Jefferson to Kick-off Iowa’s Market-to-Market Relay Today
The third annual Iowa Market-to-Market Relay is today.
Since its inaugural year in 2013, the race has grown from 210 teams to over 325 teams. The race consists of seven-person teams running on the Raccoon River Valley Trail from downtown Jefferson to downtown Des Moines. The route includes 17 exchange zones where team members rotate to complete the 75-mile course. One person on each team will drive their respective vehicle to each exchange zone and pick up each person that finishes that leg of the race to the end point in Des Moines.
Because Jefferson is the starting point, Mayor Craig Berry says they will only have tents up with a couple of vendors on the Bell Tower Plaza along with barricades to keep the runners safe while they make their way to the trial on Lincoln Way. The first wave of runners takes off at 6am with each wave leaving in 20-minute increments.
Berry talks about trying to take advantage of the City’s exposure in a small time period.
“We’re looking at upwards of 2,500 people coming to Jefferson, but they won’t stay for very long. They’re basically done by 10 or 10:30 in the morning. So it’s not really a tourism deal. But we can show off a little bit of Jefferson just at the start.”
But in future years, Berry hopes to change the route so that Jefferson is the end point.
“With the casino opening up and having the motel rooms is rather than running down to Des Moines, have them start in Des Moines and run up here (to Jefferson). And most of those people will send the night and that way we could get probably 1,000 to 2,000 people spending the night here in Jefferson after we got done running.”
Lincoln Way will be closed from 4 to 10:30am 10:30 a.m. this morning from Wilson to east of Locust for the event.
Jefferson Man Sentenced to Probation for February Incident
A Jefferson man was sentenced to probation for theft and drug charges.
According to court documents, 18 year-old Collin Richards pled guilty to an aggravated misdemeanor for operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent and a serious misdemeanor for possession of marijuana. He was originally charged with a Class C Felony for 1st first degree theft, but the charge was changed to an aggravated misdemeanor.
The charges stem from when the accused rolled his vehicle into a farm field and stolen another vehicle in the 1600 block of 267th Street on February 24th. During a consenting search of the suspect’s home, authorities also found marijuana.
Richards had his two-year prison sentence suspended and will serve two years of probation instead. He was also ordered to pay over $1,200 in court costs, victim restitution, attorney and law enforcement fees.
Jefferson Matters: Main Street Recognized at Awards Banquet
Jefferson Matters: Main Street (JMMS) was recently recognized at the 29th Annual Main Street Iowa Awards banquet on May 1st.
Board President Jamie Daubendiek says their organization received recognition for completion of the three-year start-up phase in commercial district revitalization. He points out that JMMS had a successful three-year investment pledge campaign and they are looking forward to continuing that success every year in support of the program.
Another honor went to Marc McGinn as the program’s Volunteer of the Year. Daubendiek notes that they were nominated for several other awards as well.
Last year, JMMS won promotions for images with the Play Me Pleez Piano, former program director Alan Robinson for a service award, Kathy Hankel for the organization’s Volunteer of the Year Award and reaching a $2 million benchmark for private investments for the downtown district.
Daubendiek says even though they didn’t get awards, he still feels like JMMS has made huge strides in its first three years. He appreciates the group of volunteers that are actively involved in the organization to make the downtown district a better place.
16 people represented JMMS at the awards banquet in Des Moines.
Greene County Medical Center Announces First DAISY Winner of 2015
Greene County Medical Center kicked off National Nurses Week on Wednesday with its first DAISY Award winner of 2015.
Lori Harrah is the Long Term Care Director of Nursing. She’s been a nurse since 2000 and an employee of the medical center since 1997. She says she was completely surprised when she found out that she won the DAISY Award.
“I guess I didn’t think of the Long Term Care Director as being in the running for a DAISY nomination when the others have been OB nurses and ER nurses that are at the forefront a lot of things everyday.”
She thanks all her nurses in her department for their work.
“They are great. I can’t thank them enough for everything that they do everyday in taking care of our residents and making sure that their lives are fulfilled because that’s our goal.”
Harrah received a certificate and a “Healer’s Touch” sculpture from Africa.
The DAISY Award started in 1999 in memory of J. Patrick Barnes who passed away from complications with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). His family members wanted to carry on his legacy due to the amount of time and effort that his nurses put into his care.
Six other nurses were nominated for the award, they include: Janelle Cates in acute care, Brenda Luther in the surgery department, Desiree Monaghan with quality management, Heather Shipley in surgery, Ardean Vannatta with Long Term Care and Heather Wilson in Advanced Women’s Care.
The next DAISY Award will be in November.
Community Players of Greene County to Hold Auditions for Fall Show
The Community Players of Greene County have announced their fall production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare.
Board President Clay Ross says it will be a reader’s theater format instead of a full-scale production.
“We’ve never done something like this before. So we thought we would broaden our horizons a little bit and try it. Going through the history (of the Players) we’ve done children productions and a few other things and we’ve kind of got into a run, so now we’re trying to break out of the rut.”
Ross explains that a reader’s theater format is where the cast members read from the script on stage with very little costumes and scenery.
Open auditions will be at the Jefferson Masonic Lodge at 120 North Wilson Street on Sunday, May 10th and May 17th at 7pm. Ross points out that there are about 30 characters in the play, but depending on how auditions go, some cast members may have to play multiple roles.
The performance dates will be September 11th through the 13th.