After weeks of having such offices in Northwest Iowa, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has now opened four Disaster Recovery Centers in Southeast South Dakota.
The centers are designed as one-stop shops for people impacted by the severe late June flooding that impacted Siouxland. One of the worst areas for damages and people displaced from homes was in the McCook Lake neighborhood of North Sioux City, and now there is a FEMA center in Union County.
The other South Dakota counties with Disaster Recovery Centers are Davison, Lincoln, and Turner. FEMA workers can explain disaster assistance programs and help people complete or check the status of applications for federal assistance.
There were more than 10 such centers in Northwest Iowa counties starting in July, although a few have closed.
Not all people have moved back into homes in McCook Lake, but there was one bit of good news, as this week the lake reopened to boating. However there is a no-wake zone on McCook Lake for now, which means people can go no faster than 5 miles per hour.
It had been nearly three months since a state agency said people could not use boats there.
*In other news, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and other state officials are underway with an official trade mission to India.
According to a press release from the governor’s office, the purpose of the mission is to work toward strengthening Iowa’s trade and investment relationships with one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
The delegation that left Iowa on Tuesday included Reynolds, Iowa Economic Development Authority and Iowa Finance Authority Director Debi Durham, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, and agricultural and business leaders from Iowa.
The 10-day mission includes time in Delhi and Mumbai where they will meet with key Indian government officials and American business leaders.
*An official from the U.S Department of Energy in early September visited an experimental farm at Iowa State University that is studying how to grow food around solar panels.
It’s the first project of its kind in Iowa centered around agri voltaics – the idea of using the land around these sites for other agricultural purposes such as growing produce or grazing livestock.
Katie Hendrickson from the U.S Department of Energy said projects such as these will help the nation shift towards cleaner energy.
“The ability to put solar all across the country is going to help decarbonize and we have to go to farmland for that. So being able to colocate on agriculture land – whether that’s grazing, especially crops like we’re seeing today[...]– we can’t get there without working with our farmers,” Hendrickson said.
ISU researchers started growing broccoli, strawberries, summer squash and other crops on the site starting this year. They are also raising bees and a pollinator garden to support production. The project is funded through a four-year grant from the Department of Energy.
*In other news, a multi-year case involving a north central Iowa police chief accused of using a stun gun during parties and other crimes appears to be settled.
He wasn’t the only one in his community in trouble with the law.
The former police chief of Armstrong, Craig Merrill, on Wednesday entered an Alford Plea to two aggravated misdemeanor counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in Emmet County.
That means he agrees to a deal with prosecutors but does not admit guilt. Court documents indicate all other charges will be dropped.
Merrill was charged for the taser incidents that happened at two parties at his home in 2016. His attorneys say people were willingly tasered.
Merrill and other city leaders were arrested in 2021 in what prosecutors called a “long-running corruption scheme,” which included the misappropriation of city funds.
Three city employees entered guilty pleas and did not receive jail time. Former Mayor Greg Buum, Merrill’s father-in-law, is scheduled to be tried in Clay County on October 1.
