Drop Off Your Unwanted, Unused and Expired Drugs Today at the Perry Police Department

The Perry Police Department is taking part in National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day this weekend and all local citizens are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity.

The purpose of the event is to give residence the chance to properly dispose of their unused, unwanted and expired drugs.

Drug Take-Back Day also serves as a chance to educate the public about the potential for abuse of medications and what can happen if substances get into the wrong hands.

Both prescriptions and over the counter medications can be dropped off at the Perry Public Safety Building parking lot Saturday between 10am and 2pm, no questions asked.

The substances will then be picked up by the Drug Enforcement Administration and incinerated.

If you have questions, call the Perry Police Department at 465-4636.

Relay for Life Event Today in Perry 

The weather should be great for this year’s Northern Dallas County Relay for Life event Saturday at the Perry High School athletic complex.

After having to relocated inside last year due to rain, co-chair Gary Iles says their looking forward to getting back outside this weekend.

Sarah Mullins with the American Cancer Society says the annual relay is a daylong event in honor of the hard work teams do throughout the year for this cause.

This year eight teams are participating in the relay and Iles says their goal is to raise more than $30,000 for the American Cancer Society this year, which is used to help support those struggling with cancer through their toll free phone number or their Hope Lodges.

Everyone is invited to join in on the festivities Saturday.  The event starts at 11am.

Positive Unemployment News for Dallas and Guthrie Counties

More positive news on the job front locally, as two of our three primary coverage areas saw a drop in unemployment in August.

According to Iowa Workforce Development, Dallas County’s unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 percent last month to 3.4 percent.  Guthrie County saw a slight decrease of 0.1 percent in August to 4 percent and Greene County’s unemployment rate went up by 0.1 percent to 4.5 percent.

Compared to the same month in 2013, Dallas County is doing 0.4 percent better, Guthrie County’s unemployment rate is down 0.1 percent over last year and Greene County’s is the same.

Iowa’s statewide unemployment rate remained steady at 4.5 percent in August.  While 6.1 percent of Americans are currently without a job.

And the Rain Continues to Fall 

Dallas, Greene and Guthrie Counties haven’t had to worry about drought or being abnormally dry for more than three months now.  Instead, lately we have been receiving above normal rainfall for quite some time.

According to the National Weather Service, Guthrie Center received another 1.3 inches of rain this past week for a total of 4.88 inches so far this month, or 1.5 inches more than the normal monthly rainfall total.

Perry and Jefferson received 0.85 and 0.86 inches of rain respectively since our last report. Jefferson is currently more than 1.4 inches above the normal monthly rainfall total of just shy of three inches, while Perry is just over three-quarters of an inch above their normal monthly total of 3.14 inches of rain.

The forecast shows a warm and dry couple days ahead, so it is possible we don’t receive any more rain before the end of the month.