4th Quarter YIR News

2020 4th Quarter YIR

Early voting for the November 3 General Elections began with a bang in Henry County Monday, October 5.  Henry County Auditor Shelly Barber reported on Thursday that 94 people came to the Courthouse Monday to vote.  Tuesday there were 81 early voters and 93 on Wednesday.  At noon Thursday people were lined up out the door of the second floor conference room waiting to cast their ballot.  Also, on that Monday, the absentee ballots began going out.  Before October 5 the auditor’s office received 3,217 requests for absentee ballots. The office then mailed out 19 on Tuesday, 33 on Wednesday and 27 by noon on Thursday.

At a press conference in Central Park Tuesday, October 6 the Mount Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance announced the established of a new 501c3 non-profit organization called the Mount Pleasant Community Childcare Board. This organization is charged with addressing the childcare needs in Mount Pleasant. While a brand new facility would be the ideal, the board would be focused on finding a building and announced that they were already actively negotiating on a location.

Wayland’s new mayor is Chet Fort.  Fort previously served on the Wayland City Council but resigned his seat in order to be considered for mayor. The Council unanimously voted for the appointment. Wayland’s previous mayor, Greg Rich,  passed away unexpectedly.

Caleb Waters was hired in October as the new Henry County Conservation Department director, replacing John Pullis who resigned in 2020. A Mount Pleasant native, Waters has recently served on the Conservation Department Board. Waters was previously the watershed coordinator for the Lake Geode Watershed Project and last year was honored with the Circle of Excellence award from the Iowa Agriculture

Tuesday November 3 Henry County held true, voting predominately Republican as far as the state and national contests in the General Election. In the State Senate District 42 race in Henry County Jeff Reichman led the incumbent Democrat Rich Taylor 5,764 to 3,756.  Reichman, who lives near Montrose in Lee County, also received 60% support from his home county to thwart Taylor, of Mount Pleasant, who was trying for a fourth term. The district covers all of Henry County, parts of Lee, Jefferson and Washington Counties. Incumbent State Rep Joe Mitchell led his challenger Jeff Feager to return to the State House for a second term representing Henry County as well as parts of Lee, Jefferson and Washington Counties. There were three Henry County Supervisor candidates but only two open seats on the board. Those seats were filled by Chad White who received 6,401 votes and incumbent Greg Moeller who received 5,267

November 11 The Henry County Court House doors are locked until at least November 20 after several offices reported employees with COVID-19. And that same day, due to the Governor’s recent Proclamation on the ongoing COVID-19 Health Crisis and out of concern for the health and safety of customers and staff, the Mt. Pleasant Municipal Utilities once again closed it’s office to the public. And….late in the afternoon on November 11 Mount Pleasant Middle School parents and guardians were notified that middle school students only would move to the hybrid instructional model. The change was made due to the increase in COVID-19 positive cases in staff members. Student attendance numbers are still good but the length time required to isolate of quarantine with the virus has made it difficult to keep teachers in all the classrooms.  There was also less staff to supervise over 400 students in the building at one time.  All the middle school students were able to return to their regular schedule November 30.  There is no change for Mount Pleasant elementary or high school students.

December 8 the Mount Pleasant Childcare Center Board signed a Letter of Intent to lease the former Family Video store located at 304 W. Washington for a new childcare center in Mount Pleasant. By the end of the month, local contractors began remodeling the building to meet the needs of a licensed childcare center and addressing some of the challenges when converting a retail location to a childcare center.

 

During the regular monthly meeting held today (Tuesday) 12/15 the Henry County Health Center Board of Trustees passed a resolution for an operational lease with Great River Health System. At the November monthly meeting the Trustees passed a memorandum of understanding in order to explore moving forward with the possibility of a lease. Great River Health Systems would lease HCHC assets and employees in order to operate the local hospital.  HCHC lawyers emphasized this is not the sale of HCHC but rather a unique public/private partnership.  The current HCHC board would remain and will over see the lease.  The HCHC board would also continue to levy taxes in order to maintain and/or replace the assets. And would collect rent from Great River for use of the assets.  The employees would remain with HCHC in order to keep their benefits and the HCHC Foundation Funds would be retained by the Foundation. Emergency Management Services remains with HCHC but Great River has committed to subsidizing any shortfall for the first five years to help stabilize and maintain the services. The lawyers said this will financially sustain the hospital for the long term and is a long term solution to the stability of healthcare in the county. Registered Henry County voters will ultimately vote to approve the lease agreement proposition on Tuesday, March 2, 2021.

 

December 11 Henry County Public Health announced it expected to receive its firs shipment of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine before Christmas. 600 doses of the vaccine arrived the week before Christmas and Henry County Public Health began vaccinating the front line healthcare providers December 22.  The first healthcare provider to receive the coronavirus vaccine in Henry County was Dr. James Dunne with Dental Specialists of Iowa located in Mount Pleasant.  Henry County Public Health Director Shelley Van Dorin said her crew gave 40 shots in the first hour.  There were be two more clinics scheduled before the end of the year for those in the healthcare field. Public Health are seeing that those in assisted living situations get vaccinated and long term care residents will receive the vaccine thru an agreement with pharmacies.