A Retirement Open House is planned for Friday, Dec. 21^st, in honor of Cass-Atlantic Development Corporation Executive Director Russell Joyce. The event takes place from 10-a.m. Until 2-p.m., at the CADCO offices (14 W 6th St, Atlantic). Joyce has served the economic development organization for the past eight-years. Prior to that, he served on the Cass County Board of Supervisors. Reflecting back on his career, Joyce said beginning with his terms on the Board of Supervisors, one of the biggest things he’s seen happen that benefit the County and it’s communities, is passage of the Local Option Sales Tax, or “LOST.”

He said also, because of commitments made to facilities such as the Nishna Valley YMCA, the Ann W. Wickman Child Development Center and others, a lot of young professionals have made their home in Cass County, replacing aging baby boomers. The biggest challenge to bringing in more families and continued economic development, he says, is the state’s low unemployment rate of 2.9-percent.

Another challenge, is a skilled and semi-skilled workforce, which the local schools are trying to establish, as far as a “Skill-to-work” program. He said also, despite the amount of housing development that’s occurred over the past 15-years, “We need to look at development of more housing…but to create a place to build housing but is not an overnight project.” Joyce says the City or someone needs to develop some ground to build on. He says some people think CADCO may not be serving the smaller communities as well as well as they do Atlantic, but the reality is Atlantic needs the smaller communities for commerce and labor,” and vice-versa. “We try to do our best to serve the entire county, but it’s a challenge.”

As for what’s in-store for his future, Joyce isn’t ruling out another bid for the Cass County Board of Supervisors. CADCO Chief Administrator Jennifer McEntaffer assume the reigns as Cass County Economic Development Director, on January 1st.

(Radio Iowa) — Thousands of Iowans will receive college degrees this weekend, with the biggest fall commencement ceremonies taking place in Iowa City and Ames. A few of those students, including Alejandro Martinez, will become the first in their family to graduate from college. Martinez, who’s from Tama, says his parents are thrilled. “I need to make my parents proud. They sacrificed everything they have in order for me to continue my education,” Martinez said. “It was just a way to give back to them. Every day they asked, ‘How’s school? How’s everything going?’ They don’t know anything about school, they only made it to the sixth grade. They never graduated high school and they barely finished middle school.”

Martinez is graduating from Iowa State with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and health. He plans to attend graduate school next fall to study occupational therapy. In addition to making his parents proud, Martinez is hoping to impress his 11-year-old brother. “I’m trying to set an example for him. He looks up to me, he likes to play soccer and he says he wants to go to college, so that’s a start,” Martinez said. “I’m a first-generation student as well, so I hope to inspire others in my community.”

Officials at ISU say over 2,300 students are completing their degrees this week. One graduation ceremonies took place Friday night, while another is scheduled for this afternoon (Saturday) at Hilton Coliseum. In Iowa City, about 1,640 University of Iowa undergraduate, graduate, and professional students are receiving degrees in several ceremonies that began Thursday and continue through Sunday. The Fall Commencement program at the University of Northern Iowa was set to take place inside the McLeod Center on the Cedar Falls campus at 10-a.m. today (Saturday).

(Radio Iowa) — The Ankeny-based Casey’s Convenience store chain reported this week that strong sales in several categories led to an increase in earnings in the second quarter compared to last year. Chief executive officer Terry Handley talked about the results in a conference call. “Diluted earnings per share for the first quarter were up over 40 percent to a dollar-80 , compared to a dollar-28 a year ago. The results were primarily driven by increased control on operating expenses, margin gains both at the pump and inside the store, as well as operating 94 additonal stores from the second quarter last year,” Handley says.

Gas prices were higher in the past year, but Handley says they still made good margins. “We achieved an average margin of 20 cents per gallon for the quarter and drove a seven-point-two percent increase in gross profit dollars from the fuel category,” Handley says. “Same store gallons sold in the quarter were down one-point-one percent — due to our optimization efforts in the quarter — as well as softer demand.” The optimization efforts include added bio-diesel and premium fuels that have bigger margins. Handley says the yearly results for gas sales are similar to what they saw in the quarter. “Same store gallons sold year-to-date were down three-tenths of one percent, with an average margin of 20-point-three cents per gallon, resulting in an increase in fuel gross profit dollars over 10 percent to 242-point-one million dollars,” according toe Handley.

He says same-store sales of groceries and merchandise were up two-point-seven percent with an average margin of 32-point-four percent. Handley says the sale of prepare foods were up two-point-two percent with an average margin of 62-point-four percent. He says strategic price increases for food items helped expand the margin in the quarter.

(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds traveled to southeast Iowa Friday to visit a small business launched by a couple of Florida transplants. Carson King and his son, Zach, moved to Iowa about a year ago to open ‘Oh Donuts’ in Sigourney. The governor gave the whole grain and gluten-free donuts a thumbs up. “What a great concept,” Reynolds said, “not to mention that all the ingredients are organic. They source all of the ingredients locally, in the state of Iowa, which I think is amazing.”

Reynolds said her visit to the unique donut shot gave her an idea. “I’d like to have a ‘Startup Day’ at the Capitol and have startup companies from all across the state come in, just talk about what they’re doing, what’s working, maybe what some of the barriers are – so legislators have a chance to hear first-hand,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds also got to try her hand at making donuts. She said it’s a skill sure to “make her more popular with her grandkids.”

The Iowa Department of Transportation reports that on Wednesday, Dec. 19th, a contractor will shift southbound Interstate 29 traffic in Sioux City off a detour route.  At 9-a.m., the left lane of southbound I-29 will be closed for the application of pavement marking. Later in the morning, Wednesday, the contractor will reopen the left lane and close the right lane, as well as the southbound exit and entrance ramps at Exit 149/Hamilton Boulevard.

While the southbound I-29 right lane is closed, southbound I-29 traffic exiting to Hamilton Boulevard will exit at the southbound Virginia Street exit to Floyd Boulevard and continue to northbound I-29 to Exit 148/Wesley Parkway. Ramp traffic from Hamilton Boulevard to southbound I-29 will go through Wesley Parkway to enter southbound I-29 until pavement markings are completed. Each ramp will reopen as soon as traffic control at that location is complete.