A 4-year old southwest Iowa boy is recovering from serious head injuries following an ATV accident Saturday night, in Mills County. According to Omaha television station KETV, Kolbe Klindt, of Henderson, was flown from the scene of the accident near Treynor, to Creighton University Medical Center, where he was listed in stable, but critical condition.

The boy’s father, Erik Klindt, told the television station the family was spending the evening with friends on a farm in Mills County and enjoying a barbeque, when four-year old Kolbe suddenly darted in front of a 4-wheeled ATV, which hit the boy and flipped him into the air.

While his injuries were severe, the boy is expected to recover. The Mills County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident. Donations to help the family with Kolbe’s medical expenses, are glady being accepted in the name of Kolbe Klindt, at all Rolling Hills Bank and Trust locations.

All 15 Republicans in a House committee have approved a bill designed to limit the ability of Iowa cities and counties to create special taxing districts that have been used to finance everything from sewers to swimming pools. Representative Chuck Soderberg, a Republican from Le Mars, says the aim is to get a handle on just how much property tax money is being diverted from general purposes to these special projects. “There needs to be more transparency, more accountability, more auditing,” Soderberg says.

Developers say the districts help cities, because the property taxes in those districts are used to pay off bonds that finance the improvements, like new sewers and roads, that lure businesses to the area. Critics say cities have abused the concept and officials in at least 22 Iowa cities have declared all property in their city as one of these special districts. The bill would no longer let cities use this financing tool to pay for things like swimming pools or hospitals, but it could be used to finance police and fire stations.

Representative Dave Jacoby, of Coralville was one of the 10 Democrats who voted against the bill. “Why is this any of the state’s business in the first place?” Jacoby asked during Monday afternoon’s committee meeting. Others argued the bill would create too many limits on communities, making it impossible to quickly come up with a deal to lure a new business to town or to keep an expanding business from leaving. The issue has flared this year due to a situation in eastern Iowa, as Coralville is trying to lure a department store out of Iowa City, using this particular tax gimmick.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

Iowa schools would be able to start on the 4th Monday of August, but no earlier under legislation pending in the Iowa House. Representative Peter Cownie, a Republican from West Des Moines, urged members of the House Ways and Means Committee to endorse the bill late Monday afternoon. “We’re trying to solve a problem here and we’re trying to mend a relationship between government, business and schools,” Cownie says. Existing state law forbids schools from starting before the week in which September 1st falls, but most Iowa schools apply for a waiver from the state and start far earlier in August, some as early as August 15th.

Governor Branstad is irked at his own education department – the state agency granting those waivers. “I believe it’s a mistake to just give wholesale waivers to everybody,” Branstad says. “My daughter teaches in Waukee. She’s not even going to be able to go to the State Fair because teachers have to start on the 9th of August. I think this is unconscionable.” The state’s entire tourism industry complains about lost customers, as families quit traveling in August since practices for fall sports and other school activities often begin before classes resume for the fall semester.

Branstad supports legislation to establish a uniform school starting date in Iowa “that’s around Labor Day.”  “I believe the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin and other states — high achieving states, a lot of states in other parts of the country have a school start date that’s Labor Day or later,” he says. The bill that’s now eligible for debate in the Iowa House would allow schools to start no earlier than the 4th Monday in August, but they’d have to pay a 100-dollar fee to the state Education Department to process their waiver request to start before September 1st. Representative Jerry Kearns, a Democrat from Keokuk, ridiculed the Republicans who were supporting this new fee.

“If I had run or if my constituents had said they don’t want any new taxes, any new fees or charges by the state, I’d have to vote against this, wouldn’t I, if I were going to satisfy that constituency?” Kearns asked during the committee’s debate. Kearns and all the Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee voted against the bill, but it passed with the support of 13 Republicans. Two Republicans did vote no, however, including Representative Jeremy Taylor, who is a teacher from Sioux City. Taylor says it’s time to start thinking about “innovations” like a year-round school year instead. “Last year I thought that I could come up here as a freshman legislator and do away with the statutory school start date and I ran into the buzz saw of the State Fair and the tourism industry and football and so on,” Taylor says. Other critics say after three solid months of summer vacation, students have to relearn some of what they were taught the previous semester.

School officials say starting earlier in August allows the fall semester to conclude in December, before the holiday break, plus it gives schools a cushion to hold classes in early June to make up any days that are cancelled earlier in the year, due to snow.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

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