has played a role in that factor.

Each of the three bids had interest rates assigned to them, of 5% and 4% at the onset, with a declining interest rate beginning in 2026. The rates for the bonds are different from the yield investors earn, according to Squires. The average interest rate is 2.15%. The purchase price for $9.5-million dollars in bonds at $10.2-million. The winning bidder was Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc., from Milwaukee, WI. They have already wired the District $95,000 as a good faith estimate. A Resolution passed by the Board Tuesday, locks in the District’s interest rate.

Squires said because of the bond rate, the district is limited to the total bond amount plus premium to be under $10-million per calendar year, so the G-O Bonds Series 2019 were later resized to $9.26-million, which leaves the District with $240,000 in voter authority that is not being issued, but the District is actually getting more than $9.5-million, because of the Premium. Long story short, the final True Interest Rate is 2.146%, which means the District will pay less than $1-million interest on the $10-million in debt.

The levy rate starts out in Fiscal Year May 2020 at 3.498%. Next year the rate in 4.04%, but then in 2022 it drops to 2.73% and finally levels off at around 1.88%. The next step, Squires said, is to start conversations with local banks to gauge their interest and at what rate level, before negotiating a a good solution.