Due to the evolving COVID-19 situation and its impact on community health and well-being, the 2020 Henry County Fair will be a non-public Fair.  All grandstand and open shows, the carnival, and all other community events have been postponed until the 2021 Henry County Fair.

The safety of visitors, participants and community is the highest priority in producing the annual fair. After seeking guidance from Henry County Public Health and taking direction from Governor Reynolds, it became clear that postponement of these events was the prudent choice for the fair to do its part in working to improve community health and safety and reduce the cycle of infection.

With that said, the Henry County Fair Board and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Henry County is happy to announce that we will be moving forward with 4-H Livestock Shows and Auction, communication, clothing and static projects, and the fair queen contest for the 2020 fair.

There will be several modifications made to each of these events to ensure social distancing and sanitation guidelines. Together, they are working diligently to put together a list of strict guidelines and changes which will soon be posted on the Henry County Fair website and Facebook.

“The Henry County Fair exists to strengthen Henry County and bring people together,” said Andrea Wright, Fair Board President. “We are dedicated to being part of our collective well-being and we will  continue to work with local and national public health agencies and watch for any new developments around COVID-19 that would impact our operation, and make modifications accordingly.” We look forward to when we can all gather in 2021.”

If anyone has questions please contact henrycofairia@gmail.com or the ISU Extension and Outreach Henry County Office 319-385-8126.

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Iowa – Farmers, ag professionals, and other interested parties are invited to participate in a virtual field day webinar series being hosted by Iowa State University (ISU) Extension and Outreach in conjunction with the Southeast Iowa Agricultural Research Association from June 23 to June 26.

“Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, this virtual field day webinar series is being offered in replace of the annual spring face-to-face spring field day that is held at the ISU Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm,” said Virgil Schmitt, ISU extension field agronomist. “COVID-19 hasn’t stopped the growing season and we are adapting our typical field day to the situation.”

Each webinar will start at 8:00 a.m. with a 20 minutes discussion on the topic of the day with time for a question and answers session at the end. Sessions will be limited to 30 minutes.

Topics to be featured each day of the webinar series are listed below.

• June 23: “Southeast Iowa Research Farm and Crop Update” with Cody Schneider and Myron Rees, Research farm co-managers
• June 24: “Utilizing Tile Drainage to Better Manage Nitrogen and Improve Corn Yields” with Mike Castellano, professor, Agronomy (0.5 SWM)
• June 25: “Late Season Field Scouting with UAVs” with Matt Darr, professor, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering and Ryan Bergman, program coordinator, Agricultural Biosystems Engineering (0.5 CM)
• June 26: “Multi-tactic Approaches to Manage Herbicide Resistance” with Prashant Jha, Extension weed management specialist (0.5 PM)

This webinar series is free and open to anyone. The webinar will be offered through ZOOM. While there is no charge to attend, registration is required and can be completed by going to http://www.aep.iastate.edu/serf. After registering, participants will receive an email with instructions and a link for joining the webinar series. Once you register, you will be able to watch any or all the webinars.

Participants may join through their web browser, mobile phone, or tablet. Participants will need to download a free app prior to joining. Pre-registration is required and will be available until the webinar series begins. Participants should join the webinar at least 15 minutes in advance to ensure connections and software is working correctly.

If you cannot attend the live webinar, a recording of each session will be posted for viewing as soon as they are available on the ISU Extension and Outreach Crops Team YouTube Channel. Also, Certified Crop Advisors can earn continuing education units (CEU’s) by participating in the live webinars.

For more information, questions or if you need assistance with registration please contact ISU Extension and Outreach field agronomists Rebecca Vittetoe at 319-653-4811, or rka8@iastate.edu; Virgil Schmitt at 563-263-5701, or vschmitt@iastate.edu; or Josh Michel at 319-523-2371, or jmichel@iastate.edu.

SESSION RECONVENES

The Iowa Legislature resumed our 2020 session at 9 a.m. Wednesday. We suspended the session in March in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Since then, nearly every aspect of our lives—at home, work, school, worship and play—has changed dramatically. More than 20,000 Iowans have been infected with the virus, and more than 550 Iowans have lost their lives. A record number of Iowans have filed for unemployment, and thousands have had their paychecks reduced.

The list of stressors Iowans face right now is lengthy. We deserve honest leadership to safely guide us through these trying times.

State leaders must be laser-focused on solutions that address Iowans’ concerns; use available resources to protect education, health care and employment security; and press our federal delegation to provide continued assistance that meets Iowa’s unique needs.

In our reconvened session, my top priorities are:

• Passing a balanced budget based on the latest revenue estimates.
• Fighting for the short-term and long-term needs of Iowans, businesses and communities impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
• Pushing for laws to address racial inequities in Iowa. Many bills have been proposed. I’m hopeful that recent events will motivate all legislators to act.

I encourage you to follow what’s happening at the Statehouse and offer your input:

• Get information on each day’s schedule and the bills to be taken up, as well as a live stream of Senate action, at iowa.gov.
• At com/iowasenatedemocrats, we will provide updates on the session, and share videos, photos, news and additional resources.
• Our caucus website, iowa.gov/democrats, will have bill summaries, news releases and relevant analysis.
• To share your concerns and ideas, please email me at taylor@legis.iowa.gov.

Additional information

This is a legislative update from State Senator Rich Taylor, representing Henry and Lee counties and portions of Washington and Jefferson counties. For bio, photos and further information, go to senate.iowa.gov/senator/taylor.

To contact Senator Rich Taylor when the Legislature is in session, call the Senate Switchboard at 515-281-3371. Otherwise he can be reached at 319-931-1568. E-mail him at rich.taylor@legis.iowa.gov.

Senator Rich Taylor is an Assistant Leader. He serves on the following committees:

• Agriculture
• Judiciary
• Labor and Business Relations
• Veterans Affairs (Ranking Member)
• Administration and Regulation Appropriations Subcommittee

Henry County Commissioner of Elections Shelly Barber says there will not have to be a county convention, after all, to determine a second Republican supervisor candidate in the November County general election. In the recent primary election the two top vote getters were Chad White with 1,601 votes and Greg Moeller with 1,066 votes.  A candidate must receive a certain percentage of the votes. That percentage was arrived at by using a calculation that was used in a similar situation in 1996.  But according to Barber the law has changed since then. The calculation is total votes cast in the supervisor race which was 4,507 divided by the 2 open seats. That equals 2,254 multiplied by 35% making the magic number of votes that are required 789.  Therefore Chad White and Greg Moeller won the Nomination for the General Election.

Mount Pleasant Community School District

 FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING

 Mt. Pleasant CSD – Central Office

1010 East Washington Street – Suite 102

Mt. Pleasant, IA 52641

The Mount Pleasant Board of Education FINANCE COMMITTEE will meet at 2:30pm on Friday, June 5, 2020, to review/discuss:

1. Property/Casualty/Worker’s Comp. Insurance Renewal Information
2. Computer/Tablet Insurance Renewal
3. GPAEA Contract Agreement for Social Worker
4. iJAG Memorandum of Understanding Renewal

The meeting is open to the public and patrons are welcome