Perry Teen Has Been Missing Since Sunday
The Perry Police Department is hoping the public can help locate a missing teenager.
15 year-old Gina Yolanda Rivera of Perry was reported missing Sunday, July 20th and she was last seen in Des Moines.
Gina is described as a white female with black hair and brown eyes. She is approximately 135 pounds and stands 5 foot, 3 inches tall. She was last seen wearing blue jean shorts, a tank top and brown sandals.
Anyone with information on her location is asked to call the Perry Police Department at 465-4636.
Unemployment Increases for Dallas and Greene Counties
Unemployment rates in two of our local counties increased last month, while the third went down slightly.
According to Iowa Workforce Development, Dallas County’s unemployment rate increased by 0.6 in June to 4 percent. Greene County’s also increased by 0.6 to 5 percent in June, while Guthrie County’s unemployment rate went down slightly from 4 percent in May to 3.9 percent in June.
Compared to a year ago, the percentage of Dallas County residents without a job is 0.1 of a percent better than 2013. Greene County’s unemployment rate is up 0.2 over June of 2012 and Guthrie County’s rate is down a full percentage point compared to last year.
The statewide unemployment rate remained steady at 4.4 percent, while the U.S. unemployment rate is currently at 6.1 percent.
Summer Weather Proves to Be Quite Normal Thus Far
June was a wet month for the Raccoon River Valley area and a fairly active one for some communities who experienced significant severe weather.
Though State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says overall things haven’t been out of the ordinary.
“It’s been fairly average I guess overall. Obviously when you have severe weather in your own backyard that’s always unusual… but when you look at the overall statewide picture, it’s been a fairly average summer as far as severe weather goes. It was actually a little bit quieter than usual during the spring months but compared to the recent few years, 2012 and 2013 were very, very quiet for severe weather. Just about as quiet as we’ve ever known” says Hillaker.
So far the month of July has been quiet in terms of severe weather as well, at least locally.
Dry Week in the Raccoon River Valley
It has been a dry week here in the Raccoon River Valley area and with just a week left in the month, two of our three local weather reporting areas are quite behind when it comes to precipitation totals.
According to the National Weather Service, Guthrie Center received one-tenth of an inch of precipitation since our last report, while no rain has fallen in either Perry or Jefferson.
So far this month, Jefferson has received 4.17 inches of rain, Perry has seen just under three inches and just 2.12 inches has fallen in Guthrie Center.
Typical monthly rainfall totals for July range from 4.42 to 4.86 inches locally.
Perry School Board Decides on Legislative Priorities
Each year, Boards of Education in public school districts across the state determine what they feel are the top priorities for the upcoming legislative session.
The Perry School Board chose their top five issues at their annual meeting last week. Superintendent Lynn Ubben explains the purpose of the decision.
“What they hope is that all districts will send in their five priorities, then when they have their Iowa Association of School Boards meeting in November each district sends a delegate and then they vote on the priorities and that helps them in in their lobbying efforts” says Ubben.
The first priority set by the local board was in regards to preserving the integrity of the statewide penny to pay for various projects. Others include everything from pre-school to English Language Learners funding.
“Adequate and on time funding for English Language Learners is huge for us. Adequate and on time funding to assure that all four year olds have access to preschool is important to all districts. Allowable growth rate, which is now State Supplemental Funding, that is just your per pupil funding and that’s important to us. And then of course the boards are always saying ‘we don’t want new mandates with no funding’.”
The board approved the priorities 4-1 with board member Kyle Baxter voting no after expressing concerns about the 4 year-old preschool priority and supplemental aid, citing the fact that lawmakers haven’t followed the law on the issue in the recent past anyway.