The long road to complete a new Woodbury County jail and courts facility looks to finally be imminent.
County officials on Tuesday announced the Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center on the northeast edge of Sioux City will be substantially completed if an upcoming report looks good.
That report that could come on Wednesday will summarize the functionality of seismic bracing. Workers could begin moving into the jail shortly.
An open house for the public to see the building has been set for September 18.
Other problems that have delayed the building from opening for a year-plus have included not having fire dampers, plus overlooked mechanical elements.
Building a new county jail on the northeast edge of Sioux City was approved in a March 2020 bond issue vote. The cost for the new jail and courtroom building has greatly increased from $50 million to nearly $70 million dollars.
Woodbury County Board members have previously picked a Des Moines law firm to investigate whether the delayed jail opening would cause financial harm to the county.
*Additionally, police are investigating anti-immigrant signs posted on the doors of Latino-owned businesses in a North Central Iowa town.
A photo shared on Facebook by the Hampton Chronicle shows a black-and-white sign that says “USA Illegal Immigrant Hunting Permit,” and below the permit image, the sign says “Trump 2024.”
Police in Hampton, Iowa, began investigating after the sign was found Tuesday.
Janette Acolt is development coordinator for La Luz Centro Cultural, a nonprofit agency in Hampton that serves the Latino community.
Acolt said one of the signs was posted to the nonprofit’s door, and then she found other businesses that were targeted with the same sign.
“We were very scared….just knowing how some people can get very riled up. We were scared that someone could come in. I mean, we have a lot of children’s programs here, so our program coordinator was also very scared," she said.
Acolt says this was a hate crime and she wants justice. She says Latinos are important to Hampton and they’re not going anywhere.
Franklin County Attorney Andrea Miller will determine if any criminal charges are warranted, and had no comment on Wednesday morning. Miller said she’s still waiting for the results of the police investigation.
*In other news, after meeting in a special session for three weeks, the Nebraska Legislature gave first-round approval to a vastly scaled-back proposal to relieve property taxes.
When Tuesday’s debate began, senators were considering a proposal to apply sales tax to about 70 currently exempt goods and services, ranging from pop and candy to pet grooming and lawn care. The idea was to use the money to have the state pay more of the cost of running schools, which are currently supported by local property taxes.
The state senator from Northeast Nebraska, Joni Albrecht, voted for the package on Tuesday. In a release, Governor Jim Pillen praised her and the other senators who advanced the package.
Pillen had called the special session, since he said lawmakers did not address his goal of property tax reduction during the regular session earlier this year. He wants to cut overall property taxes people pay by roughly 50 percent.
*In other news, the Iowa State Fair continues its run through August 18, and one notable event was the presentation of environmental awards to 44 farmers on Wednesday.
Iowa officials such as Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced the awards. They are given to people who take voluntary actions to improve and protect the state’s soil and water.
Those honored from Siouxland include Russell and Beth Winterhof of Cherokee County, Conner and Ashley Hildreth of Calhoun County, Hunter Lindgren of Ida County, Broken Kettle Feedlot, and Tony and Shirley Schroeder of Plymouth County, Nick and Mary Sennert of Buena Vista County, Jessob and Jenna Steffen of Clay County, and Eric and Tali Vander Stouw of Sioux County.
Also at the state fair, Northwest Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra announced that the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee will hold a field hearing at the fair. It will be held Friday morning, and will also be streamed on the Ways and Means Committee YouTube channel.
Feenstra said committee members will hear about “the success of pro-growth, pro-worker tax policy in the Midwest.”
