Waste Treatment

County reminds recyclers to keep it clean (02/18/10)
Plymouth County citizens are being reminded to use the large metal recycling bin at the Plymouth County Courthouse responsibly. The large metal recycling bin on the Plymouth County Courthouse block is provided for the rural citizen of Plymouth County to deposit their recyclable materials...

Earth-friendly ECO Center may be finished within year (02/15/10)
The architect for the planned Education Conservation Opportunities (ECO) Center at Hillview Park near Hinton is getting down to the nuts and bolts. With ground-breaking slated for late spring, representatives from M Plus Architects are telling the Plymouth County Conservation Department it could be using the building for meetings, education and other purposes as soon as Jan. 1, 2011...

LADS Valentine's Dance features live quilt auction, silent auction (02/09/10)
A king-size quilt, an afghan and a tie-blanket will be auctioned off as part of the Le Mars Area Dialysis Services Valentine fundraiser Saturday night at the Le Mars Convention Center. The three items were donated to LADS for the fundraiser. All three items can be seen in the window of Linda Mayrose Real Estate in downtown Le Mars...

Children take a look at eye exams (01/28/10)
A visit to the eye doctor was a fun and informative outing for children at Noah's Ark Preschool Wednesday. Optometrist Dr. Becky DeRuyter of Advanced Eye Health located at Wal-Mart in Le Mars gave the students a tour of the exam rooms and explained what happens when someone gets an eye exam...

Le Mars Area Dialysis plans Valentine's Day Dance (01/18/10)
Get ready for music and fun at the Le Mars Area Dialysis Services Third Annual Valentine's Day Dance set for Saturday, Feb. 13, at the Le Mars Convention Center upper level from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. "The Magnificent Board of Directors" return this year as the featured entertainment...

Keep your driveway shoveled without seeing the doctor afterward (12/29/09)
If you haven't noticed yet, the Christmas season left us all the gift of about 17 inches of snow last week. It was likely left in your driveway among other places. Unfortunately, a heavy snowfall can also be the gift that keeps on giving -- like a trip to the chiropractor or hospital from people trying to dig out...

Remember to recycle after Christmas (12/26/09)
Christmas wrap, cardboard boxes, holiday cards and envelopes -- they're all recyclable. "The residents of Le Mars can place it all in their blue containers and or blue bags," said Mark Kunkel, Plymouth County Landfill manager. Rural residents can take their Christmas recyclables to the landfill or put their blue bags in the dumpster at the Plymouth County Courthouse, Kunkel said...

Ruden's massage therapy flourishing in downtown Le Mars (10/26/09)
Feeling a little anxious, neck a little stiff, have a pounding headache? Licensed massage therapist Shel Ruden, owner of Heavenly Healing Massage Therapy, said she might be able to help. Heavenly Healing settled into its new digs in downtown Le Mars at, 109 Plymouth St. N.W., Aug. 1...

Recycle open house educates Le Mars residents (10/20/09)
Le Mars residents will have an opportunity to learn about recycling options during a Chamber of Commerce "After 5" event Thursday, from 5 to 6 p.m. at city hall. The "Recycle Open House" is a way to encourage Le Mars residents to recycle garbage items in an environmentally safe way, according to city staff members...

Sheriff hopes company can save jail money (10/12/09)
Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo hopes a company that provides jail health care programs can help curb rising inmate medical and prescription costs. Otterloo told county supervisors Tuesday he plans to contract with Advanced Correctional Healthcare, of Illinois, at $2,417 a month for its "cost saving" services...

Paper Collection (09/04/09)
Newspapers, magazines and computer paper for recycling by Le Mars Elementary School students. Paper will be picked up at the following times and locations: 8-9 a.m. dropoff available at Kissinger Elementary School, Merrill; 8-10 a.m. dropoff available at O'Toole Park drop point, 415 First Avenue N.E., Le Mars; 8:30 a.m. ...

Dialysis project nearly ready to roll (09/03/09)
Months ago, supporters of opening a local dialysis center set a $1.2 million goal to reach before moving forward on the project, which began in June 2006. Tuesday, they reached that goal. A $200,000 loan from the Le Mars City Council puts the Le Mars Area Dialysis Services (LADS) past the $1.2 million mark...

City council OKs $200,000 dialysis center loan (09/02/09)
Efforts for a new dialysis services center in Le Mars moved another step ahead Tuesday as Le Mars City Council members approved a $200,000 unsecured loan to help the center become operational. The interest-free loan, coming from Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) money, is scheduled for payment "at the sunset" of the LOST program Dec. 31, 2016...

City will offer free December trash pickup (09/02/09)
Le Mars Solid Waste Committee members are providing early news of a "Christmas present" for local residents, according to Assistant City Administrator Bill Cole. The gift, revealed during Tuesday's Le Mars City Council session, is a free trash pickup for the month of December...

Kehms' green project exceeds expectations (07/27/09)
Sometimes -- albeit rarely -- everything that can possibly go right does. Sometimes donations pour in and you get all three grants for which you apply. Such is the case for Le Mars Community senior-to-be Brian Kehm. Kehm and his sister Sarah, who will be a freshman at Iowa State this fall, have been hard at work with their 4-H club since last fall securing donations and grant money to help make the Plymouth County Fair a greener place...

Family, friends, Eagles host second fundraiser for LADS (07/21/09)
Le Mars Eagles Club, along with family and friends of Nubs Gotto, will host a second fundraiser in support of the Le Mars Area Dialysis Services (LADS) starting at 5 p.m. Friday at the Eagles Club, 104 First Ave. S.W. in Le Mars. The group is hoping to raise enough money to help push the opening of a dialysis center in Le Mars forward...

Council approves end of year fund transfers (06/30/09)
The Le Mars City Council last Tuesday cleaned up its finances in preparation for the end of the fiscal year. That meant transferring $2 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) money for the current year and $2 million for last year to make two years of bond payments...

Class invents dung scoops for zoo (05/27/09)
A group of fourth graders in Remsen-Union were presented with an unusual problem: how to scoop scat (animal droppings) at the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls. Zoo workers wanted a way to scoop up animal scat without picking up too much gravel. The more gravel they throw away, the higher the cost for waste disposal, which is paid by weight. On top of that, they have to buy new gravel to replace the gravel thrown away with the scat...

Code Green: Recycling program takes off at FVH (04/22/09)
Floyd Valley Hospital is "going green" on Earth Day. The hospital is kicking off a new recycling program today (Wednesday). Tim Paul, FVH's chief engineer who also heads up the hospital's "Green Committee," said it's fitting to start the hospital's recycling program on Earth Day...

New DNR water requirement may raise water bills (04/20/09)
A new requirement on treated wastewater pumped into the Floyd River may have a multi-million dollar impact on the City of Le Mars. And that cost may trickle down to residents. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) regulates allowable chloride levels flowing into rivers. Currently, the amount of chlorides coming from Le Mars wastewater is high, due to the number of home water softeners used by residents...

Developers look at piping methane from wastewater plant (03/11/09)
Waste not. That could be the motto of Le Mars' wastewater plant. The plant already makes 100 percent of what comes in into usable products. Now officials are talking with a local renewable energy developer about using the wastewater plant's methane to help fuel the Plymouth Energy ethanol and corn oil plants north of Merrill...

Recycling on the rise, city residents fill totes (03/06/09)
City of Le Mars residents want to recycle. That's why city solid waste officials decided, starting Jan. 1, to add a second pickup day allowing residents to empty their blue recycling totes twice a month. "We were getting a lot of requests for that. People were filling up their blue recycle tote and wanting them to get emptied and start over," said Bill Cole, city administrator. "We saw a need based on consumer requests."...

Siblings look to "go green" at the Plymouth County Fair (02/18/09)
Choosing to forgo a traditional sibling rivalry, Sarah and Brian Kehm have decided to team up instead. And their parents are not the only beneficiaries of their partnership. All of Plymouth County stands to gain from the collaboration, as Sarah, a senior at Le Mars Community Schools (LCS) and Brian, a LCS junior, are using a 4-H project to help make the Plymouth County Fair a greener place...

Wells' Dairy builds new station to monitor pH (02/16/09)
A $550,000 pH monitoring station is going up at 910 Prospect Street south of Wells' Dairy's south ice cream plant. The station will help prevent highly acidic or highly alkaline water from flowing into the City of Le Mars' wastewater plant. "If the pH swings too far, it could wreak havoc on the plant," said Le Mars Wastewater Superintendent Ron Kayser. "It could eat pipes, eat away cement and actually be a safety concern"...

Le Mars takes going green seriously (01/20/09)
It could cover a football field about 3 or 4 feet deep, according to Mark Kunkel of the Plymouth County Sanitary landfill. He's referring to the 324 tons of cardboard, paper, plastic, metal and other materials Plymouth County residents recycled in 2008...

City makes big cuts, makes department reorganization (01/06/09)
The City of Le Mars is eliminating its engineering department and cutting one person's job to help trim expenses. This decision, plus other cuts like not filling three other positions, will slash between $200,000 and $250,000 from the city budget. Mayor Dick Kirchoff announced the changes Monday afternoon in a press conference...

Hike in city sewage rates forthcoming (11/20/08)
Le Mars city sewer rates are expected to increase for residential and industrial users. The Le Mars City Council will hold a first reading of a new ordinance initiating the rate changes Dec. 2. The rate hike, effective Feb. 1, 2009, is projected at 20 percent for residential users and a corresponding 5 percent increase for industrial users...

Awareness keeps recycling trend on the rise (06/17/08)
Education. That's the reason about 10,000 more pounds have been recycled this year compared to last year, city and county officials said. In Le Mars, as of the end of May,132,060 pounds were recycled compared with 85,000 in May 2007. When the recycling program began in 2005 during this same time period 61,680 pounds were recycled...

Earth Day: Learning what it means to save the planet (04/23/08)
Saving the world doesn't necessarily require wearing a cape and blue tights. That's what elementary students from Hinton learned while tromping around Hillview Park Tuesday in honor of the 38th annual Earth Day. At one station, students picking chocolate chips out of a cookie to learn about how coal is mined. ...

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