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Mills County orders flood evacuations

June 24, 2011 By

More residents along the swollen Missouri River are under a mandatory evacuation order. Mills County Emergency Management spokesperson Shari Bowen says it’s a precautionary measure. “Right now there are no immediate threats from the levee system,” Bowen said. “Our concern is our groundwater that’s seeped up…the drainage water that’s come down into that area isn’t able to pass into the river system through the normal drainage channel.”

The order to evacuate affects rural residents living between the river and Interstate 29 from the Fremont County line to just north of Glenwood.) Bowen estimates 80 homes are affected and most have already evacuated. Fremont County evacuated the area between I-29 and the river earlier this week because of concerns with the levee.

Bowen says the levee is holding in Mills County, but the rise of interior groundwater is causing problems. “We have various roads in the area that are becoming impassable,” Bowen said. Residents are being told to leave the area of Mills County before 4 p.m. today.

The Red Cross has set up a shelter in Malvern for anyone who needs a place to stay.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Legislators concerned about completing upgrades for Vet’s Home

June 24, 2011 By

Democrats are raising concerns that federal money which had been set aside for new construction at the Iowa Veteran’s Home in Marshalltown may be lost and plans to modernize the facility may be in jeopardy.

The federal money was returned, as bids for the next phase of construction were tossed out in January. Senator Daryl Beall, a Democrat from Fort Dodge who is chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, says legislators only recently found out about the situation.

“I found out this week that we had basically told the federal government, ‘Thanks, but no thanks. We aren’t going to use those federal funds,’” Beale says. “I was shocked. I was surprised. I was saddened.” 

More single-occupancy rooms, with an attached bathroom for the veteran, were to be built, but Branstad administration officials rejected the bids which had been submitted by construction companies for that phase of the project.  The governor defends that decision.

“What happened is the bids were way over estimates,” Branstad says. “…And frankly also the design was not appropriate.”

The federal grant money to help finance that construction has been returned and Senator Beall is concerned Iowa won’t be able to win it back.

“I’m afraid we’re going to get out of sequence,” Beall says. “We’re going to lose out standing in terms of these federal (Veterans Administration) dollars.” 

The governor has a different opinion.

“It’s my understanding that they’re going to get the federal matching funds in a different fiscal year,” Branstad says. “So they needed to turn it back now and then reapply and they feel very confident that they’re going to get those funds.” 

By rejected the bids, the Branstad administration has negated an edict from former Governor Chet Culver that all state construction projects have a “project-labor agreement”. Branstad says such agreements favor companies that use union labor and increase the overall cost of construction. Senator Beall says Branstad’s decision has been a serious set-back in the effort to modernize the Iowa Veterans Home.

“I think we’re doing a disservice to our veterans for political purposes,” Beall says, “and I don’t like that.” 

The governor says the construction plans had to be redesigned and that’s the primary reason the bids were rejected.

“The veterans can be assured that we’re going to do everything we can to provide the right kind of facilities to meet their needs,” Branstad says. 

The Iowa Veterans Home has more than 720 residents and is among the three largest state-run veterans facilities. Five buildings are spread over the 150-acre campus in Marshalltown.  But concerns about housing four veterans in rooms designed for two occupants, plus having eight veterans share the same bathroom prompted the push to build new facilities.

The state sold more than $22.5 million in bonds to help finance the improvements, with a requirement that construction on all phases of the project be completed by 2015.  The federal government committed far more money to the project.

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

Many in Council Bluffs still unaware of flood threat

June 24, 2011 By

Some Iowans are dangerously oblivious to the threat of severe flooding, even in areas where the rushing water is already lapping at levee tops. Council Bluffs Fire Chief Alan Byers is busy spreading the word that the city’s residents should prepare to evacuate but he says a survey has found that many people haven’t a clue.

“What we found was a significant number of the population actually wasn’t even aware of the risk level or even the flood event,” Chief Byers says. “We were amazed but over 50% of the people who were interviewed did not recognize the risks that the city is under from the flood event or didn’t even know there was a flood event.” Byers says there is no immediate evacuation order but he’s asking residents to prepare in the same way as other weather-related disasters, like with a Blizzard Warning.

“Although the evacuation of the community is not necessary at this time, just as when we are anticipating a winter storm, we should plan ahead for that possibility,” he says. As a precaution, Byers says Council Bluffs residents should arrange for a place to store their belongings, their pets and, possibly, another place to live.

“While no evacuation order is being issued at this time, the city has upgraded the flood status of Council Bluffs to an Alert Level One and recommends you continue to make preparations to leave the area if the need arises,” Byers says. “You will be notified in the event the situation escalates.” The Alert Level One was issued as Missouri River water crossed the 34-foot level threshold. Twenty-nine feet is flood stage.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Rebuild Iowa Office closes after 3 years of operation

June 24, 2011 By

The state office created to coordinate recovery operations after the 2008 storms and flooding turned out its lights for the last time Thursday. The Rebuild Iowa Office (RIO) was created in June of 2008 through an executive order by then Governor Chet Culver, and later formalized by the state legislature.

RIO spokesperson, Susan Judkins, says their website will remain active for the next six months, and other operations may be used in the future. She says many of the programs that were established in the code will be available to flood victims this year if they get state or federal funding.

Ron Randazzo is another of the RIO employees who are overseeing the shut down. He says they originally started with 21 people, including the director who was retired Iowa National Guard General Ron Dardis. Randazzo says they staff dwindled to six on the final day as some returned to their original state jobs and most found new jobs in the private sector.

The final day was not an easy one for Randazzo and others. “For us that have worked here since the beginning, it’s pretty sad,” Randazzo said, “But we knew when we came on board that it was a three-year position. So it is not like we didn’t know this was coming.”

The legislature set the RIO office to shut down after three years when it was created. While it is sad, Randazzo says they realize they’ve helped a lot of people across the state. “We are very proud of that, and that’s the one thing we can kind of hold our heads up high about,” Randazzo says. He says everyone that worked at RIO was “hand picked” and the “office did incredible work” in the three years it was open.

RIO officials say the office helped secure more than $4.3-billion in total 2008 disaster recovery funding.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Compromise reached on bid to ban synthetic marijuana

June 23, 2011 By

It appears Iowa legislators may be poised to establish a state ban on the sale or possession of so-called “synthetic marijuana” sold under brand names like K2 and Spice.

Iowans caught with the products would be guilty of an aggravated misdemeanor under provisions inserted into a budget bill Senator Tom Hancock has been working on.

“We wanted this stuff off the shelves,” Hancock says. “We wanted to get rid of it.” 

So far this year the House and the Senate have voted to ban these products, but the sticking point has been the penalty.  The House had favored a felony, while the Senate’s voted to make it a misdemeanor to possess synthetic marijuana sold as incense or bath salts.

“To make it a class D felony for a first offense we felt was a little strong,” Hancock says. 

Senator Hancock says under the language inserted in a budget bill, a first offense would be an aggravated misdemeanor, but those caught more than once either buying, manufacturing or possessing synethetic marijuna would face tougher penalties.

The budget bill which contains this issue also lays out spending plans for a variety of public safety-related programs. It includes more money to pay the lawyers who represent indigent clients in Iowa’s courts.  A lack of money in the state’s indigent defense program caused consternation for weeks earlier this year, as the program ran out of money and lawyers were not paid.

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

“Emotional, ideological stalemate” avoided on economic development bill

June 23, 2011 By

Some legislators have begun joking about “white smoke” from some statehouse committee rooms as lawmakers strike final agreements on some parts of the state budget.

For example, Republicans and Democrats have agreed on state spending levels for economic development programs.  Senator Bill Dotzler of Waterloo is the Democrat who co-chairs the panel that drafted the final plan on economic development spending.

“We seriously believed that it was time to, you know, get down to business and reach an agreement. I think the public wanted us to get this resolved,” Dotzler says. “…It was important to reach agreement without shutting government down.”

The two political parties have yet to agree on spending levels for other areas of state government, like education. Representative Jason Schultz of Schleswig, the Republican co-chair of the economic development budget committee, says the two parties had less significant differences of opinion over economic development priorities.

“There was definitely two different perspectives represented throughout the year,” Schultz says. “But never was there an emotional, ideological stalemate.”

Both legislators say there is money in their economic development budget plan to keep 37 regional Workforce Development offices open, but the agency’s director has indicated she intends to close those offices.

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

Swanson verdict: guilty 1st degree murder

June 23, 2011 By

Jurors took less than an hour today to find a Minnesota teenager guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a convenience store clerk in Humboldt, Iowa last year.

Michael Swanson, 18, was smiling as the verdict was read. He now faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for the November 15 death of 61-year-old Sheila Myers. His attorneys claimed Swanson was legally insane at the time of his crime.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Crime & Courts
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