THURSDAY, FEB. 29, 2024 • VOLUME N0. 129 • ISSUE NO. 24 • 1 SECTION • 10 PAGES
Serving Colfax • Mingo • Baxter • Western Jasper County
C-M resources ready and together
One click to help Jasper County Resource Guide now available on county website to provide contact information for services
Tigerhawks Unified provides a central hub for resource information for students, staff and community members
By Jamee A. Pierson Jasper County Tribune
By Jamee A. Pierson Jasper County Tribune After receiving frequent requests for services, the Colfax-Mingo School District took a look at how they were presenting support information. The district came up with Tigerhawks Unified to clearly present what resources are available and how to start the process of contacting providers. “Colfax-Mingo staff have been gathering resources to support our community for years,” Colfax-Mingo Parent Community Liaison Lindsay Porter said. “We previously had a page on our website that was named community resources. This website was great but under utilized, and the organization of
Jamee A. Pierson/Jasper County Tribune Tigerhawks Unified, available on the school’s website, brings together resources available to the students, staff and the community.
the resources was not the most user-friendly. Our school staff receive requests for services and assistance weekly from students and their families.” The new Tigerhawks Unified
site offers a centralized location for students, families and the community to find resources to help “support and ensure their success.” UNIFIED | 3
Finding help is just a click away with the new Jasper County Resource Guide available on the county’s website. A project developed in collaboration between the Jasper County Health Department, Jasper County IT and Jasper County Cares Coalition (JCCC), the guide provides almost 200 available services throughout the county. “Jasper County Cares has continued to grow with health and human service providers serving Jasper County. We are always getting phone calls or people asking where they go to get help for things
like mental health, food programs, help for seniors to transportation needs,” Jasper County Health Department Administrator Becky Pryor said. “Jasper County Health Department has been doing the guide in a Word document for a few years, but we really wanted something user friendly.” Recently, the county updated its website and Pryor found out their was a way to add the guide to the site. She wrote a grant and was supported by the board of supervisors to move forward with providing the information on an easy-touse online format. WEBSITE | 3
Colfax Police Chief Jeremy Burdess announces run for Jasper County sheriff June primary will decide Republican nominee from 3 potential candidates so far By Christopher Braunschweig Jasper County Tribune Colfax Police Chief Jeremy Burdess is one of three Republican candidates running for sheriff of Jasper County. F o l lowing the announcement of current sheriff John Halferty’s retirement at the end of Burdess this year, three other law enforcement officers have stepped up to take his
place this coming election. In addition to Burdess, the other candidates include Lt. Brad Shutts and Sgt. Tracy Cross, both of the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office. In a recent interview with Newton News, Burdess said what prompted him to run for election was when a number of current employees at the sheriff’s office told him how unhappy they were with the culture of the sheriff’s office. They also did not like the idea of a new sheriff coming from within the department. “It wasn’t necessarily appealing to them. Having worked there and them knowing me, they reached out to see if it would be something I was interested in,” he said, noting he worked at the
sheriff’s office for 10 years. “Personally, I also felt like I had the experience and the leadership abilities to be able to take on that task.” While at the sheriff’s office, Burdess worked patrol before becoming a detective and a field training officer. Eventually, he moved to West Liberty for a year and then returned back home in Jasper County and has been serving the Colfax Police Department as its chief since 2022. If elected as county sheriff, Burdess said he would address the issues brought up to him by personnel within the department by creating an environment where “everybody wants to come to work and do their job and feel
wanted and respected.” Burdess said employees want a different style of leadership. The sheriff’s office needs to have a proactive role when addressing these issues, he added, as well as the many other challenges law enforcement faces today. “We have mental health issues that is a huge deal that we’re dealing with,” Burdess said. “Probably 20 percent of the calls we go on are some sort of mental health issue … All law enforcement agencies are dealing with that. It’s just a matter of training and better preparing the officers.” Providing resources to people experiencing a mental health crisis is also pivotal, but it can take some time before the adequate
Jasper County gets no new bidders for cleaned up property By Christopher Braunschweig Jasper County Tribune Supervisors received no new bidders for the sale of a small property west of Lambs Grove that was abated by Jasper County. Even though the board of supervisors has held a number of bid openings over the past few months, only one person has shown any interest in purchasing the land. The Jasper County Board of Supervisors have disagreed over the sale of the property and its program to acquire and abate abandoned properties at past meetings. None of the supervisors individually changed their stances at the Feb. 20 meeting, and neither has the person interested in buying the 0.22acre lot. Buddy Cupples, who lives near the county-owned parcel, submitted a $6,700 bid for the property. The costs for the county to legally acquire the
property and then clean it up total $16,000. Supervisor Brandon Talsma said the county needs to recoup its costs. Supervisor Doug Cupples argued it is impossible to do so. Specifically, Doug said the assessed value of the lot is about $6,700, and he was skeptical whether the land value, potential or otherwise, would be worth the $16,000 the county really wants for it; Doug ultimately felt the lot was not attractive enough for someone to bid that much for it. Talsma was adamant the program should sustain itself by at least breaking even. He believed the county should sit on the property, and that just because it is not a business it doesn’t mean supervisors do not need to worry about overhead costs and the sustainability of the program. Which puts the county at another
CONTACT US
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response can arrive on scene. Which means individuals with a mental illness may end up in jail rather than getting the real help they need. Burdess said jail is not what they need. “They’re going there because there is essentially nowhere else for them to go at that particular time, and the mental health thing is a larger issue that’s kind of out of our hands,” he said, noting the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy is trying to work with legislators to better come up with solutions. Other law enforcement issues that interest Burdess as county sheriff is re-establishing relationships between the sheriff ’s office and the smaller town agencies, like Colfax, Prairie City, Monroe or Baxter. When speaking with BURDESS | 3
Supervisors at a standstill over small property and recouping costs
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est. 1851 Christopher Braunschweig/Jasper County Tribune Jasper County has been unsuccessful in trying to sell an abandoned property it had acquired and then cleaned up. Supervisors on Feb. 20 voted 6-0 to reject a $6,700 bid to purchase the property, citing it was too low a price for the $16,000 the county put into the property trying to clean it up.
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