North Iowa Red Cross chapter loses charter

Services are not expected to change after a north-central Iowa Red Cross office is restructured. The North-Central Iowa Chapter of the American Red Cross has had its charter dropped and has removed its local director, but officials say services will not change for north-central Iowans. The Des Moines and Cedar Rapids offices of the American Red Cross will take over the overseeing of the area served by the Red Cross, with the Mason City office staying open with a staff. The local Red Cross board voted in December to surrender the charter and disband, part of a nationwide trend which has seen the number of Red Cross Chapters drop from around 13-hundred to about a thousand in the last four years due to financial woes. The nine-county area will now be served by the North Central Iowa Certified Delivery Unit, with Cedar Rapids office officials making a guarantee that services will continue at their present levels.