News

by Ranee Fladung
Riverside residents, including four with prepared statements asked the city to reconsider its elimination of the Riverside Scholarship program at Monday’s council meeting.  Their requests took nearly a half hour.

It’s taking away a gift to our students

“It’s taking away a gift to our students,” said  resident Megan Allen. “It’s very important to them.” She told the council that criticism and complaints go with the job and they should be able to handle it.  Referring to the elimination of the $7,500 program, she said, “It’s the children who are punished.”
Leanne Sexton, a parent of a previous scholarship recipient, said it made a difference because it was one of very few her daughter was eligible for. “It made a difference.” She advised the council against listening to the vocal minority and to listen to those now speaking because they are the majority. She asked that they reconsider their vote as did  the four others.
Dana Merritt, who was a scholarship recipient, told the council they had forgotten the real purpose of the awards. That it provided an opportunity that many don’t have and makes students feel they have reason to come back to the community that supported them.
The council did not respond until the end of the meeting when all of the attendees had left and council member Ralph Schnoebelen requested it be put on the next meeting agenda.
Mayor Brian McDole polled the council adding that he was in favor of reviewing the issue  but admitted he thought “it was a losing battle.”
Council member Rodney Waldschmidt said he didn’t want it back on the agenda. Council member Betty Kaalberg in agreement said “It just doesn’t help enough people in the town.”
Council member Kevin Kiene shook his head no.

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by Ranee Fladung
After losing a son in a grain bin accident, Roger Stutsman of Hills has made farm safety his mission so other families don’t have to feel his pain.

Saturday Stutsman donated a rescue tube to the Hills Fire Department to help emergency responders rescue a victim stuck in a grain bin. “This is a great gift from Roger. Small communities have limited funds and you never know when you’ll need something like this,” said Guy Sommers, Hills Fire Department Captain.
The grain rescue tube, a four panel system with four steps on each panel weighs approximately 60 lbs. and hooks together around the victim, costs about $2,500.
Stutsman thanked those who donated toward the tube, noting that it only took four calls to raise the first $2,000. Stutsman along with Hills Fire chief Jim Malmberg demonstrated how the rescue tube is pushed down in the grain around a victim trapped in a grain bin. Once around the victim, it’s locked in place, and a vaccum is used to suck the corn away from the person in the tube so he can crawl out to safety.
“I hope they never ever have to use it,” said Stutsman. “I would like to see fire and rescue departments all over the state of Iowa with rescue tubes on hand.”
Stutsman asked Congressman Dave Loebsack during the ag forum to establish tax credits for farmers to help retro fit old equipment with new safety features. Although tax credits aren’t the only way to go, Stutsman admits, it is a step toward saving lives that he feels is only logical.
Aging farmers are crawling up and down bins on tiny ladders that have no safety features, and often at times when they have been in the fields all day and are tired. Bins can be fitted with stairs and platforms but the prices are astronomical. Roger Slaughter, sales representative at Eldon C. Stutsmans in Hills, said the cost to fit a bin with stairs and railings can be up to $5,000 per bin. Most farmers have more than three bins. For Stutsman, who has 30 bins, the cost would exceed $150,000 to make each bin safer.
“Ag is where the food production occurs in this country,” said Loebsack. “We owe it to our farmers to do all we can to prevent accidents through education efforts and minimizing losses for these folks.”
Approximately 30 people attended the presentation and ag forum held with Congressman Loebsack.

by Ranee Fladung
Riverside Elementary school will have another outlet even though the price tag has doubled. Riverside Mayor Brian McDole informed the council Monday night that the original estimate to extend Kleopfer Avenue has risen to approximately $153,000. Following a meeting with City Engineer Mike Hart, council members and Highland school board members, McDole said several additions where made which were not included in the initial estimate. They were a sanitary sewer, storm sewer, driveway and adding a double sealcoat to the driveway. A sidewalk estimate was added as an option for the school district to lay at a cost of $15,000.
McDole said a 40 to 50 foot section of the road also will be widened at an increase of $8,000 to help prevent “bottlenecking.” City Clerk Tina Thomas said $72,000 had been budgeted this year which was not used but the council discussed using Local Option Sales Tax to make up the difference.
In a three to two vote Monday, council members Rodney Waldschmidt, Betty Kaalberg and Kevin Kiene voted to discontinue the city of Riverside scholarship. Waldschmidt said he agrees with the premise but he has been “disheartened with the complaints. We don’t need to hear what we have been hearing. I would rather spend money to help all the kids with a school road than half a dozen.”
Council members Ralph Schnoebelen and Todd Yahnke said they agreed it is rewarding and don’t see where the controversy is if applicants follow the guidelines. Kaalberg said she went along with it for two years but “I don’t think it is anything good for Riverside” noting it was dividing people. McDole, who said he was in favor of the scholarship, said “It’s as simple as following guidelines.”
The $7,500 scholarship available to city of Riverside Highland seniors was established two years ago and run by the Riverside Foundation.

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Although it originally was part of the major remodeling for the new Riverside city hall, a backup generator was deleted from the plans. Monday, the council addressed the need for one whose purchase and installaiton would be no more than $7,000.
The unit, which could be fueled by LP or natural gas, would be installed at the southside of the building. When council member Ralph Schnoebelen suggeted battery backup instead, Mayor Brian McDole said the concern is that batteries would not be sufficient, that everything is digital and there would be neither power nor phones and lights. Council member Kevin Kiene suggested that the city hall may not have a sufficient gas supply to operate both a generator and a furnace. After more discussion, the council agreed additional information is needed and the item will be on the next meeting agenda.
The council also discussed traffic on Highway 22, which is the city’s main street, suggesting that the sheriff’s office issue speeding tickets. Sheriff Jerry Dunbar, who was present, said, “We could get some reserves in at $15 per hour.” He added that the previous mayor had asked about extra patrol hours.
Mayor Brian McDole stressed “We have to figure out how to slow people down, 22 is just terrible.”
Council member Betty Kaalberg said, “Hire someone for a little while to get everyone scared.”
Questions also were raised about having a camera unit on speed signs, but City Attorney Les Lamping said the cost of such equipment is high.

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Congressman Leonard Boswell announced that the Department of Transportation has awarded Iowa $18,309,080 for two high-speed passenger rail projects in the state, including $1 million for a series of studies for a passenger rail line to run from Chicago to Omaha by way of Iowa.

As a longtime advocate for high-speed rail, I have fought for a passenger line that spans the state and connects Chicago and Omaha for quite some time.

“As a longtime advocate for high-speed rail, I have fought for a passenger line that spans the state and connects Chicago and Omaha for quite some time,” said Boswell, a senior Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. “This $1 million award to the state will start the planning process and is a vital first step in getting this much-need transportation investment off the ground. The benefits of this important rail line are limitless and I will continue to fight for additional funding for this and other high-speed rail projects in the state.”

In March 2009, Boswell wrote to Joseph Boardman, President and CEO of Amtrak, to urge him to expand on the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative feasibility study that looked at a passenger rail line between Chicago and Iowa City to include Des Moines and Omaha.
The Department of Transportation also awarded $17,309,080 to install four remotely-controlled powered crossovers on the BNSF Ottumwa subdivision, which will reduce travel times and improve on-time performance.
The awards were funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

A public hearing and first reading of the proposed Washington County zoning ordinance is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, February 10, in the new 4-H Building on the Washington County fairgrounds.  Gary Lozano of RDG of Omaha, Nebraska, and Des Moines, will be present to facilitate.   RDG was hired more than a year ago to coordinate the drafting of the ordinance. The supervisors set the hearing at their meeting Tuesday.
It is likely that the second and third readings will be held February 16 and February 23 as part of the regular supervisors weekly meetings. the ordinance has drawn considerable fire from opponents, especially the Free County grass roots organization, who have been asking the supervisors since August to not pass the ordinance.
In other business Tuesday, the board:

• approved an agreement with the United States Census to aid with promotional, educational and informational efforts, including postings of articles on the county website and links to the Census 2010 website.  Additionally, supervisor Adam Mangold was appointed as liaison with the Census Bureau;
• accepted the low bid of $60,001.50 from DeLong Construction, Washington, for the riverbank stabilization project on 130th Street.  Other bids were $82,394, $78,479.75, $72,828, and $65,222.80.  DeLong’s bid is virtually $20,000 less than the estimated $80,000 cost; and
• approved a resolution acknowledging the voluntary annexation of a tract of land along Highway 22 by the City of Riverside. The Tener land recently was re-zoned go allow for commercial development on the south side of Highway 22 near Bud’s Custom Meats.  A public hearing on the annexation is set for February 1 during the regular Riverside council meeting.

It was mainly a for land’s sake meeting for Riverside’s council Monday.
The council, in four separate items of business, approved land re-zoning, exchanged land with a local business, received a purchase offer for city owned land and agreed to buy some land to create a secondary road near the elementary school.
Approval of the ordinance for re-zoning of property owned by Larry Tener from A-1 to C-3 followed a public hearing in which no objections were raised. The property is on Highway 22 east, near Bud’s Custom Meats business.
A second Public Hearing, in which no objections were raised, dealt with an exchange of city property with Ed Pechous, Riverside Grain and Feed, that involves approximately 4,500 square feet of land. The exchange also provided for easement agreements between Pechous and the city regarding downtown property.
The third land item is an offer from Brad Acker and Dan Sweeting to purchase Lot 2 in the cityÕs Eastside Commercial site. The two, who offered $2 per square foot, plan to build a hotel on the site. There will be a 120-day period during which a feasible study will be done. Action on the offer will not come until next year.

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Forecast calls for harsh winter weather, with a strong chance of slips, trips and falls
According to this year’s Old Farmer’s Almanac, winter in the upper Midwest will be colder than normal,

We urge customers to do the right thing, not just for our letter carriers, but for everyone

with precipitation near - or slightly above - normal. Whether one can bank on the Almanac’s weather predictions is just part of the annual publication’s charm.
But ice and snow hold little charm for the letter carriers who deliver millions of cards, letters and packages through harsh winter weather.
“Snow and ice on sidewalks and front porches present a serious safety challenge for our letter carriers across the region,” said Gail Duba, manager of the U.S. Postal Service’s Des Moines-based Hawkeye District. The district covers most of the Iowa and the Illinois communities near the Quad Cities.
“Our employees take their jobs seriously and take pride in reporting to work - regardless of the conditions,” Duba said, “but if access to the mailbox is blocked by snow or ice, we remind them that safety is paramount to delivering the mail.”
The Postal Service is reminding customers to keep access to the mailbox clear. “Our carriers will battle freezing temperatures, ice and snow in many parts of the Midwest,” Duba explained. “We urge customers to do the right thing, not just for our letter carriers, but for everyone.”
By taking these safety measures, a prediction of fewer injuries due to ice and snow is one that everyone can bank on.

By Mary Zielinski
The big winners in the fall grant cycle of the Washington County Riverboat Foundation (WCRF) are youth and veterans. The award ceremony November 18 at the Riverside Casino saw 14 of the 27 grants given to area schools and youth programs and another four to projects benefiting veterans. The WCRF is the nonprofit license holder for the Riverside Casino and Golf Resort and receives its funding from state mandated allocations.
Total of the 18 grants is $476,658 and range from $1,770 for the Girl Scouts Green Girls to $200,000 (given in two years at the rate of $100,000 each year)) for the Washington School DistrictÕs $2,200,000 facilities improvement plan. The Hawkeye Area Council Boy Scouts received $2,750 to aid with the $25,700 Washington County Venturing Outreach program.
The single biggest grant was $1,055,000 to the City of Kalona for its $2,848,937 downtown revitalization project to be provided in a five-year period, which means the city will receive approximately $200,000 per year. Officially, the WCRF awarded a total of $1,748,643, which includes the multi-year grants. The WCRF had received, by its October 9 deadline, 46 grant applications that totaled $2,983,630 in requests. Officials noted that the WCRF received $2,727,000 from the Casino gaming operation through October.
The grants struck a nice balance with funds to the school districts helping not only with classroom technology and educational programs but also with bus and school safety. One of the grants, to the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, is $9,991 to help with the $11,991 School/Active Shooter Response Equipment. In simple terms that means having equipment to respond to a possible terrorist (or shooter) situation at a school. As a deputy noted, “It’s like insurance you hope you never have to use, but you know you had better have it.”

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Kirkwood Community College has made scholarship awards to students enrolled for the upcoming academic year. These awards are made possible through donations from college benefactors and are administered through the Kirkwood Foundation.
The college will award more than $1.75 million in scholarships to more than 1,300 students in the 2009-10 academic year.
Scholarship recipients from this area include: Lee Pfeifer of Riverside received the Van Meter Industrial Scholarship in the amount of $1500 and also the Shive-Hattery Engineering Scholarship in the amount of $1000. Lee graduated from Williamsburg North High School in 1989 and is now enrolled in the Pre-Engineering program at Kirkwood. He is the son of Regina Lea Utz of Kalona.

For $24,000, Riverside will get one complete welcome sign plus all the bricks for all three planned signs. Details were presented to the city council Monday by Jim Leyden of the city’s Community Visioning Committee.
Results of the Community Visioning process showed the need for three signs for the city (east, west and south) and Monday Leyden said that purchasing all the bricks at one time would mean 15 cents per brick, rather than 50 cents each. The $24,000 price tag ( half of the $48,000 original estimate) also gets a lot of landscaping, trees, flowers and grading for the first sign, he noted.
The first sign is on city property; the other two will e on private property, he added. There also will be donated labor and lighting for the signs will be done by Jim Rose at actual cost.
The council approved the move that likely will see the signs done next spring.
The council also received a report from council member Todd Yahnke that the special committee recomends using the $100,000 from Invasion Iowa to purchase a site for a Riverside community building. An ideal site would be land on Schnoebelen Street which would put the building near the Riverside Elementary School.

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Riverside city administrator/clerk Tina Thomas and Tim Putney, chairman of the board of the Washington County Riverboat Foundation (WCRF), hold the plaque acknowleding the WCRF’s $20,000 grant that bought Riverside a new warning siren. The plaque will be installed on the south wall of the lobby of the city hall, possibly as the first of several. (Photo by Mary Zielinski)