Government

February 28, 2020After the flurry of committee work last week, the main focus this week was floor debate. Now in the seventh week, the halfway point of the legislative session is rapidly approaching. While many bills passed the whole Senate this week, a significant amount of work remains for the rest of this session. This week Governor Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 2164, the transportation equity bill.

This week, Rep. Tom Gerhold (R-Atkins) welcomed Ray Richardson with the Iowa Firearms Coalition (IFC) to the Iowa House of Representatives. Richardson was visiting the Capitol to advocate for Iowans’ 2nd Amendment rights. Pictured here is Rep. Tom Gerhold (Atkins) and Ray Richardson (Atkins). 

This is my 40th year holding a Q&A in each of Iowa’s 99 counties. My regional staff is also committed to holding meetings across Iowa. My Iowa staff serve as my eyes and ears when I’m working in Washington, D.C.  That’s why they host mobile office hours in every county and attended roughly 1,400 meetings across the state last year. My regional directors tour hospitals, businesses and child care centers.

This last week was the first “funnel week”, which was the last chance to get individual bills out of committee in either the Iowa House or Senate that are not in the Appropriations or Ways & Means committees.Some very important bills that made it are for rural Emergency Medical Services: HF 2224, 2280, and 2434. These will assist local governments in offering these services to their residents, helping counties have the ability to make long-term investments in EMS programs and infrastructure and proposes additional funding to local EMS.

February 18, 2020The Benton County Board of Supervisors met in regular session with Supervisors Primmer, Bierschenk and Seeman were all present. The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. Unless otherwise noted, all actions were approved unanimously.Summarized Resolutions will be available in the Auditor’s office and at: www.bentoncountyiowa.orgSeeman moved/Bierschenk seconded: To approve the minutes of February 11, 2020 and February 13, 2020.

The VMCU and VMEU boards met (Vinton Municipal Communications Utilities and Vinton Municipal Electric Utilities) in their regular meeting last week.Chairman Rich Hainstock opened the meeting with three members Kim Meyer, Rich Hainstock and Mike Barron present and Alan Woodhouse absent.They approved the agenda and approved the minutes, invoices, January Financial Report.

Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship awards Farm to School grants to English Valley, Vinton-Shellsburg, Waukee and Wayne FFA Chaptersowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced today that the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship will award Farm to School grants to four of the state’s FFA chapters. The English Valley, Vinton-Shellsburg, Waukee and Wayne FFA chapters will each receive $2,000 grants to grow specialty crops, like fruits and vegetables, which will be served to their classmates through the school’s food service program.

Hello everyone, I hope everything is going great! The schedules of the legislators are becoming very full since this is the first of two funnel weeks, as is the Rotunda of the State Capitol almost every day with people passionate about a variety of issues. It’s great to have people communicating with their legislators to provide ideas to make Iowa a better place! Fact: School Funding Since 2011 Continues to GrowWith the state’s commitment to providing a quality education to Iowa’s children.

All Charges are subject to review by The Benton County Attorney’s Office. An arrest or criminalcharge is merely an accusation and the Defendant is presumed innocent, unless proven guilty. Intrastate Warrants are issued by Law Enforcement Agencies for crimes happening in their jurisdictions.Adult ArrestsFebruary 21 Donald Clifford Mather 29 Shellsburg, IowaCharged with Driving While License Suspended, Denied, Revoked or Cancelled.