w/ Marissa Hovde

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Each year, land owners and others are allowed to harvest hay out of highway rights of way by permit. The Iowa Department of Transportation requires those permits for several reasons, one of which is the protection of habitat.

The Iowa DOT begins the permitting process in the spring, but harvesting hay is not allowed until July 15.

Joy Williams, an agronomist with the Iowa DOT’s roadside development section, said, “July 15 was chosen as a compromise for hay harvesting to begin to both help those wanting to harvest hay and to protect bird habitat. Many people would like to harvest hay sooner and then take a second cutting in September, but that conflicts with the nesting season. It is also hard on the native grasses and does not allow winter cover for birds.”

When early spring weather is cold and damp, later harvesting of hay from the right of way is even more important, especially for pheasant habitat. “Pheasants nest several times throughout the year,” says Todd Bogenschutz, the upland wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “Sometimes nests are destroyed by floods. We probably had a lot of that this year. About 35 to 45 percent of pheasant, 62 percent of quail, and 60 to 70 percent of songbird nests hatch after July first.”

The Iowa DOT has established two periods for harvesting grass within the state-maintained highway right of way.

July 15-Sept. 1:For cool-season grasses and forage legumes (e.g., smooth brome, tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, alfalfa, bird’s-foot trefoil)
July 15-Aug. 15:For areas containing warm-season native grasses (e.g., switchgrass, big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian grass, sideoats grama, Canada wildrye)
An Iowa DOT Harvesting and Mowing Permit Application is available from your area representative listed or online at https://forms.iowadot.gov/FormsMgt/External/810050.pdf. The application covers three types of operations: (1) mowing only; (2) harvesting hay in large or small bales; or (3) harvesting plant material other than hay with machinery, by hand or with hand tools.

Contact the representative serving the area nearest where you would like to harvest grass to receive assistance in processing your permit application. In Atlantic contact Vicki Brown at 712-243-7621 or email at vicki.brown@dot.iowa.gov.

The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest of a Nebraska man early this (Thursday) morning. Twenty-year old Timothy Gene Humphrey of Omaha, NE was arrested and charged with Possession with intent to deliver (Meth), Possession of Marijuana, Possession of drug paraphernalia and on a warrant for failure to appear for trespassing. Humphrey’s bond was set at $50,000.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Senator Charles Grassley says a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage essentially returns the issue to states where he hopes the idea of marriage between a man and a woman is upheld. Grassley says the two 5-4 high court rulings issued yesterday stand as the law of the land and he realizes his opinion makes no difference.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Republican businessman Mark Jacobs says he’s exploring a run for U.S. Senate in 2014. Jacobs, the former CEO of the Texas-based Reliant Energy, says today he’s forming an exploratory committee to review running for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Tom Harkin. The 51-year-old native Iowan moved his family to Iowa last year.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Des Moines police say a man has been found shot to death in his house. Police and medics were called to the home about 2:30 p.m. yesterday. Sergeant Jason Halifax says they found a man identified as 20-year-old Christopher Byers inside the residence with a gunshot wound. Byers was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Iowa State will host the Iowa women’s basketball team on December 12th, according to a schedule released yesterday by the Hawkeyes. The matchup with the Cyclones is one of three true road games in non-conference play for Iowa. The Hawkeyes will face Colorado and Northern Iowa in back-to-back road games in late November.

The Atlantic Police Department reports an accident today at 22nd and Palm Streets. James Sievers of Audubon was traveling eastbound on 22nd Street when his vehicle left the road and entered the south ditch, struck a utility pole and then bounced back 50 feet. Sievers was transported to Cass County Memorial Hospital with non life threatening injuries. Damage to his vehicle was estimated at $10,000.

It was the Riverside School District’s fifth attempt to pass a $15.1 million dollar bond issue that would result in a new 7th-12th grade facility and it has passed. Superintendent Jim Sutton is glad the bond has passed after all this time.

“We are thrilled. This is the fifth attempt I’ve been involved in, in the last 9 years. It’s been a continuing, changing thing as far as the plan is concerned and as far as the support is concerned. It’s grown each time.”

Leading up to the vote, school officials made appeals to the public stating that renovating the existing building would require more than $11 million.

A 60% super majority was required by law for the bond issue to pass, 1,805 people voted and of that, 1,096 voted yes. That is less than one percent of the number of votes needed.

Jim Sutton: “We passed it last night with a rather narrow margin. Even though there were 1,096 yes votes to 709 no votes, that’s still only 60.72% or a .72 margin as far as the number of yes votes that we needed.”

Absentee votes played a key role in this decision. 501 absentee ballots were cast with 367 of them voting in favor of the issue. Votes were counted in the Pottawattamie County Auditor’s Office on Tuesday night.

Jim Sutton says they are still making plans but they do have an idea of when things will be completed and they will begin moving forward soon.
“Well the architects now get in there and work with our staff and our board and put details to the concept that they had proposed. We know its going to be a 7th-12th grade building, we know that we have an auditorium included in that, all of our athletic complexes on one site and now we have to work on what the details are going to look like for that. That is probably going to take 4-6 months and then they can put those plans out for bidders and we should have the bidder selected by November or December. We’ll break ground in the spring of 2014 and plan on moving into the new building in the fall of 2015.”

The new 7th-12th grade facility will be south of Oakland near the intersection of Highways 6 and 59.

On Tuesday residents of the Exira and Elk Horn-Kimballton school districts voted in favor of reorganizing into one school district. According to the Audubon County Auditor’s Office, Public measure A passed in Exira 343-32 and 285-50 in Elk Horn-Kimballton. Public measure B passed in Exira 335-37 and 269-60 in Elk Horn-Kimballton.

Public measure C, which changes how Elk Horn-Kimballton school board members are elected, passed with a vote of 232-92. And lastly, John Leader was voted in to fill a vacancy term with 291 total votes.

Reorganization will take effect July 1st, 2014.

The 2013 Summer Iowa Games powered by the Iowa Food & Family Project will officially kickoff on July 20 with the Opening Ceremony in Ames. Several individual and team sport registration deadlines are approaching in the next week. Online registration and registration forms are available at www.IOWAGAMES.org.

The 2013 Summer Iowa Games will hold competitions in 58 sports, featuring more than 15,000 athletes from all of Iowa’s 99 counties. As Iowa’s premier Olympic-style sports festival, the Games will be held in 19 Iowa communities throughout the summer.

“The Iowa Games offers sports and events for everyone,” commented Cory Kennedy, Marketing and Communications Director. “Whether it is a non-competitive bicycle ride or a competitive soccer match, we have sports from A to Z.”

The majority of competitions take place July 13-14, July 18-21 and July 26-28 in Ames. New sports added to this year’s docket include a Drive, Chip and Putt contest and Zumba Fitness(r). Returning to the Games are the sports of Electronic Darts, Hapkido and Rowing. The Games offers events for athletes of all ages and abilities.

“You Can Be an Athlete” at the 2013 Summer Iowa Games. For more information and registration for the 2013 Summer Iowa Games powered by the Iowa Food & Family Project, visit www.IOWAGAMES.org.

The members of the State Fire Marshal Office would like to remind Iowans and their guests to exercise care when using legal fireworks during the July 4th holiday. The only legal fireworks include snakes, sparklers and caps. Please always read the instructions carefully and do not modify or bundle individual fireworks in any manner. Remember that fireworks are dangerous and children should always be closely supervised. For more information go to www.dps.state.ia.us

w/ Marissa Hovde

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