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D-E-D approves 10-million dollar help package for Newton

May 18, 2006 By

The Iowa Department of Economic Development board this (Thursday) morning unanimously voted to set aside 10-million dollars worth of grants for businesses in Newton.

Newton Mayor Chaz Allen says it will help the community recover from the loss of jobs at Maytag. “To help expand the businesses we have and then try to get new business,” Allen says. The mayor says the money can be used to try to retain jobs, too. “I’m hoping that we can get some of the businesses around that we have right now help to expand their businesses into new markets using this money,” Allen says.

Governor Tom Vilsack promised the 10-million dollars to Newton on May 10th, the day Whirlpool announced it will close Maytag administrative offices and the plant in Newton that makes Maytag washers and dryers. Allen says the 10-million will be parcelled out over three years. Two-and-a-half million will be available in the coming year. Another two-and-a-half million will be awarded in the next year and the remaining five million will be available in the third year. “We’ll be able to draw more than that if we have the projects that needs more,” Allen says.

The Iowa Economic Development Board also voted to give grants and tax breaks to ConAgra Foods in Waterloo, Embria Health Sciences in Ankeny, Tjaden Biosciences in Burlington, Raccoon Valley Biodiesel in Storm Lake, Western Dubuque Bio-diesel near Farley, Ajinomoto Food Ingredients in Eddyville, Proliant Health and Biologicals in Boone, Crystal Distribution Services in Oelwein, M-P-C Enterprises in Mount Pleasant, Kendrick of Edgewood and Palmer Candy in Sioux City.

Officials claim the 11 companies will create or retain two-hundred-58 jobs and make one-hundred-82 million dollars worth of capital investments. The board also approved new “enterprise zones” in Shelby and Winnebago Counties that will spur housing and business development.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Jobless rate drops to four-year low

May 18, 2006 By

Iowa’s jobless rate is the lowest it’s been in four years. Iowa Workforce Development analyst Ann Wagner says the news for the month of April was mixed, but the unemployment rate dropped to three-point-six-percent.

Wagner says haven’t seen a jobless rate that low, she says, since that’s the lowest it’s been since January of 2002. Wagner says the total number of people unemployed in the state dropped to 59-thousand 800 for the month of April, down from one year ago when unemployment was a full percentage point higher and the total jobless number stood at 76-thousand, 200 people.

While the recovery appears steady, Wagner says job growth hasn’t been particularly strong. It was weak in nonfarm jobs, which were down by 1200 in Iowa, and only two industries grew in the month of April. Education and health combined were up about 11-hundred workers, and the leisure and hospitality business grew by 700 jobs.

But Wagner says the sluggishness in new-job creation is not expected to continue.
She says it’s likely it was a one-month aberration and with the amount of investment taking place, nonfarm jobs are expected to pick up again throughout the rest of the year. County-by-county statistics haven’t yet been posted, and Wagner says they’ll show the ups and downs of local communities that aren’t all having smooth growth this year.

Two meat-processing plants closed in eastern Iowa, one in Oelwein and the larger in Independence with 300 workers. That’ll mean higher unemployment rates in Fayette and Buchanan Counties than in some others. Workers who learned this month they’ll lose their jobs with the Whirlpool takeover of Newton’s Maytag plant still have a few weeks left on the job, and Wagner says it’ll be later this year before the effect of the plant’s closing shows up in the jobless figures.

Jasper County will have “a very high unemployment rate” when that happens, and she says it will also be reflected in neighboring Marshall, Tama, Poweshiek and Marion counties as there are a lot of workers there who’ve commuted to the Maytag plant.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

UNI looks to end baseball season with winning record

May 18, 2006 By

UNI baseball coach Rick Heller feels his team is playing its best baseball of the season right now. The problem is it won’t help the Panthers get into the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. UNI opens the final weekend of the season with the first of a three game series at home against Creighton.
Heller says they’re playing for pride and trying to get a winning record to finish out the season.

By winning two of the games this weekend the Panthers would finish the season with a winning record. They’d have 29 wins if they sweep the series and Heller says that’s a “pretty decent” year. Heller says they’ve continued to get better throughout the season after stubbing their toe early. The series will continue with single games on Friday and Saturday.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

North Tama twin sisters take 1-2 at state

May 18, 2006 By

North Tama twin sisters Brooke and Blaire Dinsdale ran away from the pack in the girls class 1A three thousand meter run as the state high school track meet opened in Drake Stadium. Both finished under the previous 1A record and Brooke got the win at just over 10-minutes and eight seconds, two seconds ahead of her sister.

Brooke says it was an amazing bunch of runners and says she tried to go smooth on the first two laps and pull it out in the end after dying at the end of last year’s race. Brooke said her sister finishing second was big as she says she wouldn’t be at state without her sister. Brooke says she is proud her sister improved her time over the Drake Relays.

Blair says they ran as a team and it helped both of them. She says they tried switching leading laps at conference and districts. Blair says she likes leading the laps because then she doesn’t feel as tired.

BCLUW won the boys class 1A four-by-800 meter relay and broke a 26-year-old record in the process. Beau Dielschneider ran the anchor leg and says they hoped to get good times out of the first two guys and their first leg ran a surprising 1:58.

Dielschneider says the warm weather helped lower the time. He says it was a lot better than the freezing rain they had to run in during the Drake Relays.

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Man dies after driving off boat ramp

May 18, 2006 By

A 19-year-old from Bussey is dead following a crash at a boat ramp at Rathbun Lake. The Appanoose County Sheriff’s Department says it got a call about two this (Thursday) morning that a vehicle with people inside was submerged at the Prairie Ridge boat ramp. Officers who arrived found a Lexus SUV partly underwater and sent divers into the water.

They pulled 19-year-old Chandler Heiden from the vehicle, and say four other people escaped from the vehicle. Heiden was taken to a Centerville hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Deputies say the group had been visiting friends at a nearby campground and when they left the driver didn’t realize he was driving along an access road to the boat ramp, and the SUV went into the water.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Tulip festival blooms in Orange City

May 18, 2006 By

The 66th Tulip Festival begins today (Thursday) in Orange City, celebrating the area’s Dutch Heritage. An artist from Plymouth, Minnesota with Dutch roots has designed and created a ceramic tile for the celebration.

Sharyl Vanderpol says the artwork features an Old World trolley. Vanderpol says she created a couple sketches from photographs, hoping to bring out the authentic heritage of the trolley car, the beauty of the horses, and “the whole feeling of the aura of the festival through the artwork.” It’ll be a collector’s item — there are 200 of the commemorative tiles, each signed by the artist and numbered.

The tulip festival runs today through Saturday includes parades, traditional Dutch costumes, and food.

Related web sites:
Orange City Tulip Festival 2006

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment

Farm Progress Show looks for inventors

May 18, 2006 By

Iowa farmers are known for their creative abilities in solving problems in the field using spit, bailing wire and elbow grease. Those farmers have until June 1st to enter the 2006 Inventor’s Challenge as part of this summer’s Farm Progress Show in the Amanas. Show spokeswoman Dena Jensen says the best inventions will be put on display with cash prizes for the top three.

Jensen says “We all know the inventive nature of farmers and how, out of necessity, they’ve come up with a lot of ways to be able to do their jobs better and more efficiently.” She says she’s already gotten an array of interesting inventions, anywhere from crop production to livestock operations.

Jensen says the goal is to seek out and exhibit the most ingenious and imaginative ideas created by farmers. She says it can be very elaborate and in-depth or it can be something very simple that just makes everyone’s life a little bit easier. Jensen says entries must be original creations and should be a concept that could easily be incorporated into any farming operation.

She says the Inventor’s Challenge offers maximum exposure for farmers’ exceptional ideas that might otherwise not be noticed by the agricultural community. She says the top ten new products or inventions will go on display at the show, which runs August 29-31st in Amana. That Thursday the final winners will be announced with three-thousand dollars for the top prize, 15-hundred for second place and 750-dollars for third prize.

A panel of qualified judges will review all entries and select the top ten finalists. Those ten entries will then be displayed at the show and visitors will vote on them. For more information, surf to “www.farmprogressshow.com”.

Related web sites:
Farm Progress show information

Filed Under: Agriculture
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