Editorial

Storm Lake could get a big boost if an effort by the Iowa Senate to extend extra funding to school districts trying to teach immigrants English. A bill out of the Education Committee would extend the number of years districts receive extra funding from five years to seven years. That’s about how long it takes with hard work and remedial instruction to learn English well enough to excel in other subject areas.

It is hard to fully appreciate why the Storm Lake Planning and Zoning Commission is so committed to declaring a block between Methodist Manor and Buena Vista University as “institutional.” The block along Lighthouse Drive, facing Scout Park, is a mix of nice homes and a BVU parking lot. The neighbors want the current residential zoning to stay as it is. Methodist Manor actually prefers the residential designation over institutional.

A bipartisan effort is underway to legalize the sale of dangerous fireworks in Iowa. It is a bad idea that will lead to injury, property loss and even more annoyance on and around the Fourth of July. If the legislation proceeds to a successful vote, Gov. Terry Branstad should veto it.

A picture was worth 1,000 talking points: The Des Moines Register published a photo of Margaret Gaer, 24, West Des Moines, contorted in a chair with her father, Steve, trying to comfort her. The woman is said to have the developmental abilities of a five- or six-year-old child because of chronic seizures she has suffered since birth. Margaret Gaer was brought to the Iowa Capitol as her parents lobbied for medical marijuana treatment that would help control her fits.

The Sioux Central School Board will ask voters on April 1 to step into the future of a viable rural school district by approving $7.5 million in bonds for academic and extra-curricular facilities improvements. New classrooms, an elementary gym, a new roof and a football field/track will help position the school district to attract students as education progresses and archaic district boundaries start to dissolve before our eyes.

King’s Pointe Resort is turning an operating profit but will far short of servicing its debt unless the city takes action. City Manager Jim Patrick told The Storm Lake Times on Monday that the resort posted net income of $366,947 in 2013. Still, the city has to kick in about $500,000 a year in sales tax revenue to pay off bonds sold against the project.

City officials estimate that Storm Lake is 400 to 500 housing units short to fill a growing need for its largely blue-collar workforce. The city has had good fortune in attracting developers who use federal tax credits to develop apartment buildings for low-income renters. One such project is going up and another is about to. We are resigned to that reality even though we do not like tax-subsidized projects that can end up as mini-ghettos owned by foreign corporations.

A growing number of farmers and ranchers in Kansas are trying to block high-voltage electric transmission lines from crossing their land to carry renewable energy from the Midwest to points east. Strange that these same folks vigorously promote the Keystone XL pipeline through the Sandhills of Nebraska, but an electric “pipeline” somehow is wrong.

President Obama was putting the final touches on his State of the Union Address as this was written. So were the Tea Party and regular Republican respondents. So we thought the President and Congress might want to know what the State of Things is as viewed from the frozen windswept prairies surrounding Storm Lake, Iowa.

The City of Storm Lake contains over half of Buena Vista County’s population. The county seat generates nearly all the manufacturing activity for Buena Vista, except for Rembrandt Enterprises and Ranco of Sioux Rapids. Its parks provide for most of the outdoor recreation activity during temperate months. All the commercial property in Storm Lake pays a higher tax rate than farms or residences.