Changes in the recreation options in the Okoboji, Iowa area continue to develop.
One of the three longstanding main boat businesses closed after the 2024 season and is now being demolished in the Smith’s Bay area of West Lake Okoboji. That is where Okoboji Boats is being removed, amid a plan to use the land for homes.
According to Explore Okoboji News, Okoboji Boats opened in1890, when the marina catered to steam boats that were in vogue. Butch Parks was the most recent owner who sold the business and land to an entity that plans single-family homes on the lakefront property.
Additionally in the wider Okoboji tourism area, the Clay County Conservation Board is planning a facility that will be instructive in environmental education.
The board’s website details plans to build the Oneota Environmental Learning Center at Oneota Park, which covers 223 acres adjacent to the Little Sioux River.
Board officials are underway with fundraising efforts, under the theme of “no child left indoors” to spur donations. A groundbreaking took place at the site this week, and the goal is to have the Oneota Environmental Learning Center open for classes in 2026.
*Additionally, students in the University of Nebraska system campuses will pay a higher tuition rate of 5 percent in the upcoming school year.
The upcoming increase marks the third straight year of tuition increases at the university, following a two-year tuition freeze.
The NU Board of Regents approved a $1.1 billion state-aided annual budget on Thursday with the 5 percent increase in tuition. Since that university budget allocation from the Legislature included a growth rate that is far below the rate of inflation, the university system will have $18 million in cuts.
The university had initially asked the state for a 3.5 percent annual increase in its budget. However, the budget the Legislature passed last month only included an annual appropriation increase of six-tenths of 1 percent.
Nebraska University President Jeffrey Gold said the below inflation rate increase will not cover the rising cost of employee benefits and larger capital projects.
Regent Jim Scheer, the former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, said limiting funds to a public institution in an effort to reduce property taxes is a form of "robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
*In other news, a new report has ranked Iowa’s health system eighteenth in the nation.
The report by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund released Wednesday shows Iowa has low rates of drug overdose deaths and adults who go without care because of the cost. However, it also has some of the nation’s highest obesity rates.
It also found Iowa’s uninsured rate dropped from more than 12 percent in 2013 to about 7 percent in 2023.
Sara Collins is with the Commonwealth Fund. Collins said current proposals at the federal level to add work requirements to Medicaid could cause Iowa’s uninsured rate to go back up, as most people on Medicaid already work.
Iowa lawmakers also passed Medicaid work requirements at the state level last session and are waiting on federal approval to implement them.
*Additionally, a special task force is working to pinpoint the best place to build a new prison in South Dakota, as the process to get that built continues to be extended.
Earlier this year, lawmakers squashed a possible plan to build a new prison of more than $700 million near Sioux Falls.
Now, the Project Prison Reset Task Force members are deciding between South Dakota sites in Mitchell, Worthing, Sioux Falls and Springfield, and there have been some news updates concerning the Mitchell option over the last two days.
First, on Wednesday, the cost of land for a proposed prison site in Mitchell is now nearly double its original price tag.
Landowner James River Farms increased its asking price from $18,000 to $35,000 per acre.
Mike Brunner is the Senior Policy Advisor and Director of Legislative Relations for the governor. He said increases like this one are common.
Also concerning Mitchell as a possible prison site, the first of community forums on the four options took place Tuesday. Those who gathered included local officeholders, state legislator and other people.
Laura Weisz lives near the possible prison site and she is an opponent of the facility coming to Mitchell.
“I know it’s going to lower our property value, it’s going to lower all our neighbors’ property value," Weisz said. "And no one’s happy. We think it’s being pushed into our face.”
Mike Lauritsen is the CEO of the Mitchell Chamber of Commerce and Development Corporation. He told the task force members to move forward, seeing positive potential with the Mitchell project.
The task force is scheduled to meet July 8 where they will hear different project options for those four sites.
