(Radio Iowa) – With Iowa’s Primary Election over, both major political parties shift to General Election mode, with a lot of attention on the race between Republican Kim Reynolds and Democrat Deidre DeJear for governor. Neither had opposition in the primary. Reynolds, who’s been governor for five years, has been describing her platform as push back against President Biden. “When you take a look at what’s happening in this country today, it’s just so sad and unbelievable in 16 or 17 months how this economy has changed and what we’re facing,” Reynolds says.

Reynolds says the tax cuts she signed into law and the E-15 expansion plan she approved last month put Iowa in a position to withstand high inflation. “We’ve got a good message, a good contrast to run against what’s happening at the federal level, the national level, with the Biden Administration,” Reynolds says. DeJear says her focus is on state policy, not a national agenda.

“When we look at the data, the numbers, the rankings, when we look at the challenges that Iowans are facing, there are some fundamental flaws in how Governor Reynolds is leading,” DeJear says, “and the decisions that she’s making.” DeJear will soon be announcing a decision of her own — as she chooses a lieutenant governor as a running mate. DeJear has been asking for advice from people she meets on the campaign trail as well as elected officials and her campaign team. She says her pick will bring balance.

“So that our ticket will be stronger and greater and that’s what I’m looking for right now,” DeJear says. “I don’t need a replica of me…I need someone who’s willing to do the work and I can’t wait to share with the entire state who that individual is going to be.”

DeJear says her decision will be announced the latter part of next week. In Iowa, candidates for governor choose a running mate and their nominee for lieutenant governor is voted upon at their party’s state convention. Democrats will hold their state convention on Saturday, July 18th. The Republican Party’s state convention is THIS Saturday.

(Radio Iowa) – The C-E-O of the Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain talked today (Wednesday) about gas prices during the quarterly conference call for investors. Darren Rebelez says it is constantly changing. “This is an extremely volatile environment right now. When I was in the military, we would call this a VUCA environment, which is an acronym for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous,” Rebelez says. “I think all of those words describe what we’re experiencing in fuel right now.”

The company reported that the number of gallons of gas sold in the fourth quarter was up one-point-five percent and the margin was 36-point-two cents a gallon despite the volatility of the gas pricing. Rebelez was asked if we might see gas prices at or above six dollars a gallon. “You know, it’s really hard to put predict where we’re going to see those prices ultimately peak out. And I would say it’s very geography specific — we have a pretty wide range from the most expensive areas in our geography to the least expensive,” he says. 

He says their stores in the Greater Chicago suburbs have prices well north of five dollars a gallon, while at the other end of the spectrum there are some that are just slightly above four dollars a gallon. Triple-A Iowa reports the average cost of a gallon of gas here is four dollars, 68 cents a gallon. Rebelez says people are backing off on purchases in the areas where the gas price is the highest. “We are starting to see some erosion in volume in the low single digits. In the middle two quartiles, we’re kind of flatish to maybe slightly down. And then in the bottom quartile, we’re still seeing gallon growth,” according to Rebellez. He says overall customers haven’t cut back on their visits.

“The average fill up is down about a gallon versus where it was the same time last year. So people are purchasing just a little bit less fuel than they had historically per visit,” he says. “But they’ll end up having to make more visits to the store over time, which we believe gives us a better opportunity to get people inside the store to buy more stuff.” He says customers are also shifting over to higher blends of ethanol. “The ethanol economics are actually working out pretty favorably right now from a consumer perspective. So they’ll shift over to an E-15 type of product versus what most of the fuel is blended at E-ten,” Rebellez says.

Rebelez says six dollars a gallon is uncharted water for everybody and he imagines people might cut back on their purchases at that point. The overall financial report for the quarter showed the company generated a record 340 million dollars in net income and gross profits were up 14 percent.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – This week brings a slow return to normal where the Atlantic Middle School is concerned. The school sustained heavy interior smoke and water damage during a fire that began on the roof of the building July, 27, 2021. Middle School students were re-located to the Achievement Center and the High School this past school year.

In his report to the Atlantic School Board Wednesday evening, Superintendent Steve Barber said a moving company began packing up the contents of the classrooms in preparation for the move on Thursday (June 8th). Barber said instructions were provided to the teachers that boxes needed to include room numbers to ensure the material and equipment are placed in the appropriate room. Some of the custodial staff will be onsite to help the movers put the contents in the appropriate room.

Mr. Barber said also, this week the carpet at the Achievement Center will be shampooed and they will be moving out of the temporary locations (IWCC, Catholic Church, and Early Learning Center). Boxes that have been stored in the Middle School will be taken back to the rooms written on the boxes. He said “Each week Mr. Peck and I will talk about what part of moving back and dealing with furniture will be accomplished each week. This will help us by breaking up the task into smaller pieces, so that we can assure that we are ready for the new school year.

“Another task that needs to be done is to see if additional furniture is available for other buildings. The Principals started a furniture list and once we know what is available we will start completing this portion of the move. If we replace old furniture with some used Middle School furniture, that old furniture will be discarded. Once we have met these demands, we will take inventory of what is available and develop a recommendation for the Board to discard school property.”

The Superintendent mentioned also, given the school tragedy in Texas and other mass casualty incidents, he thinks it is important to review the Atlantic School District’s procedures and look at appropriate actions that can be taken to focus on school safety. One of those actions is adding another SRO (School Resource Officer), as an element of operational sharing, which was approved by the legislature this past session.

“Next Monday,” he sad, “I am meeting with both the Sheriff and Chief to see if it would be possible to add a SRO that
could serve as a positive role model for our district and be a law presence. I feel adding this position to our team of other at risk positions is just another resource we would have available to help serve our students. To make this happen, it will need to fit as a partnership with one of our local law enforcement agencies.” There are other measures the District has taken in the past, as well, including adding secure entrances and active shooter exercises, to name a few.

In other business, the Atlantic School Board approved the resignation of Taylor Williams, Middle School Cross County Coach.