THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 2024 • VOLUME N0. 121 • ISSUE NO. 41 • 1 SECTION • 8 PAGES
Serving Colfax • Mingo • Baxter • Western Jasper County
Emergency management pushes for Jasper County to be on federal declaration
Addendum may be added to president’s disaster order to allow further assistance
Jasper County bridges damaged by May floods added to engineer’s 5-year plan Floodwaters compromised the structural integrity, fast-tracking replacement
Christopher Braunschweig/Jasper County Tribune Vehicles and a home in Lambs Grove on May 21 are almost completely submerged in floodwater. Several communities in Jasper County were affected by the floods after a full night of heavy rainfall and even more sporadic downpours the next day.
By Christopher Braunschweig Jasper County Tribune Jasper County has sustained an estimated $10 million in damages following the floods and severe storms back in May, and yet it was excluded from President Joe Biden’s disaster declaration
for the state. Emergency management officials on June 21 turned to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley to push through the red tape. Jamey Robinson, director of Jasper County Emergency Management Agency, said there are citizens still trying to recover from the damages to their homes and the
loss of essential utilities, like heating and cooling systems and hot water. Others have lost everything. He still gets phone calls from citizens needing help. “I have a gentleman still living in his home that’s cracked in half,” DISASTER | 3
Jasper County decides to remove planters and replace concrete sidewalk panels Project is to cost $42K and will be handled by Jeff Seals Construction in 2025
eas of the sidewalk with a flush layer of concrete. The county received a total of four bids from
contractors. According to county documents, contractors were to remove the sets of planters, or
bunkers, on the northwest and northeast corners and CONCRETE | 2
By Christopher Braunschweig Jasper County Tribune Although the work won’t happen until next spring, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors decided on June 11 to have Jeff Seals Construction tear out the corner planters on the north side of the courthouse and replace them and surrounding ar-
Christopher Braunschweig/Jasper County Tribune The Jasper County Board of Supervisors voted 3-0 on June 11 to accept the $42,000 bid from Jeff Seals Construction to remove the concrete planters and adjacent sidewalk panels.
Submitted by Jasper County Bridge M03 over Cherry Creek along South 24th Avenue East caved in as a result of floodwaters in May. The bridge has been added to the county engineer’s five-year plan.
By Christopher Braunschweig Jasper County Tribune Four bridges damaged beyond repair by the May floods in Jasper County have been added to the engineer’s five-year plan for 2025. Since the plan was already approved at a past meeting, the board of supervisors on June 18 voted 3-0 to amend the plan to include all four structures, which will need to be replaced. Newton News previously reported about the damages to Bridge M03 in late May. The bridge, which goes over Cherry Creek along South 24th Avenue East, had entirely collapsed in on itself after floodwaters pulled the walls in. Jasper County Engineer Michael Frietsch said it has now been included on the five-year plan. Also included in the five-year plan are Bridge H08, located northwest of Newton on North 35th Avenue West; Bridge L01, located east of Newton on South 12th Avenue East; and Bridge A08, located north of F-17 on North 99th Avenue East. Fortunately, Frietsch said, all four of the bridges are on gravel roads. “We didn’t have any bridge on one of our paved BRIDGES | 2
Commissioner uses call logs as ammunition against VA administrator Wilson berated for not returning enough calls to veterans, blamed if they die by suicide as result By Christopher Braunschweig Jasper County Tribune The administrator of Jasper County Veterans Affairs was driven to tears and had to excuse herself from a meeting last week after a commissioner accosted her for not returning the calls of an undetermined number of veterans, even though she and several local veterans have said she is overworked and needs assistance. Ed Spangenburg, a member of the Jasper County Veterans Affairs Commission, looked at the unspecific phone data
included in the department’s monthly activity report for May 2024 and determined that administrator Alyssa Wilson and shared benefits coordinator Josh Price had not returned the calls of 86 veterans. “You guys work for the Jasper County veterans,” Spangenburg said. “…I don’t care what it takes, you call your 86 people back. It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to hear an excuse. Not a one. If you can’t call back 86 people in 30 days, we night need to look at something else. I’m upset about that.”
CONTACT US
From the data shared, it is impossible to 35 times in one day, but staff was preto know if it is 86 veterans. According to occupied with walk-in customers. the latest administrator’s activity report, Some of the calls may not even be for veterans affairs answered 62 incoming veterans affairs either. On occasion, the calls and made 109 outgoing calls in veterans affairs department will receive May. But there are also 195 missed calls. phone calls originally meant for general Spangenburg subtracted 109 outgoing assistance. Price’s role as the shared bencalls from 195 missedShaw calls to getMedia to 86. efits coordinator means he splits his time Veterans affairs commissioners Fred evenly with veterans affairs and general Chabot and Marta Ford argued it may assistance, so he gets both calls. not be 86 individual veterans and that a Still, Spangenburg was unrelenting in single person could have called multiple his critiques against the administrator, times. Price later recalled an experience in which a spouse of a veteran called up VA | 3 est. 1851
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