(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa State Fair starts in 30 days — on August 8th. Iowa State Fair C-E-O Jeremy Parsons says there’s been a renewed focus on what he calls “creature comforts” for this year’s fairgoers. “Double the amount of handicapped accessible parking spaces — paved spaces. You’re going to see new sidewalks for accessibility. You’re going to see new shade areas, shade structures,” Parson says. “Picnic tables — we had $100,000 line item in our budget this year for picnic tables and benches, so more places for you to sit.”

Some restrooms have been remodeled and there are more water bottle filling stations on the fairgrounds. The price of admission to the State Fair is the same as last year. “Like any business operating in the state of Iowa today inflation has affected us, whether that’s most costs for employees — for salaries, whether that’s more costs for utilities, whatever it might be,” Parsons says, “so we’re very pleased at the Iowa State Fair this year to hold the line on admission.”

Tickets to State Fair Grandstand concerts are generally in the 30-to-60 dollar range. The most expensive seats — 125 dollars each — are for the Motley Crew concert. As of today, the Grandstand concert by rapper Jelly Roll on the first Saturday of the State Fair is sold out. Parsons says the “radius clause” in entertainers’ contracts has made booking acts more competitive.

“If an act has commited at a certain venue you draw a circle geographically so many miles out and that artist can’t perform again in that area,” Parsons says. “You think about this year, the challenge at the Iowa State Fair we’d had George Strait’s concert up in Ames and all of the entertainment out at the Iowa Speedway.”

Parsons made his comments during an appearance this past weekend on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education will meet 5:30-p.m. Wednesday, July 10th, in the High School Media Center. The meeting will be available for viewing on YouTube.

Included in the Board’s Consent Agenda for approval is:

• Open Enrollment-In Applications for 24-25 school year
• Resignations:
  • Rachel Tener Resignation
  • Jesse McCann, Girls Soccer Coach
  • Chase Roller, HS Asst Wrestling Coach
  • Lyssa Nelson, Resignation
• Contract Recommendations and/or Classified Staff Assignment letters
• Supplemental Pay Positions including Athletics & Activities
  • Ticket Manager

Action items include:

• 1st reading, IASB Legislative Priorities for 24-25, Priorities are due August 19, 2024
• My Benefits Channel replacing Intellinetics vendor for e-forms for employee onboarding
• Nutrition Procurement Plan

DES MOINES — U.S. Representative Zach Nunn (IA-03) today announced mobile office hours across the Iowa Third Congressional District to assist constituents who may not be able to travel to one of the congressional offices located in Creston, Des Moines, and Ottumwa. At these mobile office hours, Iowans will be able to get help from their Congressional office with Social Security, Medicare, passports, visas, veterans’ benefits, military records, tax returns, and other issues with federal government agencies.

“My top priority is providing exceptional services and support to Iowans,” said Rep. Nunn. “My hope is that these mobile office hours will ensure ease of access for all Iowans to receive assistance from my office regardless of where they live in the Third District.”

Mobile office hours will begin Tuesday, July 9. The schedule for June is below:

Adams County 
Adams County Fair 
1200 John Street, Corning, Iowa
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Adair County 
Stuart Public Library 
111 East Front Street, Stuart, Iowa
Thursday, July 11, 2024
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Ringgold County 
Ringgold County Fair 
3325 US Highway 169, Mount Ayr, Iowa
Friday, July 12, 2024
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Page County 
Shenandoah Public Library 
201 South Elm, Shenandoah, Iowa
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Montgomery County 
Montgomery County Fair 
1798 North 1st Street, Red Oak, Iowa
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Madison County 
Truro Public Library 
118 East Center Street, Truro, Iowa
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Taylor County 
Lenox Public Library 
101 North Main, Lenox, Iowa
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Adair County 
Adair County Courthouse 
400 Public Square, Greenfield, Iowa
Thursday, July 25, 2024
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Cass County 
Cass County Fair 
1000 Fair Avenue, Atlantic, Iowa
Friday, July 26, 2024
11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Additional dates and locations will be announced in the future.

(Radio Iowa) – State officials are urging northwest Iowans who’ve lost food, appliances or a job due to recent flooding to check to see if they qualify for federal food assistance. Erin Drinnin is community access coordinator for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. “Some folks may be in a position where they haven’t asked for government assistance before,” Drinnin says, “but certainly if you have experienced significant impacts from the storm, I would really encourage you to consider that you may be eligible.”

It’s called Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance or D-SNAP. Drinnin says Iowans who live or work in five northwest Iowa counties can apply for it this week. “You can either come to one of the designated sites that we have. There is a site location in each of the five counties. Those counties are Clay, Emmet, Lyon, Plymouth and Sioux,” Drinnin says, “or you can apply over the phone.” The toll free number is 1-877-828-5648.

“Those who are eligible may either work in or live in one of those five counties and have had some sort of impact from the disaster, so you may have lost income because you haven’t ben able to go to work or because your business was impacted,” Drinnin says. “You may have been affected somehow by expenses related to repairs or expenses related to sheltering if you couldn’t be in your home.”

The U-S-D-A approved D-SNAP benefits for victims of severe weather than hit Iowa in april and May, including devastating tornadoes in Greenfield and Minden, but Drinnin says very few people applied and only 15 households were deemed eligible for the expanded food assistance. “It is somewhat disappointing and is probably indicative of a lot of factors,” Drinnin says, “whether folks didn’t know about it or they didn’t think they were eligible.” Those who qualify for D-SNAP are able to use an electronic benefits card at eligible businesses and may buy prepared, hot food through August 1st, which is not allowed under the traditional SNAP program.

“We do recommend that when you enter the grocery store, if you have the D-SNAP card…that you check in with that retailer and that you’re actually able to use your benefits to purchase prepared food.” Flood victims can apply for D-SNAP benefits this week at the Crosswinds Church in Spencer, the Emmet County Fairgrounds, the Forster Community Center in Rock Rapids, the Le Mars Bible Church and Main Street Plaza in Rock Valley.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Food System Coalition wants to make locally-produced food the norm, not the exception, and is releasing a 250-page plan to get there in the next decade. One priority in the plan is to make it easier to get food from the farm to the table. That means supporting more local and regional infrastructure, like small-scale processing for specialty crops, grains, dairy and livestock. Coalition executive director Chris Schwartz says more than 40 partners across Iowa helped shape the plan.

“Which details all the things that we think we need to do in the state of Iowa to have a food system that is more local, that is more nutritious, that is more environmentally sustainable, and is more just for people doing the work.” Strategies include improving farmers’ access to land and expanding incentives to adopt practices that protect Iowa’s soil, water and air. Giselle Bruskewitz is the senior program director at Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development.

“We’re talking about small grain processing, rural grocery stores getting the infrastructure that they need,” Bruskewitz says, “vegetables that can be processed at scale so that schools and other institutions can buy them.” She says the coalition also wants to invest in more refrigerated trucks and food hubs, which aggregate and distribute local products.

Iowa’s network of food hubs serves nearly 70% of the state’s counties.

(Radio Iowa) – Jury selection is underway in the Dickinson County Courthouse for the trial of 44-year-old Kyle Ricke of Algona, who’s accused of murdering a policeman. Ricke’s charged in the fatal shooting last September of Algona Police Officer Kevin Cram. Cram was serving an arrest warrant to Ricke when Ricke allegedly pulled a handgun and shot the policeman.

The trial was moved to Dickinson County on a change of venue, but the start was delayed until today (Monday) due to recent flooding in the Spirit Lake area.

(Radio Iowa) – One of the smallest cities in Eastern Iowa with a population of around 50, is no longer considered a city at all. Randalia was officially unincorporated on June 30th. City Clerk Katrina Lane has lived in Randalia most of her life, and talked with K-C-R-G T-V the impact of the city becoming unincorporated. “It kind of means I worked myself out of a job,” Lane says. Lane’s has four kids and her oldest child is teenage son Andy. “I think it just means that we won’t be able to call it Randalia, but that doesn’t change the fact that we still live in it,” Lane says.

Katrina Lane says Randalia auctioned off the city properties to pay off its debt. “The city creamery, city hall, and the park and the playground equipment were sold separately, she says. Lane said it was a tough day for everyone, including her two young daughters, to see the park equipment go. Lane told K-C-R-G T-V that the population just kept declining and the town didn’t have the people or money to do the jobs to keep it running. “People moving out, people passing away, and…people not coming back in,” she says.

Fayette County will now be responsible for Randalia, including snowplowing its roads and maintaining them.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Sheriff’s Department reports five arrests took place from June 30th through July 5th. Most recently:

On July 5th, 52-year-old David Mark Leesley, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested by Police in Adair, for Public Intoxication. His Breath Alcohol Content (BAC) registered .296% (more than 3 times the legal limit). Leesley pled guilty and was released the following day for time-served.

On July 3rd, Adair County Sheriff’s Deputies in Fontanelle, arrested 38-year-old Scotty Allen Zigler, of Adair, for Driving While Barred and Trespass/1st offense. He was cited and released.

On the 1st of July, 33-year-old Melissa Kay McClellan, of Altoona, was arrested in Greenfield, on an Adair County warrant for 3 counts of Harassment in the 3rd Degree. She was released later that day on a $500 bond. 30-year-old Austin Wayne Harrison, of Stuart, was arrested at the same location, on an Adair County warrant for Violation of Probation. He was released the same day on a $2,000 bond, with 10% acceptable.

And, on June 30th, 20-year-old Miguel Pena-Mendez, of West Des Moines, was arrested on Interstate 80 in Adair County, for OWI/2nd offense, and Driving while license is denied or revoked. He was taken into custody following a traffic stop shortly after 1:30-a.m., after Adair County Dispatch received a report about a reckless driver traveling west on I-80 near mile marker 93. Pena-Mendez was released later that morning on a $3,000 bond.