Months of work by Diagonal citizens to ensure that the community would have a banking facility again culminated with the announcement this week that Iowa State Savings Bank of Creston has made an application to establish a new bank office in Diagonal.

Ever since U. S. Bank announced that it would be closing its office in Diagonal, Diagonal residents have been working to find a bank to replace U.S. Bank.

The bank  has signed a purchase agreement of the bank building on main street subject to the bank receiving regulatory approval, which is expected in March.

“We’ll open as soon as we can after regulatory approval and renovations,” said Karl Knock, the bank’s executive vice president and chairman of the bank’s board  of directors. “We’re eager to get it open this spring.”

In making the announcement, Dave Driskell, bank president, said, “We have had several good Diagonal and Ringgold and Taylor county customers for a long time. A Diagonal office will make banking with us easier for them and others who may enjoy using a local, community-minded bank.”

Driskell said his bank believes that Diagonal has an unusually strong business core for a small town as well as a lot of good farming families and operations that the bank can serve.

“After the other bank decided to leave, Diagonal leaders said we were their choice to become Diagonal’s local bank,” said Knock. “That is both humbling and helps us realize the great partnership we have in Diagonal.”

Kevin Stewart, senior vice president of ag and commercial lending and a director, knows the community well, having grown up in Ringgold county. “We’re hoping existing and new customers will like the added convenience of a Diagonal office. It’ll be great for people to drop off deposits, make payments or schedule to meet a loan officer,” he said.

The bank was seeking the approval of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and state regulators for the new branch.

Following the closure of the U. S. Bank office in June 2009, U. S. Bank transferred the ownership of the long-time bank building on Diagonal’s main street to the city of Diagonal with the provision that there be a three-year non-compete agreement. Diagonal leaders were able to get this reduced to a six month period.

The city then sold the building to the Diagonal Community Development Corporation in December, which will in turn sell the building to Iowa State Savings Bank.

The Creston-based locally owned and managed bank also has branches in Lenox and Corning.

  Tropical Day is coming Friday, Feb. 26, and events to get people out of the winter doldrums are planned to celebrate.

A total of 21 area businesses will be taking part in the poker run, walk or drive event. Free entry cards are available in today’s Mount Ayr Record-News, at the Record-News office or at participating businesses.

Participants will take the entry card to five participating businesses, who will hand out tropical playing cards. The three best hands of five cards received at the businesses  (or the entry drawn from the best hands) will win a group of prizes donated by participating businesses.

The prize includes merchandise, gift certificates, Mount Ayr money and a folding chair to enjoy them in.

“Last year people had a lot of fun entering the contest,” H. Alan Smith, publisher said. “We hope to have even more people participate by visiting businesses this year.”

The Mount Ayr Record-News is sponsoring a contest for the best tropically dressed business from participating businesses. To enter, let the Record-News know a business wants to be judged by calling 641-464-2440 by noon on Thursday, Feb. 26.

The Mount Ayr Record-News has passed out plastic leis to businesses that want to join in the fun and the Record-News staff will be serving free lemonade and lemon bars from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at a lemonade stand.

Businesses are encouraged to come up with something special they will do for the day -- from offering special prices to people who come to shop in tropical attire to having warm-up bargains.

The businesses participating include Aunt Jennie’s Attic, CGI, Country Blossoms, Crain Medical Clinic, Cunning Co, Inc., Farmers Coop, First Federal Savings Bank, Glendenning Motors, Great Western Bank, HyVee, Jamie’s Coffee Mill, Lynn’s Sinclair, McDonnell Appliance, Mount Ayr Lions Club (at Senior Citizens Center), Mount Ayr Record-News, NAPA Auto Parts, Pamida, Peggy Sue’s, Season by Season, Southwest Builder Supply and U. S. Bank.

Details of the event are included in advertising in today’s Mount Ayr Record-News.

 There will be no classes in the Mount Ayr Community school district Monday, Feb. 22. Watch this space for information on tonight's girls basketball playoff game with Sidney. The streak of not having a full week of school stretches back to the week of December 14 in this stormy winter.

School will be delayed two hours on Monday, Feb. 22, in the Mount Ayr Community school district. 

 Area schools are being dismissed early Friday, Feb. 19, because of the snow storm that is blanketing the area.

In the Mount Ayr Community school district, the elementary school was to be let out at 1:05 p.m. and the high school at 1:10 p.m.

The Class 1A regional girls basketball tournament game with Corning, set for 7 p.m. Friday, will be made up at 7 p.m Saturday, Feb. 20.

Six early retirements were approved, building project progress updated, 2010-11 calendar discussed, reduction in Phase II money for teachers okayed and a driver's education ate set at the February 10 meeting of the Mount Ayr Communty school board.

The  meeting was postponed from Monday, February 8 because of the weather.

The board also appointed a compensation board alternate, approved a USDA Rural Development grant resolution and went into closed session for principal’s evaluations during the meeting. 

Reports on a number of topics made at the meeting are covered in a separate story.

Early retirement, resignation

The early resignations of six long time employees of the district was approved at the meeting Monday night.

Faculty members Cheryl Taylor, who has been a first grade teacher, and Linda Pickering, who has been the K-12 librarian, are taking early retirement and will also have early resignation benefits.

Taylor has taught for 30 years in  the school district and hopes to spend more time with family. She noted that she hopes to be able to do some substitute teaching as well.

Pickering has been with the district since 1978 and ran the concession stand for many years and was cheerleading coach for 20 of those years.

They join vocal music teacher Martha Landphair as teachers taking early retirement this year.

Four staff members also are seeking early resignation benefits from the district.

Teacher aide Donna Sickels, cook Keleta Dunkeson, custodian and bus driver R. B. Davenport and lunch secretary Nancy Daughton were all approved for early resignation. Davenport hopes to come back to do some bus driving in the future, it was noted.

The board thanked all of the employees for their years of service to the district.

Building progress

The board spent a good deal of time hearing an update on the school building projects, asking questions and making decisions on related matters.

Nick Bruck brought the status report to the board as work winds down on the construction of the projects.

At the high school, the public restroom floors were treated with an epoxy finish which was to be able to be walked on last week.

Jordison Construction has offered a five-year extended warranty on the concrete floors at the high school addition and will have a bond for the work.

The warranty would be for any major concrete cracking that appear over the five-year period. It does not include hairline cracks that are not of structural concern.

Board member Duane Schafer said he felt the warranty should be for seven years because that is now long it takes for dirt to settle.

Steve Bennett of Construction Services Inc. noted that he had negotiated the five-year warranty but would be willing to try to extend the period even longer.

The warranty is being sought because some of the concrete areas at the high school did not have the mesh pulled to the top third of the concrete as specified.

At the elementary school, CSI generated a punch list last week that contractors were working on. Representatives from FEH, the architectural firm for the project, were to come Monday, Feb. 15, to put together the final punch list of items that needed to be finished.

The state fire marshal’s office and state building inspector have looked at the buildings and found no major violations, Bruck noted.

The heating and air conditioning system has been up and running for a month and electrical, fire sprinkler, and fire alarm systems tested.

Depending on the FEH review of substantial completion, plans were to move classes from the 1936 building to the new addition beginning at the end of this week. 

Once the 1936 building is emptied, work on asbestos abatement can begin and then demolition of the building can be scheduled.

The school would remove all the items it wants to save from the 1936 building and it is hoped that by March 8 demolition might be possible.

It was noted that the contract on the demolition is that the work will be done in a manner to least impact neighbors and adjacent buildings. School officials noted that spring break of March 15-17 might be a good time to get the walls down that would be closest to the new construction.

The demolition contractor has 50 days to get the work done and after that work remaining would include finishing up storm drains, grading the site, concrete parking, sidewalks and spreading topsoil back.

It was noted that the architectural fees for the project have been adjusted down $180,000.

Larry Giles, who was taking part in the meeting over the internet,  noted that he felt that the district needed to pursue having another drain opening along the south side of the elementary building. Steve Bennett estimated that it might cost another $5,000 to extend the line for another intake.

Giles also asked about the leak in the middle school gymnasium and was told that it was not a leak in the roof but a condensation problem in the mechanical units. Gaskets were placed to try to take care of the problem.

Problems in leaking where the older elementary building and the new building are joined was also pointed out, as well as a spot in the new science room at the elementary.

Problems with a sink hook up in the art room and several other questions were also asked.

Board member Duane Schafer provided thermal pictures taken of the building which he said showed a good deal of heat loss.

Problems with the finish on the inside of the pre-insulated concrete panels were also noted, as well as areas where concrete had been splashed on walls and not cleaned up before painting was done.

Following the discussion, the board approved a change order, deducting $1,120 for work that the custodial staff did in cleaning up as part of the project.

The board also approved a pay application of $439,945.12 as the latest payment on the building project.

In other building related action, the board approved a contract with ICM Insulation Ltd. of Des Moines for $6,250 for removal of asbestos from the 1936 building. This contract was not part of the other building project contracts.

Three bids for the work were received and the ICM bid was the lowest and so was accepted.

2010-11 calendar update

Superintendent Russ Reiter showed the board a draft of the school calendar for 2010-11 which includes a number of days of early dismissal for staff development time.

The school year would begin for students on Monday, Aug. 23 and would be scheduled to end on Monday, May 24.

The calendar calls for early dismissal for staff development on 14 days during the year -- 10 Wednesdays, a Monday, a Thursday and two Fridays.

In addition there would be early dismissals four other days for teacher conferences.

The plan provides for 68 hours of staff development through the school year.

Principals noted that the time is needed to work on implementing the Iowa Core Curriculum as well as other projects that there is not time to do at other times.

Lynne Wallace noted that SFL is offered on the Wednesday early outs, but board member Rod Shields noted that there is not transportation home after the SFL program is completed.

After a discussion about the proposed calendar and other possible solutions, the board tabled the calendar discussion until a future meeting.

Superintendent Reiter said he would take the suggestions from the board and develop something similar with variations to come back to the board with for final approval.

Phase II reduction

Teachers in the district will receive another reduction in pay as part of the 10 percent cut in state funds to the district.

The board already approved the reduction in funding in teacher compensation from the state of some $455.69 per teacher.

At the Wednesday board meeting, the board made a motion to cut the teachers pay for the reduction in Phase II funding as well.

The $5,529.50 reduction in funding from the state would mean a reduction of $91.25 for each teacher. The salary schedule for the district notes that if Phase I and Phase II funds are reduced, the district will talk with the Mount Ayr Education Association to remedy the situation.

The administration was going to talk with the round table about spreading the reduction over several months, beginning with the March paycheck.

Driver’s education rate

An increase was made in the rate for the summer driver’s education program.

For this summer’s program, the rate will be increased from $200 to $225.

“This still won’t make the program break even, but it will be a help,” superintendent Russ Reiter noted.

Students from other school districts who use the program are charged an additional $100.

One of the challenges with making the program break even is the state mandate that students who are eligible for free lunches are not required to pay the tuition for the program, it was noted.

Grant resolution

The school district is completing a grant for $200,000 to help with the repair and replacement of the roof at the secondary school. 

The grant application estimates the replacement to cost some $801,000 to replace. The district is seeking help in the replacement cost because it does not have much credit available.

Compensation board alternate

The board named Rod Shields as the school board’s alternate on the compensation board at the meeting.

This was done so the district would be sure to have a representative.

Iowa Core Curriculum

Dr. Bob Newsum was to have attended the meeting to talk with the board about the Iowa Core Curriculum, the new state-wide curriculum that is to be in place in school districts by 2012.

Because the staff in the district will be working on this project, the board wanted to know more about the process.

Newsum has been rescheduled for the board’s March meeting because of conflicts with the changed date of the school board meeting.

Principal’s evaluations

The board went into closed session to discuss principal’s evaluations at the end of the meeting, with the meeting closed at the request of the Ken Harrison, secondary principal, and Lynne Wallace, elementary principal.

No action was taken following coming back into open session.

 Tropical Day is coming Friday, Feb. 26, and events to get people out of the winter doldrums are planned to celebrate the event.

A Tropical Day observance will be held in Mount Ayr and any other county communities that want to join in the fun.

Part of the event will be the Poker run, walk or drive event. Entry cards will be available in next week’s Mount Ayr Record-News or at the Record-News office.

Participants will take the entry card to five participating businesses, who will hand out tropical playing cards. The top three hands of five cards received at the businesses  (or the entry drawn from the best hands) will win a group of prizes donated by participating businesses. This means two more prizes will be available than in the contest last year.

“Last year people had a lot of fun entering the contest,” H. Alan Smith, publisher said. “We hope to have even more people participating this year.”

Information on how businesses can participate in the promotion is available from advertising manager Vera Haley.

The Mount Ayr Record-News is sponsoring a contest for the best tropically dressed business from participating businesses. To enter, let the Record-News know a business wants to be judged by calling 641-464-2440 by noon on Thursday, Feb. 25.

The Mount Ayr Record-News will be passing out paper leis to businesses that want to join in the fun as well.

The Record-News staff will be serving free lemonade from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at a lemonade stand.

Businesses are encouraged to come up with something special they will do for the day -- from offering special prices to people who come to shop in tropical attire to having warm-up bargains.

Details of the event will be included in advertising in next week’s Mount Ayr Record-News.

 School in the Mount Ayr Community school district has been delayed two hours with buses traveling on hard-surfaced roads only. Watch for possible cancellation news as road conditions are assessed.

Winds drifted snow across roads overnight after snow fell Saturday night and Sunday. Temperatures fell into the teens overnight and are expected to reach a high of only 25 today.

Ringgold county supervisors will be making the determination in the next few weeks if Joe Murphy’s plan to get a jail built for the lowest cost of any proposal to date will be accomplished.

Murphy is trying to get supervisors to make decisions in a timeline that will meet the project financing deadline of March 1, but there is divided support for the effort among the supervisors and meeting that deadline may be tough.

Murphy and Kelly Richards, who have been working on a plan after getting an initial go ahead from the supervisors in December when the Murphy plan was chosen over one submitted by Kelly Main, attended another meeting of the supervisors Tuesday afternoon. The decision in December was made on a 2-0 vote when supervisor Kurt Shaha did not vote because of family ties with Kelly and Teri Main.

Murphy and Richards brought back  the latest drawings of the floor plan and site plan for the jail. The floor plan has met the approval of Ringgold county sheriff Mike Sobotka, it was noted.

The site plan set the building on the eastern portion of the property that once was the Clinton Motel site.

Murphy also brought a list of items he felt needed to be accomplished to help get the project to move forward as quickly as possible.

“At this stage we would desire a statement of intent or commitment that goes along with any requirements to maintain a comfort level for both the county and us, offering the program to furnish the new jail along with administrative offices,” Murphy told the board.

Murphy listed some aspects he would like to have included in the agreement.

They included:

-- a statement by the county for Murphy and Richards to proceed through completion of the project, with the builders meeting all necessary requirements.

-- a statement of the county’s approval to date that covers the floor plan presented and the site plan presented.

-- a statement of the sheriff’s approval to date of the plans for the facility.

After approval of the floor and site plan, Murphy and Richards would proceed through the design document phase to the point of approval by the county.

Upon approval of the design documents, Murphy and Richards would proceed through the preparation of the construction documents phase to the point of approval by the county. The plans at this point would also need the approval of the state jail inspector.

After all plans are approved, construction would begin and end upon acceptance of the finished product.

Knowing that all the design and engineering costs are included in the fixed sum of $2.5 million for the completed project, if the county, for any reason, chooses not to proceed with the project through no fault of Murphy and Richards, an agreement should be developed that would give Murphy and Richards a way to be paid for their work to that point.

Murphy said this was just a method to insure that the supervisors would continue to support the project to completion if Murphy and Richards were doing the things they promised to do as part of the project.

“We just need to know that we have a deal as we move through this process,” Murphy said.

The board was visiting with bond attorney Bob Josten during the early discussion and the information that Murphy brought to the board was faxed to him.

Board member Dale Walters said he felt that Josten could draw up the letter of intent on the project in conjunction with Jim Anderson, who is doing the financial package, and get it back to the board as soon as possible.

Josten said he would be happy to write up a letter of intent once he had time to review the information.

The floor plan for the project was approved by the board in a resolution passed on a 2-1 vote at the board’s meeting Thursday, Feb. 4.

The resolution accepted the amended jail project floor plan as submitted by Joe Murphy and agreed to move forward to obtain a letter of intent for the project.

Kurt Shaha voted against the motion while Larry Ford and Dale Walters voted for the motion.

Supervisors have felt at times that the plans have taken longer than they hoped and Shaha said he wanted to have a finished set of plans before voting. Those were available at the Tuesday meeting.

Jon Moberg was among those at the meeting Tuesday and raised questions about the financing for the project again.

The matter of the cost of the bonds came up at an earlier meeting held to discuss the bond financing and Moberg said that the $100,000 or more that would be part of this process was not accounted for in Murphy’s financing plan.

Moberg charged that Murphy was trying to mislead the board of supervisors about the funding of the project by not taking into account the fees for selling the bonds for the financing.

Murphy bristled at Moberg’s charge and said he had explained what was taking place over and over again.

Murphy has found a finance person who would use tax exempt bonds to provide the funding for the project. When the cost of the bonds and the cost of selling the bonds and other fees were figured together, an interest rate was determined.

If the letter of intent and other paperwork can be completed by a deadline of March 1, the county will be paying a lease-purchase payment at an average annual rate of 4.14 percent for 17 years, the lowest rate of any of the lease-purchase plans offered the county so far.

“I’ve explained this over and over again and I am not misleading anyone,” Murphy said. “The costs of the bonds are included in the interest rate being offered.”

“The rate is only guaranteed until March 1, so the board needs to move as quickly as it can to get the letter of intent and other items completed to meet the deadline,” Murphy noted. “It will probably cost the county more in financing fees if the deadline is not met.”

Murphy noted again that his proposal is to build the building for $2.5 million, the amount that county residents have approved, and that he has found a financing source for the county to work with so the lease-purchase agreement will work.

The plan does not charge the county for any more design fees, which are included in the building price.

“We are working on the building project for the county and Jim Anderson is working on the financing of the project for the county,” Murphy noted.

He noted that Anderson was ready to come try to finalize the financing as soon as the preliminary decisions and letter of intent were ready.

Murphy noted that he was frustrated that a few people are continually calling his efforts for the county into question.

“I want to help the county get this project done,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do from the beginning. If the supervisors have any more questions as we go along, we will be happy to answer them. But we need to get this job done as inexpensively as possible and that means that we need to work as quickly as we can and be assured of the support of the supervisors as we go along.”

State budget challenges and education issues led the topics discussed by state senator Kim Reynolds of Osceola and state representative Cecil Dolecheck of Mount Ayr when they met with more than two dozen Ringgold county residents for a legislative coffee Saturday.

The legislators noted that Governor Chet Culver’s budget was received by legislators last week and despite claims by the governor, the budget spends more than the state takes in and raises taxes, the legislators noted.

In addition to general fund appropriations of $5.32 billion, the governor uses $387 million in one time money to increase spending, Dolecheck said.

This includes $207.5 million from the cash reserve fund. This is the fund that the state has set up so that it can meet its payment obligations on time and not a “rainy day” fund, Dolecheck noted. All the state’s funds where extra money is put for emergencies have already been spent. When the state can’t pay its bills on times, governmental agencies like schools have to borrow money to meet their expenses while waiting for the state funds.

The budget also uses $37.76 million from the Senior Living Trust Fund for Medicaid expenses, $48 million in stimulus money for education and general purposes and $94.2 million in stimulus funds for Medicaid expenditures. Total spending for general fund items is $5.707 billion, Dolecheck explained.

“Using one time funds for on-going expenditures is part of what has gotten us in the mess we are in,” Dolecheck noted.

The budget also plans to use $341 million in savings from the reorganization of government, and these savings are not realistic, Reynolds noted.

The reorganization includes items like moving Highway Patrol expenses to the Road Use Tax Fund, an idea that Dolecheck says has bi-partisan opposition.

This does not produce any savings for taxpayers but just moves costs to another fund, decreasing the resources available to construct and maintain Iowa’s roads.

Ringgold county supervisor Larry Ford was at the meeting to make sure the legislators knew that the measure would cut road spending in the county by $126,000 if it were passed.

Another big area of “savings” in the reorganization plan is finding more unclaimed property in Iowa, but this money is to be returned to the rightful owners of the property, not used to fund state government.

“The Legislative Service Agency, a non-partisan analyst, reviewed the reorganization bill and pegged the savings at approximately $43 million and I’m skeptical that even that amount will be realized.

“The bill falls short of true long term reorganization, fails to adopt methods to measure reorganization efforts and does nothing to address the unsustainable spending that has gone on the past three years,” Reynolds said.

Counting on the reorganization to provide a big chunk of money for the budget will only cause problems down the road when the savings do not show up, the legislators said.

Dolecheck noted that House Republications will not vote for a budget that spends more than the state receives in revenue and that governor Culver’s budget does not meet this test.

“Government getting bigger and hiring more employees has to stop,” Dolecheck said.“We need to have openness and transparency in government and the first  week has been a dismal failure in this regard.”

Dolecheck said that Iowa’s 99 percent spending limitation is not working as Democrats authorized nearly 70 loopholes in the current law to allow spending increases.

“I think the law needs to be added to the Iowa Constitution so it has to be followed,” Dolecheck noted.

Dolecheck said that the governor’s budget will increase taxes by passing them down to the county and school level.

For instance the governor claims to fund two percent allowable growth for K-12 education at $333 million. This comes from $233 in general fund spending and $100 million from the state’s Cash Reserve Fund, which helps keep payments on time. The Legislative Services Agency estimated that the two percent will cost $514 million in fiscal year 2011 so the budget underfunds the two percent by $170 million. Since the spending authority would remain, the difference would have to be made up by school districts with higher property taxes.

The governor also plans to cut the amount of state funding that comes back to counties in property tax credits like the homestead exemption. Not funding this one exemption would mean an increase in property taxes of $160 for each homeowner in Ringgold county, county assessor Neil Morgan pointed out when he heard this portion of the budget plan.

Funding the State Patrol out of road use taxes would also mean that counties would have to raise property taxes to be able to do the same kind of road work that has been done in the past.

Educational issues

As well as budget issues, the legislature has been busy passing several bills dealing with education, the legislators noted.

The bill that would make the state eligible for the Race to the Top federal funds was passed by the legislature and signed.

The bill lifts the cap on charter schools in Iowa, eliminates the sunset for new charter schools and establishes innovation zones. Half of the federal money that might come in the federal grant would go to the Iowa Department of Education to help implement the Iowa Core Curriculum while the other half would go to school districts.

A section of the bill slipped in at the last minute would require plans for dealing with the persistently lowest-achieving schools to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the teacher’s union before actions could take place. If the board and teachers were unable to come to an agreement the matter would go to an arbitrator.

“There was no requirement or even additional point awarded for a bargaining agreement,” senator Reynolds noted. “This is one more attack on local control. The section takes the decision making away from leadership and elected officials and places it with mediators.”

Dolecheck and Reynolds noted that a number of school districts were rushed into signing memorandum of agreements to be part of the program before the final bill came out and some of them are now trying to find ways to get out of the actions.

There may be an opportunity to take another look at the bill, especially if the state does not get accepted in the first round of funding. Dolecheck said several legislators are having second thoughts at what was rushed through the legislature in order to try to meet an application deadline.

Some of the other bills already passed included a bill that delays establishing the state percent of allowable growth for fiscal 2012 until fiscal 2011 is balanced, which puts it into the next session. While this plays havoc with school districts making their budgets, legislators felt that this was necessary instead of just taking a guess at how much might be available.

Another bill signed by the governor attempts to limit the potential property tax increase that will occur as a result of the governor’s October 2010 across the board cut of $235 million to K-12 school districts.

The bill grants authority to the School Budget Review Committee, a state appointed board, to determine the amount of cash reserve a school district can maintain.

Dolecheck said that there are no school districts in his district that have reserves high enough to bring action by the SCRB, but this means that they will need to raise taxes to make up for the shortfalls in state spending at some point.

Kim Reynolds noted that she offered an amendment that would have provided more local control and flexibility to school districts by suspending several of the unfunded mandates passed down by the state, but this effort failed so she voted against the measure.

Early incentive program

Another bill that has passed the Senate is the state employee retirement incentive, an early retirement program that may bring some savings to the state if new employees are hired at lower pay rates and some of the jobs are not refilled, the legislators noted.

The plan defines the eligible state employees that can participate in the plan, gives a five-year guaranteed health insurance benefit in an authorized group plan and pays $1,000 a year from a minimum of 10 years of service up to a maximum of 25 years of service, with this payment spread over five years. The law also says that once an employee applies and is accepted in the early retirement program they may not accept any other position with the state.

Republicans offered an amendment that would have established a base full time equivalent number so that legislators could monitor the early incentive program and better track the effectiveness in regard to state positions being filled in subsequent years, but this amendment failed.

About 1,000 employees would be expected to take advantage of the program, it has been estimated.

Because of the shortened 80-day session this year, the legislators noted that things were moving very fast and people needed to keep a careful watch on what comes before the legislators so they could respond quickly to let legislators know how they feel on matters.

After being filled in on the legislation that is underway, the meeting was opened to questions.

Issues discussed included right to carry gun licensing legislation, fair share legislation, property tax credits, IPERS changes, AEA reorganization  and problems that the new laws on electrical and plumbing inspection have brought.

  The unattended death of a Diagonal man is under investigation by the Ringgold county sheriff’s office and Ringgold county medical examiner.

The sheriff’s department responded to a call on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 4:43 p.m. to a residence at 1457 140th Avenue in Diagonal.

There the body of Thomas Darrell Rhodes, 30, of rural Diagonal was discovered.

The cause of death is pending upon autopsy results. No foul play is suspected.

An autopsy was to be performed by the state medical examiners office in Ankeny.

Anyone with information regarding the death is asked to call the Ringgold County Sheriff’s Office.

An obituary for Rhodes is included in today’s Mount Ayr Record-News.