Perry Chamber Hosts Successful Annual Dinner
The Perry Area Chamber of Commerce held their annual dinner and awards night Tuesday.
More than 100 people gathered at La Poste to enjoy a buffet dinner from River Valley Catering followed by the awards program.
This year’s Spirit of Perry or Business of the Year award was given to La Poste. The Citizen of the Year is Ned Menke and Young Professional of the Year was awarded to Matt McDevitt.
New this year was the dedication of the Chamber’s final award, as Executive Director Bob Wilson explains.
“It is now the Jack Finneseth Volunteer of the Year award. I’m happy to give back to the Finneseth family in any way that we can. They’re huge community supporters. Jack was so great, he counted all of our BRR riders for tons of years, as well as folded shirts and did this, and did everything in between. He had such a passion for volunteering. That’s what the whole evening is about, honoring the people that make it a great place.”
The evening capped off with a kick start to the annual 4th of July fireworks drive in the form of a live pie auction, which raised $3,300.
Dallas County Sheriff Warns of Scams
Scams continue to be an issue throughout the nation and Dallas County Sheriff Chad Leonard says they regularly receive complaints from residents.
While we hear about phone scams all of the time, like the IRS calling to say you owe back taxes and need to give them your information, Leonard says that’s not the only way scam artists are trying to take money from people.
“Pay attention to these other scams going on, these Craiglist scams. We owe it to ourselves to pay attention to this stuff. I know in the metro they’re experiencing some skimming going on with credit cards on gas pumps and stuff. So I would encourage you to pay attention to your own bank statement. Look at your bank statement, see if you put $30 of gas in your car, see if you paid $32 for it. It’s not the company that’s skimming it, it is people from outside of Iowa that are coming in and they’re passing through.”
Leonard says some people have been caught in the skimming scam but there are lot more people out there doing it so it’s important to monitor your own accounts and have a pulse on your finances.
Perry’s Community Garden Receives Hy-Vee Grant
The Perry Community Garden at New Opportunities has been selected to receive a grant from Hy-Vee’s One Step program.
Perry Hy-Vee Event and Community Involvement Coordinator Larry Vodenik says the garden, which helps supply fresh, free produce to the Perry Food Pantry, is beginning its second growing season and they’re excited to have some extra money to help support the efforts.
“Part of it is going to be used because we have to buy new tomato plants every year and things like that. So part of it is going to be going to buy seeds, part of it will be going toward live plants to start that and compost, things like that, fertilizer. Just things that we need for the garden.”
Vodenik says they also hope to use some of the funds to bring a water line up to the garden to make the watering process much easier for volunteers.
The $1,000 grant is one of 164 Hy-Vee is awarding this spring. The money comes from the One Step program, particularly the sale of One Step Russet Potatoes, where for each bag a customer purchases, five cants goes toward the fund.
Perry Fireworks Drive Continues
Money continues to come in for this year’s 4th of July fireworks display in Perry.
Tuesday’s pie auction at the annual Chamber dinner brought in more than $3,400. Thursday’s on-air pie action profited more than $2,600 and the efforts at Hy-Vee and downtown Perry throughout the day added hundreds more.
The efforts will continue at Fareway and Hy-Vee through Sunday, April 17th as both stores are offering a round up where customers can round their purchase up to the next dollar and the extra money will go towards fireworks.
The goal is to raise $15,000 this year and donations can also be dropped off at the Perry Chamber office.
Weekly Precipitation Update
April showers bring May flowers, if that stands true there should be some beautiful blooms next month in the Raccoon River Valley.
According to the National Weather Service, Perry Received 0.25 inch of rain this past week and Guthrie Center saw just under 0.1 inch. April data for Jefferson is not currently available.
Normal monthly precipitation totals for April are around 0.6 inch.
There’s another chance of rain and storms coming up Sunday.