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Governor rejects legislators’ bid to get rid of two in DNR

April 29, 2010 By

Governor Chet Culver has rejected the legislature’s bid to get rid of two administrators within the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  

Robert Garrison spent 32 years as a state trooper, including eight years as head of the Iowa Highway Patrol.  He retired from that post in 2007 and took another job in state government as chief of prison security for the Department of Corrections.  This past March, Garrison  moved to another agency.  He was hired to be chief of the law enforcement division in the Department of Natural Resources. 

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Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , ,

Iowa football tickets going fast

April 29, 2010 By

Season ticket holders to Iowa football games need to renew by the end of the week or they will be out of luck. Ticket manager Pam Finke says they have received more than four thousand new orders for the 2010 season and the final day for current season ticket holders to renew is Friday.

Finke says they have a lot of new people and requests for additional tickets and they will have to decide how to divvy up the games, so people have to get their requests in. Finke says fans may renew by going online or calling the ticket office directly.

She says they need to know which seats are available and which aren’t and they don’t want any surprises on either side of the ticket counter.

If there are any single game tickets available they will go one sale in July but Finke expects the stadium to be sold out on a season ticket basis.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

UNI to close out spring practice with game

April 29, 2010 By

The U.N.I. football team closes out spring drills with an intrasquad game on Friday night. The Panthers were 7-4 last season and much of the attention this spring has focused on replacing a number of starters on the offensive and defensive lines.

U.N.I coach Mark Farley says he has a good feel of where they are and what they need to work on. He wants to make the game as competitive as possible. Farley says it will be a game and he will probably divide the team up into the first offense going against the second defenses and the first defense against the second offense.

Farley spread spring drills out over a longer period of time this year and feels it has paid off. He says they’ve had a successful spring up until this point and to have a successful game they will need to see consistency in their development and play. Farley says the Panthers are making strides on both sides of the ball.

He says one week ago the defense was good and the offense struggled and then the next week the offense was good and the defense struggled. Farley says he wants to see a competitive game with good competition that shows their growth.

By Elwin Huffman KOEL Oelwein

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Hoiberg’s high school coach has no doubt about his success

April 29, 2010 By

Fred Hoiberg’s high school coach is confident his former player will get the Iowa State basketball program turned around. Wayne Clinton was the coach at Ames High School in 1991 when Hoiberg starred for a Little Cyclone team that won the state championship. Clinton says he knew some day it would happen, but didn’t know if it would happen in Ames or in his lifetime.

He says he’s never seen someone with as much ability and self confidence to take on a task and take it to the highest level. Clinton says he was thrilled when he got the news that Hoiberg was the new I.S.U. coach. Clinton says he heard the news but didn’t want to believe it, as he says it was a great fit and he has no doubt that Hoiberg has all the necessary tools to make it a successful program.

These days Clinton is a Story County Supervisor.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

University presidents talk budgets, enrollment

April 29, 2010 By

The presidents of Iowa’s three state-supported universities presented their budget plans to the State Board of Regents today for the new fiscal year that begins July first. All three says they expect to see record or near record enrollment, but will continue cutting expenses. University of Iowa president Sally Mason says increased enrollment will help their revenue.

Mason says, “We are looking forward to a very robust freshman class this fall, all of our admissions projections so far suggest that we could be on track for a record enrollment in the fall.” Mason says they will continue to budget conservatively despite the record enrollment projections. Mason says staff layoffs and furloughs aren’t in her plans for next year, and budget reallocations will give them money for raises.

Mason says,”One important result of these reallocations will be a salary increase expected to average approximately two-percent for faculty, and profession and scientific non-bargaining staff.” Mason says the salary increases will be given on a merit basis, so some faculty could receive a raise over two percent and some will receive less.

Iowa State University president Greg Geoffroy says academic departments are being assigned priorities, and those with declining enrollments absorbing the biggest cuts. He says for example, they are significantly downsizing and refocusing the Sociology Department. Geoffrey says that department has been given a 40% budget cut. Geoffroy says that significant cut will require some “bridge” funding as the department can’t make such a big cut in one year. He says an increase in enrollment will help provide some of the bridge funding.

Geoffrey says they are projecting a tuition revenue increase of about 21-million dollars as they will have a strong incoming class as recruitment has gone “very, very well.” He says they will also have an increase of 400-thousand dollars in indirect cost recovery. The

University of Northern Iowa is projecting a $4.4-million increase in tuition revenue for the upcoming school year. U.N.I. President Ben Allen says the school plans to resume its contribution to the employee retirement plan. “The faculty and staff have made tremendous sacrifices helping us work through this….morale is an issue, so one of the options I am proposing, is that for F-Y-11 we go back to a nine-percent employer contribution instead of a 10-percent,” Allen said.

The increase in enrollment is part of the reason for the increase in tuition revenue, the other factor is the six percent tuition increase approved for the next year. The Board of Regents will give final approval to the university budgets in June.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , ,

Survey shows popularity of farmers markets increasing

April 29, 2010 By

Many farmers markets will open this weekend across Iowa and a new survey shows they’re more popular than ever. A report from the Iowa Department of Agriculture says sales climbed from $20 million in 2004 to more than $38 million last year. State Horticulturalist Mike Bevins says the average consumer in the survey claims to visit a market 11 times in a season.

“We have roughly a 22 week season in Iowa, so to visit a market 11 times shows an extreme loyalty to farmers markets,” Bevins said. “I think that’s due to our ag background in Iowa. We are very closely related to our ag background here and there’s a very loyal following for the farmers markets.” The total number of farmers markets in Iowa has grown 75% over the past 15 years. Bevins attributes the growth to more interest in locally produced food.

But he says more fruit and vegetable producers will be needed for markets to continue expanding. “I don’t know of any markets…that aren’t looking for more fruit and vegetable growers – that being the number one product bought at farmers markets. Pretty much all the markets would like to have more local growers, but we just don’t have enough local growers to go around at the moment,” Bevins said. At last count, Iowa had more than 220 farmers markets. They drew around 99,000 customers a week during the 2009 season.

See more info on farmers markets in Iowa here: http://www.iafarmersmarkets.org

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business Tagged With:

Former IASB exec says group was “strapped” when she arrived

April 29, 2010 By

The woman who was fired last month from the top job at the Iowa Association of School Boards says she inherited a “disorganized and financially strapped” organization when she became the group’s executive director last July. 

Maxine Kilcrease, former Iowa Association of School Boards executive director, spoke publicly during a Legislative Oversight Committee hearing this morning, but Representative Vicki Lensing of Iowa City accused her of providing no “facts” to back up her allegations that the association was in financial shambles when she arrived.

 ”The questions we’ve been asking have been to shed light on the financial picture of the school board association,” Lensing said.  “I’m disappointed…that we’re not getting any further information on that.”

Kilcrease had her attorney sitting at her side and he often whispered advice before she would respond to a legislator’s question.  On many occasions Kilcrease invoked her constitutional right not to answer a legislator’s question based on the grounds that her answer might be used against her in court.

 ”Please, I would like to preface my remarks by saying I am very respectful in this situation, but…this is a point upon which I will assert my rights pursuant to the fifth amendment,” Kilcrease said this morning. 

Lensing told Kilcrease that was disappointing.  “I appreciate your legal rights and I appreciate you were listening to our questions,” Lensing said.  “I’m just sorry that for some of them we didn’t get the answers we needed.”

Kilcrease got a $150,000 pay raise at the end of September, after three months on the job.  The document outlining that salary has been at the center of the pay dispute.  The former board president first said he signed the document, then he said the signature wasn’t his. 

Representative Clel Baudler of Greenfield pressed Kilcrease for answers. ”When that contract was signed, were you there?” Baudler asked. 

Kilcrease replied:  “I don’t have access to all the information you’re asking about and, again, upon advice from legal counsel I assert my rights pursuant to the fifth amendment and again, the matter of your question seeks disclosure of confidential information.” 

Baudler noted the contract has been sent to a person who analyzes handwriting.  ”Can you assure this committee that the signatures on that contract are true and correct?” Baudler asked. 

Kilcrease answered:  “I’m not going to comment on that.”

At the start of the hearing Sean Spellman, Kilcrease’s attorney, disputed the idea Kilcrease wasn’t owed that $150,000 extra in pay. “Enforcement of a legitimate contract is not a pay raise, despite statements of the media and of this committee,” Spellman said. 

Representative Baudler later asked, but Kilcrease declined to release the contract publicly, however.

Spellman also suggested some members of the committee had it out for Kilcrease. ”Unfortunately select legislators have chosen to engage in divisive communications,” Spellman said.  “…These tactics are counterproductive.”

Earlier this year Senator Tom Courtney said during a committee meeting that Kilcrease and other top managers at the Iowa Association of School Boards were “no  more than common thieves.”  Courtney did not ask any questions during today’s committee hearing.

 Another legislator asked Kilcrease whether she’d ever worked for a non-profit group before she took the Iowa Association of School Boards job, but she refused to answer that, too.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Education, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,
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