(Radio Iowa) – Work on the campanile on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls is moving right along. U-N-I Assistant Vice President, Hillery Oberle, says 15 bells were installed when the campanile was built in 1926, and 32 more were added in 1968. The brass bells are still in good shape, but the operating systems were showing some deterioration. “The connection pieces and things that suspend them in the campanile, the transmission system that controls the clappers, down to the plain keyboard, and then also the playing keyboard were really showing signs of age and weather,” she says.

All but a few of the bells were removed and lowered to the ground to be worked on. They decided to add a couple of bells while everything was being refurbished. “While we were doing that we knew we had the opportunity to fill in a couple of the musical gaps in the carillon,” Oberle says. ” When they cast the first bells they did not do two of the largest bells. So the C sharp and the D sharp. Those were not a part of our time or our carillon.” Seven new small bells at the other end of the music spectrum are also being added. “So for those musically inclined it means that we have a five-octave instrument that has four octaves that are fully chromatic,” Oberle says. They reworked the infrastructure and put in steel beams to carry the weight of the bells — which range from 20 pounds for the smallest bell to four-thousand pounds for the largest.

The UNI photo from 1926 on top of the 2023 version.

A bell almost to the top. (UNI photo)

Crane lifting bell up into tower. (UNI photo)

Oberle says the campanile is a key campus point for students, faculty and alumni. “You know it holds different types of memories for everybody. It might be where you took your graduation photo, we have so many stories of people who proposed at the campanile,” Oberle says. “You know a tradition is to go campaniling and kiss your sweetheart at midnight at the campanile. So a lot of great stories it’s really the center of the campus.” She says it’s where the university comes together to celebrate and sometimes come together and in sadness. They took advantage of having the bells out on the ground to recreate a picture of the U-N-I president and others lined up with the bells before they were first installed in 1926.

The two-point-two million dollar campanile renovation project is one the iconic spaces projects along with the Gallagher Blue Dorn and UNI-Dome renovation. Cranes started hoisting the bells back up to their hanging spot Wednesday. Getting the campanile operating again is part one of the project. “The second part of the project will revitalize the plaza surrounding the campanile. So new paving, new seating areas, new landscaping,” she says. “That all has taken a bit of a beating as we’ve had construction on the carillon going on etcetera.” They’ve raised one-point-five million dollars so far to fund the project.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans may have seen on the news how Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was hit on Monday with a foot-and-a-half of snow. Ten years ago this week, Iowans were the ones who were stunned with heavy snow in the first days of May, well over a month into spring. Meteorologist Rod Donavon, at the National Weather Service, says May of 2013 was a month of surprise weather extremes for Iowa. “Ten years ago, we had a lot of accumulating snowfall, a lot of those really wet and heavy snowfalls as well,” Donavon says. “We actually had several areas that reported power outages with that, and usually this time of year, you don’t expect travel concerns either, but it just came down so wet and heavy that we actually had some slick travel conditions as well.”

Much of the state had at least six inches of snow, while Mason City had more than nine inches, Chariton reported a foot of snow, and Osage had the deepest report at 13 inches. While there was significant snowfall, Donavon says it didn’t stick around.  “It doesn’t take too long for snow this time of year to really melt and disappear,” Donavon says. “It’s really warming up. We were actually pretty cold here in the last week as well, and then now, we’re going to be warming up as well. This time of year, usually if we get some snowfall, it doesn’t last.”

May 2013 snowstorm (Pella)

May 2013 snowstorm (Indianola)

May 2013 snowstorm (Belmond, IA)

Within a week of the big snowstorm in May of 2013, many Iowans were switching on their air conditioners, as temperatures by May 14th were already soaring to 98 degrees. (Photos courtesy the NWS in Des Moines. Click to enlarge)

(Radio Iowa) – An organic waste recycling center in Muscatine is working to double its production of methane in the next year using federal grants. The facility takes in some four-thousand tons of food waste each year and uses two anaerobic digesters to generate enough methane to power 13-hundred vehicles. For now, the methane is being burned off, but facility director John Koch (Cook) wants to see the eastern Iowa city harvest that potential.

“What we’re trying to do here is, we’re trying to capture that methane, that food waste that would have been in a landfill, off-gassing that methane into the atmosphere,” Koch says. “We now are capturing that with these digesters and making renewable energy and fertilizer out of that.” Workers remove packaging from hot dogs, palettes of snack packs and drums of liquid cheese and dump it into the digesters which capture the methane. While there’s no infrastructure yet to do anything with that gas, Koch wants to change that.

“Whether that’s electricity or whether we pump it right back in the gas pipeline, natural gas pipeline or whatever we do, there’s a couple of options we have,” he says. Koch hopes federal grant money can help seize on the energy source that’s now being vented into the atmosphere and wasted.

(by Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The weather plays a big factor in the timing of the tulip blooms for the annual Pella Tulip Festival. Spokesperson Billie Rhamy says conditions have been just right this year as they festival gets underway today (Thursday).”They’re beautiful actually, we have all the parks are just blooming with all the colors. It’s actually a lot of fun this year to see it all coming together,” Rhamy says. She says the plantings are staggered to ensure there’s always fresh color.

“Our city parks people do such a great job of making sure that there’s lots of different rounds of tulips. So if some are on the downhill sides, others are bursting with colors, and some are coming up. So they do such a nice job. There’s thousands of tulips,” she says. The forecast calls for good weather as the Tulip Festival opens and Rhamy says that will bring in a lot of people. “We highly encourage people to come on Thursday, if possible. And Friday, of course, Saturday gets a little busy,” Rhamy says, “so if you do choose to come on Saturday, come early, and be ready to be waiting in a few lines just because we get such a good turnout when it’s beautiful on a Saturday.” The have a special set of tulips that you can see.

“I think there’s about like 312 of that this variety, and we happen to get over half of them,” she says. “So those are in our, in our community and they’re really, really dark red that turns almost black, which is kind of a fun little difference for people around here.” The events are all back up to speed following the pandemic, including the daily parades. They includes lots of food, with Dutch letters and the baloney sandwiches.

“We even have things like we put that baloney on a stick, then that same thing except they turn it into a corndog I think they call it a Dutch corndog which is something fun for people to try,” Rhamy says. “They have burgers that also have the Bologna be on it too and you get get like a double-decker and a triple-decker. There’s all sorts of food everywhere.”

You can find the full schedule of events at www.pellatuliptime.com.

(Radio Iowa) -Legislative leaders expect the 2023 session of the Iowa General Assembly to conclude today (Thursday). Lawmakers took final votes yesterday (Wednesday) on more than a dozen bills, including a plan to let older teens work later hours and apply for state waivers for jobs 16 and 17 year olds cannot take today. Senator Adrian Dickey, a Republican from Packwood, urged senators to agree to House changes and send the bill to the governor. “I’m glad because they had some ideas that improved the bill,” Dickey says.

Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls says the bill, while improved, still allows kids to work in questionable settings. “Senate Democrats do not oppose giving teens safe and age appropriate work experiences that allow them to learn important skills and earn money to help themselves and their families,” Wahls says, “but they must be safe.” Governor Reynolds is scheduled to sign the legislature’s property tax reduction plan this (Thursday) afternoon.

Another bill headed to the governor’s desk is designed to close loopholes so school districts can find out if an applicant has been accused of acting inappropriately with students in another district. Republican Representative Brooke Boden of Indianola says lawmakers from both parties put a lot of work into the bill over the past three years.

“This bill will hold these bad actors accountable,” Boden says, “something that I think is a priority for all of us, something that I know our schools have asked us for.” Legislators have approved nearly all of the bills that outline next year’s state budget. Representative Brian Lohse of Bondurant says during budget negotiations, Governor Kim Reynolds rejected the legislature’s plan to provide three percent pay raises to judges. “It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is,” Lohse says, “We won what we could win.” Year three of a five year plan to hire more district court judges has been put on hold, too. Lohse calls the backlog of cases in the state court system a crisis.

“We will continue to work and fight for the resources that the judicial branch needs in order to provide justice to Iowans,” Lohse says. Representative Ken Croken, a Democrat from Davenport, says the situation is frustrating.  “Everyone in this room knows what the right thing to do is,” Croken says, “and yet we don’t seem to be able to do it.” Democrats say Republicans have not set aside enough money for the state’s Area Education Agencies that provide a variety of services to Iowa schools.

Senator Jeff Taylor, a Republican from Sioux Center, says the A-E-As will get a small budget increase. “I do want to reassure everyone…that this budget is not starving anyone or anything,” Taylor said. “It’s not defunding education.” The legislature has also voted to have Iowa join 36 other states and set up a state licensing process for midwives.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic City Council breezed through most of their agenda during the first half of their meeting, this (Wednesday) evening at City Hall. The Council passed a Resolution “Designating distribution of Sales Tax Revenue to various funds for specific purposes,” followed by a Resolution Adjusting the Budgeted amounts in the LOST Progress Fund for FY 2024. (For more info. on this and other matters, see our April 30th Council Preview).

The Council also passed a Resolution “Approving the Updated Cass County Public Safety Commission Articles of Agreement.” City Administrator John Lund explained it is a “Governing document, a 28-E (cost sharing agreement)” between the City and County. The City has a representative on the Board that oversees the Communications Center, and “We are on the hook for a certain amount of that funding, and so is the County. The Board itself can’t just make any changes to their Articles of Agreement, without having both bodies accept it as well.”

The latest changes to the agreement makes it clear that this is not a County Law Enforcement consolidation, and that “The 911 Services Coordinator” will prepare the budget, due to some minor restructuring within the Communications Center. In other business, the Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, passed on the Second Reading, an Ordinance amending the provisions pertaining to the Sewer Service Charges. The first reading passed April 19, 2023. The current charges for the wastewater utility in Atlantic have not changed in nearly 10-years, according to John Lund, and “to  ensure the stability of the Wastewater Utility Fund, the City needs to adjust the rates, as population loss has reduced overall customers, and inflation has made sustaining the plant’s labor and equipment needs unsustainable in the 10-year horizon, without a rate adjustment.

If the amended Ordinance passes on the third and final reading, the new, scheduled rate changes will be phased-in over a period of two-years, beginning with July 1, 2024 and again on July 1, 2025. The Council held the first reading of an amendment to downtown “Special Parking permits.” That Ordinance, if approved after three readings, would change allowed parking hours reduced by two-hours, to 7-p.m., in order to reflect current business hours. It also deletes a subsection of the Ordinance referring to parking downtown being prohibited on the first Wednesday of the month from 5-p.m. until the next day at 8-a.m., for the purpose of street sweeping. Since the City does not have a street sweeping schedule, the Ordinance becomes a moot point.

Atlantic City Council meeting, 5-3-2023

The Council’s final order of regular business was setting the date for a Public Hearing on Amending the FY2023 Budget, as their next meeting on May 17, 2023. In his report to the Council, John Lund said recruitment of Lifeguards at the Sunnyside Pool, “Is going okay,” but “We’re not hitting the target for where we want to be at for staffing, and the clock is ticking toward Memorial Day (and the opening of the pool).”

He mentioned the Nishna Valley YMCA is doing a $1,000 sign-on bonus for their Lifeguards. After speaking with YMCA Director Dan Haynes, they agreed the City should pursue its own incentives to attract Lifeguards. He said if the Council has no objection (which they didn’t), he will take last year’s Resolution and bring it back with an increase of a $500 as a sign-on bonus, making it $1,000. “We need to make sure we have a full staff this Summer,” he said. The bonus would be divided-up, with the first $500 to be paid after the first 80-hours are worked, with the second $500 paid at the end of the season.The matter will be place on the Council’s agenda for approval during their next scheduled meeting.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa legislature has approved bill that sets up a state licensing process for midwives. Representative Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton has led development of a midwife licensing bill. “It’s been 11 years,” Kaufmann says. “We’re getting it done this year.” Lawmakers say only a dozen certified professional midwives are practicing in Iowa today. Others left the state since without a license, they can’t order an ultrasound or lab work or prescribe medication while assisting in a birth. Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat Dubuque, says at the same time, the number of home births is increasing in Iowa and midwives are assisting.

“I believe it is time to pull them out of the shadows,” Jochum says, “license them so that we know what is going on and to make sure that everything is going good.” Senator Scott Webster, a Republican from Bettendorf, says Iowa is only of only 14 states that don’t currently license midwives. “This is going to bring Iowa into a sitution where we don’t have people in the shadows,” Webster says. “We’re bringing them to the front door, letting them get licensed.”

Iowa’s maternal mortality rate in Iowa has nearly doubled in the past 20 years and supporters of the licensing plan say midwives can play a critical role in maternity care. The bill passed the House over a month ago. The Senate voted to make a few changes in the bill today (Wednesday) and the House has given it final approval. The 2023 legislative session appears to be winding down and may conclude this week.

[Council Bluffs, Iowa] – Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Director Doug Reed reports Conservation and Emergency Management officials would like the public to be aware of a series of controlled land management burns being conducted in Council Bluffs over the next couple of days. Today (Wednesday), controlled burns will be conducted at the Narrows River Park, and near St. Patrick Catholic Church and College View Elementary on Valley View Drive.

Tomorrow (Thursday), burns are planned for the Vincent Bluff area on Thallas St. and near the Broadway Viaduct.

Controlled burning, also known as prescribed fire, is a highly effective and significant tool for many purposes. In this instance, fire will be used to remove built up combustible fuels to reduce risk in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). “The WUI is the zone of transition where unoccupied land and human development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels,” said Chad Graeve, a Natural Resource Specialist with the Pottawattamie County Conservation Department. Additionally, these series of burns will be conducted to invigorate the land by promoting new growth and strengthening the habitat and overall ecosystem in those areas.

Environmental and weather conditions are optimal to conduct these controlled burns and there is very minimal risk to the public around these burns. Burns are being conducted by trained and experienced professionals with operational and contingency plans in place.

The public is asked not to approach the immediate areas where active fire is being conducted. Smoke will be visible in the various areas in and around the city during and after the burns have been conducted.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports 41-year-old Damian Govig, of Glenwood, was arrested Tuesday, on an out of county warrant. He was being held in the Mills County Jail without bond.

(Radio Iowa/UPDATE) – The Iowa Democratic Party is proposing that its 2024 Caucuses be held on the same night as the Iowa G-O-P’s Caucuses. The Iowa Democratic Party’s plan calls for using a mail-in system to determine which presidential candidate gets the most backing from Iowa Democrats. The proposal does not indicate when the results would be announced, though. It could be a way for Iowa Democrats to avoid sanctions from the Democratic National Committee for holding Caucuses on the same night as Iowa Republicans. Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Rita Hart.

“We know that this draft delegate selection plan will raise a few questions,” Hart says, “but it’s designed to respond to this calendar chaos.” In early February, national Democratic Party leaders decided five other states would go first in voting for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination and the dates for two of those early state contests are still not set. Meanwhile, Republicans in the Iowa legislature have a bill that would require in-person participation in both parties’ Caucuses. Senator Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig, says New Hampshire may schedule its presidential primary before Iowa’s Caucuses if the Caucuses aren’t conducted in person.

“If we don’t do Caucuses the way Caucuses are actually defined, which is a collection of people coming together and deciding a candidate, they will move ahead of us as the first primary according to their own law,” Schultz says. The bill was approved by the Iowa House this week and is likely to be debated in the Iowa Senate Thursday. Senator Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames, says the First Amendment guarantees political parties the right to hold meetings and determine their own rules. “That’s what we’re doing when we have a Caucus,” Quirmbach says. “We bring our people together. We form a platform, at least our Democratic Party forms a platform, and we set a course for making changes in government.”

Former Iowa Democratic Party chairman Scott Brennan, of Des Moines — a member of the Democratic National Committee — suggests litigation is likely if the bill becomes law. “As a practicing lawyer, I would tell you that it raises serious constitutional issues that likely are going to have to be decided by a court,” Brennan says. Rita Hart, the Iowa Democratic Party’s chairwoman, says she wasn’t consulted about the bill and doesn’t know how it might impact the Caucus plan the party released today (Wednesday). “It’s curious to me that the Republicans are weighing in on a party process like this,” Hart says.

Iowa Democrats have held call-in and virtual Caucus gatherings in the past. They are proposing a mail-in system for 2024 as a way to address complaints that the Caucuses are inaccessible to workers who can’t get time off and others who cannot attend on Caucus night.