JEFFERSON, Iowa — For the final a number of years, officers right here have tried desperately to draw new residents to Greene County, a sea of corn and bean fields about 60 miles from Des Moines. They introduced in a Hy-Vee grocery store, a profession academy, a high-tech workspace, and a second financial institution. A glitzy on line casino anchors one aspect of the freeway, a brand-new highschool is on the opposite.
Iowa
A rural county in Iowa that supported Trump turns to Latinos to grow
Nothing labored. The inhabitants saved dropping.
Greene County — like a lot of rural America — is sinking right into a demographic gap, down from greater than 15,500 residents after World Struggle II to an estimated 8,717 final yr, with the inhabitants now falling by about 100 yearly. Factories have dozens of job openings, colleges have closed, and villages are crumbling. Deaths have outpaced births for thus lengthy that the hospital stopped delivering infants.
In a collection of public conferences that began final month, the group has been weighing how one can cease the decline, and this principally White, principally Republican stronghold has concluded that the one option to develop is to recruit Latino residents.
“It’s the one recreation on the town,” marketing consultant Carlos Argüello stated at one presentation. “I’m sorry to inform it to you that manner. Nevertheless it’s true.”
Latinos are the most important minority group in Iowa, and one of many quickest rising, projected to greater than double to 407,000 residents over the following 30 years. The White inhabitants, in distinction, has declined in virtually each rural county, in line with an evaluation of census estimates by demographer William Frey of the Brookings Establishment.
Republicans and Democrats agree that the state of affairs is dire. However the query is whether or not a county that voted for President Donald Trump and former congressman Steve King, each Republicans who denigrated Latin American immigrants, can welcome Latinos and their households, and whether or not these households will likely be keen to come back to Greene County.
In Iowa, Latinos account for six p.c of all residents, lower than half the nationwide common, and almost 30 p.c are immigrants. In Greene County, solely 3 p.c are Latino.
“In rural Iowa, persons are transferring to town. In case you do nothing, you’re going to die,” stated soon-to-retire colleges Superintendent Tim Christensen, who has needed to shut a number of colleges throughout his 15-year tenure. “There’s no assure that that is going to work. However the writing’s on the wall in the event you don’t attempt.”
The story of Greene County is the story of a lot of rural America, the place falling birthrates, an growing old inhabitants and an exodus of younger folks to the cities have depleted the inhabitants, stated demographer Ken Johnson, a professor on the College of New Hampshire.
“There’s no assure that that is going to work. However the writing’s on the wall in the event you don’t attempt.”
— Faculties Superintendent Tim Christensen
However demographers warning that the decline shouldn’t be common or inevitable, and that many rural areas even have discovered new methods to develop. Greene County is a quiet, protected, and tightknit assortment of seven cities and cities alongside the huge, wind-whipped prairie. Grain elevators dot the skyline, drivers wave at each other on the highway, and the colourful county seat of Jefferson has a pair of theaters, a bowling alley, and actual root-beer floats on the A&W. Greene County hasn’t had a murder in almost 20 years.
“It’s peaceable,” stated county Sheriff Jack Williams. “It’s a great place to lift your youngsters.”
It turned clear two years in the past, nonetheless, that the county’s future was in jeopardy when New Means Vehicles, a garbage-truck producer and one in all a half-dozen main employers, situated 150 new jobs to Booneville, Miss., as a result of they may not discover staff in Greene County.
Shocked, Ken Paxton, government director of the Greene County Improvement Company, a nonprofit that promotes development, huddled with board president Sid Jones, a longtime banker, and board member Douglas Burns, co-owner of the native newspaper, the Jefferson Herald. Burns related them to Argüello, an immigrant from Nicaragua whose mom, Lorena Lopez, is founder and editor of the realm’s largest Spanish-language newspaper, La Prensa de Iowa.
Collectively, they assembled the “range challenge,” named “Nueva Vida en Greene County,” or New Life in Greene County.
The company employed Argüello, 37, who moved from California to rural Iowa in center college, and it determined to use for a $500,000 federal grant that might be used to recruit new Latino staff and residents.
Organizers stated they plan to promote Greene County to Latinos on social media, radio, tv and billboards, and employers will organize for vans to usher in staff as quickly as this summer season. Civic leaders are planning academic actions to combine the group, with courses about soccer, language, and humanities and tradition, they usually are also exploring methods to repair the realm’s acute housing scarcity.
The aim is to promote to residents inside a 60-mile radius, akin to town of Perry, the place almost 1 in 3 of town’s 7,500 residents are Latinos and plenty of work in meatpacking crops and development. Organizers say Greene County is providing cleaner, safer jobs. The county is residence to factories that make farming equipment, gymnastics gear and the backboards for the Nationwide Basketball Affiliation.
Employers, town of Jefferson and Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) have endorsed the plan. The county Board of Supervisors voted 3-to-2 in favor; one member expressed concern in regards to the challenge’s price, one other stated non-public companies ought to create extra housing to draw staff.
“We’ve received to do one thing completely different,” stated Gary Vance, chief operations officer at Bauer Constructed Manufacturing, which makes agricultural equipment. He stated on the city corridor assembly within the village of Paton that he has as many as 60 job openings paying $19 to $24 an hour, “like now.”
Whereas the town-hall conferences aimed to promote the concept to Greene County residents, in addition they served as a option to gauge their reactions. In 2020 voters right here overwhelmingly supported Trump , who had referred to as Mexicans “rapists” and criminals, and backed King within the primaries, which he ended up shedding after his personal Republican Social gathering shunned him for racist remarks. Individuals of Mexican descent are the most important Latino group in Iowa.
On the conferences, Argüello stated he couldn’t have imagined this taking place in west-central Iowa years in the past when he was one in all few Latinos right here, however he believed that issues had modified. He emphasised that White and Latino Iowans each prioritize household, religion, work and schooling.
Throughout one assembly in Jefferson, a person who lives simply outdoors the county questioned whether or not Latinos can be right here legally. “Are they going to bus them in from Texas?” he requested, referring to the inflow on the southwest border.
Different residents are enthusiastic, conscious that Latino residents and companies have revitalized different Iowa cities akin to Storm Lake and Denison.
“I’m glad that it’s getting performed,” stated Marilyn Schwartzkopf, 73, a Democrat who has been practising her Spanish to assist newcomers, as she volunteered on the county’s historic museum in Jefferson. “We want some range right here. We’re all too outdated and White.”
“I don’t have any downside with Latinos coming in,” stated Shirley Herrick, 76, who’s married to Grand Junction Mayor Gerold Herrick. Each proudly voted for Trump, however stated they disagreed with a few of his rhetoric. “I couldn’t stand him as an individual,” Gerold Herrick stated.
At age 80, Herrick stated he was “about able to let any person youthful take over” as mayor. He stated he as soon as tried to take himself off the poll however stated voters wrote him again in.
“I just like the city,” he stated. “However I get drained.”
And the decay is increasing. In Grand Junction, the place the railroad nonetheless rumbles by, deserted homes scar neighborhoods and rubble from a burned-out grocery store sits downtown.
Chuck Offenburger, the chair of the range challenge’s steering committee, stated the state thought-about attracting extra immigrant households twenty years in the past, however the plan was shelved. Now Greene County has its personal probability, he stated.
“Everyone knows one another right here,” he instructed the viewers at a city corridor assembly in Grand Junction. “The benefit is that we may be extra nimble and make issues occur a lot simpler, faster than bigger locations can.”
For Latinos, adjusting to rural Iowa may be painful, and Trump’s insurance policies and rhetoric made households worry being deported or harmed. Heads swivel once they communicate Spanish, and a few youngsters are picked on at school.
Jesus Valles, 51, an immigrant from Mexico, stated he and his spouse moved to Iowa in 2019 after years in Colorado to be nearer to her household. He purchased a three-bedroom fixer-upper for below $25,000 in Churdan, a fading hamlet in Greene County.
However on his first week on the job at a Walmart in one other county, he stated a buyer angrily took subject along with his identify tag, considering he had taken the Lord’s identify in useless. The identify is frequent in Latin America.
“Who gave you that identify?” he stated the person requested him.
“My mom?” Valles responded.
He quickly discovered a job on the Greene County Medical Middle, which has employed seven Latinos to this point, stated human assets director Mary Nieto, additionally a Latina — proof, she says, that change is feasible. One new worker fled hours-long site visitors jams in Los Angeles. One other traded a night-shift cleansing job in Perry for days on the hospital.
Valles stated he earns lower than he did as a pipe layer in Colorado, however stated his new job is safer.
“I’m getting outdated,” Valles stated. “I don’t need to get caught in a job the place I’m drained each evening, working in a ditch 20 toes deep.”
He stated he thought extra Latinos would come to Greene County if employers raised wages. “The wages are what’s going to deliver extra folks or lose extra folks,” he stated.
In Perry, others expressed worry of transferring to an space the place they’d stand out. Some are U.S.-born residents or authorized residents; others are undocumented.
Perry, in distinction to Greene County, hosts an annual Latino pageant and it’s simple to buy or order lunch in English or Spanish. The favored El Rey’s Market and Weapons sells Minnie Mouse piñatas, and cheeses and sauces from every nation in northern Central America.
“I wouldn’t go away, actually,” stated Rosa Sanchez, 29, an immigrant from El Salvador, folding her arms inside Oasis Restaurant as she waited to take orders from the lunch crowd. “I’m good right here.”
Greene County, she added, “appears to be like very lonely.”
However Gildardo “Gil” Lepe, an immigrant from Mexico who adopted his household to Iowa, stated he believed extra Latinos may thrive right here. He recalled his personal foray into Greene County years in the past, when a giant financial institution refused to mortgage him the cash to open a restaurant in Jefferson, considering it will not survive.
A small native banker thought otherwise, he stated, and gave him a mortgage to open “Casa de Oro” — “Home of Gold” in 2008.
On the primary day the road stretched out the door, he stated.
“I’ve been so pleased with this city,” he stated.
Returning to Hilton Coliseum was just what the Iowa State women needed, as the eighth-ranked Cyclones held off Drake Sunday afternoon in Ames, 80-78.
Returning sophomore standout Audi Crooks had the game-winning bucket with just :00.3 seconds left in the game, finishing off a 33-point effort to lead Iowa State (5-1).
Crooks, a preseason honorable mention All-American, added four rebounds to her night while shooting 15 of 25 from the field.
Emily Ryan had a double-double, scoring 11 points while dishing out 12 assists. Addy Brown added 13 points and Mackenzie Hare chipped in 10. Brown led the team with eight rebounds while Ryan had six with two steals.
Arianna Jackson had three steals and no turnovers in almost 31 minutes of action.
For Drake, another former Iowa prep standout put up a big number vs. the Cyclones, as Katie Dinnebier knocked down eight 3-pointers and scored a game-high 39 points. Anna Miller had 18 with eight rebounds, as Dinnebier also had five rebounds, two steals and two assists.
The win marked the 300th non-conference victory for Iowa State under Bill Fennelly all-time, as he improved to 616-314 with the Cyclones and 782-367 overall in his coaching career.
Iowa State added to its NCAA-record streak for consecutive games with a made 3-pointer, stretching it to 933 straight.
Up next for the Cyclones will be defending national champion South Carolina on Thanksgiving at 12:30 p.m. on FOX. The Gamecocks had their 43-game win streak snapped with a 77-62 loss in Los Angeles.
Iowa leaders do not have to abandon or betray pro-business stances if they want to do better for Iowa water and for Iowans.
See how Iowa DNR conducts beach monitoring tests at Iowa’s lakes
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources conducts weekly tests to monitor beach water quality at 39 state-owned beaches.
The battle for clean water in Iowa has been locked in a stalemate for years. Advocates jump up and down pointing to obvious evidence that dangerous chemicals pervade streams, rivers and lakes, threatening people’s health and taking away recreation opportunities. The state’s elected and appointed officials, citing various measures of their own, say things are getting better thanks to their strategy of working together with agricultural and industrial polluters. Little changes (except continued damage to waterways).
A pair of developments this month, though, call into question Iowa’s entire approach to managing water. A state administrative law judge and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, in unrelated writings, say the Iowa Department of Natural Resources thinks too narrowly about water pollution.
If state leaders take the criticisms seriously, they can chart a different course of more aggressive protection and restoration of this precious resource. New approaches to monitoring, regulation, enforcement and spending can spur a better future for the welfare of Iowa and its people.
Monitoring: DNR wrongly omitted rivers from impaired-waters list, EPA says
The EPA chided the DNR in a letter this month, saying stretches of the Cedar, Des Moines, Iowa, Raccoon and South Skunk rivers should have been included on the DNR’s list of impaired waters in the state. The assessments involved are technical, but the gist is that Iowa improperly treated nitrate pollution as though it does not have toxic effects on humans. Nitrates are a form of nitrogen that commonly results from manure and fertilizer runoff.
The rivers involved supply drinking water for large cities, including Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. It is distressing to learn that the DNR could miss the mark on such a crucial question of public health – all the more so when considering the possibility that the EPA might cease to be an effective backstop on such questions. New York congressman Lee Zeldin, Donald Trump’s announced choice to take over the EPA, pays lip service to conservation, but he, Trump and other voices likely to be influential in the new White House have made plain their top priority is removing restrictions on business. In the future, responsibility could fall solely on the DNR to correctly look out for drinking-water interests.
Regulation: Availability cannot be the only consideration in water-use matters
Another of the DNR’s tasks is to manage water-use permits for farms and other businesses that use a lot of it. According to an order by state administrative law judge Toby Gordon, the DNR’s management mostly focuses on availability of water. Gordon, reviewing a permit for a controversial feedlot in northeast Iowa, says that’s contrary to state law, which calls for environmental impact to be considered, too.
Indeed, here’s Chapter 455B of the Iowa Code: “The general welfare of the people of the state requires that the water resources of the state be put to beneficial use which includes ensuring that the waste or unreasonable use, or unreasonable methods of use of water be prevented, and that the conservation and protection of water resources be required with the view to their reasonable and beneficial use in the interest of the people.”
DNR Director Kayla Lyon can accept Gordon’s order or seek changes. She should agree to it in this case, but more importantly, she and her department need to adopt this reasoning in all contexts, not just water-use permitting. They should more often push back on the operations in Iowa whose proposals risk — or promise — damage to the environment.
Industry, including agriculture, drives Iowa’s economy, of course. And that will still be true if DNR personnel insist more often that industry take responsibility for side effects. The DNR has the authority it needs; it’s a matter of discretion.
Before voting no on Lyon’s confirmation this spring, state Sen. Pam Jochum, a Dubuque Democrat, told colleagues that “I think that Kayla Lyon — if she was allowed to do what a director can do, provide policy direction to this body on what the problems are and how to fix them and the funding that needs to accompany that to solve those problems — this state would have clean water.”
Many tools are available to Lyon, her DNR and state boards responsible for the environment: They can reject applications. They can impose more conditions on permits. They can fine offenders more often. They can refer more severe offenders for prosecution.
Enforcement: Attorney general should step up its enforcement
In egregious cases, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office can take over enforcement actions and seek penalties of greater than $10,000, the statutory limit for the DNR’s administrative process.
If regulators believe that some Iowa businesses count those meager fines as merely a cost of doing business, then they should more freely get the attorney general involved.
Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office should have the resources to pitch in. Unlike almost all other state agencies, which have as usual requested status quo budgets for 2025-26, Bird is asking lawmakers for $1.7 million in new money to hire seven attorneys and a paralegal for various needs. In addition, Bird has unquestionably fulfilled her 2022 campaign promise to use the office’s resources to litigate furiously against the Biden administration – which won’t exist after Jan. 20. Maybe dashing off memos and briefs in favor of Donald Trump’s agenda will take just as much time. Or maybe some time could be sliced off for work more directly relevant to Iowans’ lives and communities.
Spending: Time to finally raise sales tax for the outdoor trust fund
Even if Iowa transformed its regulatory scheme on a dime into one that reliably preserved water quality, the problems that have accumulated over decades will require investment for mitigation and restoration. State appropriations and other sources can be a piece of that puzzle. But Iowa also has a ready-to-go mechanism for spending on conservation and recreation priorities: the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund, approved by 63% of voters in 2010 and stubbornly empty since.
Filling the trust fund’s coffers requires increasing the sales tax, which the Iowa Legislature has refused to do. Gov. Kim Reynolds proposed this in early 2020, but the idea fell apart when COVID-19 tanked most of that year’s legislative session. Lawmakers’ bills to take similar steps also have fizzled.
With Republican majorities passing income tax reductions and proposing to take a new bite out of property taxes, there’s no time like the present to fund some necessary government work, including conservation, with a higher sales tax.
The stakes: Protecting water is Iowa law
Private environmental groups have done laudable work bringing the DNR’s shortcomings to light and collecting wins in court and in administrative proceedings. They’ll continue to do that even if the EPA gives up on water quality. But those battles are costly, and the environmental groups lack the authority of government.
Lyon and the DNR, as well as Bird, Reynolds and majority leaders in the Legislature, do not have to abandon or betray pro-business stances if they want to do better for Iowa water and for Iowans. But they need to realize that doing better for water quality and for people is part of their charge. It’s been there in state law for decades.
Lucas Grundmeier, on behalf of the Register’s editorial board
This editorial is the opinion of the Des Moines Register’s editorial board: Carol Hunter, executive editor; Lucas Grundmeier, opinion editor; and Richard Doak and Rox Laird, editorial board members.
Want more opinions? Read other perspectives with our free newsletter or visit us at DesMoinesRegister.com/opinion. Respond to any opinion by submitting a Letter to the Editor at DesMoinesRegister.com/letters.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – With four victories after intermission, including a technical fall and major decision, the Hawkeyes extended their winning streak over Iowa State to 20 in a row.
The Hawkeyes took the dual 21-15.
Early on, the matched looked dead even, with the teams trading decisions. But at 157 pounds, Iowa State’s Paniro Johnson picked up six points with an injury default win over Jacori Teemer. Teemer appeared to injure his hamstring, but Iowa head coach Tom Brands did not comment further on his status.
Iowa responded four straight wins from Michael Caliendo, Patrick Kennedy, Angelo Ferrari and Stephen Buchanan to seal the dual. Kennedy’s win came by technical fall, Buchanan’s by major decision. Yonger Bastida defeated Ben Kueter at heavyweight to earn the last points for Iowa State.
With the win, Iowa improves to 4-0. With the loss, ISU drops to 1-2.
No. 2 Iowa 21 – No. 12 Iowa State 15
125 – Adrian Meza (ISU) dec. Kale Petersen (Iowa) , 5-1
133 – Drake Ayala (Iowa) dec. Evan Frost (ISU), 11-7
141 – Zach Redding (ISU) dec. Ryder Block (Iowa), 5-4
149 – Kyle Parco (Iowa) dec. Anthony Echemendia (ISU), 4-3
157 – Paniro Johnson (ISU) inj. default Jacori Teemer (IA), 3:32
165 – Michael Caliendo (Iowa) dec. Connor Euton (ISU), 12-7
174 – Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) tech. fall Aiden Riggins (ISU), 19-4
184 – Angelo Ferrari (Iowa) dec. Evan Bockman (ISU), 8-2
197 – Stephen Buchanan (Iowa) major dec. #20 Christian Carroll, 10-0
285 – Yonger Bastida (ISU) dec. Ben Kueter (Iowa), 7-2
Copyright 2024 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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