Disaster Proclamation Issued for Guthrie and Adair Counties
Residents in two local counties will be able to utilize state resources to help them recover from the severe storms earlier this month.
Governor Terry Branstad has issued a disaster proclamation for Guthrie and Adair Counties due to the severe weather and heavy rains that occurred on September 9th. They join Ringgold and Warren Counties who were also listed in the proclamation, activating the Iowa Individual Assistance Program.
This makes grants available of up to $5,000 for households with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or a maximum annual income of $39,580 for a family of free.
The funds are available for home or car repairs, replacement of clothing or food and for the expense of temporary housing.
Anyone applying for a grant needs to have original receipts for reimbursement. The application window will be open for 45 days. We’ve included a link to the instructions in this story on our website.
Scoop the Loop Tonight In Stuart
The final Scoop the Loop event of the season is taking place this weekend in Stuart.
This month’s event focuses on cars and books.
Holly Felsen Welch and Dan Felsen will be the special guests of the night. They’re the children of Henry Gregor Felson who wrote the book Fever Heat in the 1950s under the pen name Angus Vicker. He also wrote several other car books including Street Rod and Hot Rod.
Welch and Felsen will speak at the event and copies of Fever Heat will be available for purchase.
The event also celebrates the Stuart Speedway’s 50 plus years of operation.
Join the Raccoon Valley Radio Big Red Radio in Stuart as we’ll be broadcasting live throughout the event.
Volunteers Invited To Work Outdoors At Guthrie Center Elementary
The public is invited to an outdoor community service day at the school building in Guthrie Center this weekend.
Elementary Teacher Brooke Boals says they will be working to help up the outdoor classroom by the school building. She encourages participants to wear gloves with helping to clear brush, maintaining the trails and work on the rain garden. Due to safety reasons, each student must be accompanied by an adult.
The outdoor classroom started in 1984 when two teachers, Belva Peterson and Audrey Charter first turned it into a classroom from an abandoned apple orchard. It was designed for students to get “hands on” experience with environmental practices. It won the President’s Environmental Award by then President Ronald Reagan along with several other recognitions.
When the founding members retired, the classroom went into disrepair but three years ago, Boals decided to clean it up and make it a functional classroom again.
The event is free and open to the public starting at 8am on Saturday, September 20th.
Guthrie Center Teacher Wins Award
A Guthrie Center Elementary teacher recently received an award for her work on environmental practices.
Brooke Boals is this year’s Conservation Teacher of the Year by the Iowa Soil and Water Conservation Commission.
Superintendent Steve Smith says she was instrumental in revitalizing their outdoor classroom. It used to be an abandoned apple orchard on the district’s property and it was turned into an outdoor classroom in the 1980’s for students to study the environment up close.
He describes what this award means for the Guthrie Center School District.
“It absolutely I think defines our school system in terms of the employees that we have here. Always working to find things that are either going to improve the school system or finding things that are going to excite kids that so learning will become easier, more fun and more exciting.”
She has also started a recycling program and given students multiple opportunities for outdoor education activities including plantings, clearing brush, labeling trees and developing a rain garden in her eight years in the district.
West Central Valley School Board Recap
The West Central Valley School Board of Directors met on Wednesday night in regular session.
The outgoing Board approved a request to allow the local FFA chapter to go to the National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky from October 28th through November 1st, one open enrollment request for a student to attend the Panorama School District and to request from the City of Stuart to do an evaluation of the sewer lines around Stuart Elementary to prevent future drainage problems that could use further flooding issues at the school.
The Board also approved its modified allowable growth and supplement aid request for the special education deficit of $135,133.09.
The Board then met for an organizational meeting.
The new Board elected Harry Light as Board President and Jenyse Belden as vice-president. The Board also appointed Belden as its delegate to the Iowa Association of School Boards, Neal Crawford was named to the Adair County Conference Board, Light was selected for the Dallas County Conference Board and Nyle Godwin is on the Guthrie County Conference Board.
The Board approved to continue to have its regular Board meetings on the third Wednesday of every month at 7pm in the Dexter Elementary Media Center for the 2014-15 school year.