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Ottumwa family, home lost in fire, touts importance of smoke detectors

May 4, 2010 By

A nine-year-old Ottumwa girl is credited with helping save the lives of her mother and brother last month. Tori Smith woke up at 2 a.m. on April 17 to the beeping of a smoke alarm. Her father, Allen Smith, was not at home at the time. “She woke up to the smoke alarm, hollered for the family to get out and they did because of that,” Smith said. “Who knows what would’ve happened…the result possibly would’ve been a lot worse.”

Allen and Tori Smith attended a press conference in the Des Moines area Tuesday as State Fire Marshal Ray Reynolds talked about the importance of having working smoke detectors in homes. Reynolds said 22 lives have been saved by smoke detectors in Iowa since he took office in mid-March. Those 22 lives include Tori Smith, her mother and brother.

Tori’s dad is a former police chief in the town of Villisca. Allen Smith told reporters he’ll never forget the time he responded to a mobile home fire that claimed the lives of two children. “We had no way to get in the place. Fires are awful,” Smith said. “People think they can get right out (of fires), but it’s a whole different thing when it really happens.”

 The Smith family lost their home in last month’s fire, but Allen credits the smoke alarm for sparing his wife and kids. Investigators believe an unattended candle started to fire. Tori, who attends Wilson Elementary School in Ottumwa, said two things actually got her out of bed on the morning of April 17. “The heat and the smoke detector,” Tori told reporters. She pulled up her sleeve to reveal a scar from a staple that fell from the ceiling and burnt her arm.

The Smiths are currently staying with relatives or spending nights at an Ottumwa Motel 8 – where Allen Smith is now employed.

Ottumwa Fire Marshal Mike Jones also attended Tuesday’s press conference in Clive and said everyone in his city should have a working smoke detector in their home. “We have a program in Ottumwa…if you can’t afford a smoke detector, we’ll make sure you have one. If you’re unable to install the smoke detector yourself, we will come out and install it for you,” Jones said. “We’re on a mission to make sure everyone in our city has a smoke detector in their house.” State Fire Marshal Reynolds says most Iowa cities have similar programs in place.

So far in 2010, nine Iowans have died in structure fires. At least five of those deaths occurred in a home without a working smoke detector.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Fairfield voters decide fate of convention center

May 4, 2010 By

Fairfield voters are deciding the fate of the community’s three-year-old Arts and Convention Center today. Construction cost-overruns saddled the facility with a $4.5 million debt. After raising nearly $1 million, center director Rustin Lippincott says theater supporters are now asking voters to pledge part of Fairfield’s local option sales tax to pay off mortgage bonds.  

“If the foreclosure happens, the theatre could go dark,” Lippincott says. “The decision to put forth this public-private partnership was to stay away from going bankrupt because of the four-million-dollar loan that is held by the local lending institution.”

If voters approve pledging the local option sales tax to the theater mortgage, the city of Fairfield will own the theater to be operated by a non-profit organization.

Filed Under: Human Interest, Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With:

Different opinions given on Ottumwa casino impact on southeast Iowa

May 4, 2010 By

Representatives of a state park and a state-licensed casino gave the Racing and Gaming Commission different views on the potential impact of the proposed new casino.in Ottumwa.

Gary Hoyer of the Catfish Bend casino in Burlington said his company is worried about the impact on the entire region.

“Southeast Iowa has a tenuous economic environment, the gaming market we believe statewide is retracting, and we hold the record down there for loss of jobs, the highest unemployment rate in the state,” Hoyer said. He says the various gambling studies all raise a lot of questions about the impact of a casino in Ottumwa on both Catfish Bend and the casino in Osceola.

Hoyer says the commission has to consider the disparities in the studies, the short distances between Ottumwa, Osceola and Burlington, and the risk particularly to Catfish Bend over the next three years. He asked the commission to deny the license to Ottumwa.

On the other side of the issue, Gary Woodrick, the general manager of the state-owned Honey Creek Resort on Rathbun Lake, says the casino would help the economy in the area. Woodrick says the casino would bring “synergy” to Honey Creek as he says they have great things for the guests to do “but to have something this big and this nice 30 miles, 35 miles from us would really help us in getting more people to come the area.” He says people might stay a few more days if they could go to the casino too.

Woodrick says Honey Creek would work well with the casino to market the area. “We we really look forward to working with this project. We see great opportunities for marketing coops and for making our marking dollars go farther, working hand in hand to really build a destination in southeast Iowa,” Woodrick said,”We’ve got a great start and we think this is perfect combination.”

Hoyer and Woodrick made their comments as part of a public hearing Tuesday on the four proposals for new gambling licenses.

Filed Under: Politics & Government, Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With:

State Fire Marshal: 22 lives saved by smoke detectors since March

May 4, 2010 By
state fire marshal newser 5-4-10 016

State Fire Marshal Ray Reynolds

Over the last month-and-a-half, state officials say nearly two dozen people have escaped serious injury or death in a fire because of a working smoke detector. State Fire Marshal Ray Reynolds says those lives saved by smoke alarms is more than double the lives lost in Iowa fires so far this year. “We have nine fire fatalities in Iowa (in 2010) and while every fatality is tragic, we are pleased to announce that we have 22 lives saved as a result of working smoke detectors throughout Iowa,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds spoke Tuesday at a press conference held at the Clive Fire Department – which has been tracking lives saved by smoke detectors for several years. He said each of the 22 Iowans who’ve escaped fires because of smoke alarms also avoided injury. “In a number of those cases, the house was totally engulfed and severely damaged,” Reynolds said. “So, the early warning you get from (a smoke detector) is important.”

Reynolds is encouraging all Iowans to make sure they have a working smoke detector in their home. “If you don’t have one, call your fire department and we will get you one in the near future,” Reynolds said. After taking office on March 19, Reynolds said one of his first decisions was to start counting lives saved in fires – rather than just lives lost. “Whether it’s seat belts, child restraints or lives saved by smoke detectors – the important message here is we need to start keeping statistics on positive things and show we’re doing things right,” Reynolds said.

The National Fire Protection Association claims around one-third of American homes are not adequately protected with smoke detectors. In many cases, homes have a smoke detector but the battery is disconnected or is dead. Reynolds says smoke detectors should be replaced every 10 years, while the batteries should be replaced once a year.

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Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Krause calls for new trade restrictions, tariffs

May 4, 2010 By

A Democrat who’s running for the U.S. Senate says trade policies backed by both Republicans and Democrats have put U.S. jobs in jeopardy.  Bob Krause of Des Moines says there are “terrible examples” in Iowa where jobs have been shifted to factories and call centers in other countries.

“An economist…during the Clinton administration predicted the ‘big crash’ about a year before it happened,” Krause says. “…He is predicting now that we will lose 25 percent of the jobs in America due to out-sourcing. That’s after the jobs we’ve already lost.” 

Krause is a critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement, commonly called NAFTA. He favors new “protectionist” measures instead. “We need to put up tariffs and do some immediate reviews on what we’re losing overseas,” Krause says.  “Not only is it affecting jobs, but it’s affecting health, national defense. It’s affecting ecology laws. It’s affecting a lot of different areas of our life that we really don’t think about.”

Krause has been running for the U.S. Senate for about a year, but he raised less than $2000 in the first three months of the year for his campaign.  In contrast, Roxanne Conlin — another Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate — raised nearly $630,000 during the same period. That’s slightly more than Republican Senator Chuck Grassley did during the first quarter.  A Rasmussen poll released this week shows Grassley holds a 13-percentage point lead over Conlin in a head-to-head match-up.  Grassley, who is seeking a fifth term in the U.S. Senate, garnered the support of 53 percent of the people who were surveyed while Conlin got 40 percent support. 

The other competitor in the Democratic primary race is former state Senator Tom Fiegen of Clarence who raised about $11,000 in January, February and March.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

It’s “Bicycle Safety” Month

May 4, 2010 By

As temperatures warm up, more Iowans are hitting roads and trails on bicycles.

Mark Wyatt, executive director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, says safety should be a top priority for both motorists and people who are pedaling to their destination. This year, Wyatt’s organization lobbied state lawmakers for “safe passing distance” legislation. 

“I believe over half of the states have something on the books,” Wyatt said. “Wisconsin’s had a three-foot safe passing distance since 1973, but the Iowa Legislature decided not to adopt that. They did adopt a bill that states motorists shouldn’t steer unreasonably close to bicyclists and shouldn’t throw items at bicyclists.”

May is Bicycle Safety Month. Wyatt says his organization, based in Coralville, is working to educate bicyclists about how they can avoid being hit. Some of the tips include using hand signals, stopping at stop signs and riding with the flow of traffic. “I think those messages are really important across the state to try and encourage people to follow traffic rules,” Wyatt said.

In addition to promoting safety and bicyclist’s legal rights, the Iowa Bicycle Coalition works with communities across the state to design bike-friendly transportation facilities and services. ”We concentrate on seeing what we can do to change urban environments to make it easier for people to walk or bicycle,” Wyatt said.

May 17th through the 21st is designated as Bike to Work Week.

(Additional reporting by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Human Interest, Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With:

Two Iowans testify about “bank tax”

May 4, 2010 By

Two Iowans testified before Congress this morning. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley asked the men to appear as part of a hearing on what Grassley calls a “bank tax.”

Grassley says the president proposes a fee on major financial institutions that would pay back “every dime” of the federal bailout of the financial industry.  It’s sometimes called TARP — the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Grassley, a Republican, says he wants to ensure that money is returned to the taxpayers.

“I plan to ask the treasury secretary for a commitment from the administration that the president will veto any bill that contains a bank tax that isn’t dedicated to solely paying down the deficit,” Grassley says. “Otherwise, if taxes are simply raised for more spending, we haven’t accomplished anything but more taxing and spending. ‘Course, that’s business as usual here in Washington.”

John Sorenson of Des Moines, president of the Iowa Bankers Association, and Pat Baird, president and CEO of Aegon USA in Cedar Rapids, the nation’s fifth-largest insurance company were the two Iowans Grassley invited to be witnesses at today’s hearing.

“Both of these Iowans can offer Main Street perspective on how the bank tax or TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) tax could impact the community banks and life insurers who had nothing to do with the financial crisis that led to the TARP bailout,” Grassley says.

Grassley cites a Congressional Budget Office report. ”The CBO said, and I quote from their report to me, the cost of the proposed fee would ultimately be borne to varying degrees by an institution’s customers,” Grassley says. “The customers would probably absorb some of the cost in the form of higher borrowing rates and other charges.”

Grassley also wants the treasury secretary to address concerns that General Motors paid back its initial TARP loan with money it got from a second TARP loan.  Grassley says GM and Chrysler should be included under the bank tax as the auto industry bailouts accounts for $34 billion of the projected $109 billion in TARP losses.

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