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Des Moines installs smart card parking meters

November 19, 2008 By

Parking meter. Iowa’s capital city is installing some new technology so commuters no longer have to search for the right number of quarters and dimes to plug the parking meter.

Mike Berry of the Des Moines Traffic and Transportation Office says they’re installing devices on some one-thousnd parking meters that let drivers pay with a “smart card.”

Berry says the smart card is a little plastic card with a chip in it that holds value and you insert the card into the meter and pay up to the time limit on the parking meter. The high-tech meters also give you credit for time not used.

He says when you come back and you still have time left on the meter, you stick the card back into the meter and the value is placed back on the card. The city has set up stations where you can buy the card and purchase more meter time. Berry says the cards take the guesswork out of plugging the meter and only require you to pay for the time you use.

Berry says people often go someplace and put in enough money for an hour and get delayed and come back and find a parking ticket for an expired meter on their windshield. He says the card allows you to put in the maximum time and if you get delayed you don’t get back and find “a little present” under your windshield wiper.

Berry says the devices that read the cards don’t add much more expense to the parking meters. He says it’s an add-on cost to the existing meters of between 24 and 38 dollars, and a new meter is only 12 dollars more than an existing meter. Berry believes Des Moines is the first Iowa city to use this type of system. He says Minneapolis uses the system and gave it a good recommendation.

Berry says Minneapolis has had no problems with it and likes it. He does say the system works best for certain groups, such as people who do deliveries or park all day.

Berry says it’s not something people who make an occasional visit to downtown would probably be interested in. But all the meters still take coins for those who don’t have a smart card. Berry says 700 of the new meters have been put in thus far and they hope to have the rest in place by mid-December. 

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Iowa Falls woman sentenced on theft charges

November 19, 2008 By

An Iowa Falls woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking taxpayer money during her time as director of the Hardin County Solid Waste Commission.

Fourty-six-year-old Mary Ellen Taylor was arrested on first-degree theft charges last March after a state audit found over $100,000 had been misappropriated. Taylor was accused of using the money to pay off personal credit cards, while giving three-thousand dollars to husband’s business.

The audit covered a period between January 2002 and December 2007, when Taylor was fired from her job. In addition to the prison term, Taylor is ordered to pay a one-thousand dollar fine and pay more than $35,000 in restitution.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Senator says anti-smoking ad makes his town look like a "bunch of butt heads"

November 19, 2008 By

Anti tobacco sign in Lake View. A state senator says the latest anti-smoking campaign to hit the state makes people in his hometown look "like a bunch of butt heads."

Senator Steve Kettering, a Republican from Lake View, says the "Just Eliminate Lies" campaign has placed two billboard ads along highways leading into Lake View. 

"It displays the city’s logo — Lake View. It says tobacco can kill this town in one day. The town’s dead," Kettering says. "I mean, that’s what it looks like."

Kettering says Lake View markets itself as a tourist destination in northwest Iowa and this sign sends the wrong signal to potential visitors. "The intent is tobacco, but it’s like it’s dead — frankly that the city of Lake View is like a bunch of butt heads," Kettering says.

The "Just Eliminate Lies" or JEL campaign is state-sponsored and led by a council of high school students. The group’s latest campaign has targeted Iowa towns of modest size, like Lake View with its population of roughly 1300 as that’s about the number of Americans who die every day of tobacco-related illnesses.

Kettering says he and other Lake View residents are "pretty sensitive" to maintaining their town’s good image and the anti-smoking billboards aren’t helping.  "It provides a very negative image," Kettering says, "and frankly in this day and age…how you’re perceived is how you are."

Kettering says keeping kids from smoking is a laudable goal, but he considers this advertising to be "irresponsible."

The Department of Public Health launched this anti-smoking campaign in September, focusing first on the eastern Iowa town of Springville. That town’s residents were a bit frightened and confused by posters placed around town that carried the phrase "We’ll miss you Springville."

Several videos have been produced to spread the group’s anti-smoking message. Find some of them at www.whattownisnext.com or www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwgR3hG-8vs .

 

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Missing Hawkeye banner returned

November 19, 2008 By

The "O" flag stolen from the U-I has been found. The big banner which someone apparently stole from the University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium after Saturday’s Hawkeye football game against Purdue has been returned.

Five huge flags used on-field by the cheer squad spell out "Iowa" and carry the Tigerhawk. The flag that flew away bore the giant "O".

Greg Niemiec, the U-of-I’s spirit coordinator, says University Public Safety found the filched flag. "They called me last night around eight and said they’d recovered the flag," Niemiec says. "They didn’t say where it had come from or how they’d gotten it. They just said that they had it."

He says it’s a large enough item that you’d think someone would have noticed it being smuggled out of the stadium. Niemiec says the 12-by-15 foot black-and-gold banner wasn’t damaged. "No, it’s actually in fine condition — kinda’ rolled up in a ball. We normally fold them up a little nicer but no, it doesn’t look like anybody was out there using it for a blanket or using it for a tent or anything."

The flag is missing its wooden pole, but Niemiec says they have a spare one of those. There are no spare flags though as they cost $580 each. Niemiec wouldn’t speculate on who may’ve made off with the flag — a disgruntled Purdue fan? Someone from Ohio or Oklahoma? An Obama supporter?

He laughs and says, "Maybe. If it was a souvenir, you’d think they’d go for the "I" or the Tigerhawk, but, the "O"? Maybe they realized it doesn’t do too much by itself." Niemiec says the cheer team is excited to have its full slate of flags back for this weekend’s final season game at Minnesota — and, of course, for the bowl game at year’s end.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts Tagged With: ,

Congressman says Wall Street bailout panel needs to be filled

November 19, 2008 By

Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, is urging Republican congressional leaders to finish naming members of a panel that’s supposed to oversee the Wall Street bailout.

"I think it probably has a lot to do with the circumstances under which the bill was passed — the rapidly approaching elections that took a lot of people’s attention away from monitoring what was going on — but the practical matter is that some of the members of the oversight board were appointed and two still remain and I just felt like it was important to get everyone named because the panel has important oversight responsibilities and they need to get about them," Braley says.

Braley sent a letter to House leaders from both parties, noting that the oversight panel — which hasn’t even met yet — was supposed to issue one report already, and another one by January 20th.

"One of the reasons I became concerned and raised the issues that I did in the letter is I think it’s incredibly important to American taxpayers to have this oversight panel functioning," Braley says, "to have all the other oversight entities that were put in place in the bill up and running and making sure there’s transparency so taxpayers know what’s being done with their assets."

Braley says he’s "troubled" with the changes in the Wall Street bailout that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen announced week. "He sold the whole package as necessary to acquire these toxic assets and to find a market for them and then ended up shifting the transfer of those funds into the banking industry and did it in a manner that was much different than what he represented when he came to congress and asked for the authority that was given to him," Braley says.

Just last Friday the top Democrats in the House and Senate appointed three members of the oversight panel. The other two appointments are to be made by the Republican leaders in the House and Senate.  

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Private colleges look for ways to deal with economic downturn

November 19, 2008 By

Leaders at some private colleges in Iowa are plotting ways to get through the economic slump without harming the quality of the student experience. Richard Hanson, the president of Waldorf College in Forest City, says he’s concerned about trying to keep the college affordable while at the same time being in need of credit.

He says Waldorf, like many businesses, uses short-term loans to help day-to-day operations, but some credit is hard to come by right now. Hanson says private colleges rely on fundraising activities and many of Waldorf’s donors are not making much money on Wall Street.

He says many of their donors use appreciated stocks for gifts but not too many of them are making profits off those stocks. Hanson says he hopes the stock market can stabilize and that efforts will be made to maintain student financial assistance programs.

Hanson says many students need scholarships, loans and grants to pay for their post-secondary education. Waldorf’s enrollment this school year dropped by about four-percent to 580 students, while the college employs about 140 people.

 

Filed Under: Education

Davenport police search for clues after body found

November 19, 2008 By

Davenport police are searching for clues to a murder after a body was found in a car on a city street. Police say they received a call about a suspicious car parked on a Davenport street.

Officers determined the license plates matched those of the car of a female from Illinois that had been reported missing. After opening the car, officers say they found the body lying between the front and rear seats.

Police say they are investigating the death as a homicide. They are not releasing any information on the victim until they can positively I.D. the body and contact family members. Police are asking any local residents with information about the case to contact them.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts
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