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DAILY NEWS WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 23, 2015 • WHERE TO GO WHEN YOU NEED TO KNOW
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School board hires group for consulting on SAMs By Jason W. Brooks Newton Daily News
Jamee A. Pierson/Daily News Crews continue working to demolish houses in 300 block of East Fourth Street North Wednesday morning that were purchased through the D&D program. The program, which is coming to the end of its funding, will move onto its next phase of redevelopment and new construction for lots the city now owns.
Following successful D&D program, city looks to redevelopment By Jamee A. Pierson Newton Daily News Through the Dangerous and Dilapidated program, the city has demolished 48 properties to date, according to Erin Chambers, director of Planning and Zoning, who addressed the Newton City Council Monday. Since the program began two years ago, it has been one of the most visible examples of the efforts the city is making to clean up problem areas, she said. “We’ve done a lot of work in the D&D program and now we are moving into the next phase of the program. The vast majority of the funding that has been set aside has been utilized,” Chambers said. The city has been successfully utilizing three primary tools
on the blighted properties — the low-cost purchase of the property and demolition, petitioning the court for ownership of abandoned buildings and the use of Chambers notice and order under the 1997 Uniform Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings. “Of those 48 properties the city has or will be taking ownership of about 36 of those properties,” Chambers said. “The purpose of the D&D program isn’t to grow the amount of property held by the city government, rather it seeks to eventually return the property back to the tax base.”
To date, the city has sold or agreed to sell five properties in the program. The funds from those sales are then returned back to the program to be utilized on other dilapidated homes. “As a result of the recent D&D efforts, several larger redevelopment footprints have emerged. For these assembled footprints, staff is working on development concepts that can be used to market the areas to potential developers,” Chambers said. An example of assembled footprints are found in the 300 block of East Fourth Street North, the 1400 and 1500 block of East Sixth Street South, the 1000 block of East Eighth Street North and the 900 block of East Ninth Street North. DEVELOPMENT | 3A
After the Newton Community School District board of education had new members and its officers sworn in at last week’s regular meeting, it was time to move on to some financial issues. One of the board’s first acts at the meeting was to extend, for 2015-16, an operating agreement with the School Administrators of Iowa, whom NCSD will pay nearly $16,000 for school-administrator consulting services. The district used SAI’s services last year, and Superintendent Bob Callaghan said Newton personnel speak very highly of the impact from the training provided during the 201415 school year. SAI is an organization of more than 2,000 Iowa educational ad-
ministrators whose stated mission is to “support, encourage and develop Iowa’s educational leaders and learners.” The organization provides training for school administration managers and others in leadership positions, who are learning about nuances of school management. “With the district’s direction toward SAMs, and the school principals feeling this is of great benefit, this will be a continuation into the second year of the project,” Callaghan said. “We feel it’s been extremely valuable.” “One of our building principals (Lisa Sharp of Berg Middle School) would like to expand that, and she has added a Level II SAM to the project, and that is identified in this agreement,” Callaghan said. SAMS | 3A
Jason W. Brooks/Daily News Newton Community School District board of education president, Sheri Benson, who was re-elected as board president by her peers, and the board’s newly elected vice president, Travis Padget, were sworn in at last week’s meeting.
Elderly Nutrition program to use excess funds for meals By Jamee A. Pierson Newton Daily News
Submitted Photo From left to right, Jim Kool, Neil Weyrauch, Josh “Kirby” McBride, Becky Van Baale, Brent Deppe, Jenny Jensen, James Jensen, Chris Clark, Connie Wright, Misha Filson, Kris Reicks and Edwin Lawrence volunteered to raise money and participate in the 2014 NAMI Walk in Newton.
Optimae to host NAMI silent auction fundraiser Thursday Walk will take place Saturday morning By Kate Malott Newton Daily News Optimae LifeServices staff and clients are supporters of the National Alliance of Mental Illness and the services it
provides to people and families struggling with mental illness. In allegiance with the annual state NAMI Walk, Optimae will host its first Jasper County NAMI Silent Auction fundraiser from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at its offices, 1730 First Ave. E. in Newton. There will be numerous items and gift baskets available to buy
and bid on at the silent auction including many handmade crafts, a movie night basket, a coffee and chocolate basket, food gift baskets, a family game night basket, a Circle of Friends figurine baskets and Premier jewelry baskets. Hot dogs and potato chips will also be served as well. OPTIMAE | 8A
The Jasper County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved Jasper County Elderly Nutrition to use excess funds to purchase shelf-stable and frozen meals. The meals would be purchased using $9,300 in carryover funds that was distributed to the county. “I would like to spend a portion of it on shelf-stable meals. We’ve done this in the past. They are meals that we can give to our clients, they can be put on a shelf and if we are closed due to weather and if they don’t have electricity and can’t use a microwave, they can pull the meals out, open the can and eat it as is,” project manager Kelli Van Manen said. The shelf-stable meals cost $2.61 each and will be purchased from
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JA Foods Services in Muchanan, Mich. She will also purchase frozen meals for the program. The frozen meals would take the place of sack lunches normally distributed for Veterans Day, the day after Thanksgiving,
Christmas Eve, New Year’s Day and Presidents Day. “We have never done these in the past. I can get two meals in a pack and we would get three of those and we would
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WHERE IT’S AT Astrograph......................5B Calendar..........................5A Classifieds......................4B
Jamee A. Pierson/Daily News A shelf-stable and frozen meals purchase presented by Project Manager Kelli Van Manen was approved by the Jasper County Board of Supervisors to be used by Jasper County Elderly Nutrition
Comics & Puzzles...........6A Dear Abby........................6A Local News......................2A
Obituaries.......................5A Opinion............................4A State News......................7A
MEAL | 3A
Program focuses on addiction
‘Pressing Forward’ author in Newton / 2A
Volume No. 114 No.91 2 sections 16 pages
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