National Weather Services Confirms a Tornado Hit Dallas County on Veterans Day
The National Weather Service has determined there was a tornado in Dallas County earlier this month.
According to preliminary information, An EF-1 tornado was on the ground for a total of six minutes, starting at 2:59pm on November 11th.
The tornado was located northwest of Adel and tracked northeast for a total of 8.1 miles at a maximum width of 300 yards. Peak wind gusts reached 100 miles during the tornado but fortunately it only damaged a few farmsteads and no one was injured.
The Dallas County tornado is one of of 10 recorded in Iowa on Veterans Day, including another in Guthrie County southwest of Yale.
October Unemployment Rates Released
All three counties in our primary coverage area saw a drop in the number of people without a job last month.
According to data recently released by Iowa Workforce Development, Dallas County saw a one-tenth of a percent drop to 2.5 percent unemployment in October. Greene County and Guthrie County both saw a two-tenths of a percent drop to 2.6 and 2.7 percent respectively.
This time last year, Dallas County’s unemployment rate was 3.2 percent, Greene’s was 3.3 and Guthrie’s was 3.8 percent.
Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped slightly in October to 3.5 percent while the national unemployment rate is currently at five percent.
Dallas County Hospital Picks Employee and Volunteer of the Year
Dallas County Hospital has announced their annual award winners.
Clinical Information employee Jann Haglan received the Employee of the Year award and Lenny Soto who works in the Patient Access department was named Volunteer of the Year.
Haglan also won the Employee of the Quarter award earlier this year. He was nominated for displaying respect and excellence. He is said to be a valuable resource to all of the physicians and nurses who use the electronic health records documents every day.
Soto has represented the hospital at nearly half of the events they have participated in this year. She also brings a positive attitude to both her volunteering and daily work responsibilities.
The awards were handed out at the hospital’s annual employee holiday celebration at the Hotel Pattee this month.
Perry High School Musicians Wrapping Up Trip Fundraiser
If you’re in need of fruit this holiday season and want to help support the arts in the Perry area, you need to act fast.
The Perry High School band and choir students are wrapping up their fundraiser on Monday.
Band director Brandon Weeks says the goal is to stockpile as much money as possible for the students to take a trip in the spring semester of 2018. While a great opportunity for the kids, Weeks says he also feels this is beneficial for the Perry community.
“One is just to get the kids a chance to travel and go out and see places that maybe they won’t ever see in their life again. And I also think it’s a great thing for the Perry community because both band and choir students, when we travel, are super well behaved. Everywhere we’ve gone this year I’ve had someone tell me how impressed they were with our students so I think they Serve as good ambassadors for the Perry community too. Especially for people that might not know us or have thoughts about how Perry is. When they see our students they are impressed and it gives a good image of what we do here.”
The fruit can be purchased from any band or choir student, by calling or stopping by the high school or asking at the Perry Hy-Vee.
Craft and Bake Sale, Along with Chili Cook-off and Open House Today
The Rowley Masonic Community in Perry invites everyone to come enjoy an inaugural event Saturday.
Activities Director Gary Iles says they came up with the open house, chili cook off, bake sale and craft show idea as a way to bring people into the building they’re so proud of.
“They can come out and see the new establishment. We’re all moved over and we’ve been there for almost a year. So just come out and look, it’s a beautiful, big home.”
The chili cook-off is free and open to anyone who wants to enter, local firefighters will judge the dishes and prizes will be awarded to for their favorites.
The craft show features more than a dozen different vendors offering a variety of products.
It takes place Saturday from 11am until 4pm. It’s free and open to the public.