The City Council in Harlan next month will act on appointing a person to fill a soon-to-be vacant seat on the Council. Greg Bladt, the current Ward 4 Councilman, presented his resignation to the Harlan City Council during their meeting, Tuesday. Bladt has served on the Council for the past 6 ½-years. His resignation is effective July 31st, and due to the fact he has accepted a position on the Harlan Community School District’s Board of Education.

Mayor Jay Christensen presented Bladt with the key to the city and thanked him for his service on the Council.

According to Harlan City Administrator Gene Gettys, the Council can opt for a special election to fill the seat, or fill the position by appointment. Individuals residing in the 4th Ward who may want to fill the seat, should turn in their completed nomination form no later than August 16th.

(Radio Iowa) – Democratic candidate Deidre DeJear says as governor she’d resist new abortion restrictions, but she’d also push to ensure rural hospitals maintain delivery rooms and restore state funding for routine health exams at Planned Parenthood. “What we’ve seen over the last several years is just continued degradation of women’s access to health care,” DeJear says. A state report shows at least 33 Iowa hospital maternity wards have closed over the past two decades. DeJear says the state needs to ensure birthing moms have reasonable access to a hospital for delivery.

“It’s not just the Planned Parenthoods that are closing. We have county wards that are closing related to women’s reproductive health care access. We’ve got OB/GYN clinics closing all across the state,” DeJear says. “I’ve talked to moms, well, one mom in particular in rural Iowa who went to her county hospital only to find out the county hospital emergency room was closed in the middle of the night and she had to get to the closest hospital that she could with an emergency room and ended up having that baby in the car.”

DeJear says state government needs to do more to address child care deserts, where there are few or no options for parents. “I also want to see a paid family leave program in the state of Iowa,” DeJear says. “Those are the things that I’m looking at related to lifting up the family.” DeJear, who is challenging Republican Governor Kim Reynolds in the General Election, says contraceptives should be available over the counter. Reynolds endorsed the idea in 2018.

A bill that would have made contraceptives like “the pill” available to adult women without a prescription stalled in the Republican-led House in 2019 and 2021.

(Radio Iowa) – With another hot day ahead and forecast highs mostly in the 90s all week, Sioux City is joining the growing list of Iowa communities that are asking residents and businesses to voluntarily conserve water. City utilities director Brad Puetz is launching an immediate odd-even irrigation schedule and says lawns should only be watered up to three days a week.

“Odd-numbered addresses would irrigate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and even-numbered addresses would water on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday,” Puetz says, “with no recommended watering on Monday.” Puetz says the conservation effort will be in effect through September unless conditions change, but for now, it’s voluntary. “We’re still maintaining levels in the wells that are adequate to provide the raw water supply that we need,” Puetz says, “so to put a timeframe or percentage on it would be difficult. What we are seeing is water demands due to irrigation in the early morning hours are really starting to stress the storage structures.”

Watering should be done at night and during the early morning to avoid the hot afternoon sun when the water will quickly evaporate. “We recommend that people water between 3 AM and 9 AM,” he says. “We see a lot of people throughout the city watering their yards in the hottest period of the day with little benefit offered to the lawn. It really just puts additional stress on the distribution system and our water storage structures.”

Puetz says switching to the new plan should also lower residents’ monthly water bills. While Storm Lake has mandatory water restrictions, cities that have enacted voluntary restrictions range from Rock Valley to Des Moines.

Fort Dodge, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Corrections reports 56-year-old William Harrison Barbee, who was serving a life sentence for 1st Degree Kidnapping out of Woodbury County, and other charges from Lee County, died Saturday, at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility. His death was the result of an unexpected medical emergency. An autopsy will be conducted by the State Medical Examiner to determine cause of death. Foul play is not suspected.

Barbee, of Sioux City, was 17 when he kidnapped a woman at knifepoint from the parking lot of a grocery store. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping, attempted murder and theft and was sentenced to life in prison in 1983. Barbee is one of seven inmates resentenced in 2012 to life with the possibility of parole, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sentencing a juvenile to die in prison is cruel and unusual punishment. Barbee was scheduled to appear before the Iowa Board of Parole on July 27th. The board had denied Barbee early release after previous reviews.

Barbee’s sentence began on November 23, 1983.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – [Update to previous ISP report: 1 fatality, not 2] – A crash on Interstate 80/35 Tuesday evening in Polk County, claimed the life of a juvenile male. In an earlier report, the Patrol erred in stating an adult had also died. The collision happened at around 7:35-p.m on I-80/35 eastbound, one-mile west of the interchange with I-35 and the east mixmaster, in Des Moines.

Authorities say traffic at the 136 mile marker was backed-up due to a collision. A 2016 Toyota Prius driven by 54-year-old Wesley Breckenridge, of Newton, was in the right lane in front of a 2016 Hyundai Tucson SUV driven by 42-year-old Luis Venales Graterol, of Grimes. Both drivers were slowing for traffic in front of them, when the SUV was struck from behind by a 2017 Peterbilt semi driven by 32-year-old Soderdene Selengesaikhan, of Los Angeles, CA.

The impact caused a chain-reaction crash. A juvenile passenger in the Hyundai Tucson, 11-year-old Ian Venales, of Grimes died in the crash, and Luis Graterol was injured. The extent of his injuries is currently unknown.