(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa State Fair wrapped up its 11-day run last (Sunday) night and will evidently come up short on setting any attendance records. The final tallies will be out soon, but fair officials say they’re confident the event drew more than a million people this year, but will not exceed the attendance record set in 2019 of more than one-point-one million. Last year’s state fair was canceled due to the pandemic.

As of Saturday night, the fair counted 994-thousand visitors, which is about 70-thousand fewer than two years ago. The fair first topped a million in 2002.

POWESHIEK COUNTY, Iowa — An annual event honoring the life of Mollie Tibbetts will help in another high-profile search in Poweshiek County. KCCI reports the fourth annual Mollie Tibbetts Memorial Run will kick off from the BGM School parking lot at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 26. The 5-mile race collects donations in Tibbetts’ memory. This year, half of the funds will go to the University of Iowa’s Stead Children’s Hospital. The other half will go toward helping to find 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson.

Xavior vanished from his Montezuma home in May. The money raised during the race will be donated to the Find Xavior Harrelson Fund which has already raised $36,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa — More Iowans are lining up for COVID-19 tests. Demand for testing jumped more than 60% from the end of July. With TestIowa sites closed for good, private labs are filling the gap. Dr. Casey Rice with MercyOne tells KCCI testing is still critical. He said it’s important to know if you’re infected so you can isolate and health experts can know what type of variants are circling in the community.

Rice also said getting tested at the first sign of symptoms can lead to much more effective treatment. While state testing is closed, you can order or pick up a free at-home testing kit through TestIowa. Rice said if you’re doing an at-home test it’s important to closely follow the instructions.

Most of MercyOne’s current COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated. Rice said the vaccine is the most effective way for people to avoid test lines and the hospital.

(Radio Iowa) – The 2020 Annual Drinking water Compliance Report shows Iowa’s public water systems have 98-point-nine percent compliance. The D-N-R’s Corey McCoid says the number of systems meeting all health-based standards was the highest in 25 years. “This is all based on what would be the finished water that the water plants produce in the local communities or other water supplies. Some of those would be based on groundwater or wells, and some of them would be based on surface water,” McCoid says.

He says most of the larger cities in the state get their water supply from surface water. McCoid says they keep a close eye on the product they produce. “A lot of communities are doing testing on a daily basis. And then for compliance purposes that may be monthly, it may be quarterly. Or for some of the contaminants that we don’t sample as often, it may be over a six-year period,” according to McCoid. It just depends on what we are looking for. Some more of your acute contaminants may be sampled on a much higher frequency than some of the other contaminants.”

He says some of the key contaminants haven’t changed. “Bacteria is always one of the first ones that we take a look at — as well as your nitrates and nitrites in Iowa,” he says. McCoid says the history he has seen shows Iowa ranks highly across the country. “I would say we are in the top ten percent of states across the country for compliance numbers. I haven’t seen the recent statistics — but I know that is how we have been categorized in the past,” McCoid says.

You can see the full report on the Iowa D-N-R website.

(Radio Iowa) – With wildfires raging on the West Coast and a busy hurricane season developing on the East Coast, the American Red Cross is calling on Iowans to sign up for difficult — and rewarding — volunteer positions. Josh Murray, spokesman for the agency’s Iowa chapter, says they need people of all ages who work in a range of professions to handle disasters large and small. “Pretty much whatever skills and interests you have, we can find a position for you,” Murray says. “We have ones that are going to be on the front line to help at shelters, help deliver food and get relief supplies to people, health services, mental health services. We also need people who are either working from home or working in an office to help answer some phone calls.”

Select disaster response volunteers reach out via computer to victims of house fires, for example, but he says it’s hoped more of that type of assistance will be done in-person soon. “If you have just an hour or two a week, we can get something for that. If you’re able to deploy and go help on the West Coast or the Southeast during one of these big disasters and can be gone for a week to ten days, we have that opportunity, too,” Murray says. “We can really find something that fits your interests, your availability, and your skill set.”

The Red Cross Disaster Action Teams are the first line of care, comfort and compassion for those affected by a disaster, he says, and the volunteers find the work fulfilling. “They come in and they want to just get their toe in it and see how it is, and then they realize, ‘Oh, wow, this is great!’ You feel good about yourself and see the impact you’re making,” Murray says. “Ninety percent of the work that we do is carried out by volunteers, so we couldn’t do anything we do without our volunteers and they see that impact they’re making when they serve.”

Learn more about how you can help the Red Cross chapter in your area at: www.redcross.org/iowa.