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Iowa’s drought improves slightly in past month

Ag/Outdoor, News, Weather

February 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Iowa’s long-running drought has eased since a month ago but is still by far the worst it’s been leading into the growing season in the past three years, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The area of the state that is suffering from extreme drought — the second-worst classification of the Drought Monitor — is about half what it was in December but still encompasses a vast area of northeast Iowa. That includes some or all of more than two dozen counties.

About three-quarters of the state has some measure of drought. The exceptions are a wide area of northwest Iowa and parts of far southern and far eastern Iowa. Drought conditions have persisted in the state since July 2020 — the longest stretch since the 1950s, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The dryness peaked in September 2023.

Many Iowa rivers have very low flow, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. In Osceola, residents have been urged to conserve water as the town’s water supply — West Lake — has dwindled. But the city reported early this month that the lake’s level had stabilized.

The area of extreme drought in Iowa has shrunk considerably in the past month. (Courtesy of U.S. Drought Monitor)

Year-round sales of E15 delayed until next year

Ag/Outdoor, News

February 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

Year-round sales of E15 at the gas pump are delayed until 2025. The EPA published its order Thursday. It follows a request from eight Midwest governors, including Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, to expand sales of the higher ethanol blend beginning this summer.

E15 is currently restricted in the warmer months over smog concerns. The biofuel industry says those concerns are unfounded. Governor Reynolds says she’s not giving up her fight to permit sales this summer and says she is pursuing a waiver.

This is the Iowa Day of Kindness, so be nice!

News

February 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa)- The governor has proclaimed this (Friday) as the Day of Kindness in Iowa, as residents are encouraged to intentionally do something nice for someone, even if it’s a small act. Kara Matheson, a vice president at the West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, says they launched this project a few years ago as a way to make a positive impact on the community and it’s grown into a statewide event. The chamber’s holding what it’s calling the Socks of Love campaign. “We call upon the community, businesses, schools, families, and everyone in between to come out to the West Des Moines Chamber and bring any amount of new socks that they would like to donate,” Matheson says, “and then we are going to pass them along to West Des Moines Human Services to be distributed from there.”

While most Iowans can’t make the drive to West Des Moines today to donate socks, they -can- hop online and make a donation of as little as ten dollars to have several pairs of socks delivered to the effort. Last year was the debut year for the socks campaign. “We were hoping for around 100 pairs of socks in our first year, and the community really showed up and we actually ended up with 865 pairs of socks,” Matheson says, “which was incredible.” Matheson is hoping people will take this day to heart and try to do something more than pay for the hot beverage of the person behind you in the drive-through lane.

Several members of the West Des Moines Chamber with the 2023 haul of socks

“The sole purpose of Day of Kindness is to encourage the public to do any simple act of kindness,” Matheson says. “You hear of those Pay It Forward lines at coffee, but any act, even writing a kind note, giving a nice compliment to a stranger, these little acts of kindness truly go a long ways.” She says studies show acts of kindness benefit not only the receiver, but also the giver.

Creston woman arrested Thu. night for OWI/1st offense

News

February 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Creston, Iowa) – Creston Police report the arrest at around 9:30-p.m. Thursday, of 28-year-old Chelsey Mae Madison, of Creston. Madison was taken into custody at the Creston/Union County Law Enforcement Center on a charge of Operating While Under the Influence1st offense.  She was taken to the Union County Jail and later posted a $1,000 cash or approved surety bond, before being released.

High Fire Danger persists in SW IA & SE NE

Ag/Outdoor, News, Weather

February 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Omaha/Valley, NE) – The National Weather Service in Omaha says the warm weather we’ve been experiencing the past few days in southeastern Nebraska and Southwestern Iowa, is here to stay through the weekend. The Weather Service said also, a “Very high fire danger will persist for the next few days.”

In the Hazardous Weather Outlook issued by the NWS in Des Moines, officials said dry and breezy conditions will lead to potential very high fire danger conditions in at least a portion of the area each day. The highest potential may be in southeast Nebraska on Monday, where some areas may see extreme fire danger.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety reports only Harrison County in our listening area, has a Burn Ban in place. That order was issued in late September, 2023, and remains in effect until further notice.

Controlled burns in Montgomery County spread quickly due to strong winds

News

February 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A planned, controlled burn of old growth weeds and trees in Montgomery County, Tuesday, got out of control when the winds picked-up. Montgomery County Conservation officials said in a statement Wednesday, “A prescribed burn was conducted [Tuesday] on the northeast corner of the Anderson Conservation Area. Burn trails were mowed and raked, wet lines were laid, weather conditions were assessed, and all preliminary phone calls were made to inform emergency management and dispatch of our plans. A change in wind conditions turned a small 1-2 acre burn into 115 acres.”
Conservation officials said they were thankful for first responders from Red Oak, Stanton, Villisca, Grant, and Elliott, “Who acted fast and diligently to help us wrangle this fire. Drone footage was taken from the beginning, and provided a bird’s eye view the entire time.” Officials said “The fire managed to stay on our property and no damage was done,” and that although “…things didn’t go as planned, all that was burned was scheduled to be completed (at a much slower pace). It will be a real treat to watch the new growth emerge and continue restoration efforts on this land that holds a special place in the hearts of Montgomery County residents.” Additional assistance was received from Griswold Fire & Rescue, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and Montgomery County 911.

Montgomery County EMA photo (2-21-24)

Montgomery County EMA photo (2-21-24)

Firefighters in Montgomery County, Thursday afternoon, responded to a rubbish fire that got out of control. The call about a blaze at 1912 D Avenue in Red Oak, went out at around 3:20-p.m.  According to Red Oak Fire Chief John Bruce, arriving fire crews reported a grass fire spread to two dilapidated outbuildings, one of which had begun to burn on the exterior. Firefighters quickly knocked down the flames and extinguished the outbuilding.There were no injuries reported. Red Oak Fire received Mutual Aid from firefighters with the Emerson, Stanton and Elliott Fire Departments. Additional assistance came from the Montgomery Sheriff’s Office, and Montgomery County Communications.
Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency officials say Tuesday’s fire at Anderson Conservation Area shows how fire conditions can rapidly intensify and become uncontrollable in a very short amount of time, even when proper precautions and steps are taken beforehand. Extreme caution should be used for any prescribed/controlled burns until adequate moisture is received, as we move into Spring. “At this time, an open burn ban is not being discussed however conditions are being monitored heavily given record highs and limited to no precipitation.”

Red Oak FD Facebook photo 2-22-24

Red Oak FD Facebook photo 2-22-24

Red Oak FD Facebook photo 2-22-24

City along I-80 in eastern IA plans to install speed cameras

News

February 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

Speed cameras are coming to Newton and will be set up on I-80. In a city council meeting on Monday, council members voted unanimously to move forward with the speed camera project. Road signs along I-80 mark the road as a safety corridor. The city claims the stretch of interstate is in the top 1% of all crashes over the last five years. The city says its police and fire departments respond to an average of 210 incidents and crashes.Other cities that have implemented similar speed cameras have seen a massive increase in revenue. Prairie City’s new cameras in town and on Highway 163 collected $1.7 million for the city in fiscal year 2022.

The Iowa DOT’s website shows on average I-80 at Newton sees more than three times the amount of traffic that drives by Prairie City, according to their last traffic count conducted in 2022. The city of Newton says it could take at least six months of setup before their cameras are operational. After they’re turned on, the city says that for the first 30 days, the cameras will only issue warnings.

The city says revenue collected from the cameras will only be used to pay employees to work the camera, buy public safety vehicles and equipment for the Newton Police and Fire Departments and fund a one-time street improvement project. The state legislature is considering a bill that would ban speed cameras across Iowa, some have been trying to pass the bill for seven years.

Some Senate Republicans are hopeful this year could be the year. The Newton City Council was advised that if the legislature does end up banning speed cameras, their contract with the speed camera company will be null and void. Newton won’t be the only city along I-80 with speed cameras. Grinnell is also adding cameras and a mobile unit by this spring.

More than a dozen Iowa cities, including Newton and Grinnell, have hired the same Swedish company to run the project — Sensys Gatso.

 

Dry February hasn’t improved the drought situation

News, Weather

February 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Hopes raised in January for a turnaround in the state drought situation went away as February turned dry. Iowa D-N-R Hydrologist, Tim Hall says the latest Drought Monitor Report shows that. “There’s a significant chunk of the state of Iowa right, now about almost 20 percent of the state that’s rated by the drought monitor as extreme drought in northeast Iowa,” Hall says. He says that runs from Linn and Benton County north all the way up to the Minnesota border. And 56 percent of the state is rated in severe drought.

“In the wintertime when nothing’s growing and we don’t think about water use, it’s kind of easy to stop remembering where we are. But we still have more than half of the state rated in severe drought. And that’s a problem moving into the spring months and the growing season,” Hall says. He says the January snow was good, but when it melted in February, it illustrated how dry things are. “We had two feet of snow in the state over large parts of the state, and it all melted fairly quickly, and we saw zero instances of flooding,” Hall says. “And that just tells me that the soils are so incredibly dry.”

Hall says the dry soil sucked up most of the snow melt and there was not a lot left to refill empty streams and rivers. “To have that amount of snow melt off and have no even localized flooding is a very surprising thing,” he says. The snow came in January which was one inch above normal for precipitation. But Hall says all that surplus has gone away in what may end up being the driest February on record. “So the pattern of wet month, dry month, wet month, dry month, that doesn’t help us much. We need wet month, wet month, wet month, wet month,” Hall says.

He says we typically get a lot more rain in the spring months, and we’ll need that to work toward getting rid of the drought.

New this semester at ISU, a course on how to get happy

News

February 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – A new course is being offered at Iowa State University this semester which aims to teach students how to incorporate small habits into their lives that will bring them joy. Amie Zarling, an I-S-U professor of human development and family studies, is teaching the course she created called “The Science and Practice of Happiness.” “It’s so important because not only is there science and research to back all this up, that allows us to learn and know about the data that’s coming out about how to be happy,” Zarling says, “but then also it’s important to learn how to apply that to ourselves, because that can be one of the best ways to actually learn about the topic.”

Zarling says there are 85 students participating in the course’s inaugural semester from a variety of different majors across campus. “We started off by learning about and practicing gratitude, and learning about how to express gratitude in a way that works for each person individually,” Zarling says. “The students have really loved incorporating gratitude into their life and have reported that it’s working to increase their happiness.”

They’re also studying the importance of social connections and how much social interaction is needed every day. Zarling says she’s encouraging students to seek out wonder and awe, as well as self-compassion — treating ourselves with kindness. “We have also talked about being present and mindful in our daily lives, and we’ve practiced that in a few different ways,” Zarling says, “one of which is savoring positive experiences, really relishing those experiences, and squeezing them to their last drop and appreciating those positive emotions that we experience in our lives.”

Zarling says the course offers students a vital respite in an existence that’s often filled with negativity, politics, war and hatred. “We could all use a little positivity and happiness in our days, and so much of the world isn’t focused on that right now,” Zarling says. “I tell the students, that doesn’t mean that we completely stick our heads in the sand and ignore all the negativity. We can’t necessarily do that. However, we can add some positivity and happiness to our life with these small habits.”

Zarling says a lot of jobs and careers are stressful, so learning how to manage that stress and be resilient can truly help people. She plans to offer the course again in the fall.

Red Oak woman arrested on a warrant for Compulsory Education Violation

News

February 23rd, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Red Oak, Iowa) –  A woman from Red Oak was arrested Thursday afternoon on a Montgomery County warrant. Red Oak Police say 44-year-old Peggy Sue Gurney was arrested at around 3:15-p.m. on the warrant for Compulsory Education Violation/1st offense. She was taken into custody in the 100 block of W. Coolbaugh Street, and was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.