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If Storm Lake truly intends to develop a recreation area around the dredge spoil site east of the municipal golf course, city officials must approach the Lake Improvement Commission at the earliest opportunity to talk things over. City Hall think it owns the property; Lake Improvement Commissioner Ryan Mohr, an attorney, disagrees. This holds potential for yet another costly lawsuit.
Mayor Mike Porsch and former Councilman Tyson Rice had a good idea in developing trails and the like around the old, soggy spoil site. It could take $10 million to pull off in its entirety. For something that grand, you had better have everyone enthusiastically on board. That is not the case.
In more amicable days, Storm Lake, Buena Vista County, Lakeside and the Lake Preservation Association joined to form the Lake Improvement Commission to dredge the lake in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Dredging fell by the wayside because the city got tired of managing it.
County Supervisor Kathy Croker said she believes that the city’s claim of ownership is wrong.
The city and county are enmeshed in a costly lawsuit over missing tax revenues. The lines of communication are severed except among Des Moines lawyers. It sounds like there could be a fight over the title to this property at a prime location of East Lakeshore Drive and Radio Road.
Mohr is not a party to the city-county lawsuit. He said he is eager to hear the city’s ambitions and negotiate. If the city thinks it owns the place, it would see no need to negotiate. We should recall that the reason the Lake Preservation Association is represented on the commission: It showed an ability to raise a lot of money. It is not smart to alienate potential donors unless you intend to blow taxpayer money.
The city and LIC need to come to an amicable finding on who holds title to the spoil site. First, the city manager needs to pick up the phone. Communicate. If the city and county could talk, maybe they could find a way out of this tax revenue litigation that only serves blue-chip law firms. Ryan Mohr is a friendly guy. Maybe he could help the city out of a mess if some open and frank conversations could commence. The city should seize the opportunity.
President Trump got played like a fiddle: Once the Chinese government was satisfied that it had driven down soy prices as far as it could, it agreed to a trade deal last week. Tariffs were lowered and the Chinese allowed that they would buy one billion bushels of soybeans, which is less than they were buying.
In return for lower tariffs, the Chinese agreed to give the US access to rare earth minerals, vital to technology.
Trump thanked Chinese leader Xi profusely.
“We’re in agreement on so many elements, large amounts, tremendous amounts of the soybeans and other farm products are going to be purchased immediately — starting immediately. If you noticed, President Xi authorized China yesterday to start buying large quantities of soybeans and other things, which I appreciate. That was a very nice gesture,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
Since Trump started the first trade war with China in 2017, Brazil took the place of the US as China’s leading soybean supplier. Argentina also ramped up its soy sales to China, as the US bails out the Argentine government with at least $20 billion.
Tariffs remain, but are lower. China will drive down either the tariffs or the price of soybeans as it needs to.
Iowa’s farmers are victims of a trade war without beneficial results. Trump got nothing. We could not afford to lose access to rare earth minerals. Iowa lost its place as the top soy provider to Asia. Way to go, bumblers!
Gov. Kim Reynolds is not running for re-election, so she could have taken the high road in urging Iowans to fill up food pantries to help people who might lose SNAP benefits (FKA food stamps). She did urge people to donate, but could not help herself and had to attack Democrats by blaming them for shutting down the federal government.
Reynolds could have said:
“A pox on both their houses, Republican and Democrat, for being irresponsible.”
Instead, first, she said this:
“This is an opportunity for all of us together as Iowans, to care for our neighbors in need.”
And then:
“Dems in the United States Senate don’t seem to care that everyday Americans are suffering while they force the shutdown into another month. We do care here in Iowa.”
Reynolds is angling for something. She plays hardball even as a lame duck through 2026. Maybe she knows something the rest of us do not know.
Reynolds could have called out to our better angels. Instead, she instinctively attacked the minority party. Remember that Republicans hold all levers of power in Washington and Iowa. They cut Medicaid. They cut the health insurance subsidies for working people. Democrats are ineffectual, but they are not in power.
Is Reynolds positioning herself for some other political office? Or, is she just constitutionally disposed to driving a wedge? Does she need a job in Washington? That’s what it sounds like. After she guts public education and natural resources, she might want a different view outside her window.
Surface water pollution in Iowa has doubled in the past 50 years, according to 16 leading Iowa scientists who compiled a report for Polk County last summer. That message is starting to spread around the state like anhydrous ammonia and hog manure on a fine fall day.
The scientists packed Drake University’s Sheslow Auditorium on a beautiful evening last summer to talk N rates. You don’t pack the house in Des Moines to discuss fertilizer for 90 minutes unless people are getting clued in to toxic water.
Last week, more than 200 people showed up in Iowa City for the same sort of meeting with the same scientists who warn that the Cedar River is hardly pristine. You could ignore it, since it is flaky liberal Iowa City, at your own political peril.
Democratic and Republican politicians have been carrying water for the chemical industry since Moses told us to apply fertilizer at twice the rate recommended by Iowa State agronomists. It looks like voters are getting tired of being ignored. Fifteen years ago, more than 60% voted for a constitutional amendment to increase the sales tax by one-eighth of a percent for clean air and water. Legislators ignored it and never increased the sales tax. Patience might be getting exhausted as people learn from top-flight agronomists and chemists that this cannot go on.
Most politicians do hope that the report will get filed away and that the scientists shut up. You can’t fire them fast enough to prevent change. Farmers themselves want to make money and conserve resources, and know they cannot go on mining the soil. They don’t know the way or the system stands in their way, that you must farm in a conventionally unsustainable way.
Voters are aware. The cancer rates scare them. When you double surface-water pollution in 50 years, there are consequences for those who drink from the river. In Des Moines last summer, emergency conservation was imposed, which raised the red flags. The conversations among credible authorities is spreading throughout Iowa. People understand that we can have solid agriculture and clean water. We know how. Dark money is all that stands in the way. Meanwhile, the scientists are disseminating the facts and people are showing up. Whether that translates into action is up to candidates who want a better Iowa.
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