THURSDAY, NOV. 7, 2024 • VOLUME N0. 124 • ISSUE NO. 8 • 1 SECTION • 8 PAGES
Serving Colfax • Mingo • Baxter • Western Jasper County
Seeing double
Progress Industries discontinues intermediate care facility services
Quarry Springs Park adding new disc golf course in spring 2025 By Jamee A. Pierson Jasper County Tribune So nice they are doing it twice. Quarry Springs Park Board recently announced it would add a disc golf course unlike any other to the park, making it the second course available in Colfax. “The course will be located in the southeast corner of the Quarry Springs Park island area and include part of our sand dunes,” Colfax Park & Recreation Auxiliary Board Member Doug Garrett said. “The course will be physically challenging due to the elevation changes and the difficulty of walking through a sandy landscape.” Named “The Osprey” to honor the popular migrating birds that call Quarry Springs Park their home in the spring and summer months, the course will utilize the disc golf equipment previously used at the course at Colfax-Mingo High School. The Tigerhawk 18Hole Disc Golf Course recently reopened after relocating following
Organization says it is not closing, but families are left feeling devastated
Submitted Photo The new Osprey Disc Golf Course at Quarry Springs Park will showcase the beautiful landscape the park has to offer throughout the 18 holes.
the construction of the new football stadium at the high school. “The Colfax-Mingo School Board voted to buy all new Prodigy disc catchers for the new Tigerhawk Disc Course at Lewis Park to make up for building their new
sports complex in the middle of the old disc course that had been extremely popular,” Garrett said. “We had considered selling the old Innova Pro-28 disc catchers that DISC GOLF | 3
Baxter selected for Community Visioning Program The community was one of seven in the state to be awarded assistance with the landscape of the town By Jamee A. Pierson Jasper County Tribune The City of Baxter was recently honored with being selected to participate in the Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program in 2024-25. A project worked on by Baxter Hometown Pride, the town is one of seven communities to receive the award. “Baxter looks to collaborate with all leaders and community to seek areas of opportunity to utilize the planning and design resources from
this grant to look at ways to make improvements to our transportation needs and local landscaping,” Baxter Hometown Pride Board Member Natalie Moorman said. “Baxter is seeking areas that may need attention for safer walking paths, accessibility, more green space offering our community today and in the future ways we can be prepared for growth and beauty that our community offers. We hope to target many areas in Baxter including areas around the school, parks, main street and the Chichaqua
Valley Bike Trailhead. An award-winning program, the community visioning works to integrates technical landscape planning and design techniques with sustainable community action to assist community leaders and volunteers in making sound and meaningful decisions about the local landscape. The program is sponsored by the Iowa Department of Transportation in partnership with Iowa State University Landscape Architecture Extension and Trees Forever, an Iowa-based
nonprofit environmental advocacy organization. Baxter will also have the opportunity to work with professional landscape architects offer expertise in creating conceptual design plans for the communities. To be selected for the program, a community must have less than 10,000 residents, existing transportation-related issues and a committee of volunteers willing to dedicate their time and talent to the visioning process. Baxter GRANT | 3
Christopher Braunschweig/Jasper County Tribune Progress Industries is ending its intermediate care facilities, which will displace 15 people out of the 200 it serves in the community. Families say they are devastated by the news and they worry for their loved ones affected by the decision.
By Christopher Braunschweig Jasper County Tribune Intermediate care facilities operated by Progress Industries in Newton and used by people with physical and intellectual disabilities are expected to close in about a month, ending the services for the foreseeable future. One family told Newton News their daughter is going to be displaced and will need to find a new home. Tanya Myers, of Ira, said her 38-year-old daughter, Brooke VanCleave, was given a 30day notice letter from Progress Industries saying ICF services will be discontinued and that her daughter’s needs extend beyond what the organization can provide in a Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) setting. “I’m sad, I’m betrayed, I’m a whole ton of an emotions that I can’t describe,” Myers said to Newton News. “I just
don’t understand.” Which means VanCleave and the 14 other residents who use the ICFs will likely be evicted by Nov. 25, three days before Thanksgiving. Myers was notified of the news on Oct. 24, and every day since she cannot talk about it without crying. She worries about not only finding a new ICF but finding one close to home. “Brooke has to move,” Myers said. “It’s the hardest thing on her. You could put her in hospital for a month and she would take it easier than a move. She doesn’t communicate verbally. She has a communication device but that can’t say everything for her. Wherever she goes people won’t know her. It will be so hard.” VanCleave has been in an ICF ever since she was about 18 years old. Her first was in Forest City and then she stayed at an SERVICES | 3
Jasper County to require geotechnical services for all future bridge projects Engineer says soil borings are necessary to comply with federal requirements and maintain funding By Christopher Braunschweig Jasper County Tribune From now on, every bridge in Jasper County that needs to be repaired or reconstructed will be required to undergo geotechnical services. Jasper County Engineer Michael Frietsch said during the Oct. 15 supervisors meeting that these services — which test soil and rock conditions — are already required with every bridge let through the Iowa Department of Transportation. But now the engineer’s office will order them for local bridge projects as well. “Part of the reason is because the feds are starting to really ramp up what’s required for inspection requirements on our bridges,” Frietsch said. “In fact, even Calhoun-Burns is having trouble how they’re going to inspect their
bridges to a certain degree. So there’s a lot of confusion going on.” But the county engineer fears it is only going to get worse. In the past, the federal government only asked for about a page of data, but Frietsch said they want four to five pages of data for bridge inspections. As a result, Frietsch expects to see increased bridge inspection costs moving forward. “We’re also going to be at risk a lot more if we don’t do all the necessary steps on our bridges, whether they’re local or they’re let through the DOT,” he said. “Which basically means we’re going to need to start doing geotechnical investigation on every single bridge that we’ve been doing to get soil borings.” Knowing the conditions of the soil
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Christopher Braunschweig/JasperCounty Tribune Jasper County Engineer Michael Frietsch anticipates all future bridge projects will require geotechnical services to appease federal requirements and ensure funding.
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