THURSDAY, SEPT. 5, 2024 • VOLUME N0. 123 • ISSUE NO. 51 • 1 SECTION • 8 PAGES
Serving Colfax • Mingo • Baxter • Western Jasper County
TIME TO TAILGATE WHO13 RVTV headed to Baxter to celebrate the annual Cy-Hawk football game Sept. 5
Submitted Graphic WHO13’s RVTV will be in Baxter Sept. 5 with the kickoff party starting at 3:30 p.m.
By Jamee A. Pierson Jasper County Tribune It’s Cy-Hawk week and Baxter gets to celebrate the annual in-state rivalry football game with the RVTV crew from WHO13. The town will trade in Bolt purple for black, cardinal and gold Sept. 5 and party it up throughout the day and night. “It honestly came about very fast and I wasn’t sure we had a chance, but it was so easy to tell WHO13 why Baxter is the perfect place for
RVTV to stop and everything Baxter is about,” organizer Amanda Moorman said. “After a great friend and local business owner encouraged me to fill out WHO13’s 2024 RVTV Host City Application for Baxter, an email was received on April 29 congratulating us on being selected as one of the stops chosen on RVTV’s road to the Cy-Hawk game.” Planning kicked off right away and while bringing together another community event
might have been stressful, Moorman said it was a lot of fun. The people who stepped up to make RVTV’s Baxter stop great put in the hard work and the event is bigger and better then they hoped for. “Without the people who stepped up to be a part of this team and committee, it would have never became this big,” Moorman said. “Our main goal throughout all of the planning is to showcase our hometown of Baxter.” Activities begin when the WHO13 RVTV crew rolls into town at noon. The kickoff party starts at 3:30 p.m. along with the kids carnival and inflatable and Robert Yeltman live music. WHO13’s first live broadcast starts at 4 p.m. with a second one at 5 p.m. RVTV | 3A
A new downtown destination location
Photo by Stuart Patterson Colfax Mayor David Mast cuts the ceremonial ribbon at the new pocket park next to city hall in downtown Colfax Aug. 27.
Colfax adds pocket park next to city hall By Jamee A. Pierson Jasper County Tribune When the City of Colfax remodeled the building that became the new city hall location, city leaders also had their eye on the alleyway next door. After years of work, that space is the newest pocket park for the community to enjoy and a bright spot in downtown Colfax.
Let’s Paddle Skedaddle By Jamee A. Pierson Jasper County Tribune The fourth annual Paddle Skedaddle is set at Quarry Springs Park in Colfax. Whether paddling around in a kayak or taking a trail run through the park, this event is a fun, unique experience. “It was a wonderful event,” Quarry Springs Park Board Vice President Kim Seebeck said. The race pushes off at 8:15 a.m. Sept. 8 at Quarry Springs Park. It has a two-mile kayak course to “paddle” and a three-and-half-mile trail run to “skedaddle.” New for 2024, there is a dog walkers category for the walk/run only option. Dogs should remain leashed, and bags will be included at registration.
“We always planned on this when we bonded for city hall. When we were building city hall it was a time of high inflation, and with any project of this magnitude there are change orders that come along. So funding ran out,” Colfax City Administrator Wade Wagoner said. “We had kind of an ugly alley PARK | 3A
Fourth annual kayak and run/walk race set for Sept. 8 at Quarry Springs Park
“We want to encourage anyone with well-behaved dogs who love to walk or run to join us,” Seebeck said. Chip timing will also be provided this year by B&W Racing Services to give racers their exact finishing time. Racers need to provide their own kayak, and life jackets are a must. Quarry Springs Outfitters will have a limited number of kayaks available to rent for $10 each. To participate, it is $45 solo or $35 as a team member. Runners only pay $30. Packet pickup runs from 7 to 7:30 a.m. at the park office with a racer meeting to follow at 8 a.m. Organizers anticipate participants should be able to finish the race in about two hours and 15 minutes if going at a walk and easy paddle pace. PADDLE | 3A
Photo by Mary Dell Flattery The fourth annual Paddle Skedaddle is set for Sept. 8 at Quarry Springs Park in Colfax.
Newton Clinic and MercyOne to pause all labor, delivery services Years of recruitment challenges, OB-GYN shortages force rural medical centers to stop services after Oct. 15 By Christopher Braunschweig Jasper County Tribune Newton Clinic and MercyOne Newton Medical Center are going to pause all labor and delivery services indefinitely, citing a decade of “significant recruitment and physician workforce challenges” that have forced the care centers to now investigate other options to provide these types of services to rural areas. In a joint statement released on Friday, Aug. 30, by Newton Clinic Administrator Mark Thayer and MercyOne Newton Chief Operating Officer Chad Kelley, the clinic announced it will cease its search for physicians dedicated to obstetrics. The hospital, in turn, must stop all newborn deliveries after Oct. 15. All mothers expected to deliver after Oct. 15 are encouraged to continue their prenatal care appointments with their obstetrical physician in Newton Clinic to discuss their care and options for trans-
fer and delivery. Mothers scheduled to deliver prior to that date will continue to receive care and can deliver in Newton. “As difficult as this decision is, patient safety is of utmost importance to both organizations,” the statement said. “Both the Newton Clinic and MercyOne Newton Medical Center will continue to commit to the high standards of prescribed and emergency care followed by every care center in Iowa.” Furthermore, hospital policies and procedures — along with interfaculty arrangements — are in place to safely care for and triage all patients. Nurses employed in the labor and delivery department at MercyOne Newton Medical Center will be offered continued employment in other positions and departments. Thayer told Newton News in a follow-up interview there is nothing he worked harder on in the past five years than recruiting obstetrics providers. “We’ve had success bringing in
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providers and then all of a sudden said some doctors are lacking cesarian the door just shut on us in the past 12 section, or C-section, experience when months,” Thayer said in a recent phone they compete their residency. To estabinterview. “We’re losing Dr. (Sarah) Flor- lish that competency, he said it takes a ence, and we can’t do it with one doctor. minimum of 25 to 50 completed C-secDr. (Tara) Gravenstine has announced tions. There was a time when Newton no plans to leave.” could train those services locally. Newton Clinic is actively looking for “But they don’t allow that anymore,” options for Gravenstine to deliver her Thayer said. “We’re also finding a lot of patient’s babies at other hospitals or at new doctors just want to have an outleast provide prenatal care. Thayer said patient practice and don’t want take on the clinic historically has exclusively pro- OB or really even step foot in a hospital. vided obstetrics services at the adjoining Really, they just want to have a clinic hospital; it was the only hospital that practice. Which is understandable. We’re providers were able to deliver at. kind of faced with two storms simulta“That has worked for probably the neously.” last 100 years,” Thayer said. “At one point Health experts have been warning almost every one of our doctors did OB. about the shortage of obstetricians and Shaw I’ve been at the Newton ClinicMedia now for gynecologists for years. Thayer said it 28 years and I think at one time I had six has been challenging trying to find that providers that were all doing OB. Part of skillset for Newton Clinic. It is also the problem is as providers get older they cost-prohibitive for the clinic to have sometimes pull back on services.” Other factors are at play, too. Thayer OB | 3A est. 1851
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