Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Keota man dies of injuries sustained during Memorial Day crash

A Keota man has died of injures he sustained in a car accident over Memorial Day Weekend. 19 year old Travis Filben was pronounced dead Sunday at University Hospitals in Iowa City. Filben was a passenger in a vehicle that smashed into an SUV at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and Highway 92 on May 23. The accident also claimed the lives of a Indianola couple. Celebration of Life Services for Filben will be at 2:00 pm this Thursday at the Powell Funeral Home in Wellman. Filben was a graduate of Keota High School and a member of the Iowa National Guard. 

Washington School Board slated to discuss $36 million proposal

Washington School Board members are discussing a proposed $36-million overhaul of the district's facilities at tomorrow's meeting (6/10). It calls for the current high school to become the junior high, and the current junior high to become an annex of a new high school building. The proposal also restructures the school system to have grades 9-12 at the high school, and 6-8 at the junior high. The meeting starts tomorrow night at 7:00 in Washington School Administration Building. 

MP, Keota to share positions

The school districts of Keota and Mid Prairie will be sharing a number of positions in the coming school year. Mid Prairie Superintendent Mark Schneider says the two districts agreed on sharing a media specialist to assist both schools with hardware and software needs. He says Mid Prairie will be selling these services to Keota and it will contribute to the salary of two individuals contracted for such work. Schneider says the two districts will also share a superintendent and business manager. 

G36 update

The Iowa Department of Transportation says they hope to have some more information by the end of this week about when the G-36 interchange in Washington County will be completed. Jeff Johnson is an engineer with the DOT's Mt. Pleasant Office. He says they have one more section of concrete to pour, some guardrails to put in as well as signage, traffic marking painting and lighting to complete. Johnson says how quickly they can get this done depends heavily on the weather. 

Washington County zoning

Washington County continues to develop a zoning policy. County engineer David Patterson says a local commission has been working on drafting an ordinance, that will soon be coming up for a vote by the board of supervisors. Supervisors last night (6/9) had a work session with the zoning commission.

Washington, Ainsworth to receive grant money

Two Washington County communities are receiving money through the states Community Disaster Grant Program. Ainsworth is getting a little more than $2,000 to reshape a drainage ditch on north Railroad Street. The city of Washington is also receiving just over $2,000 to purchase generators and pumps. 500 counties and communities across Iowa are benefiting from this $22-million allocation. This is the final round of funding through the Rebuild Iowa Bill, which is a piece of legislation passed in response to last years flooding and tornadoes. 

Extension gets IFBF money

Washington County's Extension office is getting $250 from the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation. The money is being used to purchase "Building Blocks of Learning" sets that will be used by three year olds and their parents as they prepare for preschool. The I-F-B-F has been awarding these community enhancement grants since 2005 and to date has given out more than $100,000.