Guthrie County Sheriff Marty Arganbright told the Board of Supervisors yesterday that an increase of drug and violence related crime in the county has made it more necessary than ever for his budget to be granted additional funds to hire another deputy. Arganbright reported that in January alone, there had already been nearly thirty arrests made countywide, including several methamphetamine related arrests in the past week.

Additionally, Arganbright says his department has been using a shotgun with a slightly bent barrel lately, because there’s no money set aside to buy a new one. Arganbright believes that the opening of the Wild Rose Casino in nearby Jefferson later this year will have an overflow effect of crime on Guthrie County, which he says also necessitates their need for another deputy. Arganbright told the Supervisors that he is willing to negotiate on other budget items in order to secure the funds for the extra deputy.

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All Guthrie County 4-H’ers must be FSQA (Food Safety Quality Assurance) certified before showing any swine, beef, dairy goats, sheep, poultry or rabbits at the Guthrie County Fair, or the Iowa State Fair. Mary Ebert with Guthrie County Extension has the dates and times of upcoming FSQA training sessions, “FSQA trainings are as follows, Tuesday, February 24th from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, and Thursday February 26th from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. These training sessions will be held at the community building at the Guthrie County Fairgrounds.”

For more information, or if those dates don’t work for you, you can call Guthrie County Extension at 641-747-2276.

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Many county jails around Iowa allow well-behaved, and non-violent criminals to participate in work release programs. These programs allow inmates to retain their daily professional lives, while serving their jail term on nights and weekends. Guthrie County Sheriff Marty Arganbright says his department is currently too understaffed to allow such a program to exist, “We don’t have work release. We don’t have enough personnel to be able to book them in and book them out, believe it or not. When they come in to do jail time, we make sure that they know that, and they need to work around anything like that.”

Arganbright admits that the lack of a work release program can become a vicious cycle for some inmates, for example those who are in jail because of missed child support payments, who then lose their job because they are in jail.

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Anyone in 5th grade or above is invited to attend the Babysitter Basics Training Course at the Panora Public Library next month. The course teaches the responsibilities of being a babysitter, as well as how to care for children safely, how to handle emergencies, give basic first aid, and how to make sure your employer remains happy. The cost of the course is five dollars, which covers lunch. The Babysitting Basics Training Course takes place Monday, February 16th, from 9 am to 3 pm, and registration is due by February 9th. To register, call Mollie at 641-747-2276.

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A recent poll conducted by Victory Enterprises, a firm out of Davenport showed that 77% of Iowans were against raising the gas tax. State Representative Clel Baudler is for raising the gas tax, and says he would be hard to convince otherwise, “Show me a different way to keep our infrastructure strong. If they can do that, and it’s constitutionally protected, so the money designated for roads and bridges doesn’t get scarfed up by other state agencies with “wants”, then I’ll listen to them”.