Longtime Sioux City music icon Johnnie Bolin has died at age 70.
Bolin started his music career playing drums with his brothers, Pudge and legendary rock guitarist Tommy Bolin. After Tommy’s death in 1976, Johnnie Bolin continued as a touring musician with Black Oak Arkansas for more than three decades.
Lot of Siouxland people weighed in Thursday and Friday with memorances of Bolin, and how they enjoyed him as a musician and a person.
Johnnie Bolin returned to his Sioux City hometown in the 1990s and began the Tommy Bolin-themed music festival, which celebrated its 30th year earlier this summer.
He was also co-host of a Siouxland Public Media music show called The B-Sides, which he produced with Eric Blumberg until 2020.
Tommy Bolin was a guitarist with two 1970s groups, Deep Purple and The James Gang, until he died at age 25.
*Additionally, a second demolition blast of a Sioux City flood-damaged train bridge took place Friday in order to remove it.
The bridge was damaged by record flooding, as the Big Sioux River in the Riverside neighborhood of Sioux City reached 45 feet on June 24.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad received the approval from a federal agency needed to start removing the bridge between Sioux City and North Sioux City, South Dakota.
A controlled blast was carried out on the South Dakota side of the river three weeks ago, then the Iowa-side blast came Friday. The bridge had been in place for more than 100 years.
*In other news, Morningside University in Sioux City has received a federal science grant of $2.7 million dollars.
The five-year grant will run through 2029 and comes from a National Science Foundation’s program called Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative Equity and Diversity.
This money will be directed for research opportunities with Morningside’s new initiative, RISE, or the Research Ecosystem Integration and Siouxland Partnership Expansion.
Morningside Professor Brian McFarland in a Thursday release said the grant will enable the college to grow its research capacity as it remains a small teaching-centered institution.
*Additionally, consistent above-normal rainfall during the summer months slowed in August, which led to a return of dry conditions.
The latest Water Summary Update by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources out Friday showed August’s preliminary statewide precipitation was 3.20 inches, or 0.93 inches below normal.
At the end of August, Iowa’s Drought Plan showed overall drought conditions have remained mostly stable for the state. However, the decrease in precipitation has led to a return of dry conditions, and many Northwest IOwa counties are in the category of abnormally dry, which is one category below moderate drought.
Much of Iowa had been in drought conditions for four years, which only ended in June after much spring rain.
*In other news, the average price of self-serve unleaded gasoline has dropped by 7 cents over the last two weeks, averaging $3.11 across Iowa now in the first week of September
That price of $3.11 is down 45 cents compared to one year ago, according to the AAA Motor Club.
Many Sioux City and surrounding town stations are selling unleaded this week in the range from $2.69 to $3.04, or less than the state average. The national average unleaded price has now dropped to $3.32.
