News
NEW LOOK:
• Thursday Night in the Park
Thursday Night in the Park will be hosted by Clarke Community School District. It is planned 5:30 p.m. today on the courthouse lawn in Osceola.
Clarke prepares for 2015 season with new coach page 7
www.osceolaiowa.com
155 YEARS • NO. 33
OSCEOLA, IOWA 50213
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015
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DMACC and Osceola: A new relationship? City council approves request for a fall internship at waste water treatment plant By AMY HANSEN
OST news editor • ahansen@osceolaiowa.com
Osceola City Council just began an educational relationship with Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC). During a city council meeting Tuesday, Aug. 4, the council approved the request from DMACC for a fall internship at the city’s waste water treatment plant. “I like the concept, personally, because I think that it would be a good p o s s i b l e Wheeler future recruiting stream for the city if we get involved with DMACC,” said Ty Wheeler, city administrator/clerk. “I also think that there is some potential for continuing education opportunities with our staff, which we currently haven’t sent any staff to a community college course. They take them through the DNR and other continuing ‘ed’ programs offered through the state.” Internship Originally, DMACC officials contacted waste water officials about having a fall intern in Osceola. An intern would be considered a part-time employee — for the city to hire this intern. The intern would complete 240 hours of work with compensation between $9-14 an hour. A fall internship would most likely run from late August to mid-December. Wheeler said the intern was
“I like the concept, personally, because I think that it would be a good possible future recruiting stream for the city if we get involved with DMACC.” — Ty Wheeler
City administrator/clerk
from Urbandale. It was mentioned if the intern is paid $13 an hour, that would mean the total cost is approximately $3,000. Since the intern would just be a part-time employee, it won’t make an impact on the city’s health insurance plan, which is for full-time employees. Semester by semester The approval for the intern would be a one-time approval, which means it can be fit in the budget. “This is a trial run on our part. We want to make sure that it fits for us,” Wheeler said. “We can start to incorporate this into the budget, but I do think that this would be more of a case by case. I don’t think we should (always) expect the placement of an intern with us, nor should DMACC expect that they can place an intern with us. We want to go about this semester by semester.” The council discussed they didn’t want to create concerns with Southwestern Please see DMACC, Page 4
OST photo by AMY HANSEN
Stop sign: Effective Monday, Aug. 10, there was a new stop
sign and warning sign at the intersection of Park and Jefferson streets. That intersection is now a four-way stop and is important because it is near Clarke Community Elementary School. SINGLE COPY PRICE: 75¢
Copyright 2015
Tony Greif and his dog canoe on the city streets of Murray after a heavy rain that caused flooding.
From the ground up City of Murray begins to tackle infrastructure, water problems By AMY HANSEN
OST news editor • ahansen@osceolaiowa.com
MURRAY — When it rains, it pours. And when it rains really hard in Murray, people can be found tubing and canoeing down the city streets. “When it rains, the town floods, and then the water just sits and it’s destroying our streets,” said Denise Simmons, Murray city administrator, who has been in the position for the past eight months. However, city officials are in the process of getting various city infrastructure problems fixed. They hired JEO Consulting to help with working on storm water and drainage issue, as well as the water distribution system. What comes first Simmons said infrastructure issues have to be addressed first before the problems with the broken streets are dealt with. “You know, we don’t want to throw $2.4 million at the streets to only tear them up later because we haven’t fixed the infrastructure issues,” she said. The city is also working on repairs to its sanitary sewer system. Officials are working on installing new water meters throughout town. All of the meters will be off of the cellular system, and if somebody tampers with a meter, it will be known right away. JEO is in the process of doing an engineering study right now for the water
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Obituary........................3 Public Notices.......... 7-8 Record..........................2 Sports............................7
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Pictured is street damage in the city of Murray.
system and the storm sewer system. The goal is to get the water system study done by the end of September to take advantage of USDA funding still available this year. There will also be opportunities to look into acquiring funding for next year, as well. PPG grants To aid Murray’s progress, the city has been awarded not only one, but
Weather Your Local Weather Thu
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two, pre-planning grants (PPG) through the USDA to start their work. “That kind of pushes us ahead. We have to get these studies done to go after the larger money to really get these kicked off and get them going,” Simmons said. With Murray’s water distribution system, the city doesn’t have a closed-loop system. Officials are looking into making it a closed-
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loop system, as well as making sure there’s enough water pressure to fulfill fire hydrant requirements. Right now, there is low pressure in several areas. “The main goal for all of this though is to make sure we cross all our ‘T’s’ and dot all our ‘I’s’ so that we get the funding that’s available for these different Please see MURRAY, Page 4
Don’t Forget Farmers’ market
Clarke County Farmers’ Market is planned 8 a.m. to noon Saturday on the courthouse lawn.
the upper 70s and lows the low 80s and lows in a thunderstorm. CHECK OUT OSCEOLAIOWA.COM FOR DAILY DEATH NOTICES AND SPORTS. in theUPDATED upper 50s. the midNEWS, 60s.