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Latest News from the Jefferson County Government:

Feb 11, 2008...County Road Department Targets Hard Surfaces First
Story by Emily Humble, News Director KMCD

This winter city, county and state road crews have been working overtime to keep up with the weather. With last week's winter storm, the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors heard several concerns regarding snow removal, which County Engineer Tom Goff cleared up at this morning's supervisor meeting.

The county's road department has over 600-miles of roads to clear when winter weather hits. Goff says the county's snow removal ordinance has them removing snow from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. when it's needed.

"We plow paved roads first to open them for two-way traffic. Then we work on gravel roads to open for one-way traffic," Goff says. "With that many miles to cover, it can sometimes take a while when you're only going 10-15 miles-per-hour."

Goff says when there's a light snow it may take the county road crews two days, however if it's a heavy, wet snow, like last week, it may take four days or so.

"Last week once we got the paved routes down we sent those guys to work on the gravel, but it's a matter of days before we get it all covered," Goff adds.

 

Nov 27, 2007...Packwood Road Receives Smoothness Award
Story by Emily Humble, News Director KMCD

A Jefferson County road is one of the smoothest in the state. The award, presented by the Asphalt Paving Association presents, recognizes 120th St., also known as Packwood Road, as the best secondary road in Iowa when it comes to smoothness.

"We have the best quality road that was built this year when it comes to smoothness," says Brian Messer, Assistant County Engineer. "This will help when it comes to the life expectancy of the road." Messer says there are several criteria that roads have to meet in order to determine smoothness, and the contractor, Norris Asphalt & Paving, of Ottumwa was given a smoothness incentive.

"It was offered to the contractors because there are federal funds in the project, along with state and county funds," Messer says. "The smoothness incentive says if a contractor meets the smoothness specification designated for the project, they would get 97-98-percent of the funds they were entitled to." Norris Asphalt & Paving also received the award for having the best contractor and crew on the project.

Messer will be in Des Moines later this week to receive the award on behalf of the county from the Asphalt Paving Association. 120th St. is currently closed until the end of January, while construction crews replace a bridge.

 

Nov 01, 2007...Courthouse To Offer Wireless Internet
Story by Emily Humble, News Director KMCD

The Jefferson County Courthouse will be offering wireless Internet. As part of an agreement between the county, and Natel, for their antennae to be placed on the county's tower, they will provide Internet for the courthouse.

"By having wireless Internet it will be great for lawyers coming to the courthouse with their own laptops," Supervisor Steve Burgmeier said.

 

July 24, 2007... Severe Weather Brings Numerous Calls To Law Center, Hinders Emergency Services
Story by Emily Humble, News Director KMCD

   Last week's severe weather once again illustrated a need for county residents to educate themselves about what to do when they hear sirens and when sever weather approaches. Sheriff Jerry Droz says that in the 45-minutes that the county was under a tornado warning, dispatchers received an estimated 100 calls to 911, most to ask about the sirens and the weather.

   Police Chief Randy Cooksey says that the public needs to educate themselves on what they should do, as the unnecessary calls hinder the ability of those on duty to do their job. At the time of the severe weather, the dispatcher also received calls reporting gun fire, an assault, a man with a knife, a drunk driver with an infant. All the while, the dispatcher was monitoring nearly a dozen other emergency frequencies on the radio, and in direct contact with 11 city and county officers on duty watching the weather.

   Jerry Calnon, Jefferson County Emergency Management Coordinator says the best thing to do is to get a weather radio to monitor the storm, and listen to your local radio station for frequent updates.

 

June 20, 2007... Statue Of Liberty Returns To Courthouse Lawn

A grand 'ol lady returned to the Jefferson County Courthouse Tuesday.

For the past couple of years, restoration of the Statue of Liberty, that stood watch on the courthouse's south lawn, has been taking place at Pech Radiator Shop by Matthew Mazza and Supervisor Mike Pech.

Now after a complete restoration the statue has been put back on its pedestal.

The statue was a gift to the county from the Boy Scouts of America in the early 50's, but was blown over by a wind storm in 2005 and suffered severe damage. A dedication for the statue will be held at a later date.
   (From Emily Humble, News Director, KMCD)
   Click on photo to enlarge and see more.

 

Nov 14, 2006...The 2006 official election results were posted to the Election Results for 2006 page today.

 

June 20, 2006...Jefferson County today launched a discount card program to help consumers cope with the high price of prescription drugs. The county is making free prescription drug discount cards available under a program sponsored by the National Association of Counties (NACo) that offers average savings of 20 percent off the retail price of commonly prescribed drugs.

The cards may be used by all county residents, regardless of age, income, or existing health coverage, and are accepted at many of the county's pharmacies. A national network of more than 57,000 participating retail pharmacies also will honor the NACo prescription discount card.

"Jefferson County is proud to be one of the counties nationwide participating with NACo." said Mike Pech, Supervisor. "The NACo prescription discount card offers significant savings for the uninsured and underinsured residents of our county, and even those fortunate to have prescription coverage can use the card to save money on drugs that are not covered by their health plan. Residents do not have to be Medicare beneficiaries to be eligible for this program."

"Best of all, there is no cost to county taxpayers in Jefferson County to make these money saving cards available to our residents."

The program is administered by Caremark.

The National Association of Counties (NACo) is a full-service organization that provides legislative, research, technical and public affairs assistance to county governments. Created in 1935, NACo continues to ensure that the nation's 3,066 counties are heard and understood in the White House and Congress.

 

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