October’s still a few days away but several Iowa communities are holding Octoberfest celebrations this weekend. Dan Moellers is organizing Marshalltown’s 11th annual “Oktemberfest,” which starts this (Saturday) morning at 7 o’clock with a pancake breakfast and a parade at 10 A.M. that’ll run about two hours. After the parade, there’s entertainment on the square from big wheel races and gymnastics to carnival rides and adult entertainment. Vendors will be offering traditional German foods like bratwurst and sour kraut to more fair-oriented foods. Moellers says there’s also a soccer tournament underway this weekend in addition to a go-kart racing competition all day Sunday.For more information, call 800-697-3155 or surf to “www.oktemberfest.com”. Also this weekend, Davenport is holding its Oktoberfest while Guttenberg offers its annual German Fest Celebration, and next weekend, Ottumwa and the Amanas roll out their own barrels of Oktoberfests.
Congressional candidate says presidential campaign helps
Republican candidate Stan Thompson says President Bush’s coattails are helping his congressional campaign. Thompson dismisses the idea the focus in Iowa on the presidential race is curbing attention to other races. Thompson says the momentum Bush has shown in Iowa the past month has helped the Thompson campaign “quite a bit.” Thompson says candidates ride the tide of their party, and he says there’s a “strong republican tide” right now in Iowa. Thompson, who is challenging democratic Congressman Leonard Boswell, says that’s in direct contrast to his experience in 2002, when he first ran against Boswell. Thompson says in ’02, popular democrats Tom Vilsack and Tom Harkin were running for reelection, and Boswell was buoyed by turnout for Vilsack and Harkin. Thompson believes he’ll benefit from having popular republicans like President Bush and Senator Charles Grassley at the top of the ticket in ’04.
Dam jam creates problems in Cedar Rapids
The city of Cedar Rapids put out an urgent call this week to keep people away from the banks of the Cedar River upstream from a dam near the city. Doug Wagner, chief of staff in the mayor’s office, says floating logs broke a safety line above a multipurpose dam and it removed a critical safety measure for boaters. The “Five-in-One Dam” is named that because it includes a lower local roadway, a higher one which is Interstate-380, a hydro-electric generating dam and also a conventional dam. Currents can be strong newer the dam, and floating buoys keep the line in place for the safety of unwary boaters. The Cedar River’s a popular spot for boating and though people don’t usually get too close to the dam, he notes within the last couple years the city fire department’s river-rescue team has rescued two people from the safety line. He says sometimes people can’t maintain control in the river current, and there’s always the chance a motor will go out. The city had asked the DNR to close access to the river but repairs were made before the action was taken.
Director says Iowa movie made an impression
The Hollywood director of the film “The Straight Story,” which followed the true-life journey of an elderly Iowan, is in the Hawkeye State this weekend. David Lynch is best known for violent, bizarre films like “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive,” but says he was smitten with the touching story of 73-year-old Alvin Straight of Laurens. Lynch says he enjoys creating and translating stories from one medium to the other. “What happens is, you get ideas and some ideas you don’t fall in love with and some ideas, for some reason, you just fall in love with those and you see the possibilities.” The movie followed Straight on his long 1994 trek from Laurens to Mount Zion, Wisconsin, which he took on a riding lawn mower, to visit his ill, estranged 75-year-old brother. Lynch admits it’s not the type of story he is usually drawn to, but he says the tale of Alvin Straight reached something deep inside him.Lynch is in Iowa to speak at the “Creating Peace” conference tomorrow (Sunday) in Fairfield. He’s practiced transcendental meditation for 31 years and believes in a plan for perpetual world peace, revolving around the assembling of eight-thousand people practicing T-M together. Still, he says he won’t be doing a movie on T-M anytime soon.Lynch says “Films for me are my own personal experience and T-M was for many years. So if it leaked out in a very natural, organic way, fine, but to put an idea first, a theme first, is the cart before the horse.” Lynch is a 58-year-old Montana native who has been nominated three times for Academy Awards.
Marshalltown business hopes to show the way in renewable energy
A Marshalltown electric co-op hopes to be a nationwide example on how to use renewable energy. Brian Heithoff, the general manager of Consumers Energy, says they incorporated several renewable energy devices in their new headquarters building. He says they’ve installed two wind turbines which produce 173-kilowatts of electricity, they’ve incorporated energy efficiency technology such as geothermal heating and cooling, and some daylighting technology. Heithoff says the technology has allowed them to expand while keeping operating costs down. He says their new headquarters is two-and-a-half times their old headquarters building, and they’re using less energy in the new facility than the old because of the things they’ve done. Heithoff says they hope to be an example to other co-ops on how to use the renewable energy and energy-saving technology. He says that’s not only for co-ops, but also for homes and businesses too. He says they’re getting a lot of interest from a lot of different groups who want to tour the facility. He says they’ve been operating the new facility for six months and hope to add even more technology to be a resource for the future. Heithoff says some of the technology they’ve incorporated into their building has been around awhile, while other innovations are relatively new.
Pilots wanted to help test new equipment
A University of Iowa engineer and researcher is looking for a few good pilots. They’re looking for pilots who are familiar with not only flying in instrument conditions — cloudy weather — but also with weather-radar equipment onboard. They’re testing a new display concept by Rockwell Collins that should help pilots make better decisions when bad weather gets in their way and they have to choose a new route. The volunteer “test pilots” will fly in the lab, in a simulator equipped with the new weather-data system. Dr. Schnell says this is a test project for equipment that’ll be used in commercial airliners and possibly smaller business jets. Most now have weather radar, good for a hundred miles out, and they’re testing a combination a combination of that radar and data-link computer information like NEXRAD radar that can give a picture from far around in all directions. Engineer Mike Keller is also working on the study and says the main goal is to cut down on the delays that plague air travel. Despite a lot of technologies, he says weather delays are a big problem and this could be a tool to cut delays and get pilots where they’re going as safely as possible. They study’s underway now and they hope to find 12 commercially-rated pilots to take part. For details see the project’s website at http://opl.ecn.uiowa.edu/awids/
Teen dies in wreck near Indianola
A central Iowa teenager’s dead and four others hospitalized after the SUV they were riding in early Friday morning near Indianola went in a ditch. Warren County dispatcher Chris Arnold says it happened about 3:30 this morning. She says there were 6 people in the vehicle, and the one thrown out in the crash died. Another was life-flighted in critical condition, three others taken by ambulance to hospitals with their conditions unknown, and the driver’s jailed in Warren County. That driver’s identified as 19-year-old Joseph Norris, who’s charged with vehicular homicide, reckless driving, serious injury by motor vehicle and failure to maintain control.
