SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – The Missouri River Historical Development Board has approved a $1 million grant for a proposed agricultural expo center in Sioux City. The Sioux City Journal reports that the grant from the nonprofit group could help leverage state funds to help build the $6.7 million Ag Expo & Learning Center.

Plans call for the center to include a 3,000-seat arena, a warm-up arena, livestock pens and a stockyards hall of fame. The proposed center would host equestrian competitions, livestock shows and other farm and agriculture-related events.

The board is set to formally present the grant to expo center leaders at a ceremony Thursday. The development board’s president, Mark Monson, said he hopes the grant will help kick-start additional private contributions for the center.

Iowa’s got talent and aspiring singers from across the state can compete for a chance to sing in front of an enormous crowd at Iowa’s largest single-day concert event. Megan Helmers, spokeswoman for the Des Moines Symphony, says they’re looking for someone who can belt out the National Anthem at the patriotic Iowa State Capitol concert on July 1st.

“We have a link on our website right now where people can go online to register,” Helmers says. “We just need a little information from them, contact information and what key they’d like to sing in, and the first 20 who apply are accepted.”

The competitors in the 7th annual “Oh Say, Can You Sing?” contest will audition before a panel of judges on-stage next weekend during the popular Des Moines Arts Festival. The 20 people who registered online will be guaranteed a slot and five walk-up singers will also be allowed to audition.

“Whoever we pick will get to sing the National Anthem at Yankee Doodle Pops in front of a crowd of 100,000 people, backed by the Des Moines Symphony,” Helmers says. “They’ll also get season tickets for our next symphony season as well as a few other perks.”

America’s National Anthem is considered by many vocalists to be a tough song to sing, given its wide required range of highs and lows. “That is absolutely correct,” Helmers says. “I think it’s probably one of the more difficult national anthems in the world to sing correctly, but we’ve been pretty lucky in past years and we’ve had some terrific vocalists who’ve auditioned for us.”

The auditions will be held at noon on June 25th at the arts fest. Learn more at the website: dmsymphony.org.

(Radio Iowa)

Guthrie County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Jeremy Bennett has released statistics with regards to the sheriff’s office most recent special traffic enforcement project. The traffic safety project ran from May 23rd through June 6th.

Members of the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office made four felony arrests and seven drug arrests. The sheriff’s office staff also processed seven impaired drivers. Five drivers were impaired on illicit or prescription drugs and two were impaired by alcohol.

A total of two hundred and twelve warnings were issued for traffic violations with ninety coming from speed violations, followed by thirty-seven equipment violations. Thirty-two total citations were issued with twenty-two issued for speeding.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Creston Police Department reports a woman was arrested Wednesday afternoon, on a Theft charge. 41-year old Carrie Johns, of Creston, faces a charge of 5th Degree Theft. Johns was released from the Law Enforcement Center on a Promise to Appear.

The area’s top news at 7:07-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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HARTLEY, Iowa (AP) – A former police chief who sued the city of Hartley over his firing has settled the lawsuit. The Sioux City Journal reports the dismissal of Mark Younie’s lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City.

The settlement agreement says the city’s insurance carrier, EMC Cos., will pay Younie $25,000 on behalf of the city. The city will pay Younie’s attorneys $75,000, to be split with Younie in accordance with his contract with the attorneys.

Younie was fired in January 2014, and he sued the city in October 2014. He alleged in the lawsuit that he was fired because he’d filed a grievance alleging a labor law violation. The city said Younie’s firing was unrelated to the grievance.

WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a crash off Interstate 80 stranded a truck driver in an Iowa creek for several hours. The Iowa State Patrol says the crash occurred around 4 a.m. Wednesday near a Waukee exit west of Des Moines. The driver lost control of his semitrailer somehow, and it went down between the bridges over Sugar Creek. The semi landed upside down, with its cargo of produce strewn about.

Bridge construction workers found the man around 11 a.m., lying in the water, about halfway up on some pallets. He was hospitalized. The crash is being investigated.

The City of Atlantic’s three and a half-year old, $12.3-million wastewater treatment plant held up well during the last major rain producing event on May 26^th. Some parts of the City saw in excess of 7-inches of rain that day, causing flooding on streets, and in residential basements as well as businesses.

Wastewater Superintendent Tim Snyder told the City Council during their meeting Wednesday, prior to the May event, December 2015 was the last time the plant dealt with a significant amount of water coming into its 7-million gallon holding tank used for cleaning up the water before it’s discharged into the river. During that month, the plant processed 72-million gallons of storm water runoff.

He says in May, they took in over 80-million gallons, which is one of the highest flows that’s gone through the facility since it was upgraded in 2012. When it was constructed, officials say peak flow capacity for the facility would be 15-million gallons per day. Snyder says the day after the deluge last month, the plant took in 7-million gallons in one day. At least half that flow went into the equalization basin located across the street from the plant. Heavy flows continued for several days afterward, causing the EQ basin to briefly overflow during the weekend of May 28^th-29^th

Tim said their computer calculated 60-thousand gallons were processed, but because there was a “glitch” in the calculations, he estimated there was closer to 600-thousand gallons processed into the EQ basin. He said he’s since spoken with engineers and equipment vendors to see if there is a way to make the plant more efficient to push the water out faster. It turns out they found ways to do just that.

There were also some system adjustments made to certain pieces of equipment, and a new policy written on how to deal with heavy storm water flow, given the adjustments made through system tweaks and fixes.

The Iowa Transportation Commission approved the annual update to the five-year plan for road improvements Tuesday. The director of the D-O-T planning and programming division Stuart Anderson says they’ll spend a little more once again this year. He says it’s a three-point-five Billion dollar plan, which is a 300 million dollar increase over last year. “And that increase is primarily due to the passage of the federal transportation authorization bill that provided some additional funding for improvements. And then of course this increase comes on the heels of the program that the commission approved last June which had a 500 million dollar increase over the previous program as a result of the legislative action to increase the fuel tax.”

A big slice of the money approved is going toward bridges. “About a third of that three-point-five Billion is going for bridge improvement or bridge construction across the state of Iowa,” Anderson says. He says the amount of money spent on bridges has steadily increased and the number of structurally deficient bridges on the state highway system has been reduced from 256 in 2006 to 81 in 2015. They have prioritized the bridges to decide which ones will get worked on first in the next year.

“Certainly the bridge conditions plays a role in that prioritization, as does the amount of travel on that bridge and type of travel,” Anderson says. “And also as it is coordinated with other projects — and in different parts of the state that may impact schedule as well. So, it’s a combination of factors.” The plan adds a new year of projects each year as projects are completed, and some major projects carry over.

“The interstate construction in Council Bluffs and Sioux City has been underway and continues in this program. We also have four-lane construction of U-S 20 in western Iowa in this program, and also U-S 30 in Tama and Benton Counties. Also, U-S 61 four-lane construction down in southeast Iowa is included in the program,” according to Anderson. The D-O-T planners put together the estimated cost of the projects before they are approved by the Transportation Commission. Anderson says they’ve been fortunate that the final bids have been better than expected.

“For the last several years….the bids have come in below the programmed amounts. That has resulted in additional funding coming available for more projects to be programmed,” Anderson says. You can see the complete list of projects in the plan in this story at www.news.iowadot.gov.

(Radio IOwa)