SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – City council members approved a request to adopt plans, specifications, and estimated cost for the second phase of a project to reconstruct the roof of the terminal building at Sioux Gateway Airport. KTIV reports the council passed the item 4-to-0. Phase 1 design and construction is already done. Phase 2 addresses the west airfield secure side of the terminal building. Phase 2 will also address the need for drainage and any retrofitting or replacement of the drainage system. A public hearing is set for August 19th. Bids will be received on August 27th. The estimated cost of phase 2 is about $441,000.

The city council also approved a request asking the assistant city manager to apply for an FAA grant to pay for terminal improvements at Sioux Gateway. The grant will cover up to $3.74 million of the project with a 5 percent local match. The project includes the replacement of a passenger boarding bridge and seven remaining HVAC units at the terminal building. All work is contingent upon the airport getting the grant funding. The total estimated cost of the project is $3.6 million.

(Radio Iowa) – The Des Moines City Council has given initial approval to an ordinance that sets a 50 dollar fine for those caught sleeping in public and refuse to leave places like doorways and alleys. Des Moines City Councilman Chris Coleman helped draft the plan. “When the police are asking them to move on, we expect people to obey the police and there has to be some penalty,” Coleman said. “We’ve made it the lowest possible penalty with a way to ensure that people who can’t pay the fine with won’t pay the fine.”

The ordinance also lets the city remove personal belongings from an illegal campsite three days after a notice is given. Des Moines and other cities have begun rewriting regulations after a U-S Supreme Court ruled last month that cities can ban sleeping and camping in public places. Sarah Schuler — the H-R director for a Des Moines ad agency — says she has begun talking with employees about safety outside their office in downtown Des Moines. “We all know that when we live in a city, that we’re going to face challenges,” she said. “We all understand that, but since COVID and since my time with Flynn Wright the incidents have really continued to escalate.”

Alan Callanan of Des Moines says the ordinance criminalizes homelessness. “People with fines and criminal records will have a harder time getting out of homelessness,” Callanan says. “Everyone on city council knows this will not solve the rising rate of homelessness in the city and across the country, but some on council clearly want the council to be able to further punish people who are already in a dangerous situation.”

Tom Hromatka, the treasurer of a non-profit that helps homeless people in Des Moines, says the homeless population in Iowa’s capital city has more than doubled in the past two years and the ordinance is a band-aid. “We need to aggressively seek long term alternatives and permanent solutions to this problem,” he said.

The Des Moines City Council must review and approve the ordinance in two more meetings before it takes effect. The A-C-L-U of Iowa has signaled it will go to court to challenge the ordinance.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court has rejected a request to reconsider its recent ruling that outlawing nearly all abortions in legal under Iowa’s constitution. A year ago, Governor Reynolds signed the law banning abortions after fetal activity can be detected, which is around the sixth week of a pregnancy — but even after the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling the upholding the law, it hasn’t taken effect because attorneys for Planned Parenthood asked the Iowa Supreme Court to rehear the case. Now that the Iowa Supreme Court has said no that, a lower court judge could make the law take effect yet this week.

A Polk County District Court judge issued the injunction last July that has blocked the law. Under court procedures, it has to be a Polk County District Court judge who lifts that injunction.

• June 22, 2024, Proclamation of Disaster Emergency issued for Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Kossuth, Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, Plymouth, Sioux, Cerro Gordo, Floyd, Hancock, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Webster, Winnebago, Woodbury, Worth and Wright Counties.
• June 23, 2024, Proclamation of Disaster Emergency issued for Palo Alto County.
• June 24, 2024, Proclamation of Disaster Emergency issued for Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Monona, and Pottawattamie Counties.

Des Moines, IA —  This evening, the Iowa Delegation to the 2024 Democratic National Convention met virtually to discuss the 2024 Presidential Nomination and decided to unanimously endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.

Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart, who also chairs the Iowa delegation to the convention, is excited to rally behind the Vice President’s campaign.

“This is a historic moment for our country and for Iowans. We’ve seen a swell of support in the last 24 hours since Vice President Kamala Harris announced her campaign for the White House. Not only has Vice President Harris broken national fundraising numbers –  here in Iowa, we’ve had a substantial number of people reach out asking to volunteer.

Iowans know what’s at stake this November. Our reproductive freedoms, our public schools, Social Security and Medicare, and our values are on the ballot. I’m proud to lead a united delegation in Chicago that will work relentlessly to elect more Democrats in Iowa and help get Kamala Harris elected as the next President of the United States.”

RAGBRAI is in full gear as day two brings the excited riders in to Atlantic by a 40-mile ride from Red Oak. These cyclists are from all over the country and bring in their own particular stories of what they’ve seen while on the route. Two riders who have been enjoying every second of RAGBRAI and the hospitality shown to them is John Snidarich from Minnesota and Gail Tisch from Wisconsin.

Tisch shared the unique sights and sounds she’s encountered while pedaling through Iowa.

For Snidarich the magic of RAGBRAI is not from the different vendors, but the people he’s been able to ride and connect with throughout the day.

Another individual who has felt the vibrant energy brought to Atlantic from RAGBRAI is volunteer Kim Phillips.

Phillips noted that with the thousands of people flooding inside downtown Atlantic, it creates an opportunity to meet a wide variety of individuals.

Day three of RAGBRAI will take cyclists 82 miles from Atlantic towards Winterset.

(Radio Iowa) – Many parks, trails, waterways and docks in northeast Iowa are reopening as early summer floodwaters recede, but safety for parkgoers remains a concern as bacteria and other contaminant levels in area rivers remain high. Lori Eberhard, park director for George Wyth State Park in Black Hawk County, says even though the rivers might look safer with the water levels down, the risk of illness for swimmers remains high.

“If our bacteria level’s high at the beach, I would still swim there before I would swim in the river after flooding,” Eberhard says, “especially when you have major flooding, it gets into those different systems all the way down the river, and that’s what’s in the water.” The Iowa D-N-R tests bodies of water weekly to track those levels, but contaminants are still elevated due to stagnation and sediment that comes with flooding. When hiking, Eberhard stresses caution even when the ground appears stable.

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“There are low spots that still have water on them,” she says. “We don’t recommend going through flooded trails or water, because you don’t know what’s under there, you don’t know if there’s a hole or things like that. And now, with all the water along the trails, trees will just fall down.”

The D-N-R says around a dozen beaches at Iowa lakes are not recommended for swimming this week due to high levels of e-coli, algae toxins, or both.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa D-O-T records show a decline in the number of cars and pick-up trucks registered to drive on Iowa roads last year. In 2023, there were just over a million cars registered for use in Iowa and just over a million pick-ups for personal or business use. However, there was a nearly four percent drop in the number of automobiles registered in Iowa last year. Pick-up truck numbers in Iowa fell a percentage point from 2022 to 2023.

The D-O-T’s data includes semi tractors, mopeds and other types of vehicles. It shows more than three-point-seven million vehicles were registered in Iowa in 2023.

(Radio Iowa) – Managers of an Iowa Great Lakes amusement park have set a 50-thousand dollar goal for a benefit concert to help Spencer residents impacted by flooding. Jon Pausley is executive director of Arnolds Park, which is on the shore of West Lake Okoboji. “All of us in northwest Iowa got affected somehow by all of this floooding, but we were very fortunate here at Arnolds Park to really just have minor inconveniences as compared to many people down in Spencer who were just devastated,” he says, “and we certainly wanted to do something to help our neighbors to the south.”

The concert will be held Sunday afternoon, the 28th of July. Pausley says several local musicians have volunteered to perform, including two musicians from Spencer. “Hormel Foods is going to be providing a lunch that day for residents of Spencer, so as residents sign up to come and their families, the park is also going to open up the amusement park for no cost that day,” Pausley says.

Spencer residents may register this week at the Spencer Chamber of Commerce for free Arnolds Park admission on Sunday and the free lunch. Funds raised at Sunday’s event will be donated to the Spencer Chamber Foundation.