A new affordable housing development will soon be launched on Sioux City's westside.
The Isabella Square Affordable Housing Development will include 11 home along West Fifth Street. A groundbreaking for the development will be held by officials Friday morning at 1211 West Fifth Street.
The homes will be approximately 1,200 square feet and be constructed by the end of 2025. The housing project will be paid for with three grants, including $700,000 dollars from the federal American Rescue Plan to place new utilities in the West Fifth Street area.
Having a good stock of affordable housing has been an ongoing problem in Sioux City. This project is a cooperative venture of the City of Sioux City and West Middle LLC.
*In the final days of the Iowa Legislature, Governor Kim Reynolds has two passed bills that impact education that she is considering signing into law, plus two on other topics.
One measure passed on Thursday in the Iowa House would require schools to adopt new social studies and civics education standards with a focus on Western civilization.
Even before that review is done, the bill also directs the Iowa Department of Education to begin drafting new standards for social studies that emphasize U.S. history and Western Civilization.
Republican Representative Steven Holt said he supports the bill to focus more time in Iowa classrooms on American civics and founding principles, and contrast them with communist regime actions.
Democrats say the list of specific people and events in the plan would take away teachers’ ability to cater lessons to current events and students’ interests.
Also, a bill is on the governor’s desk that lawmakers say will help improve reading scores for students across the state. This one is more bipartisan, as it cleared the Iowa Senate Wednesday without opposition.
The bill requires schools to tell families when a student in kindergarten through sixth grade is reading below grade level. If a parent wants to hold their child back a grade because they are behind on reading, their school must honor that request.
The measure also requires an exam on research-based reading instruction for students in college teaching programs, although a passing grade is not required to graduate as the governor first proposed.
A third bill awaiting action by Reynolds creates a new behavioral health system.
The bill combines Iowa’s 32 mental health and substance use service regions into seven behavioral health districts. State health officials say the new system will promote equitable access to services across the state, and create clear entry points for Iowans to find help.
The action reverses legislative action of about eight years ago, when counties were given the ability to join with adjacent counties of their liking to form regional entities.
Additionally, a fourth bill would regulate traffic cameras is up for consideration by Governor Reynolds, after many years of attempts by some Republican lawmakers to ban traffic cameras.
The bill would require cities to get permission from the Iowa Department of Transportation to have traffic cameras that automatically issue speeding tickets. Cities would have to post signs to notify drivers of the cameras, and tickets could only be issued for going more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
