(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Board of Supervisors met in a regular session Tuesday morning (Nov. 7, 2023). According to the meeting minutes provided by Shelby County Auditor Mark Maxwell, the Supervisors reported current activities on the Boards and committees that they are members of, representing Shelby County. Board Chair Steve Kenkel noted that the Iowa Utility Board has resumed their business with the Carbon Capture Pipeline. Next week they plan to finish the current testimonies that they are permitting to hear.

Todd Valline reported on the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce and Industry to the Supervisors. The report included many events that have recently taken place on the Harlan Square. Organizers were pleased with the great attendance at the recent art show. Activities are also on tap for this weekends Veterans Day activities. Chamber involvement is being scheduled with the holiday events coming up in the coming months.

Brandon Burmeister asked the Supervisors to approve a Utility Permit (numbered 2023-11-3) for West Central Iowa Rural Water Association. Parkhurst made a motion to approve the permit, Schaben seconded the motion the motion passed. Burmeister also gave a Secondary Roads report and progress being made on projects throughout Shelby County including bridge crew activities and some department-wide projects.

Chairperson Kenkel then noted that the employee performance evaluations will be due in early December and that employees using the county provided health insurance had enough participation to warrant the full 5% discount on next year’s health insurance policies. November 14th is a special Supervisor meeting to Canvass the first part of the City/School election. Before concluding the special meeting on the 14th an initial budget workshop will be held with Taryn Knapp the new Shelby County Budget Director.

Mark Maxwell, auditor reminded the Board that the Farm Rent Bids will be opened at the next regular meeting November 21st and the deadline for submission to the Auditors office for the bids for both farms is November 17th.

November 9, 2023 (DES MOINES) — The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) today awarded $925,000 in Main Street Iowa Challenge Grants to 10 communities around the state. The grants help redevelop or rehabilitate underused buildings as a way to stimulate economic growth and further investment in Iowa’s historic main streets.

Among the cities receiving grants, is Coon Rapids, which is receiving $100,000 to expand Chuck’s Bar & Grill into the adjacent 514 Main Street building, enabling them to offer a quality family dining experience. The local match is $141,000, for a total project cost of $241,000. And, in Woodbine, the Bothwell Building Project is receiving a $100,000 grant toward the total cost of $234,379, to address urgent structural needs to save the 145-year-old building, which is in a National Register Brick Street Historic District. The project requires a local match of $134,379.

Other Projects include:

• Removing a metal slipcover from a historic building in downtown Spencer to unmask its original façade and reveal historic window openings, which allows for future upper-floor development.
• Giving new life to a vacant, derecho-damaged building in uptown Marion to accommodate a growing business and upper-floor housing.
• Transforming a vacant historic building in downtown Burlington into an old-fashioned ice cream shop.

“The Main Street Iowa Challenge grants help us revitalize and reinvest in our traditional commercial districts, which is good business,” said IEDA and Iowa Finance Authority Director Debi Durham. “It’s good for our economy and good for our state. These projects will bring new businesses and new residents to our downtown districts.”

The grants are administered through IEDA’s Iowa Downtown Resource Center and Main Street Iowa programs. The funding will be distributed in the form of matching grants to the selected Main Street programs. The estimated total cost of these 10 projects is over $3.5 million.

“Each of these projects represents growing momentum for downtown and community revitalization,” said Michael Wagler, state coordinator for the Main Street Iowa program. “This investment in catalytic projects across Iowa will have a significant economic impact and help strengthen local creative placemaking efforts.”

Since the first Challenge Grants were awarded in 2002, about $14.6 million in funds have leveraged more than $68.3 million in further investment.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Department of Corrections director Beth Skinner says the recidivism rate among individuals who’ve been released from prison has dropped for a third straight year — meaning there’s a decline in the number of people violating the terms of their parole or commuting a crime that sends them back to prison.

“We are moving and trending in the right direction in terms of our recidivism reduction efforts,” Skinner says. Skinner says there are several reasons the rate is declining, like focusing on getting substance abuse or mental health treatment for those who are at highest risk and improving the skills of those who’ve been sentenced to prison.

“Our apprenticeship program, we actually did a research study on that, and we found out among those who completed the apprenticeship program the recidivism rate was 16.3% compared to non-completers, which was 32.7%,” Skinner says, “so we want to really double down on our apprenticeship program and our post-secondary education.” There are 30 different registered apprenticeship programs in the Department of Corrections, including training to be plumbers, welders and electricians.

“What’s great about these apprenticeships programs is it’s really preparing people for when they get out, because we know 90% of people are going to be leaving prison,” Skinner says. “They have to show up to work, they get evaluated, they get paid — all of those things. We look at it as a way for preparing them for when they come out.” Sometimes up to half the people who ENTER Iowa’s prison system each year do not have a high school diploma. Skinner says among those who are released, 60 percent have completed high school.

“We want to help them get jobs when they get out, maybe a higher earning base,” Skinner says, “so we here at the Department of Corrections really emphasize the importance of education and apprenticeship programs and work skills.” Due to the government reorganization plan the governor signed into law this spring, Iowa’s community-based corrections system is now part of the Iowa Department of Corrections. Skinner says that may have prevent people released from one of the state’s nine prisons from re-offending.

“We want to improve release plans. We want more of a seamless comprehensive hand-off, continuity of services — so there’s a lot of communication going on now between the counselors and the work release facilities or parole officers,” Skinner says. “Not only are the parole officer and the counselor working together in the prison, they’re working with this individual that’s coming out, so this alignment’s going to have a lot of positive impact on our public safety outcomes.”

The rate at which released offenders were being sent back to prison had been climbing — to as high as 40 percent four years go — but Skinner says she’s confident the recidivism rate in Iowa’s correctional system will continue to decline because of the buy-in from prison employees. “If you don’t have the qualified staff who are committed to public safety outcomes who are committed to this work, it would not be possible,” Skinner says.

Skinner has been the director of the Iowa Department of Corrections since June of 2019. There are nearly 41-thousand people in Iowa’s correctional system today — only a fifth of whom are in a state prison. The rest are under direct supervision in a community setting, like a work release program or halfway house.

(Radio Iowa) -In advance of Veterans Day on Saturday, the University of Iowa will hold a ceremony on Friday afternoon to dedicate a new area of campus to remember those who served our country in uniform. Bill Nelson, executive director of the Iowa Memorial Union, says the 2 P-M service to officially open the new Veterans Plaza will include comments by several dignitaries, including U-I President Barbara Wilson and the head of the U-I’s new student-veteran support program.

“We’ll be presenting and raising the flag for the first time,” Nelson says. “That will be presented and raised by our students with the University of Iowa Veterans Association. There’ll be a playing of the National Anthem. The flag will fly and wave in perpetuity and it will be managed by our UIVA program and it will be illuminated, again, in perpetuity.” The plaza is located near the banks of the Iowa River and is flanked by trees and a green space.

Veterans Plaza (UI photo)

“The plaza is directly north of the Iowa Memorial Union. There are seven granite monuments, one monument for each branch of the armed services and then the seventh monument is a descriptor of the plaza,” Nelson says, “and there are four benches that create a backdrop.” Those six branches are: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and Space Force. Nelson says this new plaza will be used for decades to come to remember and honor veterans among the U-I’s faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

“It certainly will be featured during our Memorial Day program, some of our Veterans Day activities,” Nelson says. “We have a well-established Hawkeye Distinguished Veterans Awards program which is, frankly, this evening and we will tie that program in.” The location for the new plaza was special and deliberate.

“The Iowa Memorial Union was built in 1924, built for and dedicated at that time to our World War One veterans,” Nelson says, “and so it’s completely fitting that this space be adjacent to our building.” An unnamed donor is making the project possible with a final price tag between 80- and 90-thousand dollars.