The
Graphic - Advocate WEDNESDAY
|FEBRUARY 4, 2015|VOLUME 132| ISSUE 5
Rockwell City Office 712-297-7544 • advocate@iowatelecom.net - Lake City Office 712-464-3188 • lcgraphic@iowatelecom.net SCC Middle & High School Honor Roll PAGE 6
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Public Health budget reaching 'stability point,' administrator says By Erin Sommers Graphic-Advocate Editor Decreased staffing and program restructuring resulted in an 11 percent drop in the Calhoun County Public Health Department budget for next fiscal year. “Hopefully we’ve reached a stability point,” Administrator Jane Condon told Calhoun County Supervisors Jan. 27. Public Health last summer stopped providing certain home health services. County officials transferred those services to Stewart Memorial Community Hospital, in exchange picking up the Lake City ambulance service. The changes mean an 8 percent drop – almost $98,000 – in Public Health’s General Basic budget, which includes salaries. The General Basic Supplemental budget, from which things like health insurance and federal taxes are paid, will decline by $82,000, or 17 percent. The 11 percent total reduction reflects a $180,000 decrease for the department. Condon said her department is working with the Veterans Health
Administration and private insurance companies to offer nonskilled nursing services and other care. “If they’re stable and just need a homemaker, we can provide that,” she said. “Insurance companies are looking for lower-cost care.” The department just contracted with insurer Humana to offer such services and got its first patient. “It’s a person that doesn’t want to stay in a nursing home,” Condon said. “They want to go home.” Public health workers can connect such patients with community services, even finding family, friends and neighbors who can check in on them and provide the support needed to stay home. “It doesn’t take a nurse to do that,” Condon said. Overall, last summer’s swap with the hospital is working well, she said. “I think that was a good move,” she said. “There are some good things happening. They’re making some really good changes. They’re
open about their plans for the future, which really helps us.” Several other large county departments limited their increases to raises for employees. Treasurer Lori Erkenbrack said she was only increasing salaries, but she would also need to hire a clerk to replace one who left last year. She had held the salary amount in her budget while trying to fulfill her office’s duties with one less employee. County Assessor Joan Wagner, who is appointed by the Calhoun Conference Board, presented her budget to that entity after the Supervisors’ meeting Jan. 27. She too said she was only proposing salary increases, a 4 percent raise this year. “There’s been more changes in the assessment field in the last year and a half than the past 20,” Wagner said, explaining the proposed salary increase. For example, the state is changing agricultural assessments, including making revisions to the corn
suitability rating for ag land. Going forward, the assessment for agricultural land “depends on whether it’s cropped or not cropped,” she said. The state added a multiunit building classification and is requiring assessors to separate living units from businesses, when the two are in the same building. They will now get separate classifications, she said. Members of the Conference Board include mayors of the counties’ towns and the Board of Supervisors. The board voted to accept her budget and set a hearing for Feb. 17. Auditor Judy Howrey said she expects to have to make a budget amendment for this year, if Supervisor Dean Hoag goes ahead with his plans to resign after two decades on the board. Hoag had previously announced his intention of retiring, but has not set a date. Howrey is expecting a spring special election to replace Hoag. She’s also considering buying
one new voting machine to test out, possibly in that special election. “Our election equipment is about 10 years old,” she said, adding she doesn’t plan to buy the 10 or 12 machines the county needs for a full election until she makes sure the new machine, from ES&S, works properly. The machine will be a ballot scanner. “I never went to (touchscreens) because I always want something in my hand,” she said. The state also ruled counties cannot use touchscreens, because of voting problems. The General Services Department budget proposed a $10,000, or 5 percent, increase. Supervisors, during their discussion of that budget, confirmed their approval of a project to install restrooms in a building on the courthouse property. The restrooms will be open three seasons a year, during special events.
SCC Large Group Speech members describe many benefits of participation
$100
Union makes Secondary Roads contract proposal By Erin Sommers Graphic-Advocate Editor Members of the union representing Calhoun County’s secondary roads workers asked for a few contract changes in their initial bargaining proposal. Union Representative Ron Ewing brought the proposal to the Board of Supervisors Jan. 27. Requests include an increase in the stipend for work boots, raising that amount from $75 to $150, increasing the number of paid days off in the event of a death in the family and allowing employees to start their workday at 6:30 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. “I talked to a handful of guys throughout the county,” Ewing said. “They all liked that. We’re all here to work together and get along.” What the proposal did not include was the union’s requested salary increase. The written proposal said that information would be presented at the time of bargaining. The first such meeting was set for Feb. 3. The county will make its initial proposal at that meeting as well, County Engineer Ron Haden said.
By Erin Sommers Graphic-Advocate Editor South Central Calhoun High School will be well represented at the state Large Group Speech Meet on Saturday. Eleven teams qualified for the event at the district meet last month. Coach Scott Nesbitt said he sees a number of things his students do to make them a successful, cohesive team. “They support each other well,” Nesbitt said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon. “If a kid’s disappointed, they bring their spirits back up.” Nesbitt and co-coach Amber Bruder encourage their students to do more than just relax in between rounds. Nesbitt wants to see SCC speech team members watch their classmates perform, too. And they do. Many team members are involved in multiple activities, which can make scheduling practices a challenge. Nesbitt and Bruder sometimes come to school at 6:15 a.m. or stay late in the evenings to work with speech team participants. “All things considered, they are
dedicated,” Nesbitt said. The Iowa High School Speech Association’s philosophy is to focus on participation, not competition, he added. SCC team members said they really enjoy the entire experience – from meeting people from other parts of the state to watching the competition. Senior Ryan Nicholson is hoping to return to the all-state event, which features selected performers from the state meet at a festival later this year. “My favorite part is going to contests, hanging out and meeting new people,” Nicholson said. Speech team wasn’t something he thought he would join when he got to high school. “My freshman year, I wasn’t going to do it,” he said. “My brother talked me into it.” Colin Brown’s brothers talked him into trying speech, too. “They’d come home and tell stories about what they did,” said Brown, a senior. “It sounded really fun.” This year, Brown is participating
in ensemble and improv. For the latter, teams draw three prompts, words they can choose to build a five-minute scenario around. They have two minutes to discuss what they’ll do, then they perform. “I really like coming up with them on the spot,” Brown said, adding he enjoys “rambling and making it sound good.” What would he say to other students to encourage them to join the team? For one, don’t worry about making people laugh at you. “I would have to tell them they might as well give it a shot,” he said. A teacher encouraged freshman Tiffany Poen to give improv a try this year. She did, and joined an ensemble piece, too. The improv is her favorite, she said. “I like that you can make it up as you go,” she said, adding that practices are run the same way as a contest, with three potential prompts, two minutes to prepare, “then we just go with it.”
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State moves ahead on permits for medical marijuana derivative By Erin Sommers Graphic-Advocate Editor
Colin Brown, left, and Ryan Nicholson, right, re-enact one of their plays Thursday afternoon at South Central High School. Brown and Nicholson are members of the schools large group speech team and will perform at the state meet next week. PHOTO COURTESY SCC HIGH SCHOOL
Lohrville Food Pantry increasing services Wartburg names track
By Erin Sommers Graphic-Advocate Editor
Ruth Stephenson says she and a friend used to just talk about all the things they thought Lohrville needed. About a year ago, Stephenson decided to switch from talk to action,
meet after Chelsey Henkenius first founding a community garden, then distributing the produce to area residents in need. From that grew the Lohrville Food Pantry, which in August became part of Food Pantry of Iowa.
Ruth Stephenson, left, and Joyce Berger, right, are seen Jan. 26 at the Lohrville Food Pantry. Stephenson is the pantry director and Berger assists patrons who visit the pantry. GRAPHIC-ADVOCATE PHOTO/ERIN SOMMERS
That partnership is important, Stephenson said during a recent interview with The GraphicAdvocate. “We started from the ground up,” she said, adding she needed to find a location, specific shelving, enough food to open the pantry and then be in operation for 90 days before Food Pantry of Iowa would consider adding the Lohrville group as a partner. Stephenson opened the pantry in an unused classroom at St. Joseph Church in Lohrville, and was able to be placed under the church’s 501(c)(3), another requirement of the state organization. “They come also and do an inspection,” Stephenson said. “We passed on the very first time (the representative) visited.” The trade-off for that hard work is the ability to buy significantly cheaper canned food items from Food Pantry of Iowa, located in Des Moines. Lohrville Food Pantry doesn’t just serve town residents. Through
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By Erin Sommers Graphic-Advocate Editor The college from which Chelsey Henkenius graduated named its annual indoor track meet after her earlier this month. Henkenius, 22, graduated from the college last year, in just three years, Track and Field Coach Marcus Newsom said Thursday. The decision to name the track meet, which happens the third week in January each year, was an easy one, he said. “She embodied all of the qualities that a coach looks for in a student athlete,” Newsom said. Those qualities included having a strong character, being a good student, having a fantastic work ethic and being tough. “She really handled adversity with head held high and was focused and driven,” Newsom said. “As a person, her parents should be very proud of how they raised her, the values they instilled in her. These were displayed every day.” Newsom didn’t just coach
Henkenius. For three years, she was also his work study student, and she would often keep him on task, reminding him to return phone calls that he admitted he would sometimes forget about. “I saw her every day,” Newsom said. “We were able to have those life conversations … to be able to see her mature and watch her growth as a young woman.” Newsom first thought of naming the track meet after Henkenius on his way to her memorial service. He said he’s still having a hard time wrapping his head around the idea that she died. He’s glad that he will be able to talk about Henkenius each January, to explain to future students, their families and the media who she was and what kind of person she was. Doing so may help to inspire future students to aspire to be like her, he said. Henkenius, of Lake City, died in a car crash in late December.
Two state agencies have created an application form to obtain a medical cannabidiol registration card. State legislators last year approved the use of the pharmaceuticalgrade marijuana oil for people with epilepsy. Those patients must receive a written recommendation from a neurologist, approval by the Iowa Department of Public Health and then get a permit to transport the cannabidiol from the Department of Transportation. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, “cannabidiol is a nonpsychoactive cannabinoid found in the marijuana plant.” The law allows patients to possess and use, but not create or sell cannabidiol. Calhoun County Department of Public Health Administrator Jane Condon said she hasn’t heard of any interest in obtaining cannabidiol locally. “We’ve got a pretty conservative base,” Condon told The GraphicAdvocate last week. “It’s never come up in a Board of Health meeting.” Condon also serves on the Iowa Public Health Association board, and that group has never discussed cannabidiol, either. She was glad the state had created a process for permit holders to transport the medicinal product. “It seems silly to allow the usage and then not allow them to transport it,” she said. If the application is approved, patients who are 18 or older and their primary caregivers, will receive information with the mailed approval notification on how to obtain the card through Iowa DOT’s driver’s license issuance sites. The Medical Cannabidiol Act took effect Friday. For more information, and to download the application form, visit idph.state.ia.us/MCARCP/Default. aspx.