Editorials: Broken system

A backhoe blocks the end of the driveway this sunny Monday morning as water rushes down Irving Street. It’s not deja vu. The backhoe was in the same spot last winter when the water pipe broke. They had blacktopped it before that without bothering to fix what lay beneath. It speaks to the deterioration of our city over the past few years.

You fix it. You rip it up and fix something else. Then you come back and rip it up and do it all over again. Trucks and backhoes responding whenever the call comes in of a street flooding. That can’t be cheap.

Guys in yellow vests tell us they could have predicted it. Old cast iron below. Freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw, there she blows. You would have thought they would have replaced everything and done decent curb and gutter replacement when they blacktopped. We have converted to Appalachian maintenance standards — patch it and cuss it and patch it.

No wonder the water rates keep going up leaps and bounds.

This was not a common occurrence in the near past. We used to rebuild sewer and water lines that we knew were bad when we did paving projects. We do not have the same capacity these days. Property taxes and fees are rising rapidly while household income is challenged. We just got the dirt filled in from the last episode when the backhoe returns to patch it while we cuss it.

Get the big operators what they need. As for Irving Street, we are told there is a plan. The plan is for the backhoe to return next winter, we suspect, while we get assessed for a magnificent water plant expansion to service industry. It feels like you’re in a company town and you should just accept it.

Not sure if we can drink the water in Storm Lake. What sort of low-ball operation are we running nowadays? Those guys in the yellow vests look cold. We appreciate their response — again. This is not the right time of year for this sort of work. We know that much.

Little outside help

Last week, USDA Iowa Rural Development Director Mike Sexton noted more than $4 million was awarded in grants to communities with water projects. Storm Lake was not among them. The grants establish that USDA has the authority to make them, and we know that it has unlimited funding capacity when it can give $40 billion to Argentina.

Storm Lake residents will be forced to shoulder an inordinate share of a water plant project that easily will exceed $100 million. Meatpacking demands a huge amount of water, and it gets a preferred rate to keep meat cheap and profits in place. We already subsidize food production in countless ways.

We appeal to the Trump Administration to help ease the burden on Storm Lake. Rep. Megan Jones and Sen. Lynn Evans should make the case to the Reynolds Administration and to Director Sexton, who served with Jones and Evans in the legislature, to make a significant contribution to our water project.

It is vital to Northwest Iowa farmers. In fact, Tyson draws pork and turkey from a three-state area. It maintains thousands of jobs in livestock production and processing, from feed technicians to electricians. If the federal government can afford to subsidize Argentina and buy eggs from Turkey, it surely can pay for half of our water plant costs. The government should also work with Tyson to identify ways to reduce water consumption.

This is the year to do it. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, wants to be governor. As our congressman, he has done very little for Storm Lake. He swore off earmarks from the infrastructure bill, one reason our roads are so awful. It’s our turn for some of that Biden money that other politicians sucked up like cowboys in Miss Kitty’s saloon. When do we get a shot of that?

If you want to talk about affordability, consider that we will see double-digit percentage water and sewer rate increases as far out as you can imagine. The ag supply chain depends on pork and turkey slaughter in Storm Lake, but the householders who can least afford it must pay for a super-sized infrastructure set up for meatpacking. Tyson is paying too — it covered a new water tower and line leading to it. Charge too much and they close. Charge the kill floor worker too much and they can’t pay rent. We are in a bind and nobody from Des Moines or Washington is hearing us and taking action.

The city council and administration appear resigned to soaking the poor to feed the corporate ag production dragon. They could use assistance other than platitudes about feeding the world. This is where the real action happens, in the failed water lines and a backhoe in a pool of cold water on Irving Street.

Bad bill for colleges

Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Montezuma, is anything but conservative when he insists on community colleges offering four-year degrees. Collins last week in a guest column reiterated his intention to expand baccalaureate degrees at places like Iowa Central Community College when Buena Vista University has offered this opportunity for generations.

No doubt Collins has good intentions but they are misplaced. His premise is that many rural students do not have access to a four-year degree because of distance. Somehow, our best and brightest always seem to find a way to Ames, Iowa City or Cedar Falls. Or Waverly and Indianola. The problem is not proximity, it is affordability.

With a billion-dollar deficit, the legislature cannot afford to sustain state universities and the teetering network of private colleges alongside an expanded community college mission. Property taxes are high enough. Can you imagine if Iowa Central were required to offer a whole new academic regimen?

Buena Vista long has offered bachelor’s degrees via community colleges. The satellite network reached across Iowa and inspired other colleges to try it, too. That “2+2” market is not as lucrative as it once was. Buena Vista has worked that angle as hard as you can.

This legislation from Collins would only add to the stress felt by private colleges across Iowa that are the bulwark of so many communities like Orange City, Sioux Center, Oskaloosa and Sioux City — all Republican strongholds. If anyone in LeMars needs a nursing degree Briar Cliff is all over it.

If Rep. Collins wants to help rural residents reach their academic potential, he should fight hard for an increase in the Iowa Tuition Grant. Most students in his target demographic would benefit greatly with a grant program that never has kept up with need. He should also contact his Republican friends in Washington to strengthen the Pell Grant, another program to help working-class people trying to get an education. Most important, Collins should convince his colleagues to increase funding for the Regents universities — Northern Iowa, Iowa and Iowa State. They serve all Iowa, but their graduates can’t afford to move back to Storm Lake because their education debt loads are too high.

Buena Vista produces more school leaders than anyplace. If anybody from Gravel Road, Iowa, wants to be a CPA please call the Beaver Admissions Office and they will find a way. Iowa State remains accessible for anybody with manure on their boots and a work ethic. The kids just need a little help beyond what a stretched family in Ottumwa can swing. We continue to beg for health care professionals while funding is pared for the University of Iowa. Ridiculous. Please send a memo to HHS Secretary Harebrain Kennedy.

This legislation is unwarranted. Motivations are unclear — why would you undermine Morningside, Luther or the University of Dubuque? We would challenge Collins to make the claim in Sioux Center in front of Randy Feenstra that Dordt is not serving its market. He should explain it to Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig, who found a way from Cylinder to Storm Lake for a solid education at BVU. Sen. Lynn Evans matriculated at Westmar, Megan Jones from Drake. We trust they will defend Iowa’s private colleges. This is a strange idea whose time passed decades ago when BVU and Iowa Central collaborated on the first satellite program in Fort Dodge. If this legislation is intended to strengthen that network, we cannot see how.