(Red Oak, Iowa) – Montgomery County Engineer Karen Albert, Tuesday morning, updated the County Board of Supervisors on Secondary Roads Department maintenance and activities, along with an employment opportunity.
She said also provided an update on the 250th Street bridge project.
Albert mentioned also, that she and two others in the department are attending an Engineer’s Conference in Des Moines the latter half of this week (Wed.-Friday).
Northern Iowa women’s basketball Tanya Warren is using finals week to help her team regroup. Named the Missouri Valley Conference preseason favorite the Panthers are just 1-7 and return to action on December 20th at Iowa State.
Injuries have been a factor. Junior standout and preseason Valley Player of the Year Grace Boffeli has missed the last three games.
Warren is confident the Panthers will get things turned around.
Jim Field visits with Lani, a Columbian-American singer/songwriter, who will be performing her Christmas show Saturday, December 16 at 7:00 pm at the Warren Cultural Center in Greenfield.
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ADEL, Iowa — A man from Dallas County faces multiple felony charges after police say he injured two people by crashing his vehicle into a house Monday night. According to court documents, 46-year-old Daniel Lee Grogan, of Adel, was allegedly under the influence of marijuana and Lorazepam, an anxiety medication, when he drove his 2012 Dodge Journey through a home in the 300 block of South 10th Street. Two people inside the home were injured when the crash happened around 11:20 p.m. Monday night.
Grogan has been charged with the following:
Police say Grogan left the scene of the crash on foot and was found by police a few blocks away. He failed multiple field sobriety tests, according to a criminal complaint. His preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 22nd.
(Radio Iowa) – The Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain reports a strong second quarter. Company President and C-E-O Darrin Rebellez spoke about the results during a conference call Tuesday. He says inside sales remain strong driving inside gross profit dollars up 10 percent to 553 million dollars. The company generated 159 million dollars in net income, an increase of 15 percent.
Rebellez says inside sales were up six-point-two percent for the quarter driven by strong performance in the prepared food and dispensed beverages. The gallons of fuel sold were flat, but the company’s gross profit on fuel increased by nearly 309 million dollars as they made more than 42 cents on each gallon sold.
The company built or acquired 59 stores in the quarter and recently closed the deal on 22 stores in Texas, which is now the 17th state where they operate.
(Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau report a Spring Hill (IA) man, David Mark Ellis, recently pled guilty in Polk County District Court, to two counts of Identity Theft (Aggravated Misdemeanors) and one count of Insurance Fraud (Class D Felony).
The charges stem from a 2021 investigation by the Iowa Insurance Division that found Ellis, the owner of Always Affordable Bail Bonds in Des Moines, had misrepresented the facts surrounding a loss on an insurance claim so that he would receive funds to which he was not entitled. Additionally, Ellis utilized another individual’s EBT card to obtain benefits which he was not entitled to receive.
Following his guilty pleas, Ellis received suspended prison sentences to be served consecutively up to 9 years. Ellis also received 2 years of probation, and a fine of $2,735.00.
The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Wapello County Sheriff’s Office, Ankeny Police Department, and the Warren County Sheriff’s Office assisted the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau with the case. The case was prosecuted by the Polk County Attorney’s Office.
Iowans with information about insurance fraud are encouraged to contact the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau at 515-654-6556.
(Des Moines, Iowa; USDA News) — USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) obligated a record $85.8 million in conservation practice funding to Iowa farmers in fiscal year 2023, through 1,628 conservation program contracts that will help treat natural resource concerns such as soil erosion and water quality on 386,736 acres. Conservation program contracts typically run three to five years, depending on the program. The obligated funds are nearly $3 million more than the prior record of $83 million in fiscal year 2021, and $16 million more than the prior five-year average.
IRA Funding
NRCS State Conservationist Jon Hubbert says a major reason for the increase in conservation funding is the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which helped NRCS provide $18.6 million to Iowa farmers in 2023. Hubbert says the IRA offers unprecedented funding for several existing programs. “We are using IRA funds to provide direct climate mitigation benefits to Iowa landowners and expanding access to NRCS assistance to increase conservation on Iowa’s private lands,” he said.
IRA funding is targeted to support climate-smart agriculture mitigation and help farmers build resilience in their operations. Examples of eligible practices include cover crops, no-till farming, nutrient management, prescribed grazing, and tree planting. “Many of the conservation efforts Iowa producers are adopting through IRA offer stacked benefits,” said Hubbert. “They are also benefitting soil health, water quality, wildlife habitat and protecting other resource concerns.”
Hubbert says IRA funding will increase over the next few years. “This is a great opportunity for Iowa landowners to address resource concerns on their farms,” he said. “The support for voluntary conservation at the local and national level has never been greater.”
WelchBakehouse – Iowa farmers like Jon Bakehouse (right) of Mills County are utilizing USDA-NRCS conservation programs to diversify their operations while simultaneously protecting and enhancing their natural resources, such as soil health, water quality and wildlife habitat.
Program Breakdown
NRCS provides conservation funding through four primary programs authorized through the Farm Bill: Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), and Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP).
Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP): CSP helps farmers build a customized plan to meet their conservation goals and needs. Iowa NRCS obligated about $22.2 million through new and renewed CSP contracts during the past year to 557 Iowa landowners who signed five-year CSP contracts to treat natural resource concerns on their land. The CSP contracts will cover 267,103 acres.
Statewide leaders in CSP:
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP): NRCS contracted about 45 percent of new federal conservation funding in Iowa through EQIP – a voluntary program that promotes agricultural production and environmental quality, where farmers can choose from a conservation practice list developed at the county level to treat local resource issues. Through EQIP, NRCS obligated $39.1 million covering 93,717 acres through 840 contracts. For the second consecutive year, cover crops, brush management, prescribed grazing, and no-till were the most adopted practices by Iowa farmers.
Statewide EQIP highlights:
Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP): Iowa NRCS provided more than $10.5 million to Iowa farmers in 2023 through RCPP projects that will help treat natural resource concerns on more than 24,000 acres. NRCS assisted producers through eight RCPP partnership agreements and 207 contracts. RCPP promotes coordination between NRCS and its partners through agreements and program contracts. The eight RCPP projects in Iowa focus primarily on improving water quality and soil health.
Easements: Through ACEP, NRCS helps landowners, land trusts, and other entities protect, restore, and enhance wetlands, grasslands, and working farms through conservation easements. Overall, there are 1,722 conservation easements in Iowa covering 198,407 acres. During fiscal year 2023, Iowa NRCS obligated $14 million by helping landowners to place agricultural land into 12 new conservation easements. They include:
Iowa NRCS staff also obligated $13.7 million to historically underserved producers through 278 contracts, covering 30,295 acres. Historically underserved producers include beginning farmers, military veterans, limited resource producers, and socially disadvantaged farmers. NRCS staff wrote 12,753 conservation plans during fiscal year 2023, which covers more than one million acres. Conservation plans help producers target and address natural resource concerns such as soil erosion, water quality, and wildlife habitat, in addition to addressing climate change and improving soil health.
For more detailed Iowa NRCS program results and information, go to https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2023-11/2023At-A-Glance.pdf.
SONYA CURLILE, 61, of Manning, died Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023, at Accura Healthcare of Carroll. Funeral services for SONYA CURLILE will be held 10:30 a.m. Saturday, December 16, 2023, at the First Presbyterian Church in Manning. Ohde Funeral Home in Manning has the arrangements.
Visitation at the funeral home will be on Friday, Dec. 15th, from 5-until 7-p.m.; Visitation will resume on Saturday, at the 1st Presbyterian Church in Manning, beginning at 9:30-a.m.
Burial is in the Manning Cemetery.
SONYA CURLILE is survived by:
Her parents – Wayne and Velaine Curlile, of Manning.
Her sister – Cynthia (Jeff) Bauer, of Manning.
(Elliott, Iowa) – A traffic stop a little before 5-p.m. Tuesday, in Elliott, resulted in an arrest. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 39-year-old Cory R. Smith, of Elliott, was arrested for Driving while barred. Smith was transported to the Montgomery County Jail in Red Oak, and held on a $2,000 bond.
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