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NASCAR Iowa Penalties

Posted on by KBOE Administrator

John Hunter Nemechek and his Number-8 NEMCO Motorsports team have been penalized with the loss of ten driver and owner points after failing post-race inspection last Saturday night at Iowa Speedway.

Nemechek finished twelfth in the Speediatrics 200. Crew chief Farris Kennon Junior was fined six thousand dollars and placed on NASCAR probation through December 31st … In the X-FINITY Series, six crew chiefs – including Chris Gayle on Sam Hornish Junior’s winning entry at Iowa – were placed on probation through December 31st for body modifications that were done after pre-race inspection.

Water Department Ready To Roll Out New Features

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OSKALOOSA – Residents and businesses of Oskaloosa can expect big changes this week when it comes to their water usage bills. The first change in the lineup revolves around just how often they are are billed.

“Residents and commercial accounts that have been billed quarterly in the past will all move to a monthly billing format,” said Chad Coon, general manager for the Oskaloosa Water Department. “Those bills will start going out this week for customers.”

With this change, the dates that bills are due will also change to help the Oskaloosa Water Department facilitate the move internally.

“Currently, the bills are due on the 25th of the month,” explained Coon. “This will change to the 15th of the month effective in July.”

The Oskaloosa Water Department formalized intent to start the new billing schedule in April, but it is just now starting to roll out to residents as June comes to a close and July 1 appears on the horizon. According to Coon, customers have given favorable feedback on the idea, and the Water Board agreed that it would be a good shift as well.

“Looking at the fact that both the water and the sewer had 25 percent rate increases this year, on  a quarterly basis knowing what that may do to bills, it was a decision the Water Board felt was necessary to be able to help those customers better budget for that utility bill,” he said.

Coon said with the current quarterly billing, it’s very easy for residents to forget to pay their bills, resulting in non-payment incidents. This monthly billing change could help curb those issues, allowing both the department and residents to seamlessly handle their utilities.

“We’re also hoping we can help reduce some of the incidents of non-payment that we run across as a result of this new billing format,” said Coon.

Moving from quarterly to monthly billing isn’t the only change to expect when paying your water bill.

“We’re also moving to an online bill pay format,” Coon revealed on Tuesday.

The Water Department has been working with the City of Oskaloosa to allow customers to go directly to the homepage of the Oskaloosa website to pay their bill.

Customers will be able to go online to www.oskaloosaiowa.org, and find a “Pay My Utility Bill” option on the lower lefthand side of the screen, beneath “Municipal Code” and “Notify Me”. By clicking that link, users will then be redirected to a website specifically for online payments. The Water Department will need to have a social security number on file for residents to utilize this feature, but many consumers already provide this information when they elect to have running water. Aside from a social security number, all users will need their account number to sign up for paying online.

There will be more to the new online feature than just being able to pay bills, though.

“There is the ability to track consumption and as we move to a monthly feature, we hope that we can provide that information,” Coon said. “In a year I’ll be able to look at what I have for consumption in June 2016 and June 2017 and find out what my water usage practices are.”

Consumption tracking can help residents monitor their water usage and how it stacks up over a period of time. This in turn can help them know when their highest usage points are and perhaps how to dwindle that number down if need be for financial and personal reasons.

The Water Department will benefit from this feature by getting more complete data to paint an overall picture.

“Hopefully it will allow us as a department to be able to address some of our non-revenue water losses that are happening because we don’t get a complete picture of what is happening in our system when we’re only getting quarterly reads,” said Coon.

This new online feature will come on the heels of the new billing cycle, however there are still a few things to handle before it goes completely live.

“Right now you can set up your account,” he said. “But currently we’re making sure we have indemnification for a data breach before going all the way with it.”

The Department is currently in talks with their software provider, the company that will do the transactions, and their insurance company to get a plan in place to cover everyone, should something happen on the cyber side of things.

“I believe it will be done,” said Coon. “As soon as that is done, our office manager will take this live.”

As the Water Department is moving from quarterly to monthly billing, Coon hopes residents will turn out to the online feature to cut down on foot traffic when paying bills. They’ll also be able to pay delinquent or bills close to deadline without worrying about when the office will be open, and they’ll conveniently be able to pay outside of office hours. However, for those whom are not tech-savvy or may not have internet access, the current method of calling, mailing a check, or stopping out to pay in person will still be acceptable.

For those with questions about the different features of the online payment system, or how often bills will be sent, contact the Oskaloosa Water Department by calling 641-673-8476 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Story provided by Hailey Brown

Toby Keith’s “Lucky 13” Golf Classic Raises Big Money

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The 13th Annual Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic was a huge success, raising nearly $1.2 million for The Toby Keith Foundation and its work with OK Kids Korral, a cost-free home-away-from-home for pediatric cancer patients and their families. This year’s event — nicknamed “Lucky 13” by its namesake –included not only the celebrity golf tournament but also a gala and dinner headlined by Asleep At The Wheel and an auction that a featured a rare signed album by Elvis Presley, among other items. The annual event was held in Keith’s hometown of Norman, Oklahoma, on June 3-4.

June 22nd: On This Day

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On this day in 2002, Tim McGraw’s fifth album A Place In The Sun was certified Triple Platinum.  The album produced five singles;  “Please Remember Me”, “Something Like That”, “My Best Friend”, “My Next Thirty Years” and “Some Things Never Change”.

A Place In The Sun reached number one on both the U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums chart and the U.S. Billboard 200, making it a crossover hit.

“Please Remember Me” was nominated for Best Male Country Vocal Performance at the 2000 Grammy Awards. “My Best Friend” was nominated in the same category the following year.

 

X-FINITY Series Idle Again

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The X-FINITY Series is heading into yet another off-weekend. This marks the fifth time since late March that NASCAR’s Number-2 tour is idle. Action will resume Friday night, July 1st, at Daytona International Speedway.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Suarez enters the break atop the standings for a fourth straight week, enjoying a twenty-one-point advantage over Elliott Sadler. Ty Dillon, Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones complete the top five … Kyle Busch leads the series with four wins and rookie Erik Jones has amassed six poles.

Carrie Underwood Changing Her Tune For Sunday Night Football

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Carrie Underwood will be singing a different tune when she returns for NBC’s telecast of Sunday Night Football (SNF) this fall. Underwood has recorded a new opening theme song for SNF titled “Oh, Sunday Night,” which is set to the music of “Somethin’ Bad” Carrie’s duet with Miranda Lambert.

 

Oskaloosa Water Board Meeting 6/20/2016

Posted on by KBOE Administrator
The Water Board held their regular meeting on Monday at 3 p.m. at the Water Department in Oskaloosa.
Discussion of wastewater operations was one of the main topics at the forefront of the meeting.
“There is some work that has needed to happen in the last year plus that we’re finally starting,” said Chad Coon, general manager.
“Some of the processes of being out there and talking with staff, there is a very real concern and a need to have some sort of automation with regard to our stuff that happened as we were out there working on different facets of that digester.”
An alarm going off to indicate an issue is currently hard to notice as there is no notification process for the alarm system.
“As the City has recently spent roughly $500,000 replacing that unit, I think we need to look at getting something in place to notify staff in the event of an alarm,” he said of the digester.
The Water Department and the City will continue talking more about a process or procedure going forward.
There was also a minor change in the Oskaloosa Municipal Water Department rules and regulations, in the billing and collections section 2.400, changing an unpaid account balance fee, mistakenly entered as $40, back down to $30 as it has been in previous years.
“Not sure where the $40 came from in honesty, so we’ve noticed it needs to be addressed,” said Coon. Everything else in the code stayed the same outside of this correction.
One of the most dominant discussions focused around going to a “merit system” in the future when considering the cost of living adjustments for employees. However, the Board requested more clear guidelines and explanation to move forward.
For the time being, the Board did approve a 3 percent increase for an annual cost of living adjustment for employees of the Oskaloosa Water Department.
In closing, the Board talked about procedures to address potential data breaches when handling the new online billing feature that’s slated to roll out to residents and businesses soon. No breach has been reported, these discussions are purely precautionary at this time. More information on the new billing system is available in this issue of the Oskaloosa Herald or online at www.oskaloosa.com.
No customers turned out to the meeting for the public forum. The next regular meeting will be held July 11.

Supervisors Meeting 6/20/16

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In an afternoon meeting on Monday, Supervisors took action on a number of pressing items pertaining to Mahaska County.
Supervisors accepted a recommendation from the County Insurance Committee to continue with a wellness program for 2016. The cost and coverage remains the same as the previous year.
A 28E agreement was also swiftly accepted for both Beacon and Eddyville. According to Chair Henry “Willie” Van Weelden, the agreement is the same as it has been in previous years. They will again utilize services of the Mahaska County Sheriff’s Department.
A mobile home in disrepair at 1210 Santa Clara Street took over the conversation for a period of time.
“The mobile park wants it gone. It’s been there long enough, it is a hazard,” said Supervisor Mark Doland, who has had to run unnamed individuals off of the property on three separate occasions.
The Board unanimously agreed to pay up to $1,500 to Ed Kinkaid with Century Homes to deal with removing the mobile home.
Updates on pavement and bridge deck repair processes were presented to the Board of Supervisors by Dave Shanahan, county engineer, with a repair cost of a “couple hundred thousand dollars.”
Shanahan said that so much damage has been done to the areas in question that the concrete is failing in the roads and it must be addressed. Areas included G-71 (two locations), T-38 (two locations), Buckley Bridge on G-5T, G-29 (two bridges), a bridge over the railroad west of Lacey, and an overflow bridge on the North Skunk River. Shanahan did not address how the damage had been caused exactly.
Afterwards, the Board approved a rock trailer purchase for the 2016/2017 budget at $38,000. They also approved to sign a federal aide agreement for a bridge replacement project on Elba Avenue, located southeast of Leighton.
Talk of union contracts began first with approving a union contract with the Sheriff’s Department, notably including a 2 ½ percent raise for the Mahaska County Deputy. Afterwards, there was confusion as the union contract with the SEIU for secondary roads employees dominated the conversation. It was unclear at the time of the meeting whether everyone involved knew how next to proceed if the union disassembled.
Vice Chair Mike Vander Molen was under the impression that if the union was decertified, that union employees would then default to being governed by the handbook. Van Weelden disagreed but both acknowledged they were unclear on how the process would work.
“I think you have to treat everybody the same,” said Vander Molen. “If you want to have a discussion about what we want to do with everyone, we can. But we can’t have two separate sets of non-union employees.”
More information should become available as the situation is finalized this week or next.
A public health agreement for fiscal year 2017 was not available at the time of the meeting, so it was tabled for a future conversation. No committee reports or public comments were heard during this Monday meeting.

ThorSport Fire Update

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A fire broke out early last Monday morning damaging about forty percent of the ThorSport Racing Shop in Sandusky, Ohio. The shop houses four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series teams including two-time series champion and current series point leader Matt Crafton, Cameron Hayley, Rico Abreu, and Ben Rhodes.

According to ThorSport Racing Tea Manager David Pepper, the portion of the building destroyed by the fire housed the company’s car fabrication shop, however the entire 100,000 square foot facility is currently unusable. For all that was lost, some items were rescued.

Firemen helped push race trucks out, allowing the team to salvage 15 of the 18 race trucks in its fleet, and assisted team members getting the haulers out of the building so the teams would be able to compete this past weekend at Iowa Speedway. Competitors and local Sandusky residents have offered assistance, everything from food for the teams, parts and pieces for the trucks and even bringing equipment to the tracks for the team to use.

Despite preparing their race trucks in a nearby Kroger grocery store parking lot in the shadow of the damaged race shop, the team placed three trucks in the top ten at Iowa Speedway on Saturday night and all four trucks in the top twenty.

Despite being currently homeless, the team is focusing on continuing to race the entire schedule, including the upcoming race at Gateway Motorsports Park on Saturday.

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