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Sioux City feeling impact of Morrell closing

April 12, 2010 By

Around 1,500 people are spending their first full week without a job after one of Sioux City’s largest employers closed its doors last Thursday. The owners of the John Morrell hog processing plant blamed the economy and the condition of the 62-year-old facility. Duane Behren worked as a mechanic at John Morrell for more than two decades, but says he’s somewhat relieved to be moving on.

“It paid the bills for 21 years,” Barrens said after leaving the plant for the final time last Friday. “I have mixed emotions about it. I’ve wanted out of there for a long time to do something different. But, after so many years, I hated to give all of that up and go start over somewhere.” The 47-year-old Barrens says he’s thinking about pursuing a commercial trucking license.

The plant’s closure not only leaves 1,500 people without a job, it has a big impact on other businesses in Sioux City. Shawn Corbett is general manager at Jim Hawk Truck Trailers, which services many of the trailers going in and out of John Morrell. “The biggest thing is you just don’t like seeing companies leave the community,” Corbett said. “It affects the community a lot deeper than just the employees who are getting laid off. It’s a ripple effect that affects everybody.”

That ripple effect extends to John Furhman’s farm, 50 miles northeast of Sioux City. He’ll now transport his hogs an extra 25 miles each way to the next closes plant owned by Smithfield Foods – which operated the John Morrell plant. Fuhrman says he’ll be stuck with the added pricetag for gas.

“It’s one of those things where…I’m just a little man out here and trying to ask the big companies to compensate me for that…I’m fighting a losing battle,” Fuhrman said. Sioux City Economic Development Director Marty Dougherty says the effort to replace the John Morrell jobs will hopefully involve a mixture of businesses related to renewable energy and agriculture.

“I think we cope by diversifying, by looking to attract new industries and also perhaps to attract the same type of industry in a new generation of these facilities,” Dougherty said.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business Tagged With:

Governor signs proclamation in support of saving U.S.S. Iowa

April 12, 2010 By
Governor Culver stands in front of the model of the U.S.S. Iowa.

Governor Culver stands in front of the model of the U.S.S. Iowa.

Governor Chet Culver signed a joint resolution of the Iowa House and Senate today that lends the state’s support to a California group that is trying to save the battleship U.S.S. Iowa from the scrap heap.

Culver added his name to the resolution in front of the model of the U.S.S. Iowa on the first floor of the state capitol.

He says the proclamation will formally support the preservation and relocation of the Iowa and give some resources to help. Culver says it also creates a 10-person committee to help with the process.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Military, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Lake Delhi gets state funding for dredging

April 12, 2010 By

A popular lake in northeast Iowa for boaters, anglers and swimmers is getting state funding to help with dredging and other improvements. Jim Willey, president of the board of directors for the Lake Delhi Recreation Association, says the announcement state funding is coming is very welcome news.

Willey says the money will help keep the lake and its dam operating. The state funding will come in the form of a $100,000, one-time grant. Willey says the association has looked to Delaware County for funding in the past, but has had no luck.

The county hasn’t been able to help with funding the lake, which he says brings in visitors from across the state. Lake Delhi was created in the 1920s with the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Maquoketa River. Lake Delhi was damaged in the record flooding two years ago, but Willey says the area has bounced back.

Lake Delhi has around 900 properties. About 600 people call the lake home, and that number rises to as many as a-thousand on weekends.

By Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation

Des Moines official says they want to keep pursuing NCAA tourney bid

April 12, 2010 By

Des Moines officials say any expansion of the NCAA basketball tournament would neither hurt or help in their efforts to make Wells Fargo Arena a future site. There is the possibility that the tournament may expand from 65 to 96 teams.

Greg Edwards is president of the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau and he says any expansion would add two more days and more teams to each site. Edwards says one of their challenges is getting enough hotels with room blocks for the teams, as he says the NCAA is particular about having each team stay in similar hotels.

Edwards says the next time Des Moines is expected to make a bid is 2011. He says they’ve been trying to win a bid since the work started on Wells Fargo Arena. Edwards says NCAA officials tell them to keep trying.

Edwards says the sites are awarded a few years before they actually host a regional. He says it’s about a two year in advance cycle for the tournaments. Edwards says the next time Des Moines could be named a site would be in the summer of 2011.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With:

Review finds no problems; Wellmark rate hikes effective on May 1

April 12, 2010 By

An independent auditing firm has upheld the rate increases Wellmark sought for about 80,000 private health insurance policies held by Iowans. The increases, which averaged 18 percent, will go into effect May 1.

Rob Schweers, a spokesman for Wellmark, says the independent review confirmed the methods Wellmark used to calculate its rates. ”Nobody likes a rate increase,” Schweers says.  “We’re hard-wired not to want to pay more for anything — certainly health insurance included, but we hope our policy holders understand that these rate increases are necessary to address the rising trend in health care costs.” 

[Read more...]

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

Those out of work hoping for an extension of unemployment benefits

April 12, 2010 By

Advocates for Iowa’s jobless workers are hoping congress will approve another extension of unemployment benefits. Many of the 110,000 thousand Iowans who’re out of work have already exhausted their 73 weeks of unemployment benefits. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson Kerrie Koonce says others are still eligible for help, but need the deadline extended.

“We’re hoping they will move this process through very quickly and get this additional extension passed. We would like to see them extend this for several months at a time, or possibly through the end of 2010,” Koonce says. Koonce says a 30 day extension of benefits is more likely.

“And if that’s the case we’ll be back in the same boat in 30 days with people concerned that their benefits are going to expire,” Koonce says. Roughly 26-hundred Iowans will be able to get back on unemployment if congress acts. Without an extension,an additional one to two thousand Iowans per week will drop off the unemployment rolls.

Koonce predicts lawmakers may approve the extension as early as today, and the president may sign it by week’s end.

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Iowa-born author hoping for a hit with new book

April 12, 2010 By
Peter Hedges

Peter Hedges

Acclaimed author and filmmaker Peter Hedges is making three stops in his home state of Iowa this week to promote his new novel, “The Heights.”

 It’s Hedges’ third novel and the first that’s not set in Iowa. It follows a fictional couple in the affluent neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights in New York City, where Hedges now lives. The 47-year-old Hedges says the seemingly-perfect husband and wife find their lives turned upside down.

“It’s a story about a marriage, a good marriage, that gets a bit lost — ‘a bit’ is an understatement,” Hedges says. “I’ve been married 17 years and I wanted to write about a marriage, not mine, but one that has some things in common with marriages that I know of, including mine.”

Hedges, whose novels have been published in fifteen languages, says he focuses on developing likeable characters who are trying to do the right thing but find themselves in a mess. Those messes, he says, make for compelling stories. Hedges says, “I just wanted to explore in a comedic and yet sometimes painful way the fragility and the resilience of a marriage.” Hedges, a native of West Des Moines, also plans to write, direct and produce the film version of “The Heights.”

He started writing the novel in 1998 and says, “It took me a long time to get it right.” He says his goal is to transfer the emotional story from the page to the big screen. “I feel I can make it be — I hope — a special film,” Hedges says. “I love these characters. I spent so long with them and to get a chance to turn it into a film, I hope I’ll have the same feelings about it the way I do about both the novel and the movie of ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?’”

That 1993 film starred Johnny Depp and Leonardo Dicaprio, who was nominated for an Oscar. Hedges wrote both the novel and screenplay for “Gilbert Grape,” and he wrote and directed 2007′s “Dan in Real Life,” as well as “Pieces of April,” which was also nominated for an Oscar in 2003.

Hedges will appear at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines on Tuesday at 7 P.M., at Iowa State University’s Memorial Union in Ames at 7 PM on Wednesday, and at Prairie Lights book store in Iowa City at 7 P.M. on Thursday.

Hear Matt Kelley’s full interview with Hedges here:  Hedges intereview 12:00 MP3

Filed Under: Human Interest
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