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DAILY NEWS FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2016 • WHERE TO GO WHEN YOU NEED TO KNOW
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Plumb has seen more than East Third Street one side of life in Newton traffic signal
may be removed
After malfunction, light deemed unnecessary By Jamee A. Pierson Newton Daily News
Jason W. Brooks/Daily News Diane Plumb, the Berg Middle School guidance counseling office secretary, is retiring this month after 10 years with the district. Working at Maytag for 20 years, combined with her experience on the public education side, gave her a somewhat unique snapshot of life in Newton.
Middle school guidance secretary retiring this month By Jason W. Brooks Newton Daily News There isn’t much Diane Plumb’s two careers have in common. However, the two occupations she’s held over the past 30 years have given her a somewhat unique perspective on life in Newton. Plumb, who spent 20 years with the Maytag Corporation, has been with the Newton Community School District for the past 10 years, and she’ll be retiring from the district this month. Plumb worked for Maytag in office environments, whereas her Newton Schools role has been as Berg Middle School’s guidance office secretary. “The culture is so different,” Plumb said. “You’re talking about going from an office with cubicles to an environment with lots of incoming phone calls and a bell ringing every 45 minutes.”
Plumb said much of her last 10 years at Maytag were largely devoted to setting the travel schedule of Gordon Jump, the actor known as “The Maytag Repairman” from 1989 until 2003. She ended up working for Maytag for exactly 20 years — she was hired in May 1986, and she left when her department was eliminated in May 2006. Plumb said it seemed a number of Maytag employees lost their jobs in 2004. While the population of Newton didn’t really plummet as some anticipated would happen when Maytag downsized and eventually closed, there were many who had neighbors and colleagues move away. “Those were tough times,” Plumb said. “A lot of our neighbors were a part of the (Maytag) sales force.” Plumb said she doesn’t hear much mention of Maytag from this year’s Berg seventhand eighth-graders, who were all born in the 2000s. There
is the occasional mention of TPI, Newton’s largest industrial employer. Being the guidance secretary has given Plumb a glimpse of Newton from a completely different perspective. As the gatekeeper to guidance counselor Tracee VanArkel, Plumb learns about the triumphs and challenges of getting through middle school and hears many details of the lives of students. “Parents usually have real specific questions about their kids, like about attendance or grades,” Plumb said. “Students, on the other hand, could have any number of things going on with them on a particular day.” Plumb attended Berg herself from 1969 to 1973, when it housed the sixth through the ninth grades. “Newton had so many kids then, when we got to Berg, we were meeting kids that had lived their whole lives a few miles from us, and yet we didn’t meet until we got here,” she said. She said she was able to PLUMB | 3A
A traffic signal located at First Avenue East and East Third Street could be permanently removed following a malfunction this week. Newton Public Works Director Keith Laube said the controller stopped functioning on Monday, leading the city to evaluate its necessity at the intersection. “The controller malfunctioned, and we had to bag the lights because they weren’t operating properly,” Laube said. Stop signs have been placed on the north and south bound corners of the intersection on East Third Street temporarily, but they could become perma-
The Jasper County Conservation Board will soon have a playground courtesy of the Build with Bags program. The plastic bag recycling program being led by Iowa grocers announced on Earth Day, April 22, the City of Newton is one of 18 recipients of a Build with Bags grant award in 2016 and will receive $2,000 to purchase playground equipment that is made from recycled plastic bags by Plastic
Recycling of Iowa. For example, one table represents approximately 20,000 bags that won’t end up in the landfill. “Now in its seventh year, the Build with Bags program continues to encourage individuals to recycle their plastic bags so those bags can be turned into products that beautify our communities,” Michelle Hurd, president of the Iowa Grocery Industry Association said. “This year’s grant winners are CONSERVATION | 3A
NCSD board to consider meal price increase By Jason W. Brooks Newton Daily News There are 20 district business items on the Newton Community School District Board of Education’s agenda for Monday’s regular meeting, along with a host of other topics to present and/or discuss. The meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. in the Emerson Hough conference room. One of the action-only items on the agenda is to consider raising meal prices for the 201617 school year. The current price for a basic lunch in the district is $2.60 at Berg Middle School and Newton High School, $2.30 at Aurora Heights, Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Jefferson Elementary schools and $2.50 at Berg Elementary School. Jason W. Brooks/Daily News Food service supervisor Cristy Croson has Students have lunch in a cafeteria on a recent school day. The Newton Community School District Board of Education is set to vote Monday on whether to raise meal prices for 2016-17.
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WHERE IT’S AT Astrograph......................5B Calendar..........................5A Classifieds......................4B
Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynew.com
Jamee A. Pierson/Daily News Following the malfunction of the traffic signal at the intersection of First Avenue East and East Third Street, the city began looking at its necessity at the intersection.
Conservation board wins Build with Bags grant Newton Daily News
nent in the future. A recent traffic study conducted by the Iowa Department of Transportation on all the traffic signals on First Avenue. It showed out of all traffic signals on First Avenue, the signal located at the intersection with East Third Street could be eliminated. “The intersection doesn’t have a lot of north and south traffic now,” Laube said. If the signal was taken down, the stop signs on East Third Avenue would become permanent, Laube said. The issue would have to be presented to the city council before any action could take place. Laube said following a maintenance check next week, more decisions will be made on the future of the traffic light.
Comics & Puzzles...........6A Dear Abby........................6A Local News......................2A
Obituaries.......................5A Opinion............................4A State News......................7A
Seeing ag technology in action
Newton TAG students see gadgetry firsthand / 2A
Volume No. 114 No. 250 2 sections 16 pages
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