(Radio Iowa) – The board which governs the three state universities will ask the Iowa Legislature to increase funding for the schools by 32 million dollars next year. University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook says they want to use the extra money to help with tuition. He says there should be a bigger difference between what students pay at U-N-I compared to the research schools.

“The four million that we are asking for to help us differentiate will help us keep our tuition down for all of our students, and provide better access for students across the state of Iowa,” Nook says. University of Iowa president, Barbra Wilson, says they will target one particular area.

“We are really laser-focused on nursing. This is one of the workforce issues I think president Nook pointed this out already. People are calling on the need for more nursing — not just in Iowa — but across the country,” Wilson says. Wilson says they are also looking to bring in more first-generation college students.

Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen says the amount of money coming from the state has gone up and down in the last decade, but is currently about the same as it was in 2014. “And when you factor in inflation it’s more like a 25 percent decrease in funding because of the purchasing power of a dollar that has declined so much,” Wintersteen says.

The request is nearly seven percent more than what was approved last year. The legislature approved a five-and-a-half million dollar increase — which was about one third of what the universities had requested.

(Radio Iowa) – The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is ending its Eating Disorder Program’s inpatient care this fall. The program provides intensive residential treatment for individuals 16 and older managing a severe eating disorder. Hospital officials say they’re redistributing funding to take on the growing numbers of Iowans with acute mental health care needs. Twenty-two-year-old April Bannister is currently in the program and will be among the last participants.

“It leaves me in a pretty precarious position, but I might have the partial program,” Bannister says. “If nothing else, I will have my outpatient team, and honestly, I’m one of the lucky ones that I have two people who are specialized in eating disorders.” Bannister has anorexia, an eating disorder characterized by unhealthily low body weight and a fear of gaining weight. During dangerous episodes, she has been admitted to the hospital for monitoring. Most recently in July, her therapist confronted her about being severely underweight. That day, she committed Bannister to her seventh hospital stay. Bannister is stunned the program is being discontinued.

“It’s terrifying quite honestly. This program, while it has its issues, does save lives,” she says. “It has saved my life on more than one occasion and it’s saved my life seven times, each time that I’ve been admitted.” A spokesperson for the U-I-H-C says the decision to end the program was not made lightly, and a range of services for people with eating disorders will continue, including intensive partial hospitalization and other outpatient programming.

(reporting by Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The state unemployment rate inched up one-tenth of a percent in August — the first increase in seven months. Iowa Workforce Development director, Beth Townsend, says the increase is mostly tied to students. “That is almost, not entirely, but almost entirely related to individuals going back to school and leaving their jobs,” she says. The increase still leaves the unemployment rate at two-point-six percent and in the range of pre-pandemic levels. “We gained three-thousand-800 jobs in August — and that puts us within 55-hundred jobs of making a full recovery from the number of jobs we had pre-pandemic,” Townsend says. “So in other words, we’ve gained almost 97 percent of the jobs back that we had lost as a result of the pandemic. And that’s a really good sign.”

Townsend says manufacturing continues to chug along and add jobs despite all the economic turmoil. “This is several months that we’ve seen a positive move in manufacturing, we added 700 jobs in August, they’ve added seven-thousand jobs in the past few months with growth throughout 2022,” according to Townsend. “And when you think about what’s going on in the national economy with inflation and supply chain issues, the fact that we continue to grow in advanced manufacturing is a really good, good sign for Iowa’s economy.” Townsend says it is likely the unemployment rate will rebound in September. 

“We traditionally see in September, people who go back to work because school started — so you’ve got people leaving the workforce in August going back to school — but you have teachers, bus drivers, janitorial staff cooks returning to work ….. in late August, early September. So, you know, hopefully, in September, we’ll be back to trending down again,” Townsend says.

Townsend says there are more than 80-thousand open jobs in Iowa and they continue to work hard to fill those jobs. And she says there are almost 40-thousand people who are unemployed but not receiving an employment benefit. She says they are trying to help anybody who was looking for and wants a job to find one.

QUAD CITIES – Sept. 15, 2022 – The new Interstate 74 bridge over the Mississippi River has been named a Top 12 finalist in the America’s Transportation Awards, the top honor for state departments of transportation from the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, AAA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The joint project between Iowa and Illinois now competes for the national Grand Prize selected by an independent panel as well as the People’s Choice Award determined by an online vote.

The public is encouraged to show its support for the I-74 Mississippi River Bridge by voting in the People’s Choice Awards. An online vote can be made once a day until the contest wraps up Oct. 21. Visit americastransportationawards.org, click the “Vote Now” button, and select “The Memorial Bridge (Interstate 74 Mississippi River Crossing)” to cast your vote.

“The I-74 Mississippi River Bridge has become an icon in the Quad Cities and the Midwest,” said Illinois Transportation Secretary Omer Osman. “Those who have seen the positive impact it brings to the region would agree that the bridge is absolutely deserving of national recognition. Cast your votes to bring home this prestigious award.”

“We are proud of the teamwork between Illinois and Iowa in delivering this project,” said Iowa Department of Transportation Director Scott Marler. “We ask for your support to help bring home this award and show the rest of the country, once again, that our states, industry partners and labor force know how to build world-class infrastructure.”

Both the Grand Prize and People’s Choice Award come with $10,000 to provide to a charity, not-for-profit or transportation-related scholarship by the winning states.

Built by the Iowa and Illinois departments of transportation, the I-74 Mississippi River Bridge was recognized as a contest finalist for improving safety and mobility, enhancing quality of life, and positioning the Quad Cities for future economic opportunity.

Opened in 2021, the bridge has four lanes in each direction, a 14-foot-wide bike and pedestrian path with a scenic overlook, and connections to existing paths in Bettendorf and Moline. The approximately $1 billion project includes twin river bridges, new interchanges, ramps, and local road reconfigurations. For more information on the project, visit www.i74riverbridge.com.

(Harlan, Iowa) – Shelby County Auditor/Elections Commission Mark Maxwell, Thursday (today), said Shelby County held the required Post Election Audit on Thursday morning September 15th, with regard to a Special School Bond Election held Sept. 13th.  According to Maxwell, “The Iowa Secretary of States office randomly picks a precinct/vote tabulator to visually inspect all ballots in that precinct or vote tabulator in the instance of combined precincts, Harlan precincts 1 & 2 were chosen.  Harlan Precincts 1 & 2 were combined at the Special election so the audit included one of the 5 vote tabulators used for vote tabulation and was audited to check for accuracy. Also two of the Shelby County precincts involved in this special election were hand counted at this Audit. All machine result matched perfectly with the hand counted audit results.”

Maxwell said also, “It is always a very anxious time for my office when the Post Election Audit takes place. Again at this election no errors in counting by the machines were found.  All the hand count numbers tabulated ( yes and no votes in this instance) at the audit matched perfectly with the machine count tabulated on election day.  The number of ballots in the ballot bag counted at the audit matched the ballot count from the machine and from the Precinct election staff at the polls.”

(Harlan, Iowa) – Shelby County Auditor, Mark Maxwell, reminds every eligible elector in Shelby County to get any voting information needed as soon as possible from the Auditors office.  Absentee ballot requests are now being accepted for the November 8th General election.  If you plan on voting absentee, get the process completed before any deadline has passed.  Call 755-3831 ext.6 with any questions.  Election deadlines are fixed by Iowa Code  to ease any confusion caused by documents not returned in time to be valid.

Some of the important dates to remember include:

Wednesday October 19, 2022—Absentee Ballots Ready. First day absentee ballots may be voted in the Auditor’s office and placed in the US postal service process, to the electors whose valid request have been received.
October 24, 2022—Voter Pre-Registration Deadline. The deadline to pre-register to vote for the General Election is 5:00 p.m. Voters may still register after this date but need to show both ID and proof of residence.
Monday October 24, 2022—Absentee Ballot by Mail Request Deadline. Deadline is 5:00 p.m. Postmarks do not count for requests.
Saturday November 5, 2022—Auditor’s office open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Monday November 7, 2022—Absentee Ballot In-Person Deadline.  Last day to request and vote an absentee ballot in person at the Auditor’s Office.
November 8, 2022—GENERAL ELECTION DAY. Polls open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.  Absentee Ballot Deadline to Auditors office 8:00 p.m.

(Creston, Iowa) – Before you get out of a vehicle with the engine running, you might want to make sure the vehicle is in “Park.” Creston Police report a local man was driving a 1995 Dodge Dakota pickup in his yard, while picking up sticks. When 83-year-old Lawrence Lewis Dorgan, of Creston, exited the vehicle at around 6-p.m., Wednesday, he forgot to put it into park. The pickup rolled backwards out of the yard, across the street, and into a fire hydrant. Authorities say there was no damage to the hydrant, but Dorgan’s pickup sustained $1,500 damage. The man wasn’t injured, and no citations were issued.

(Radio Iowa) – The chief of Iowa’s Parks, Forests and Preserves Bureau is asking Iowans to mark Saturday, September 24th on their calendars to lend a hand with sprucing up our state parks. It’s the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ sixth annual Statewide Volunteer Day and Sherry Arntzen is encouraging everyone who loves and uses our park system to sign up. “We have a number of different volunteer projects in some of the parks,” Arntzen says. “It could be putting together picnic tables, painting picnic tables, picking up trash, helping with some invasive species removal, planting trees, or staining other buildings that we have.”

There are projects planned all across the state at about one in every four of Iowa’s state parks. “So we have 71 state parks and forests. Right now, we have 18 parks that have scheduled events on the 24th,” Arntzen says, “but if people are interested in learning about other volunteer opportunities at some of our parks, we encourage them to reach out to the park offices direct.” Arntzen says Iowa’s state parks are “beloved places for many Iowans,” and the D-N-R staff greatly appreciates the help volunteers provide.   “We’re down a little bit this year on the number of scheduled projects especially since COVID,” Arntzen says. “We have a large increase in our number of guests that we serve in our parks, so we have been quite busy this year with just our day-to-day operations.”

Some of the projects can be tackled rain or shine, but if the weather looks inclement, volunteers should contact the individual park office in case of changes to the date, time or meeting location. To sign up, log on to: www.iowadnr.gov/volunteer

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Board of Supervisors met Wednesday at the Courthouse in Greenfield. During their session, they received a request for additional ARPA funding for the Mormon Trail Park Shower/Restroom Facility, near Bridgewater. The Board previously granted the Conservation Department $125,000 for the project, but Conservation Director Dominic Johnson said the bids came in well above what was projected. One came in at $176,000, the other just shy of $200-thousand dollars.

Board Chair Matt Wedemeyer…

Johnson asked the Board to cover the added expense because he doesn’t have room in his budget for the extra cost. Supervisor John Twombly wanted to why there was such as wide spread between the two bids. Johnson said he doesn’t know for sure, but it appears to be related to the rising cost of concrete and other supply/demand-related factors.

He said they could try to rebid, but he doesn’t anticipate any changes in those bids. The price of the structure itself, he said, was locked-in, this past January. The Adair County Supervisors passed a motion to increase the amount of ARPA funding for the project by $50,000, from $125,000 to $175,000. Anything about $175,000 will have to have to be discussed at a future time.

In other news from the Adair Board of Supervisor’s meeting, they approved a culvert project in Bridgewater, located at west 3rd and Main Streets, and, after receiving a presentation from Michael Clancy with Renodry USA, agreed to have the company prepare an estimate for the board to review, with regard to drying out the basement in the Adair County Courthouse.