Greene County’s Relay for Life Event Is Today
The big day is finally here! Today is the Greene County Relay for Life at the Greene County Community Center in Jefferson.
Raccoon Valley Radio will be bringing you live coverage of the event from 9am-noon from the rec center.
Relay Chair Peg Raney says the morning will start at 9:30am with relay teams checking in at the Greene County Community Center and they will start walking around the indoor track.
She points out that the luminaria sales will be from 9:30am-12:30pm and the silent auction bids will be from 9:30am-1:15pm. That will be followed by the survivor’s reception at 9:45am.
Then at 10am, Von Keletson will perform and the high school’s Interact Club will start their fun room activities for 2-12 year-olds from 10am-1pm.
At 10:20am the survivors will walk outside east of the rec center to the start of the Color Out Cancer 5K run/walk on Lincoln Way. The race then begins at 10:30am. Also at 10:30am, people seventh grade and older are invited to contribute to a color out cancer collage for a free-will donation.
At 11:20am will be the welcome ceremony by Raney along with the presentation of colors by the Jefferson VFW and the American Legion and the playing of the National Anthem by the Town and Country Band.
After the race will be a community barbecue meal which is prepared by the Greene County Cattlemen’s Association and served by Beta Sigma Phi for a free-will donation. The meal will be from 11:30am-1:30pm. During that time, performances by the Town and Country Band, Prairie Blue Creative Arts Center, the Rhythm Room dancers and the History Boy Theatre Company.
Raney states that between each act, Locks of Love will be cutting people’s hair to be donated to make covers for current cancer patients.
Then at 1:30pm will be the announcement of the winners of the silent auction, raffle prizes and the color out cancer collage.
It will finish with the luminaria ceremony at 2pm with featured soloist Katie Leusink and names of those loved ones who passed away from cancer or those who are currently going through their battle with cancer will be read.
Tonight at 7pm at Christ Lutheran Church in Jefferson will be Sharon Stalder, a cancer survivor telling her story as the featured “Fight Back” speaker.
Raney hopes everyone can come out in support of the Relay for Life.
“Cancer affects everyone, young kids, middle-aged people, older people, everybody and their family, friends, neighbors, everybody has been affected by cancer. So we welcome everybody to come and be apart of this great event.”
The event itself goes from 9:30am-2:30pm at the Greene County Community Center in Jefferson today.
Drug Take Back Day Is Today In Jefferson
The Greene County Sheriff’s office is once again requesting all unused, unwanted or expired prescription or over-the-counter drugs to be dropped off to the Law Enforcement Center today during National Drug Take-Back Day.
Sheriff Steve Haupert says anyone can drop off their old prescription drugs from 10am-2pm today. It is a free, no questions asked service provided by the sheriff’s office and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The DEA will not accept liquids, needles or sharps, only pills and patches.
Anyone with questions can call the LEC at 515-386-2136.
A Jefferson Man Receives Heavy Fines And Probation For Oil Spill Involvement
A year-and-a-half investigation into an oil spill from a Jefferson business has finally ended.
According to court documents, 54 year-old Kurt Krieger of Krieger’s Greenhouse plead guilty to a serious misdemeanor charge for negligent discharge of a pollutant and was sentenced last week to two years of probation plus nearly $60,000 in fines.
Raccoon Valley Radio previously reported an oil spill that occurred on September 12th and 13th, 2012 during Jefferson-Scranton’s homecoming week when criminal mischief reports were called into the Jefferson Police Department involving oil tanks at Krieger’s Greenhouse, Incorporated at 1608 Westwood Drive.
About 800 gallons of oil from the above ground 20,000 gallon tanks were recovered from the North Raccoon River after Krieger had noticed that a hand operated release valve had been opened.
The disposition states that Krieger had to make deliveries that day and so he contained what oil there was on the driveway of the business with peat moss and left. The report shows that with any discovery of an oil spill, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources requires a notification within six hours, which Krieger failed to do.
Krieger found the waste oil on the ground pooling and mixing with rain water which then drained downward and eastward in the yard and timbered ditch which empties into the North Raccoon River.
The Greene County District Court ordered Krieger to serve two years of probation with the Greene County Sheriff’s office and pay $11,450 to the Iowa Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes Investigation and Prosecution Fund, another $33,610 in restitution to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and $11,100 in court costs and other surcharges.
Discussion Of Emerald Ash Borer To Be Held In Jefferson On Monday
The public is invited to learn more about the current Emerald Ash Borer problem in Iowa and the likelihood of it being in Greene County next week.
The Greene County ISU Extension and Outreach in conjunction with the Jefferson Tree Committee will be hosting a pair of meetings on Monday, April 28th with information about the Emerald Ash Borer.
Extension Coordinator Michael Cooley says speakers from entomologists from ISU Extension and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and a forester from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources will cover topics that include how to identify an ash tree and the EAB insect, how to prepare for the pest, assessing tree health along with treatment and possible ash tree removal options.
The first meeting is geared toward any public official or municipal employee in the county from 1-3:30pm at the extension office in Jefferson. The second meeting is for the general public from 6:30-8pm at Clover Hall on the county fairgrounds.
The public meeting at night does not require pre-registration.
Cooley points out that the EAB is considered to be the most destructive tree pest that has been seen in the country. He adds that t has infected nine counties in the past year. However, there are no current sightings of EAB in Greene County.
Jefferson’s Spring Cleanup Starts Monday
Any Jefferson resident looking to spruce up their property by getting rid of yard waste and other materials can do so next week.
Starting Monday on your regular garbage day, items such as yard waste, old furniture, old lumber, metal and other unsightly items will be picked up for free. Each property owner is given two free hopper loads of trash during the cleanup week and anything beyond that, a property owner will be charged $25 per hopper load.
Items that will not be picked up are tires and any toxic waste materials.
The City would like to remind its citizens that scrap metal and yard waste are separate items and will not be counted toward the two free hopper loads. Yard waste bags do not need a sticker during that week.
Any resident that does not separate their materials into separate piles like wood with wood or metal with metal will not be picked up by the sanitation crews.
City officials would also like to remind everyone that starting Monday will also be the first brush chipping week of the year. Residents can stack their brush piles with the cut ends facing the curbs and the City will chip it for free. Whole trees will not be accepted.
Anyone with questions can call City Hall at 386-3111.