Plans for Gooseberry Lake are on the shelf and the Gooseberry Lake Agency board will soon be dissolved.

That was the decision of the Southern Iowa Rural Water Association, city of Mount Ayr and Ringgold county board of supervisors and other sponsors at a meeting of the Gooseberry Lake Agency board held Thursday morning in Mount Ayr.

The agency board had put the plans on the shelf until there was a change in funding or costs for the project at an earlier meeting, but the groups decided not to keep the 

GLA functioning in the meantime.

There are ongoing costs for insurance and other items involved with keeping the agency functioning and the groups decided that continuing these costs, at least for the present, was not worthwhile.

The 28E agreement that was put together for the groups wanting to work on development of Gooseberry Lake as part of the East Fork of the Grand River watershed will be dissolved and the funds left in the group’s treasury returned to the entities that contributed them on a  percentage of contribution basis.

The plans for the lake will remain part of the plan for the Gooseberry Lake watershed project and that is expected to continue for eight to 10 years or until some 80 percent of the structures that are part of the watershed plan are completed.

The East Fork of the Grand River watershed plan was developed in 1996 and a supplemental plan was approved in 2004 that increased the lake size from 350 acres to 565 acres for more water for water treatment.

The groups will remain as sponsors of the overall watershed program, but will not be working as a separate group to develop Gooseberry Lake, just one of the many structures which are part of the watershed.

If the Gooseberry Lake project were found to be more feasible in the future, a new feasibility study would have to be done for the need for water in the SIRWA system, a new 28E agreement could be drawn up or the old one reactivated and then work could begin again on the project.

The contract with the Resource Conservation and Development agency for work on the project ended on August 1, and the insurance will soon be up for renewal and the plan is to drop it at that point.

After an informational meeting on September 10, the three major groups that would have raised the local matching funds for the project were asked to check with their boards on what they felt was the next move on the project.

Dan McIntosh from SIRWA noted that his board voted to leave the plan on the self and quit having Gooseberry Lake Agency board meetings until something changed. “Right now we are spending time and money and nothing is happening,” McIntosh said.

Mayor Don Solliday noted that one of the five council members was for scrapping the project and one was for finding a way to move ahead but that the consensus was to leave the project on the shelf but to explore other funding options if they became available.

Supervisor Larry Ford said the county board of supervisors unanimously agreed to put the project on hold but they didn’t want to see the project scrapped. “That would just be throwing away all the work that has already been done on the project,” Ford said.

Dick Elliott from the Ringgold County Development Corp. noted that he felt that the group could be revived pretty quickly if changes in funding, need, land prices or pipeline company policies should change in the future. 

“There is not really a need to keep spending money to keep the agency functioning until then, however,” Elliott said.

When the vote by the agency board was taken, representatives of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Ringgold County Conservation Board, Ringgold County Soil and Water Conservation District and Ringgold County Development Corporation joined in a 7-0 decision with the other three sponsors to make the action unanimous.

The board authorized the treasurer and one other officer to pay the remaining bills incurred in ending the 28E agreement and disbursing the funds to the sponsors.

In a public comment period, Kevin Kilgore said that he felt a better way to have worked on the 28E agreement would have been to have the agencies that had to have the liability insurance for coverage withdraw and leave other agencies in the 28E agreement for the time being.

It was noted that Kilgore’s solution would still have needed changes in bylaws to do away with the need for annual meetings and the like.

Randy Bishop, chairman of the Gooseberry Lake Agency board,  thanked all the people who had worked on the project for the last eight years and noted he hoped that things would change in the future so the project could go forward. 

  “Peace, Love and Raiders” is the theme for the Mount Ayr Community high school homecoming activities which are underway this week.

There will be dress up days, an evening of fun Thursday Oct. 1  including the jersey auction and coronations, a parade and pep rally Friday afternoon (Oct. 2) and the homecoming game with Wayne and homecoming dance Friday night.

Activity got underway Monday with the first of five dress-up days.

Theme for today (Thursday) will be rock star day with students dressing up as rock stars. Friday is black and white day to support the Mount Ayr Community football team at their game against Wayne.

Other activities for the week begin tonight (Thursday) with the annual student council supper from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the high school commons.

Action will then move to the high school gymnasium for the jersey auction at 6:45 p.m., followed by the queen coronation, contests such as a tug of war and dodge ball, senior parents skit and the king coronation.

Queen candidates are Erin Budach, daughter of Mark and Betsy Budach of Mount Ayr; Maddilyn Stark, daughter of Don and Misty Stark of Mount Ayr; Tiffany Wimer, daughter of Mike and Shelly Wimer of Mount Ayr; Erica Kemery, daughter of Mike and Donna Kemery of Clearfield, and Holly England, daughter of Todd and Julie England of Mount Ayr.

The king candidates are Tyler Hinz, son of Bob and Marlene Hinz of Sun Valley Lake; Matthew Jones, son of Darren and Tawnya Jones of Mount Ayr; Malcom Mercer, son of Mike and Angie Mercer of Mount Ayr; Brian Still, son of Brad and Cherri Sill of Kellerton, and Devin Richards, son of Kelly and Shirley Richards of Mount Ayr.

The princess is Adalyn Reynolds, daughter of Ryan and Angela Reynolds of Mount Ayr. The prince is Hunter Pearce, son of Brian and Kelsey Deemer of Grand River and Lee and Danielle Pearce of Blockton.

Activity continues Friday with the annual homecoming parade. The parade will line up beginning at 1 p.m. north of Pamida and come north on Fillmore Street along the west side of the square, along the south side of the square, and then back north on Taylor Street to Jefferson Street, turning east to go past the elementary school and break up at the high school.

Anyone wishing to have a float in the parade is encouraged to contact the high school guidance office at 464-0532.

High school students will be dismissed at 1:10 p.m. for the parade.

Parade Friday afternoon

The parade will begin at approximately 1:30 p.m. to be followed by a pep rally in the high school stadium at about 2:15 p.m.

The buses will leave at 3:15 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Friday night’s activities will begin with a Mount Ayr Community Band Booster cookout at the football field, followed by the homecoming football game with Wayne beginning at 7 p.m.

Following the football game, the homecoming dance will be held in the high school gymnasium. Karl Kerns will be the D.J. for the dance which closes out the week of activity.

  The Halloween season kicks off Sunday, Oct. 4, with the Beggar’s Bash planned at Judge Lewis Park in Mount Ayr.

The event will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and admission is $1.

There is fun for the whole family and everyone is invited to dress up for Halloween to come to the event.

The walking trail in Judge Lewis Park will have booths all along it where more than 50 community organizations will be offering Halloween treats.

There will be games, candy and rides at ninth annual event, sponsored by the Support Of Students (S.O.S) organization.

  A grant for a new bathhouse that will provide a safe place for people to go in case of weather emergency in the Judge Lewis Park area has been received and fund-raising is underway to raise the matching funds needed for the project.

The Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved a federal grant of $474,750 as part of a $633,000 project to build the new facility.

This grant will be matched by a grant of $63,300 from state Emergency Management sources, leaving $94,950 in local matching funds needed for this phase of the aquatic center program.

To complete the project, however, another $125,000 will be needed to provide the furnishings for the building, meaning that a total of some $250,000 in matching funds for the shelter/shower house project will be needed.

The shelter/shower house will include shower and changing facilities as well as a concession stand, pool office and storage.

Once the bathhouse matching funds are gathered, the group working on the zero-entry aquatic center plans to work on raising the $2 million that will be needed for the swimming pool replacement.

The pool would be handicapped accessible and provide a summer-time recreation area for people of all ages to replace the current pool, which is showing its age.

The project has received a $17,500  South Central Iowa Community Foundation grant and several fund-raising projects have been held to get the ball rolling. There may also be portions of the project which can be handled with donated time and in-kind services.

The grant award calls for the work on the project to be completed in three years, though there is also a mechanism to request a longer time frame if needed.

The grant was applied for through the Southern Iowa Council of Governments with help from Emergency Management coordinator Teresa Jackson.

Ringgold county is one of a few counties in Iowa eligible for the hazard mitigation grant program because Jackson and SICOG prepared a pre-disaster mitigation plan a few years ago.

The 150-page plan provides information about how the county would respond to disasters of several kinds and counties with the plan prepared are eligible for some FEMA funds that are not available to counties that have not prepared the plan.

An advertisement is included in today’s Mount Ayr Record-News for making a tax-deductible contribution to the project. Checks should be mailed to Jodi Haley, 400 E. Monroe Street, Mount Ayr, IA 50854.

  The Ringgold County Fairboard is planning a Ringgold County Fall Fest Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26-27 at the county fairgrounds in Mount Ayr.

Saturday, Sept. 26, at 1 p.m. there will be an ATV Rodeo, headed up by Damion Bogan at 641-344-3692. Saturday evening at 8 p.m. the Douglas Acres Band will perform in the rodeo arena. Part of the arena will be packed for dancing and there will be a beer garden.

The fair board got a two-day liquor license for this one event and has not purchased a license for the Ringgold County Fair.

The proceeds from Saturday evening will be applied to the remodeling of the exhibits building with the goal of having the building heated and cooled efficiently so it can be utilized year-round.

Also it is the intent to create new bathrooms, which are handicapped accessible. 

Donations for the work on the exhibits building are also welcome. To make donations, contact Dr. Keith Miller at 641-464-2224 or 641-464-0746 or Amanda McLead at 641-344-2559.

Sunday, Sept. 27, there will be a mud run starting at 11 a.m., headed up by John Berger at 515-297-0450.

At the Ringgold County Fair, 88 vehicles participated for over a seven-hour show. A similar response is expected for the fall festival.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, there will be a flea market, craft show and antique show, headed up by Dr. Keith Miller.

The commercial building will be full of vendors and vendors will be working out of campers in front of the building and at the campsites along the front fence. Some may also be in the exhibits building.

Items available will range from crafts to nice antique glassware, Tupperware, a variety of jewelry, horse tack, produce, beauty products and a wide variety of flea market items.

  Organizations who are part of the Gooseberry Lake Agency will be making a decision at a meeting September 24 on the future of the project and an informational meeting for the boards was held Thursday, Sept. 10, to provide information on the status of the project plans.

The costs for the project were reviewed, along with possible scenarios for paying for the project, by Dennis Hilger from the Southwest Iowa Resource Conservation and Development agency.

The various groups who are sponsors for the project will be discussing the issues at their September meetings in preparation for the meeting set Thursday, Sept. 24, at 10 a.m. at the Mount Ayr city hall.

The agency board put the project of the shelf in past action but decided to continue to hold annual meetings. There is some question on whether the annual meetings are necessary if the project is going dormant.

“At the next meeting we have the options such as moving ahead with the project, leaving the project dormant or scrapping it completely,” Randy Bishop, chairman of the agency board told the group.

In suspending work on the project, the Gooseberry Lake Agency board asked to continue to be a partner during the next 10 years as the group continues to study the project.

The cost of the project has jumped 56 percent in three years, primarily due to the jump on land prices, it was noted.

Dennis Hilger reviewed the projected costs for building a 565 acre lake with the minimum land acquisition of 1,320 acres as of March 2008.

The total cost of the lake would be $16,959,700 of which $11,174,300 would go for the construction of the dam, $4,444,800 for recreational facilities, $935,500 for the water intake structure and $405,100 for the water transmission line to the treatment plant. The construction portion includes the $3,377,400 for moving the pipeline that is under the site which Magellan, the pipeline owners, say would be mandatory from their point of view.

Of this total, the Natural Resource Conservation Service would be responsible for $7,553,300 or some 44.5 percent of the project.

That leaves a total of $9,406,400 to be raised by local sponsors of the project. The $2,302,400 for recreational facilities, however, would come from the Department of Natural Resources and the grants found by the Ringgold County Conservation Board, so Hilger subtracted that amount from the sponsor total.

This would leave $7,104,000 to be raised by local sponsors for the project.

Hilger presented a couple of scenarios for coming up with the local matching funds.

One would be to have three local sponsors -- the city of Mount Ayr, Ringgold County and the Southern Iowa Rural Water Assocaition -- to evenly split the cost of the local sponsor needs for an amount of $2,368,000 each.

Each would then apply for a Rural Development Waste Water/Water Loan from USDA Rural Development, which would include a 40 percent grant.

This would mean that each of the three groups would take a loan for some $1,420,800 each. Hilger said this would mean an expenditure of $82,000 a year over a 40-year period to have the project moving along.

A second scenario would be for the original seven Iowa counties served by SIRWA and the city of Mount Ayr to agree to evenly divide and pay the cost since all would benefit from the water in one way or another.

This scenario would see each county and the city of Mount Ayr with a responsibility for $888,000, which would be reduced to $532,800 after the grant portion of the Rural Development funding.

Each of the groups would have to come up with $30,000 a year for the 40-year life of the loan to pay off their portion of the lake construction under this scenario.

Hilger noted that the Three Mile Lake project was done with the help of a number of counties around the area served by SIRWA.

Taylor, Ringgold and Union counties put in $600,000 each and Decatur, Adams, Adair and Clarke county put in $150,000 each.  The city of Creston contributed $150,000 and the city of Afton $79,000. Ringgold county also contributed a CDBG grant of $583,970 it received and Union county had a $700,000 CDBG grant in the mix.

In this scenario, the Southern Iowa Rural Water Association would not be included in the lake construction costs but would still be responsible for the $8 to $10 million for the construction of the water treatment plant for the lake. The city of Mount Ayr could be a co-owner if they wished to contribute to the treatment facility cost.

One question asked was where the Southern Iowa Rural Water Association stood in meeting its future water needs.

Projections from a Water Needs Assessment study in 2007 predicted that the service area would need 10.45 million gallons of water per day, meaning an additional 5.17 million gallons per day.

Dan McIntosh from SIRWA noted that progress is moving ahead on the Clarke county lake, but most of the water from it would go to serve the city of Osceola with only about 750,000 gallons of water a day being available to SIRWA.

The project is being redesigned for average daily withdrawal instead of peak demand and plans are to get construction underway by 2014 if possible.

Funds for the city, county and county economic development group generated from Terrible’s Casino will make the matching funding on the $40 million project more available, Hilger noted.

With funding mechanisms in place, the project looks pretty optimistic, he said.

Projects are also being looked at in Taylor and Adair counties, it was noted.

“We could still use the water from the Gooseberry Lake project if it becomes available,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh said that if SIRWA does run up against more demand than what it can supply at some point in the future, water will be rationed system wide. Ringgold county would not be penalized for not supplying a water source, he noted.

Tom Larson, a landowner in the area of the proposed lake, said he would suggest that the agency board make a final decision not to go ahead with the project.

“Having the possibility of the lake project in the background could make it tough on landowners who want to sell their property in the future,” he noted.

He also said that county residents are already paying for water supply in the Three Mile Lake project and it would be a “double whammy” to pay for the Gooseberry Lake project as well.

Hilger noted that he had been working on development projects for 20 years and had been a part of some 350 projects.

He noted that an early mentor had told him that when it came down to it, money was not the ultimate issue. Finding leadership to come up with creative ways to get a project done was the key issue.

Representatives from the different groups attending the meeting were to report back to their boards for a decision to be made on the future of the project at their meetings over the next two weeks.

The Gooseberry Lake Agency board will then discuss the matter at the September 24 meeting.

  In the only contested election in Ringgold county when voters went to the polls for area school elections Tuesday, Duane Schafer was named as a member of the Mount Ayr Community school board.

There were three people running for the district 2 seat on the Mount Ayr Community school board.

Shafer won the election with 175 votes while Brenda Grose received 114 votes and Mike England  received 98 votes.

The two public measures that Diagonal Community school voters voted on passed easily as well.

Mount Ayr Community election

Besides naming Schafer to succeed David Richards in the district 2 seat, Rodney Shields was re-elected to the district 4 seat.

Shields received 250 votes in the election. There were 138 votes for other write-in candidates.

A total of 388 MAC voters took part in the election.

Voters also voted for a representative on the Southwestern Community College board of directors.

Vicki Sickels of Mount Ayr was running unopposed for the director district 6 seat on the SWCC board and received 341 votes and there were 33 other write-ins.

Diagonal Community election

Voters in Diagonal didn’t have to choose between school board candidates, but had two public measures that will be part of the voting there.

Two school board seats were open and Phil Mason and Amy Herr were seeking these school board positions.

Herr was seeking to replace Monte Starlin, who was not running again for the board. She received 92 votes.

Mason was re-elected to the school board with 88 votes.

Diagonal public measures

Diagonal voters were voting on two public measures dealing with financing.

Measure A authorizes the board to continue the instructional support levy for the district for another 10 years beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011.

The district can collect up to 10 percent of the total regular program district costs for the budget year plus approved budget amendments through this additional levy.

The board can use property tax,  an income tax surcharge or a combination of the two to raise the funds.

This measure passed with 83 votes in favor and 18 votes opposed for an 82 percent majority.

The Diagonal voters were also asked to approve a revenue purpose statement for the use of money the district receives from the state-wide one-cent sales tax.

The statement says the funds can be used for school buildings, equipment, vehicles, emergency repairs, environmental remediation, public recreation places or other authorized expenditures.

With the revenue purpose statement in place, the district could borrow funds against future revenues if the district determined this was needed.

The district’s revenue purpose statement passed with 84 voting for the measure and 17 voting against it. This was an 83 percent majority.

Voters were also voting for a representative on the Southwestern Community College board of directors.

Vicki Sickels of Mount Ayr received 63 votes for the director district 6 seat on the SWCC board.

Clearfield Community election

Voters in the Clearfield Community school district filled two  school board seats in the election Tuesday.

Patracia Sue Parrish was seeking to be re-elected to the board and received 23 votes.  Kristen Leonard was seeking her first term on the school board and received 29 votes.

  A big weekend of activity is planned in Diagonal for the Diagonal Lions Club celebration September 6-7 at the Diagonal city park.

Activity begin Sunday with a bow shoot at Fogle Lake  for all ages. It is expected to last until 3 p.m.

A fun walk will be held at 8 a.m. and outdoor church services at 9 a.m. There will be a pedal tractor pull at 11 a.m. and a hot rod garden tractor pull beginning at 12:30 p.m.

A fishing derby will be held at 2:30 p.m. at Fogle Lake for youngsters from five to 16 years of age.

The annual antique appraisal event with Ranae Roed will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Diagonal Community Center.

The Diagonal Printing Museum and Geneaology Center will be open from 2 to 4 p.m.

At 3 p.m. a tractor and truck distance pull begins and there will be a nickel scramble at 4 p.m. Radio controlled cars will race at 5 p.m.

There will be bingo sessions at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. as well.

After the tractor pull at 9 p.m. there will be a fireworks spectacular to be viewed from Fogel Lake.

During the day the junior class will have several fund-raising events such as a dunk tank, games, homemade ice cream and the space pillow and Crafty Souls and Season by Season will have craft items and  raffle.

Activity begins Monday with the mammoth parade at 10 a.m. with the theme “American Heroes.” There will be a pet show after the parade at the park shelterhouse.

The Diagonal Printing Museum and Geneaology Center will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A croquet tournament begins at 1 p.m. along with a garden tractor pull at the top of main street. A pickup and farm tractor distance pull starts at 1:30 p.m.

The annual duck regatta will be held at 5 p.m. with a first place prize of $1,000.

During the day the junior class will again have several fund-raising events such as a dunk tank, games, homemade ice cream and the space pillow and Crafty Souls and Season by Season will have craft items and  raffle.

Another Labor Day tradition is the free watermelon served in the afternoon.

An advertisement in today’s Mount Ayr Record-News gives details.