The vote in is, reports the Creston News-Advertiser, and by a slim margin, the Prescott school district will be absorbed into the Creston school district. Voter turnout was in the mid-single-digit percentages.
Consolidation will not be official for a while, so Prescott will be a district without students for at least one school year. (I think the article is wrong on the timeline, since the two can become one July 1, 2016. Prescott would have to tuition out only in 2015-16.)
After months of debate, the Iowa Legislature agreed that school should be allowed to start a full week to 10 days earlier than spelled out in current law, which is what should have been done all along. An Aug. 23 date will ensure school starts after the Iowa State Fair with at least one Friday before Labor Day. Hopefully this will put a stop to calendar creep.
Until today, the law mandated a start day as late as Sept. 2 if Sept. 1 falls on Monday (“… no sooner than a day during the calendar week in which the first day of September falls,” and in that case the 1st would be Labor Day) or as early as Aug. 26 if and only if Sept. 1 is a Sunday.
On a related note, Google searches for “Governor/Gov. Gronstal” yielded fewer hits than I expected, although it did grab a Des Moines Register article from 2011. If you know why I searched for that, in relation to this issue or otherwise, congratulations, you’re a legislative wonk.
July 9, 2008: Appomattox Court House, Virginia, the site of the end the Civil War, or at least the beginning of the end, as scattered Confederate armies surrendered over the next few months.
Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant 150 years ago today. I have been to the site, and the National Park Service’s video is well-produced. It’s a lot of history to take in.
I have been wondering why the sesquicentennial of the Civil War did not get as much notice or attention as I thought it would or should. The round-number anniversary of an event that defined this nation seems to have been dismissed as the day before yesterday’s news in the social-media era. The recession may have played a role, cutting back state support of events for example, but aside from a story here and there (and the New York Times‘ blog), nothing really grabbed the public consciousness like Ken Burns’ miniseries did.
I have a theory about why. We haven’t taken time to commemorate the Civil War because we are engaged in a Cold Civil War of our own. Usually this is referred to as the “culture war,” but I think Cold Civil War better encapsulates what’s going on. It’s a phrase you probably haven’t heard, but it has been brought up on both sides of the aisle, from National Review to the Huffington Post.
Travelers with lead feet leaving western Iowa have something to celebrate: Speed limits on I-29 and I-90 in South Dakota were raised to 80 mph one week ago. That includes the space between Sioux Falls and Minnesota, where it will go 65-80-70 in the span of about 12 miles. On I-29, Sioux City gets in the way of an abrupt high-speed transition, especially with all the construction right now.
Not everybody (see this Rapid City Journal story) is on board with the change, which made South Dakota the fifth state with an 80-mph limit, and came in conjunction with a 6-cent increase in the state’s gas tax.
For what it’s worth, the speed limit heading west on I-80 in Nebraska jumps to 75 after NE 370, while on the opposite side of Iowa, Wisconsin still sets a maximum of 65 everywhere. (Despite popular opinion, 80 is not the limit on I-80 in Iowa. At least, not yet.)
June 4, 2014: Old US 20 east of Cushing. (Same picture I used Feb. 11)
After the recent passage of a 10-cent increase in Iowa’s gas tax, the DOT has fast-tracked more work on US 20 to make it four lanes across the state. The segment from Correctionville to Holstein will be added to the five-year plan, and a public meeting was held on it at the end of March.*
Like the plans for US 30 in Benton County, this segment of four-lane 20 will not use the existing pavement, instead moving slightly to the south. If you look closely at the project map (PDF), the easternmost part of this segment does not need acquisition of right-of-way in the future median, because the state acquired it decades ago. (Drive it today and you can see a double row of fence posts on the south side of the road.) But the construction plans affect more than just the future expressway.
All of old 20 east of the east L22 junction will be obliterated (arrow below). There are no farmsteads for which old 20 is the only access, and the segment is already “Level B Minimum Maintenance” which is usually applied to dirt roads.
This concrete was poured in the late summer/early fall of 1932 and was part of US 20 until fall 1958. If it survived until the winter of 2018-19 (which it will not), it would have reached half the age of the state of Iowa itself. The building of this road is closer to the Civil War than the present day.
And now we’re going to lose it. That’s sad.
*I can not, can NOT, get video from KTIV or KWWL, which use the same website design, to work in any browser. But it’s there.
Oops, I sat on this so long it hatched!
Months ago, while perusing the Iowa DOT’s document archive, I came across a project in Traer that had not been done yet. The contracting date was last September, and work has just begun.
Up and down US 63, the sidewalk corners are being reconstructed to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. (In some cases, they are being reconstructed again after recent construction.)
This relatively minor project, which still clocks in at 39 pages with details for every curb, includes closing the outer lanes of traffic on 63 while the work goes on.
Not to be confused with DGB, the recent sad football flameout at Missouri (now Oklahoma).
A first-generation (1997) Appanoose County plate was spotted in the wild recently, having now evaded two replacement cycles.
*April Fool. Very, very April Fool.
If you’ve never heard of Zip Rizzo, voice of Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn-Leghorn athletics, start probably about 15-20 minutes into the first hour of yesterday’s Murph & Andy Show on KXNO-AM. At least the radio guy who is totally not Chris Hassel got the mascot right.
(Oh man, it really IS the offseason. Only five and a half months until football.)
“Congratulations on your upcoming retirement! You have successfully elected to begin your retirement on April 1, 2015.”
Of course, I’m not retiring at all. That’s the first paragraph in a packet to release and roll over my paltry pension from Gannett — which has been frozen for more than half the time I worked at the Register.
(HAHAHA I’m an early millennial I’m never going to be able to retire and now I made myself sad.)
Hey, that’s not how this is supposed to work!
Since my New Year’s resolution to visit all of Iowa’s incorporated places (eventually), I have had to refine my list slightly. First, Klemme is obviously not on US 69, and I haven’t been in that area since 2006. But secondly, something that you probably wouldn’t notice unless you’re looking for it, Fostoria’s city limits do not touch US 71. When US 71 was four-laned between Spencer and Milford, about a mile on the east side of Fostoria became a frontage road — and even that isn’t technically inside the city.
This, along with Greenville not being on B53 to Gillett Grove, would have been really nice to know in 2010, when I was right there. Instead, Clay County remains in the “unclinched” list, and will require some time to finish. On the other hand, that may give me an excuse to check out one of Iowa’s oldest paved rural roads, that gray line on the map just on the east side of US 71 south of Milford, paved in 1921. (I don’t know if it’s the original pavement, but it has been a paved road since then.)
