A speed restriction on many of the Okoboji area lakes in Dickinson County that has been in place since early June could expire within the next week.
The Dickinson County Emergency Management Commission members on Tuesday decided to let the 5 mph rule on lakes expire, once certain measurements on lakes and shoreline are reached.
The lakes have been very high following rains in the month of June, and area rivers started flooding after substantial rains on June 21 and 22.
Additionally, KUOO News reported Wednesday that there have been 70 shoreline collapses along Big Spirit Lake, East Lake Okoboji, and West Lake Okoboji. That summary came from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
*The Federal Emergency Management Agency will open a fifth Disaster Recovery Center in Northwest Iowa on Saturday.
Over the last two weeks, FEMA has opened centers in four towns heavily impacted by flooding. Those centers are FEMA workers can explain disaster assistance programs and help people complete or check the status of applications for federal assistance.
The new center will be added in Cherokee, and the others are located in Spencer, Rock Valley, Rock Rapids, and Estherville.
*In related news, a Western Iowa mayor said he is concerned about damaging weather events that he contends are the outcome of climate change.
Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh on Tuesday pointed to record-breaking flooding and deadly tornadoes as signs climate change is real and too costly to ignore.
“People justify what they want to justify. I think the proof is in the pudding in the pudding and saying that FEMA is running out of money and, you know, between fires and hurricanes and tornadoes and flooding, it’s pretty hard to deny evidence is right in front of your face," Walsh said.
*In other news, a judge has ordered Sioux City School Board member Dan Greenwell to pay nearly $53,000 in legal costs to the former school district superintendent.
Former Superintendent Paul Gausman alleged that Sioux City School Board members held two unlawful meetings in 2022. After a January trial, a judge ruled Greenwell and three other school board members violated the state's open meetings law in one meeting, although one other meeting was determined to have been properly closed to public attendance.
The judge later ordered Greenwell to pay the legal fees borne by Gausman, since he had not acted in good faith in closing the meeting.
Greenwell had sought to reduce the amount of legal fees, but this week the judge finalized the amount at $52,700.
*Additionally, the completion date for the much-delayed new Woodbury County jail facility is nearing, but might not make the opening date of late July.
The $70 million dollar jail was initially to open in September 2023, but ongoing snafus in construction work keep pushing it back. In this year alone, the projected opening has bumped from April to May, to June, and late July.
Woodbury County Law Enforcement Authority member Ron Wieck on Wednesday told Siouxland Public Media that the authority meeting on Tuesday had some good news, but other issues remain to be addressed.
Some of the reasons for the delays have included needed building elements such as fire dampers being inadvertently left out of plans, plus errors by an engineering firm. Some needed work involves sound insulation, so it is possible the completion moves into August.
The original projected cost for the jail on the northeast side of Sioux City was $54 million.
*Additionally, this week marks the second anniversary of the launch of the 988 program. That’s the three digit national hotline for mental health emergencies.
Two years into the launch of 988, 87 percent of Iowa calls are being answered by call centers that are in-state. That’s close to the goal of 90 percent, according to a report by the mental health advocacy organization, Inseparable.
Emily Blomme is the CEO of Foundation 2 Crisis Services in Cedar Rapids, which operates one of Iowa’s two call centers.
Blomme said the biggest challenge remains finding and retaining staff, as turnover at her center is at nearly 50 percent.
