News

     The Parade of Champions was one of the few events canceled this week at the Benton County Fair because of the impact of Monda's storm on the Fairgrounds. But most other shows took place as scheduled.      A few of the champions are pictured here.       Anyone with a photo of a livestock or open show trophy winner or grand or reserve champion is encouraged to send them to Vinton Today at vintontoday@hotmail.

Hiring Contractors after a Disaster

     Volunteers are needed to assist with recovery efforts today in Vinton and rural BentonCounty.     Volunteers should report to the volunteer staging area in the parking lot of the Vinton-ShellsburgMiddle School, 212 W 15th Street, Vinton.      Individuals looking for volunteer assistance with clean up on their property please contact United Way211 by calling 211, (319) 739-4211 or 1-866-469-2211 and place your request with them.

      The Parade of Champions will take place at 2:30 p.m. today at the Benton County Fairgrounds. The fairly recent tradition of honoring all of the champions of the livestock and other 4-H/FFA shows is one of the final events of the 2011 Benton County Fair.       Despite the damage caused by the storm on Monday, the work by volunteers to make the Fairgrounds ready for the event allowed most of its shows to continue throughout the week.

       Benton County Emergency Management Director Scott Hansen is pleased to announce the appointment of Drake Tilson as Ground Support Liaison for the Logistics Section of the Benton County Emergency Operations Center.          Hansen selected Tilson as the Ground Support Liaison in light of Tilson’s superior performance, attention to detail and ability to adapt to an ever changing operational environment during his volunteer service during the aftermath of a severe thunderstorm which passed through Benton County on July 11.

Starting tomorrow, Saturday, disaster recovery workers meals move from fire station to Vinton High School, same times. All gravel roads are now cleared for travel.

  As of this morning, the Operation’s Dept. of East Central Iowa REC's computer system shows all members having power.   A few members here and there could still have outages due to possible issues on the members side of ECI’s equipment (meter). The “member’s side” of the meter is generally the wire going down or up from the meter/meter pole over to the home, building, business site etc.

     Friday morning saw insurance adjustors walking on the tops of area houses, street crews continuing to remove tree limbs and many others continuing to clean damaged buildings.       Coaches were still inspecting and moving equipment from the storage shed near the football field. The roof is completely gone from the press box, and the Karr Athletic Complex scoreboard has been damaged.

Do to storm damage; the Benton County parks (with exception of Hannen) will be closed until further notice.

     The Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities (IAMU) mutual aid program was activated early Monday, July 11 after a line of severe storms blasted parts of east central Iowa. Wind gusts estimated by some sources to be as high as 100 miles per hour accompanied the storms.      Vinton was the hardest-hit community, with IAMU member Vinton Municipal Electric Utility dealing with many broken poles and downed power lines citywide.