The Sioux City Council voted down a plan Monday to rezone a piece of farmland to build a concrete mixing plant and storage area.
Construction company Knife River Midwest wanted to buy 30 acres in the Leeds neighborhood for the project.
More than 600 residents signed a petition in opposition. Many were concerned about air quality, traffic, noise, and the location being too close to schools, homes, and parks.
The landowner and Knife River held the position that the project would not cause much change to the present environment.
A representative for Knife River said the company is willing to work with the city to find the right, different location for the facility.
*In other news, people sharing what have turned out to be hoaxes about threats to students are plaguing the Sioux City School District in the first month of classes.
Two such incidents happened on Tuesday, and at least two others occurred last week at schools in the district. The latest two involved incidents at West High School and North Middle School.
The district spokeswoman sent the following message to constituents, after officials decided not to lock down the school.
“We are aware of a non-specific social media threat circulating in a Snapchat group made up of North Middle School students. We are investigating, however, we do not feel the threat is credible. Our students and staff are safe, and the school day is continuing as normal,” spokeswoman Leslie Heying said.
She noted that it is believed that the West High School Snapchat message was “the same threat that was reported by a North Middle School student earlier today.”
Heying said the students who saw the threat and reported it did the correct thing, and that any “students responsible for making threatening posts or reposting and resharing them face disciplinary action and possible criminal charges depending on their role in the incident.”
*Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day — and the state’s top election official is urging Iowans to register to vote.
Iowa residents who are U.S. citizens and will be at least 18 years old on Election Day can register to vote in the November election. Most Iowans can register to vote online, and there’s also an option of filling out a paper form and sending it to your county auditor. Iowans can find that information at voter-ready-dot-iowa-dot-gov.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says people who want to vote should make a plan for when and how they’ll vote, and he says Iowans should check their voter registration.
“We don’t want you to have a bad experience on Election Day. We want it to be nice, fun, enjoyable, part of your civic engagement. And the best way to do that is just double checking it and make sure it’s there,” Pate said.
The deadline for voter pre-registration is October 21st. Iowans can also register to vote at their polling place on Election Day but may have to bring additional documents to prove their residency.
*Additionally, Iowa nursing home inspections are falling short of federal requirements according to an analysis by the State Auditor’s office.
Statewide, the average time between inspections is about 17 months. The federal mandate is 13 months.
State Auditor Rob Sand on Monday said if the state doesn’t have enough people to inspect the state’s 403 nursing homes on time, the legislature should respond.
“If we’re way below the average for nursing home inspections, why would we not fund additional inspections? The entire purpose of the inspection is to make people understand that someone may be coming to take a look. That helps them do a better job of taking care of our elderly and vulnerable residents,” Sand said.
Sand said Iowa ranks 46th in the nation for the number of nursing home staff members per resident.
There is also high turnover in the industry. More than half of nurses who worked in a nursing home left in the past year.
