Two housing projects in southwest Iowa are among 19 from across the State to be awarded a share of nearly $10-million in Iowa Economic Development Authority funds Workforce Housing Tax incentive projects across the state. Included among them is:

• The Clarinda Housing Program – four, single-family attached, owner-occupied homes. The project was awarded $142,800 for funding year 2021.
• The Denison Housing Development Phase 1 (b) and 1 (c) project. – Also for four, single-family attached, owner-occupied homes. The award was in the amount of $129,004.

IEDA’s Workforce Housing Tax Credit (WHTC) program provides tax benefits to developers to provide housing in Iowa communities, focusing especially on those projects using abandoned, empty or dilapidated properties. To be eligible for funding, projects must:

• Meet one of four criteria: housing development on a brownfield or grayfield, upper story housing or rehabilitation, dilapidated housing stock or new construction in greenfield space
• Include construction or rehab of at least two single-family homes or at least one multi-family building containing three or more units or at least two upper story units
• Total project costs for projects under the Small Cities Set Aside may not exceed $215,000 per unit or $250,000 for historic rehabilitation
• Complete within three years of award
• Be located in one of the 88 least populous Iowa counties

For the fiscal year 2021 application round, $10 million dollars in credits were available for award under the WHTC program’s Small Cities Set Aside component. IEDA received 84 applications requesting $34 million in tax credits. Projects are scored competitively based on readiness, financing, need, and local support and participation.

A collision between a car and a cow Tuesday night in Mills County caused extensive damage to a 2015 Chevy, but no one was hurt. The Mills Couty Sheriff’s Office reports 34-year old Melinda Smits, of Red Oak, was traveling east on Highway 34 at around 11:20-p.m., when a cow walked out of the median. Smits was unable to react in-time before striking the animal. Following the collision, Smits’ vehicle slid off the road and came to rest in the south ditch.

Authorities say a patrol car with its emergency lights activated was in the median with the cow, trying to prevent the animal from walking onto the highway when it walked in front of Smit’s Chevy. The owner of the cow was located and advised three cows had escaped earlier in the evening, but at the time, were unable to be located. The additional two cows were found and contained.

(Radio Iowa) – The four Native American-owned casinos in Iowa are temporarily smoke-free. The WinnaVegas Casino Resort in Sloan has had the no-smoking policy in place since reopening in mid-June with restrictions, which include requiring face masks for all employees and customers. Casino marketing director Michael Michaud says those rules will be in place indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  “We don’t have a crystal ball and we can’t tell you what the future holds,” Michaud says. “What we do see is the increase in the amount of testing and the positive cases around the country.”

He says they want to make sure they’re taking care of guests and employees. With masks required, Michaud says staff felt it would be “insufficient” if they still allowed people to smoke. People can still smoke outside of the property. Larry Wright Junior is chairman of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska which owns the Prairie Flower Casino in Carter Lake. Wright says temporarily banning indoor smoking was one of the policies staff put in place to ensure peoples’ health and safety. Plus, he says they wanted all visitors and staff to wear masks. Wright says, “As we looked at it, it would be very difficult to enforce a 100-percent mask requirement when you have people in the casino smoking.”

The American Lung Association in Iowa is applauding the four casinos and encourages them to permanently adopt a smoke-free policy. Kristina Hamilton, the association’s advocacy director, says it’s a win-win. Hamilton says, “These types of policies protect employees and customers from harmful second-hand smoke so we know the long-term benefits are there for these types of policies.”

Iowa’s Smokefree Air Act passed in 2008 and protects more than three-million Iowans from second-hand smoke. Unfortunately, Hamilton says, the 19 commercial casinos in Iowa are exempt from the law so their workers and customers are without protection from those dangerous chemicals. Casino owners have long claimed they’d lose business if they banned smoking, but Hamilton says the opposite may be true. “We really haven’t seen a decline in business in states that do have smoke-free casino policies,” Hamilton says. “For bars and restaurants as well, owners were afraid that people would go to bars and restaurants less because they’re smoke-free and that isn’t the case.”

The Blackbird Bend Casino in Onawa and the Meskwaki Bingo Casino in Tama are also now smoke-free.

(Katie Peikes at Iowa Public Radio contributed to this story.)

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Officials with Hy-Vee announced Tuesday, “In an effort to protect its customers and employees from COVID-19” the company’s stores will distribute free masks to persons entering those stores, beginning Monday, July 27. The company says it will hand out more than 3 million free masks in an effort to help support the CDC’s recommendation to wear masks in public by launching a new initiative called “Mask It Up To Shut COVID Down. It’s Your Choice.”

Starting July 27, employees will be stationed at the front doors of all stores to hand out masks to customers who are not wearing one prior to shopping. Customers will also see signage, employee attire, and other reminders around the store about the educational campaign. Hy-Vee employees have been wearing masks since nearly the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The AARP reports that 28 of the top 40 U.S. retailers require shoppers to wear masks, including Walmart, Target and Whole Foods.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports a man wanted on a warrant for Violation of Probation, turned himself-in to the Sheriff’s Office, Tuesday afternoon. Once the warrant for 33-year old Troy Maurice Taylor was confirmed, the man was transported to Pott. County Corrections and turned over to corrections staff, without incident. And, an inmate at the Pott. County Jail, 37-year old Joseph Daniel McNeal, of Council Bluffs, was served with a warrant Tuesday afternoon, for Violation of Probation. McNeal remains held in the jail on a total of $6,000 bond associated with other charges.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa D-O-T worker was killed in northwest Iowa Tuesday morning in an accident on Highway 18 near Boyden. Sioux County Sheriff’s Office reports that 64-year-old Lynn Roder of Ashton was standing in the westbound lane with a traffic sign signaling for westbound traffic to stop of slow down ahead of a road construction area when he was hit by a 2017 Chevrolet Equinox being driven by 94-year-old William Plantage of Sheldon who was driving westbound. Plantage struck Roder on the roadway.

Roder was transported by the Boyden Ambulance to Sanford Sheldon Medical Center where he was pronounced dead as a result of his injuries. Plantage’s vehicle sustained approximately $4,000 in damage. The Sioux County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by the Boyden Ambulance and the Iowa State Patrol. The accident remains under investigation.