Sheriff Urges Caution on Area Roadways
With no school this week and the nice weather there are more people out and about.
Sheriff Chad Leonard encourages everyone to be extra cautious.
“Especially this week with spring break there is a lot of people on the roads. Just coming up here today there’s tractors on the roads, there’s a lot of slow moving vehicles, you’re going to have a lot of road construction, bridge construction, you’ve got a lot of stuff going on this summer so we need to pay attention. Bike trails, I mean I can’t believe the amount of bicyclists that are out there right now on the trail and they don’t always stop at those stop signs so again we need to be paying attention for all of this stuff.”
Leonard also says it’s important to make sure you’re not distracted as texting while driving continues to be a major concern across the nation.
Rain Finally Falls Over the Raccoon River Valley
This past week was the wettest one of the month so far for the Raccoon River Valley.
In fact one of our local weather reporting areas received their first precipitation since February over the past few days.
According to the National Weather Service, Perry received 0.69 inch of rain this past week for a total of 0.74 inch so far this month. Guthrie Center received 0.44 inch this week and Jefferson received 0.34 inch for a total of 0.42 inch so far.
Normal monthly precipitation totals for March range between 0.88 and 0.94 inch.
January Unemployment Rates Released
Unemployment rates for January have finally been released.
According to Iowa Workforce Development, the percentage of people without a job in all three of our local counties increased in early 2016. Dallas County saw a 0.6 percent increase to 3.1 percent in January, Greene County saw a 0.7 percent increase to 3.6 percent and Guthrie County’s unemployment rate went up 1.2 percent to 4.8 percent in January.
All three areas are doing better now than than the year before however. In January of 2015, Dallas County’s unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, Greene’s was 4.2 percent and Guthrie’s was 5.4 percent.
Overall, Iowa’s unemployment rate went up 0.8 percent during the first month of the year to 4.4 percent. The latest U.S. unemployment rate was 4.9 percent.
Senator Ernst Announces Office Hours
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst’s office has announced traveling office hours throughout the state next month.
Representatives from the Senator’s office will be available to assist Iowans with problems or questions about eligibility involving issues like social security, veterans benefits, military affairs, passports, immigration issues and other federal programs.
Dallas County’s visit will take place Tuesday, April 5th from 2-3pm at the Van Meter City Hall. Staffers will then be at the Greene County courthouse from 10-11am on April 15th, followed by a 12:30-1:30 visit to the Adair County Courthouse and a 2-3pm visit to the Stuart city council chambers.
All constituents are invited to stop by and take part.