(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in Shelby County will consider an ordinance that would establish some restrictions for where carbon pipelines could be routed. Steve Kenkel is Chairman of the Shelby County Board of Supervisors.

The proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline would run through Earling and Westphalia in Shelby County. The proposed zoning ordinance would prevent hazardous liquid pipelines from being built within two miles of city limits. Shelby County Public Health director Lori Hoch says it would be up to local emergency crews to respond to pipeline ruptures or failures.

The ordinance would require any liquid pipeline to be half a mile from hospitals, schools, churches and nursing homes. A spokesman for Summit Carbon Solutions says the proposed Shelby County ordinance is inconsistent with Iowa law, as the legislature has granted the Iowa Utilities Board authority over the permits, siting and regulation of pipelines that convey hazardous liquids. Summit’s spokesman says the company has voluntary easements from 900 Iowa property owners for about 53 percent of the land along its proposed route.

The Supervisors in Shelby County, Tuesday, passed a resolution fixing the dates for three public hearings on a proposal to amend various sections of the Shelby County Zoning Ordinance for the purpose of regulating and restricting the use of land for the transport of hazardous liquid through a hazardous liquid pipeline. The hearings will be held in the Therkildsen Center in Harlan at 10:00 A.M. on October 18th and October 25th, and at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Harlan at 10:00 A.M. on November 1st.

(Reporting by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

DES MOINES – Governor Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Economic Development Authority announced today (Thursday), that a total of more than $450,000 in grants have been awarded through six Empower Rural Iowa Grant Programs. The grant awards will support rural initiatives spanning from child care and housing to workforce attraction and leadership development in more than 20 counties.  For example, the IGNITE Pathways program in Woodbine will leverage Rural Innovation funding towards creation of an automotive maintenance and care training program to address the lack of local options in this field. The need was identified through the research and analysis by a local high school program that focuses on developing innovative solutions to real, rural problems.  And, the City of Manning is receiving $10,000 for the Manning Betterment Foundation, from the Fiscal Year 23 Rural Child Care Market Study Grants.

In another example, Iowa Central Community College will use Rural Scale-Up funding to bring the successful career academies model to the western part of their region through the development of a new regional center in Storm Lake. This opportunity will enhance the learning capabilities, provide equitable access to high-quality career technical education programming, and help close opportunity gaps that exist in the region.

In its inaugural year, the Rural Enrichment grant is funding eleven projects across the state, including “OkoboTree”, a visual art tree preservation project; a live music venue in an alley off Polk City’s main square; and downtown lighting project in Osceola.  Governor Reynolds says she “Signed the Empower Rural Iowa Act in 2019 to ensure that the rural communities that are the heart of who we are as a state have the resources needed to connect, invest and grow. Since then, Empower Rural Iowa grants have provided support for dozens of now thriving businesses, communities and entrepreneurs in our rural communities.”

More information about the Empower Rural Iowa Grant programs is available at  iowaeda.com/empower-rural-iowa

(Clarinda, Iowa) – The Page County Sheriff’s Office has released a cumulative report on arrests and incidents, covering the Sept. 24th through the 26th. Sheriff Lyle Palmer says the following individuals were arrested:

• Brian Kent Hullman was arrested Sept. 24th and charged with OWI/1st offense. He was taken into custody following an accident on westbound Highway 2, near C Avenue. His bond was set at $1,000 cash or surety
• Harry McGregor MaCveen was arrested on the 26th, for possession of drug paraphernalia, and OWI/1st offense.
• Ashley Louise McClarnon was arrested Sept. 27th, on a Fremont County Iowa Warrant. McClarnon was transported and released to Fremont County Deputy.
• On Sept. 28th, Timothy Dethlef Asmus was arrested for driving while barred.
• Alex Jeremy Hansen was arrested Oct. 3rd, for Violation of probation.
• On Oct. 5th, David Duane James was arrested for domestic abuse assault and serious trespass. James was arrested the previous day (Oct. 4th) as well, for violation of a no contact order (phone calls) and violation of a no contact order (text messages).

(Atlantic) The Cass County Sheriff’s Office, today (Thursday), released more information about an accident that occurred at around 6:35-a.m. Wednesday, southwest of Atlantic.
According to Chief Deputy Sheriff John Westering, a 2016 Jeep SUV, for reasons unknown, went out of control and left the road near 58882 White Pole Road. The vehicle exited the road to toward the north before crashing through a fence, and entering a soybean field. The SUV collided with machinery in the yard of the residence.

The driver – identified as 42-year-old Marian Faddis, of Atlantic – was transported by Cass EMS to Cass Health. She was later flown by helicopter to the UNMC in Omaha, where she was reported to be in stable condition.

(Radio Iowa) – A new report finds the rate of Iowa children living below the federal poverty line fell significantly in the past quarter-century. The study by the non-profit Child Trends found child poverty rates in the state dropped from 19-percent in 1993 to just six-percent by 2019. Avenel Joseph, vice president for policy at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says she’s encouraged by this trend, but is concerned it won’t last. “Because many of the additional economic supports that were offered during the pandemic has since expired, that is compounded by the significant rise in prices over the last year,” Joseph says. “We’re at risk of undoing the progress we’ve worked so hard over the last generation to achieve.”

Joseph says the expansion of economic assistance policies is a major factor in the drop of child poverty rates. “These are things like increased Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, food assistance, heating assistance, housing assistance, which have all had various impacts on rising children out of poverty,” she says.

Nationwide, the report found child poverty fell an unprecedented 59-percent over the past 25 years.

See the full report at: https://www.childtrends.org/publications/state-level-data-for-understanding-child-poverty

(reporting by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – Guthrie County ISU Extension & Outreach received a $2,000 matching grant from the Guthrie County Community Foundation, during the 2022 grant cycle. The funds will be used to assist in closing of the education gap, by providing the three daycare centers in Guthrie County with various educational STEM Kits to give youth a head-start on learning. The centers that received a kit are Little Panther Daycare and Preschool in Panora, Little Chargers Early Learning Center in Guthrie Center, and Exploration and Learning Station in Stuart. Each kit will have various directions for the teachers on how to use the kits with different age groups.

Officials say the goal of the project is to combine literacy with STEM education by encouraging reading books with hands on activities. Since COVID, the largest impacted areas in a youths learning are math and literacy. According to the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Students Progress test from 2021, less than half of the first graders were able to read at their respective grade level.

Mollie Clark, Youth Development Coordinator, & Brooke Ramsey, Asst. Dir. of Little Panther Daycare

Make-do Invent kit supplies

Science Kit supplies

Bee-Bot Coding Kit supplies

Mollie Clark, Youth Development Coordinator, & Sydney Henderson, Director of Little Chargers Early Learning Center. (All photos & information is courtesy the Guthrie County ISU Extension Office)

The kits can incorporate various materials to complement and grow the kit. Mollie Clark, Youth Development Coordinator, says “Each kit has multiple activities within it with ample supplies. We have also compiled an easy-to-use set of directions for the kits so anyone at the daycare should be able to pull out the kit, read through the directions, and implement the activities with the youth.”

The kits consist of a Coding Kit with bee bots and their accessories which are ideal for helping kids understand cause and effect, directional language and early programming. A Make Do Invent Kit with tools to help bring out the engineer in everyone, these are a simple to use, open-ended system of tools for creative cardboard construction. The last kit is a Science Experiment Kit with hands-on activities and projects that cover a wide host of topics, including art, astronomy, clay, geology, and math. Krista Downing, Guthrie County ISU Extension Program Coordinator, says “We want to thank the Guthrie County Community Foundation for awarding us these funds, this project would not have been possible without their support.”

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the Guthrie County ISU Extension office at 641-747-2276.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Bulbs bring spring color! The shorter days and more moderate temperatures make this fall a great time for gardening projects, including planting spring flowering bulbs.  The Cass County Master Gardeners are again selling bulbs for fall planting!  Preorders are open for the annual bulb sale, featuring tulip and daffodil bulbs in 2022. You can place your pre-order now to reserve your bulbs before they run out. Pay just $5 for a variety assortment of 5 colorful bulbs for your garden, with delivery by the end of October, in plenty of time for fall planting. Order forms with additional details are available at the Cass County Extension office, or online at www.extension.iastate.edu/cass.

The bulbs will be freshly dug from the gardens of Van Engelen, Inc., in Connecticut, and shipped in bulk to the Cass County Master Gardeners.  The Master Gardeners have ordered 500 tulip and daffodil bulbs, which they hope to pre-sell by mid-October.  The bulbs are expected to arrive by the end of October, for packaging five bulbs to a bag, and each bag of tulip mixture or daffodil mixture will sell for only $5. Pre-payment is requested at the time of order to guarantee your bulbs.

The Master Gardeners carefully select mixtures each year that are unique to those sold in previous years.  The tulip mixture offered this year, A Rainbow of Triumph Tulips, will produce plant heights from 16 to 20 inches, flowering in late April, and includes:  Bastogne (blood-red), Don Quixote (deep rose), Michael (reddish-orange), Negrita (deep purple), Pays Bas (Meringue-white), and Strong Gold (Primrose-yellow).

The daffodil bulbs include a mixture of multi-flowering Fragrant Naturalizing Jonquilla Narcissi and Miniature Narcissus bulbs:  Baby Moon (canary yellow), Hillstar (lemon-yellow), Golden Echo (white with golden halo and cup), Sweet Love (ivory-white), Kokopelli (greenish-yellow), Minnow (white-to-ivory-to pale yellow), Sun Disc (ivory and yellow), Jetfire (golden-yellow), Tete-a-Tete (buttercup-yellow with dark yellow trumpet) and N. canaliculatus (white with yellow cup).  The daffodils should bloom from April to May, ranging from 6 to 16 inches in height.

The Master Gardeners will package your bulbs 5 bulbs to a bag, along with planting instructions. Please keep in mind we are unable to guarantee any specific color mix. Tulips and daffodils will be packaged separately. You will be notified when your bulbs are available for pickup at the Cass County Extension Office in mid-late October.

The goal of the Master Gardener program is to provide community service and education in horticulture.  The Cass County Master Gardeners utilize the funds raised from the bulb sale, along with their spring garden seminar, and annual spring and fall plant sales (held the second Saturdays of May and September) for local community horticultural projects. These projects include maintaining community garden spaces around the county, providing education programs to youth and adults, providing an annual scholarship, and making horticulture grants available to non-profit groups.

To order bulbs, or for more information about Master Gardener activities in Cass County, please call the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132, email Cass County Extension Director and Master Gardener Coordinator Kate Olson at keolson@iastate.edu or visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass.  You are also invited to follow the Cass County Master Gardeners Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CassCoMG to keep up with local events and tips for gardening!

(Harlan, Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in Shelby County met Tuesday morning. According to the meeting minutes from Auditor Mark Maxwell, the Board set December 20^th as the date for an auction of the County Farm and Solid waste ground rental. The auction will tentatively take place at the Therkildsen Center, in Harlan.

Shelby County Sheriff Neil Gross reported to the Supervisors that K9 “Corty” was recovering from injuries he suffered injured during a call for service, as he was performing his duties. The dog had to undergo surgery to repair an ACL. He was released from the veterinary hospital on August 29^th and is undergoing therapy along with a well deserved rest. Sheriff Gross reported also, the SRO (School Resource Officer) has been very busy with his duties.

The Supervisors considered and subsequently passed a Resolution to become a Home Base Iowa Initiative County. The resolution explains the Home Base Iowa initiative is an effort to match military veterans with jobs available across Iowa. One of the requirements is that the Board of Supervisors adopt a resolution of support. Residents and businesses are encouraged to take whatever actions are necessary to become and continue to be a Home Base Iowa County and Home Base Iowa Business.

The Shelby County Supervisors approved a resolution fixing the dates for three public hearings on the proposition to amend various sections of the Shelby County Zoning Ordinance for the purpose of regulating and restricting the use of land for the transport of hazardous liquid through a hazardous liquid pipeline. The proposed amendment to the ordinance would establish a general requirement to obtain a conditional use permit for hazardous liquid pipelines that would apply county-wide and that would affect the use of land for such purposes in each zoning area or district in the county.

The Board will meet in the Therkildsen Center in Harlan Oct. 18^th and 25th at 10:00-a.m., and at that same time on November 1^st, to receive public comment on the proposed amendment. The November 1^st comment period will be followed by a vote on passing the proposed amendment as presented.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate and Polk County Elections Director John Chiodo are allowing the public to view the testing that’s done on voting machines. Pate says they want to be sure everyone knows how the process works. “Because there’s a lot of people who don’t know what happens — I mean literally — they’ll fill out paper ballot and then they stick it into the machine and they’re going, where did it go, what did they do?,” Pate says. “And with some of the misinformation and disinformation has been going out, we thought it’d be very well thought through at least to give you the facts.”

Chiodo says “This goes on for many weeks and months preparing for this, it’s just not like I was telling the gentleman earlier, it’s not like we wake up on Election Day and throw everything against a wall and hope it sticks. I mean, we test and test and test and test. So you have that comfort, waking up on election day that things are gonna go right. If you get the doors open, you’re in good shape.”

Polk County Elections Director John Chiodo

Pate says they’re testing different kinds of ballots, because each precinct might have a different ballot for the different offices that are up for election. “This machine is also designed to assist the voter because let’s say for example, they caught a double vote, they actually voted for two people for the same office, the machine will catch that, and we’ll push it back out and alert you there’s a problem. Well, this can be resolved, right while the voters there, we don’t want to spoil their ballot, we don’t want to, we want to make sure your vote gets counted,” Pate says.

Chiodo ran a number of different ballots through a machine as reporters watched.

Pate says the machines are all clean when voting begins on election day. “Meaning there’s no information in here, they have a designated stick that we put in those. They’re sealed so that again, they’re only used this time. And that’s how it works,” Pate says. “That is really a big part of this — because at the end of the night they’ll take the stick out and the ballots and they’re all sealed. And now we have two ways to audit you have stick and you have the physical ballots to go off of.”

Pate says his office will identify a precinct in all the 99 counties that has to be manually audited with a hand count of the ballots for the top office against what the machine’s tabulator says. He says they’ve been doing that for three election cycles and it’s checked out 100 percent in all 99 counties. Chiodo says the machines are not connected to the internet during voting. “The only time that it has any connection whatsoever is at the end of the night when we enable a modem to transfer the results from the point place to here (county election office). And it’s outgoing only. And that’s only live for when they close the machine out — and there safeguards on both ends as far as who can get in who can get out. And it’s only outgoing data,” Chiodo says.

Pate says those numbers are only unofficial results and the numbers reported by the machines are checked against the paper ballots.