WASHINGTON – Today (Wednesday), U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that the Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding $13.1 million in CARES Act Recovery Assistance grants to capitalize and administer Revolving Loan Funds (RLFs) that will provide critical gap financing to small businesses and entrepreneurs that have been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic across Iowa.

Among the grant recipients, in southwest Iowa:

• The Southwest Iowa Planning Council, based in Atlantic, will receive a $550,000 EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to capitalize and administer an RLF that will provide loans to support businesses disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic in Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Montgomery, Shelby, and Page counties.
• The Region XII Council of Governments, in Carroll, will receive a $2 million EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to foster recovery and resiliency in the business community by capitalizing and administering an RLF that will provide loans to coronavirus impacted businesses in Audubon, Carroll, Crawford, Greene, Guthrie, and Sac counties.
• The Southern Iowa Development Group Inc., in Creston, will receive a $1.529 million EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to by capitalizing and administering an RLF that will provide loans to coronavirus impacted businesses in Adair, Adams, Clarke, Decatur, Madison, Ringgold, Taylor and Union counties.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said “President Trump is working diligently every day to support our nation’s economy following the impacts of COVID-19 through the CARES Act. These investments will provide small businesses across Iowa with the necessary capital to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic and, in turn, create a stronger and more resilient state economy for the future.”

The current EDA RLF grantees are some of the more than 850 existing, high-performing EDA RLF, Economic Development District, University Center, and Tribal grant recipients invited to apply for supplemental funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The CARES Act, signed into law by President Donald J. Trump, provides EDA with $1.5 billion for economic development assistance programs to help communities prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

Montgomery County Public Health, today (Wednesday), confirmed an additional, positive case of COVID-19 in the County, for a total of 16. The latest person confirmed to have the virus is an adult age 18-to 40, who is isolating at home.

As of today, 10 persons affected by the virus in Montgomery County have recovered, and two have died. Officials say 911 individuals have been tested for COVID-19.

Serology testing data* show 3 individuals are positive for COVID-19, 70 are negative, and 73 have been tested.

(*Serological tests measure the amount of antibodies or proteins present in the blood when the body is responding to a specific infection, like COVID-19. In other words, the test detects the body’s immune response to the infection caused by the virus rather than detecting the virus itself.)

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports three arrests took place Tuesday. 42-year old James Allen Stanley, of Omaha, and 42-year old Sean Michael Gochenour, of Woodbine, were taken into custody at the Pottawattamie County Jail. Stanley was wanted for being a Fugitive from Justice, and on a warrant for Violation of Probation. He was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail on the Fugitive warrant, and on a $2,000 bond for Probation warrant. Gochenour was arrested on two warrants for Pretrial Release, the bond for which was set at $20,000.

And, 26-year old Dante Decarl Dirks, of Kansas City, MO., was arrested at the Mills County Jail Tuesday afternoon, for being a Fugitive from Justice. He was being held without bond in the jail.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — Sheriff’s officials in central Nebraska have identified two men killed in a head-on crash involving a car and semitrailer as Iowa residents. The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office says in a news release that the crash happened Tuesday evening on U.S. Highway 83 about seven miles north of North Platte. Investigators say a northbound car crossed into the southbound lanes directly into the path of the truck, which tried but could not avoid a head-on crash. Deputies say both vehicles caught fire, and two men in the car died at the scene. Authorities later identified the driver killed as 32-year-old Robert Islas and his passenger as 59-year-old Gilbert Vasquez, both of Sioux City, Iowa. The truck driver suffered minor injuries.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart has become the latest major retailer to require customers to wear face coverings at all of its namesake and Sam’s Club stores. The nation’s largest retailer said the policy will go into effect on Monday to give the company time to inform stores and customers. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said that currently about 65% of its more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is already some form of government mandate on face coverings.

The retailer also said it will create the role of health ambassador at its Walmart stores and will station them near the entrance to remind customers without masks of its new requirement.

(Radio Iowa) — It appears Iowa City’s School Board is the first in the state to vote to hold all classes online when school starts in August. Other schools have developed multiple options, including remote learning or weekly schedules combining online AND at-school classes. Sioux Center Community Schools Superintendent Gary McEldowny says after consulting with the governor’s office as well as state and local public health officials, his district is planning for in-person classes. “The information that we feel like we have at this point, from the last update, is to plan to start school as you normally would,” he says.

The first day of school in Sioux Center is currently scheduled for August 13th, but a full, five-days-a-week schedule won’t start until August 31st. That’s an intentional move, McEldowny says, as he expects people to be worried about going back to school. “A lot of that anxiety is going to have to bubble up and start to wash off a little bit and that’s for everyone involved — that’s for parents and for kids and for the staff,” McEldowny says. “The first week, that’s a two-day week, then the next week we have four days — Monday through Thursday, and then we have Monday through Thursday the following week.”

The district HAS developed options for online learning as well as a combination of in-person and online virtual learning. “We will be a hybrid from the jump because there are going to be families and students and the reality — I shouldn’t say reality, it’s an opinion — we will have children that are going to be out for a while and hopefully able to come back when healthy,” he says. “We’re going to have teachers or staff members that are going to have an impacted family member or themself.”

McEldowny says the challenges of remote learning in the final weeks of the PAST school year showed the district what they can do better. The district also has surveyed families and students to identify areas of concern.  “We take those things to heart,” McEldowny says, “and the things that we can control, we want to do a better job of controlling.”  In the state’s largest district, Des Moines high schoolers will have one day of in-person instruction per week. Elementary and middle school students in Des Moines will have two days of in-person classes each week. The rest of their instruction is to be conducted online.