OTTUMWA —
River Hills Community Health Center is looking at the possibility of leaving downtown Ottumwa for a new location just outside city limits.
In order to take advantage of a grant and build its new facility, River Hills CEO Rick Johnson hopes the Ottumwa City Council will approve his request to connect the new building to the city sewer system at the council’s meeting Tuesday night.
The new health center would be located on Hutchinson Avenue.
The sewer connection would be at no cost to the city, Johnson said, because River Hills plans to cover the cost from where the sewer system ends to its new property.
If approved, River Hills would pay the $500 sewer connection fee and would be paying sewer rates of 125 percent of the base sewer rate, since the property being served is outside city limits.
Johnson previously told the council that the advantages of being closer to the medical community outweighed his health center’s considerations of staying within city limits.
“By us being isolated and stuck downtown for the last 12 years, it has not done a lot to enhance our referral system and our relationship with medical players in the community,” Johnson previously said.
New grant, equipment for OPD
The Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau has invited the Ottumwa Police Department to apply for a three-year traffic safety grant.
Since 1988, the OPD has partnered with GTSB to enhance traffic safety efforts, which have included purchasing traffic safety-related equipment and paying overtime for special traffic enforcement activities.
This proposal requests nearly $50,000 in grant funding be used for overtime wages and another $13,000 for traffic safety equipment, including a handheld radar, five moving radars and one in-car video camera.
The GTSB will pay 100 percent of the officer overtime wages for the first two years of the contract, while the OPD would be required to provide a 25 percent match during the third year, which would total $12,402.
The OPD is also requesting the purchase of nearly $70,000 worth of radio equipment from RACOM Corporation, of Marshalltown.
This radio equipment is “part two” of switching the department’s radio frequencies from UHF to VHF.
The OPD currently uses UHF frequency for its radio communications, while all other public safety agencies in southeast Iowa use VHF, including the Ottumwa Fire Department and the Wapello County Sheriff’s Department.
In critical incidents, the OPD has to go through the dispatcher, who then has to contact either the dispatcher of the other agency or an officer with the other agency and then relay that information to the officer.
More and more governmental agencies have started using radio frequencies, which has also resulted in narrowbanding (splitting frequencies).
At the Aug. 13 City Council work session, the OPD outlined its interoperable communications project. The first purchase of equipment and new FCC licenses was approved in September.
This second purchase will allow the OPD to acquire the remaining equipment for the project, which will include 38 portable radios and accessories and one dual mobile radio for the ERT vehicle.
Of the nearly $70,000 required for the equipment, $60,000 will come from the city’s CIP program, with the remaining nearly $10,000 coming from a 2012 JAG grant.
The new radio system should be operational by April or May, depending on how long it takes for the new communications tower to be constructed.
Also on Tuesday’s agenda:
• McLeodUSA Telecommunications Services, Inc., a Windstream Company, has requested a long-term agreement with the city to allow for the construction of a high-bandwidth, fiber-based communications network and is constructing a fiber optic cable system within the city.
• The Ottumwa Fire Department will present a report to the council.
• Considering the revised policy for reserving city park shelters.
The council will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers at City Hall. The meeting will air live on GO-TV, cable channel 6.
Wapello County
February 16, 2013
River Hills looking at property outside city limits
Health center still needs sewer line connection to city, will do so at no cost to city
- Wapello County
-
- Roaring winds Southeast Iowa in clean-up mode after storm passes through OTTUMWA — Work crews in and around Wapello County put in a lot of hours. And they were ready to do it again. “We had the storms roll through there last night,” said Ryan Stensland, a spokesman for Alliant Energy. “Down in southeast part of the state,
- Mixed reactions to tax reduction OTTUMWA — During past public forums in Ottumwa, Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa, told voters the state should follow its own laws and make taxes equal across the board. This week, legislators in Des Moines took a first step toward that goal, which is a
- Budget shift on county agenda OTTUMWA — There's nothing like having some money in the budget to cover a project that doesn't have enough money on its line item. The Wapello County Supervisors will need to move some money to an item that has spent all of its funding, according to
- Wellness challenge asks people to live healthy OTTUMWA — Are you ready for the Live Healthy Iowa 10-Week Wellness Challenge? Some of the city employees joined Live Healthy Iowa, and Jody Gates, the city's health director, was captain of one of the two teams of about a dozen people. "Our goals for
-
Agency couple has provided foster care for 38 kids in last decade
AGENCY — School pictures of 38 grinning children look out into Angie and Terry Hamm's living room, evidence of the years of work and love they've given to those who needed it most. Their house — currently filled with five children, ages 7, 10, 10, 11
-
Severe weather returns to forecast
OTTUMWA — The National Weather Service believes severe weather could return to Iowa this weekend. The storms are expected to arrive late in the weekend and could extend into the next work week. Meteorologist Kurt Kotenberg said Sunday and Monday have
-
Health clinic in Ottumwa joins Mercy Medical
OTTUMWA — Though their future was uncertain, two local health care practices will continue without any interruption in services to patients and will remain at their current locations in Ottumwa. Ottumwa Internal Medicine North and Ottumwa Family Prac
- 90th Street closed until 2014 OTTUMWA — Not only is 90th Street closed for this summer, it's also closed until the summer of 2014. Wapello County Engineer Brian Moore said Wednesday that the road will be closed for a year while Moore and his team work on the road's design. "There
-
Iowa Supreme Court rejects appeal
DES MOINES – The Iowa Supreme Court has rejected an appeal bid by a Wapello County man previously found to be a sexually violent predator. Cory Blake West was convicted of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse in 2008. He was sentenced to four y
- Board to discuss DHS contract and tourism letter OTTUMWA — Wapello County Supervisor Greg Kenning said a contract with Department of Human Services (DHS) will probably be the main event when the board meets at 5:30 p.m. today in the Wapello County Courthouse. He indicated the DHS contract will pro
- More Wapello County Headlines
