The Ida County Board of Supervisors officially signed the contract for L & L Builders Company to take on the courthouse renovation during their regular meeting Sept. 13. L & L also provided an estimate on the timing for the project, saying they planned to begin next spring.
Tempers ran high during the Ridge View school board work session Sept. 12, with the Galva-Holstein and Schaller-Crestland district boards facing disagreements on how to proceed with their school sharing agreement.
Galva-Holstein has currently not approved the two districts’ sharing agreement. There is a proposal on the table that, beginning next year, G-H will move their seventh and eighth graders from Early to the Schaller building. They also discussed moving their sixth graders back to a Galva-Holstein building and hosting all high school sports at the Holstein facilities.
The Holstein Country Club was packed with Republican officials in the state government and their supporters Sept. 15 for the Sweet Freedom Celebration, put on by Rep. Steve Holt.
While the tally for the special school election Sept. 13 is unofficial as of yet, the numbers indicate that both OABCIG and the Galva-Holstein district of Ridge View have passed their PPEL levies. Should the counts hold up, this means that for the next 10 years, both districts will see a property tax of $1.34 per $1,000 assessed value to pay for the schools’ physical plant and equipment property.
Editor’s Note: The Ida County Courier will be profiling members of our community in coming issues. Have a suggestion on someone whom we can profile? Send an email to news@idacountycourier.com.
“A lot of people know about the Orphan Grain Train, but they don’t really know what we do,” said Sharon Irwin, manager of the nonprofit’s Iowa West Branch in Ida Grove. Her husband Jerry agreed, saying that one person he spoke with thought they were a model train store.
The Ida Grove City Council heard more on the deadline extension for the water tower renovation during their regular meeting Sept. 6. Contrary to what was previously reported, the electrical work will not be completed by the all-project deadline of Nov. 30, and King Construction could not provide a new estimate for the finishing date.
Ida Grove received state-level attention when Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg visited a couple of downtown businesses Thursday, Sept. 1. As Co-Chair of the governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative, he came to visit with a few business owners hopeful to receive funds from the initiative’s Rural Scale Up Grant Program.
On the Empower Rural Iowa Initiative, Gregg said their mission was “all about driving investment and opportunities in small towns.” The program would provide a grant or forgivable loan to qualifying businesses.
The city of Holstein may see yet another bill in the coming weeks, this time topping half a million. During their regular meeting Sept. 6, the Holstein City Council considered entering a Sewer Revenue Loan and Disbursement Agreement.
The loan would be to cover the costs of planning, designing and constructing improvements and extensions to the Municipal Sanitary Sewer System. Under the terms of the loan, the city could borrow up to $570,000. The council set a public hearing to discuss entering the agreement, which will take place during their regular meeting Oct. 3 at 5:30 p.m.
The OABCIG high school welcomed a high profile visitor Aug. 29, when U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley stopped by to address and answer questions from senior students..
In a one-on-one discussion before the presentation started, Grassley spoke on the importance of such visits to high schools. “I do this probably 10 to 12 times a year,” he said. “I try to do it because you never get people of this age to come to my open town meetings… So this is one way of getting the opinions of your constituents that are younger people.”
