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| Vol. 144, no. 8 | $1 per copy/86¢ deliVered
GHV board presents counter proposal
News at a glance
Rebecca Peter
Youth Art Month
Community calendar Friday, February 26 Family Fun Night will be held at the Veterans Memorial Rec Center, 365 W 8th St., Garner, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. There is no cost to attend. RSVP required by February 23: vschmidt@iastate.edu Saturday, February 27 Christine Atwell benefit will be held at the USDA Building in Garner. There will be a silent auction and bake sale from 2 to 7 p.m. A meal will be offered from 5 to 7 p.m., and a live auction is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Bethel Baptist Church in Britt is holding a “Compassionate Conversation about Suicide” from 9 to 11 a.m. Britt Girl Scout Troop 297 is hosting “The Red Carpet” from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Britt Municipal Building. Girls are invited to bring that “special guy” (dad, grandpa, uncle) for a night of dancing and refreshments. Sunday, February 28 Garner Community Lenten Service will be held at Zion Evangelical & Reformed Church at 7 p.m. Offering will go to Garner Ambulance. Tuesday, March 1 Kanawha Community Blood Drive will be from 2-6 p.m. at the Kanawha Fire Station, 104 South Main St. To schedule, go to lifeservebloodcenter.org or call 800-287-4903. Iowa State Bank is open at a new location: 104 NW Elm St., Corwith. Hours are 8:30 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1 to 4 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1-5 p.m. on Friday. Garner American Legion Post #256 will meet at the Garner Rec Center Vets Room at 7 p.m. All members who wish to renew their memberships and veterans who would like to be a part of the American Legion are welcome. Friday, March 4 West Hancock Student Council is sponsoring a blood drive from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Call Holly Lang at 641-425-3863 to set up an appointment. Walk ins are accepted. Continued on page 2.
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gleadernews@qwestoffice.net GARNER – The Garner-Hayfield-Ventura management team presented their response to initial contract proposals from the GHV Education Association on Feb. 18 Three of the Association’s initial contract proposals regarding salary, supplemental pay, and personal leave were accepted by the board of education. The board accepted the GHVEA’s proposal for a 4.36 percent increase to the teacher base salary by adding $722 to the base to reach a salary minimum of $33,500. The current base pay for teachers is $33,772. The board accepted the Association’s proposal to add $800 to the supplemental base salary schedule Emilie Jensen | The Leader
Cynthie and Mike Madison of Britt are the 2016 Hancock County Relay For Life honorary ambassadors, pictured with Hancock Court Relay for Life coordinator Linda Webner.
2016 Relay ambassadors named Emilie Jenson
leadernews.map@gmail.com BRITT - Plans for the 2016 Hancock County Relay for Life are underway, and this year’s honorary ambassadors have one simple message to help in the fight against cancer. “Keep up on your check-ups,” said Cynthie Madson, of Britt, who along with her husband, Mike are the 2016 ambassadors. Cynthie Madson said a trip to the doctor to have a benign lump on her head checked out is what saved her life. “They told me it had been a while since I’d had a mammogram, “ she said. “So they set me up for one the next day .” She said her mammogram revealed some suspicious spots, so she underwent a biopsy, MRI and several other tests revealing what she had feared
PSA levels as they gradually elevated. “The numbers were going up steadily, so it was decided I needed a biopsy,” he said. “Of course, it was prostate cancer.” Mike Madson underwent surgery to remove the prostate, followed by 31 treatments of radiation. “I had options of surgery or radiation, “ he said. “But if I had radiation first they couldn’t do the surgery. So I went with the surgery. Then I had PSA tests, the numbers should have been zero then, but they weren’t, so I had radiation. I did 31 treatments, every day for 31 days. “ Mike Madson encourages men to get the their PSA numbers checked. “Get the test, “he said “A lot of men don’t even know they could have cancer unless the get the PSA test, I didn’t. It’s a simple blood test. It’s easy.”
Hancock County budget hearing is Feb. 29 Rebecca Peter
gleadernews@qwestoffice.net A public hearing on the proposed Hancock County budget for fiscal year 2016-17 will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 29. The county’s projected operating budget of $13,168,360 is up slightly from the re-estimated 2015-16 budget of $13,162,020. The proposed tax rates per $1,000 taxable valuation are $3.71375 for urban property and $6.88487 for rural property. The current fiscal year rates are $3.75344 (urban) and $6.92456 (rural). Property tax askings for the FY 2016-17 budget year are up about 2 percent - $5,370,345 compared to $5,280,949 for the current budget. “Overall the budget looks good,” said Ron Sweers, chairman of the Hancock County Board of Supervisors. “We’re one of very few counties that has no borrowed money. Our dollars per thousand is one of the lowest in the state.” Secondary Road projects for the next fiscal year include bridge replacement projects and local rightof-way purchases for a total budgeted amount of $875,000. “Sometime in the future we will have the courthouse annex, which we will either have to fix or tear down,” Sweers noted. The budget includes proposed wage and salary increases for fiscal
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– she had breast cancer. That was in March 2008, and on April 2 of that year, she underwent surgery to have the cancer removed from the breast. She credits the appointment for the lump on her head for the early detection and to why she is still here today. “I never would have known,” she said. “I didn’t have a lump or any signs of breast cancer. If I hadn’t gone in for the lump we never would have found the breast cancer.” She said she urges everyone to keep up on their check-ups and regular mammograms. “I can not stress enough, keep up on your check-ups,” said Cynthie Madson. “Make sure your loved ones do too, it can save your life or theirs.” Her husband, Mike Madson, also fought cancer. In 2011, he said he had been having tests and check-ups for his prostate
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2016-17 and an anticipated increase in the cost of health insurance. In December, the Hancock County Compensation Board recommended a 5 percent salary increase for the elected county officials. The Board of Supervisors will take that recommendation under consideration during the budget hearing. Proposed Expenditures Anticipated expenditures for the fiscal 2016-17 in the various county budget areas are as follows: • Public Safety and Legal Services - $1,905,574. Includes expenses for law enforcement, the county attorney, legal services, communication/ dispatch, emergency management and certain district court expenses. • Physical Health and Social Services - $339,266. This area includes expenses for public health for the local board of health; services for the poor and to the elderly; sanitation expenses, general assistance and veteran’s commission expenses. This service also accounts for chemical dependency programs and youth shelter care. • Mental Health Services $392,443. This area covers the expense for the care of mental disability, and other developmental disabilities. • County Environment and Education - $609,797. Budget includes the conservation department and recycling program for the rural area. This area also includes expenses
Volume 144 Number 8
USPS214-160 Entire contents copyrighted by Garner Printing & Publishing Co., 2016
In this issue:
MASON CITY - Have it Made! is the theme of the 32nd annual Youth Art Month Exhibition. The display opens on Friday, Feb. 26 in the Center Space Gallery of the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum, Mason City. This year the spotlight shines on high school students, celebrating the creativity and inventive energy of students in ninth through twelfth grade. Student artists whose work has been selected for inclusion in the exhibition will be honored at a reception and recognition ceremony at the Museum on Saturday, March 19 at 1 p.m. Art teachers from AEA Area 267, Clear Lake Regional Office schools were invited to enter artwork from their students. Sixty-three works from 13 schools were selected for this year’s show. The exhibition continues through Saturday, April 23. Museum hours are: Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday - 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Tuesday, Thursday - 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.
to accommodate raises for coaches, sponsors and other supplemental positions. The board agreed to a third personal leave day with additional language stating that reimbursement for unused personal leave remain a maximum of two days. All other contract language proposals from the GHVEA were not accepted. They include: •tThe option of employees to be paid on the 5th and 20th of each month. • Have the option of electronic pay stubs. • Have unpaid leave be the cost of hiring a substitute teacher. Not the teacher’s diem pay. • Change the amount of unused sick leave rate from $30 per day to $100 per day for a maximum of 120 days. The GHV Board of Education expressed “a deep appreciation for the GHVEA’s respectful initial proposal.”
associated with county parks, recreational services, zoning, environmental improvement, economic development, public libraries, the county fair and historic preservation. • Roads and Transportation $5,800,733. This budget area includes costs associated with the Secondary Road Department such as a maintenance, equipment, administration and engineering. • Government services to residents - $509,478. Includes expenses for many state mandated services such as elections, motor vehicle registration, recording public documents, salary of the recorder, staff meeting costs for township officials, and salaries for township trustees and clerks. • Administration – $1,189,655. Administrative expenses include the salary and wages for the board of supervisors, auditor, treasurer and their respective staff as well as data processing costs, operational costs of county offices, and general liability insurance expenses. The Government Services and Administration portions of the county budget cover the daily operation of the courthouse. • Capital Projects ($906,000) and Non-Program Current service areas ($16,300) includes road construction projects, conservation land improvement projects and miscellaneous county farm expenses.
Drawing of new transportation center at GHV courtesy of StruXture Architects.
GHV Bus Barn Rebecca Peter
gleadernews@qwestoffice.net The $7.2 million expansion/remodeling project at Garner-Hayfield-Ventura will include a new transportation center for school vehicles. The transportation center building dimensions are 200’ x 92’ (18,400 square feet). The building has the capacity to store ten buses. Doors will be on both sides so drivers can pull through the building and not have to back into spaces. The wash bay will have enough room for a full size bus. Other features are: • Two mechanic bays for general vehicle maintenance. • Six bays for smaller school vehicles. • General building and grounds storage for maintenance equipment. Plans include a new site access drive along the south side of the football field. There will be an additional 125 parking spaces at the transportation center. A new athletic fields entry at transportation center parking lot for football and baseball sporting events will elevate congestion at main parking lot. The new parking lot manages water run-off and drains into water retention pond. Another feature is the emergen-
cy and service vehicle access point for athletic fields. Mechanical systems for the transportation building are gas fired, unit heaters in combination with gas fired radiant tube heaters for bus facility. There will be a gas detection system in bus vehicle areas to detect and turn on exhaust fans when CO or NO2 gases are present in high concentrations. The current bus garage at Garner will be used for storage purposes, according to Superintendent Tyler Williams. The bus garage at Ventura will also remain a part of the school district. “It will be useful maintaining a garage facility in Ventura when we have campuses in two different towns,” he said. The GHV high school project also involves construction of a new athletic performance facility, wrestling room, fine arts storage; classroom additions for special education, art and science, remodeled entrance/multipurpose room, and new baseball field and site improvements. Nicholas Hildebrandt of StruXture Architects is the project architect. Adam Van Gorp is the project manager. Larson Construction of Lake Mills is the general contractor. Editor’s Note: Watch for more articles in future editions of The Leader.
Kanawha sets dates for 2016 farmer’s market
Emilie Jenson
leadernews.map@gmail.com Kanawha is starting to think spring as organizers prepare to bring back an annual spring and summer tradition. The Kanawha Farmer’s Market dates have been set for 2016, and the opening day market has been set for Monday, June 13. The market will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. each following Monday until early October, weather permitting. The farmer’s market is now accepting vendors, said Market Coordinator Julie Sweers. “We are always looking for new vendors and new products,” said Sweers. Vendors at the Kanawha market do not have to offer produce, Sweers, said. Homemade items are always wellliked by customers as well. “We could use another baker,” she
said. “And maybe some more crafters, more produce is always welcome too.” Last year’s market brought four regular vendors, with each of the produce vendors certified to accept WIC and Senior nutrition checks. “It was a good year for us in 2015,” she said. “For what we offered it was good. It’s a little market, but it is good for Kanawha. The people are very loyal about coming.” Early markets will offer spring produce, such as green lettuces and radishes and selection will grow as the gardening season progresses. Vendors do not need to be certified as a senior and WIC participant, but Sweers recommends for state reporting that all vendors who wish to participate contact her soon to get the certified vendors reported. To become a vendor or for more information, contact Sweers at (641)8601516.
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