City Council
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
Faith leaders speak on
treatment of immigrants
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
School Board
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
What’s
happening in
and around
Postville.......
Call FEMA Fraud line
to verify authenticity
Word has been received
by FEMA that people have
been getting phone calls
from a source saying they
are a FEMA representative.
Anyone who has gotten such
a call after they have initial-ly
contacted FEMA, should
hang up and contact the
FEMA fraud line. the num-ber
is 1-800-323-8603. The
number for the FEMA news
desk is 513-251-3687.
Postville Community
Blood Drive is July 18
The Postville Commu-nity
Blood Drive will be
held Monday, July 28 from
1 to 6 p.m. at Memorial
Hall.
All donors will have the
chance to register to win
one of two $25 gas cards.
For an appointment visit
givebloodgivelife.org or call
Judy at 1-800-478-4180.
The need for blood is
ongoing. In fact, during the
summer months, the gift is
especially important. Give
blood and change a life,
starting with your own.
Postville Booster Club
to meet in Mott Lobby
The Pirate Athletic
Booster Club will meet
tonight (Wednesday, July
16) at 7 p.m. at the Mott
Lobby in the High School.
All members are urged to
attend.
Allamakee County
Fair Special Section
inside today’s Herald-
Leader. Join the fun!
Myrna Jones is
being inducted into
4-H Hall of Fame
at the Iowa State
Fair August 17.
She is a long-time
Postville 4-H lead-er.
See the story on
page two
Governor Chet Culver announced last Wednesday, July 9 that Postville was one of four
recipients of Vision Iowa Grants.
Culver said, “The projects funded by these grants will provide citizens and visitors alike
with new recreational and educational opportunities. I applaud Postville and all winning com-munities
and the Vision Iowa Board for working together to make Iowa a more attractive place
to live, work and play.”
Postville was awarded $850,000 for Project N. I. C. H. E. S. at the YMCA. This two story
addition to the existing recreation center, previously known as the 1940’s gym, will include an
indoor therapeutic swimming pool, racquetball court, community center and classroom space
for preschool and childcare services. Postville’s award of $850,000 was approximately 95% of
the $875,550 requested.
Jeremy Strub of the YMCA said, “I am pleased to announce that we received nearly the
entire amount requested for our project. One of the most impressive success stories of this proj-ect
was the donations we received in just over a month’s time. Our goal at the Northeast Iowa
YMCA was to raise $70,000. We showed the strength of our community in coming together and
raising over $90,000.
Project N. I. C. H. E. S. would not have received $850,000 in grant money without the sup-port
of Postville Community Schools, Allamakee County, the City of Postville, Clayton County,
the Postville Chamber of Commerce, the Northeast Iowa YMCA Board of Directors and Post-ville
Child Care Services.
The project, which is expected to break ground early next year, will consist of a four year
old preschool classroom, racquetball court and a therapeutic exercise pool. The second floor
will have an open room that may be used as a community center, after school programming and
exercise classes.
Strub added, “We are also building a new entrance to the YMCA that will allow for better
energy efficiency and supervision of the building. We are working on other grant opportunities
and are continuing to take donations to enlarge the cardio-exercise room and redirect traffic
from the women’s locker room to the workout area. With everyone’s effort, we will have a facil-ity
like none other in Northeast Iowa.”
The anticipated completion date of the entire project is January of 2010.
Other projects funded from the Community Attraction and Tourism Fund (CAT) were:
Birmingham Park Shelter Project, $45,000; Children’s Discovery Center, Clinton, $325,000
and Ankeny to Woodward Trail, $1,750,000.
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Postville Herald-Leader
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
112 NORTH LAWLER STREET, POSTVILLE, IOWA 52162 • PHONE: 563-864-3333 • FAX: 563-864-3400 • SINGLE COPY: $1.00
News Email: phlnews@netins.net • • Advertising Email: phlads@netins.net
ESTABLISHED 1992 • COPYRIGHTED 2008 • USPS 006-515 • VOLUME 18 • NO. 29 • 12 PAGES
Postville receives Vision Iowa Grant
to fund expansion at NE Iowa YMCA
(Postville, Iowa….) Hundreds of people from across the
country are planning to gather in Postville, on Sunday, July
27th for an interfaith prayer and March calling for compre-hensive
immigration reform, family unity, an end to raids and
just labor practices. The rally and March will take place on
Sunday, July 27th from 1 – 4 p.m.
St. Bridget’s Catholic Church, Jewish Community Action
of St. Paul, Minnesota, and The Jewish Council on Urban Af-fairs
of Chicago, Illinois, are the organizers of this event.
“This is a call for Justice. This is a call to be faithful to our
American and Religious values. This is a call to stand in soli-darity
with our Hispanic brothers and sisters,” said Sr. Mary
McCauley of St. Bridget’s Catholic Church.
The rally will begin with an interfaith prayer at 1:00 p.m.
at St. Bridget’s Church. A walk through the town will follow.
It will conclude with testimonies from those directly affected
by the immigration raid that took place on Monday, May 12th
at Agriprocessors in Postville, as well as from others commit-ted
to comprehensive immigration reform, worker’s rights, an
end to raids and family unity.
Upcoming Rally is calling
for immigration reform,
worker justice, family unity
A gift from afar
Kevin Westcott, an employee of Hall Roberts’ Son, unloads a truck which was filled
to the brim with food, paper products and much, much more. The contents were donated
to the Postville Food Pantry by a gentleman from Ohio, who only wanted to be known as
Peter, after he heard about the extreme needs in Postville following the May 12 raid via
the National news. The donations came in part from the Youngstown Community Food
Center, Inc. and the Gleaner’s Food Bank. Paul Rael, director of Hispanic Ministry at St.
Bridget’s Church and member of the board of directors of the food pantry, said he was
telephoned by “Peter” and asked how we got our food and when he explained that local
donations and the purchasing of food from a Waterloo food bank could not keep up with
the need following the raid, Peter said a truckload would be forthcoming. Rael added that
the donation was also partly coordinated by Abi Lyons of the Jewish Labor Commission.
The truck arrived in Postville last Thursday afternoon just in time for this week’s distri-bution.
YMCA
volunteers
of the year
recognized
for service
to facility
Kelly Livingood and Pam Livingood have been recognized by the Board of Directors
for their volunteerism at the Northeast Iowa YMCA. Both have given countless hours of
service. Their names have been engraved on a plaque which is displayed at the facility. Di-rector
Jeremy Stub said, “We are very appreciative of the hours that Kelly and Pam have
given to the Y. They help make our day to day operation run smoothly.” Kelly volunteers
maintenance expertise among other things and Pam has volunteered countless morning
hours and both are always willing to help wherever needed.
Faith leaders speak out on poor treatment of
immigrant workers here & in flood recovery
Des Moines, IA – Iowa
Faith leaders spoke July 10
during a telephone press con-ference
on the recent abuse
suffered by immigrant work-ers
in the state at the Agripro-cessors
plant in Postville and
in flood recovery efforts in
Eastern Iowa. Convened by
Christians for Comprehensive
Immigration Reform, speak-ers
on the call included Rev.
Catherine Quehl-Engel, Chap-lain
of Cornell College in Mt.
Vernon, Bishop Alan Scarfe,
Episcopal Diocese of Iowa,
Bishop Steven L. Ullestad,
Northeastern Iowa Synod
of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, Bishop
Gregory Palmer, Iowa Annu-al
Conference of the United
Methodist Church, Rev. Julia
Rendon of the Iowa Confer-ence
of the United Church
of Christ and Patty Kupfer,
Manager of Partnerships with
America’s Voice. Amidst a
chorus of faith leaders calling
on Congress to investigate
the Postville raid, the bish-ops
and clergy denounced the
troubling pattern of worker
exploitation and disregard for
immigrant families around
the state. In particular, the
exploitation of clean-up
crews brought in to aid in re-cent
flood recovery has high-lighted
the abuses as a wake-up
call, revealing the urgent
need for fair and humane im-migration
reform. “Working
towards immigration reform
has become even more ur-gent
following the troubling
stories that have emerged
from Iowa,” said Patty Kup-fer,
Manager of Partnerships
with Americas Voice. “Sadly,
these two examples are not
At the Council
Stall door removal at PCCS approved,
Peace Rally discussed, special meeting
set to clarify proposed housing code
The Postville City Coun-cil,
meeting in regular session
Monday evening had several
lengthy and somewhat con-troversial
items on the agen-da.
Katie Hageman, director
of Postville Child Care Ser-vices,
along with members
of the Board of Directors at
the Center, asked that doors
to the bathrooms used by
children through age five be
removed.
She explained that the
doors are a safety hazard and
Board sets five IASB legislative priorities,
approves volunteer football coach on trial
basis, approves teacher transfer to grade 4
The regular meeting of
the Postville School Board
met on Monday, July 14, with
interim superintendent Dar-win
Winke now the head ad-ministrator
at the school. The
top priority for Winke during
the meeting was to choose the
school’s five IASB legislative
priorities for the year. This
year the Board chose to sup-port
the following priorities,
which they feel would most
impact the district:
• Support adequate and
on-time funding for ELL stu-dents
until the students reach
proficiency.
• Support the creation of
an additional funding mech-anism
for school districts’
transportation costs that does
not directly or indirectly im-pact
funding for the educa-tion
program.
• Support a school founda-tion
formula that recognizes
and adequately funds changes
in demographics, including
declining and increasing en-rollment
changes.
• Support changes in col-lective
bargaining requiring
arbitrators to first consider
local conditions and ability
replacing them with curtains
is much better for children in
this age group.
She said, “We are judged
by the parents and the com-munity
and we want to al-leviate
any risk that may
be a potential hazard.”
Mayor Penrod expressed
disgust that the doors had
been removed prior to seek-ing
permission from the City
saying the building’s physi-cal
appearance is up to the
City’s discretion. Although
the Council unanimously
approved the removal of the
doors, Penrod told Hageman
she is not to make these types
of decisions in the future
without prior approval.
Although Hageman
agreed, she reiterated the fact
that the contract is vague and
she would like to have it clari-fied.
She said when she asked
about painting and mainte-to
pay.
• Support increased fund-ing
for AEA assistance to
local schools in the areas of
emerging technology, pro-fessional
development, cur-riculum
assessment and early
childhood activities.
On a two to one vote, the
Board did approve Ben Heit-land
as a volunteer football
coach for the 2008 season on
a trial basis. Concerns were
voiced over Heitland being
involved with the program
as he is a 2007 graduate of
PHS and there is little age
difference between him and
the players. Board members
noted that Heitland’s role will
have to be explained to the
players the first day of prac-tice,
which is Aug. 11, and if
any problems occur in the first
month of coaching, the item
will come before the Board
again at the September meet-ing.
If there are no problems,
Heitland will be allowed to
finish out the season. Jeff Cox
cast the dissenting vote.
With the upcoming school
board elections on Tuesday,
Sept. 9, the Board set the
polling hours for noon to 8
p.m. Seats up for election
this year are those of Laura
Lubka, Jeff Cox, and Jamie
Smith. Nominations for va-cancies
can be filed between
July 7 and before 5 p.m. on
July 31. Nomination papers
will require a minimum of 20
signatures. All candidates are
at large.
In other action, the
Board:
• Approved the transfer of
Matt Leeman from first grade
to fourth grade to fill the va-cancy
left by the departure
of Tracy Decker. The district
will be cutting back to two
sections of first grade.
• Approved the Secretary
and Treasurer reports for the
district. The Board also ap-pointed
Clara Lensing as
2008-2009 Board Secretary,
Mike Kruckenberg as the
Board Treasurer, and Steve
Saunders as Board Attorney.
• Heard a recap on Project
NICHES from Mike Kruck-enberg
who has been in-
Postville Project
