The Stuart Fire Department recently received a $500 award from Mid-American Energy as part of their initiative to better communities all around Iowa. Deanna Harwood is Mid American’s representative for Stuart and believes the money will benefit the majority of the town in general. The Stuart Fire Department says they plan to use the money for fire gloves.
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Lake Panorama, the largest private lake in the State of Iowa will now be serviced by state of the art dredging equipment to take care of the nearly 1,400 acres of silt in maintaining the depth and health of the lake. The new DSC Barracuda Class Dredge features hospital class silencers to keep it nearly undetectable to the residents of the nearly one thousand homes surrounding the lake. Lake Panorama Association GM John Rutledge says that although the lake is a private amenity, he still believes it is a major economic driver for the entire Panora community.
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The Guthrie and Adair County Office of Emergency Management is busy working around natural disasters all year, and head of the Office for both counties, Bob Kempf says this is the time of year where he’s busy budgeting, and filing paperwork with both counties to make sure he’s compliant for all of 2015, “This is the time of year that we make sure of all of the parts of our program are compliant. We participate in planning for the counties, county hospitals, county public health, working with EMS, fire and law. Making sure our plans are working together, and doing a yearly review for that. We’re also starting to plan our yearly exercises.”
The tree-killing Emerald Ash Borer is inching ever closer to Guthrie County, as just earlier this week it was found in five nearby Counties of Lucas, Monroe, Marion, Appanoose and Mahaska. Emma Hanigan is the Urban Forester for our region of the State, and says citizens can play a big role in keeping the bug out of our region, “Emerald Ash Borer travels in firewood, and is likely spread in Iowa by people transporting Emerald Ash Borer around the State in firewood.”
Farmers Cooperative is considering the launch of a State-wide program designed to feed less fortunate children, and the preliminary pilot program is actually taking place in Panora, at the elementary school. Scott Fredrickson is with Farmers Coop in Panora, and describes the new Back Pack Program, “The Back Pack Program is a weekend food program for kids at the elementary school in the Panorama district. There’s a lot of kids who are hungry all the time, and their only decent meal comes at school. This program aims to supply those food deficient kids food on the weekend.”