From the Desk of the Mayor

Important information from the desk of Ida Grove Mayor, Devlun Whiteing:

Lot’s of things happening this week. The city council met on Wednesday to discuss the opening of three city facilities. Rec Center, City Hall, and the Library. The council decided May 1st was too soon and we are setting a goal to have a partial reopen plan by May 15th. We want our employees and the community safe and have the right PPE and policies in place for our employees before we partially reopen. Stay tuned for more information. Reminder the Governor still has pools closed so our pools are closed until further notice.

With the Confirmed Covid-19 positive test at one of our manufacturing facilities, I have been talking to state senators, and our Ida County Emergency Management sent out an official request for a strike team to come to town to be proactive in our town and county on tests. No answers yet but as Mayor I am really pushing to get some more testing done around here. Hopefully we can get some proactive vs reactive testing done.

With the Governor’s plans to start Opening Iowa I really trust our local churches and businesses will have plans in place to follow exposure risks when they reopen. Social Distancing, Cleaning and extra cleaning, keeping the capacity to 50% and keeping people 6’ apart. Limiting the number of people to 10 or less in a group. We really need to do our part to keep ourselves and our community safe. The city is happy to work with these organizations to help them if needed. We appreciate our businesses in town and our churches. We want to reopen but want to do it safely.

I plan to work with the city council to open some green spaces in parks to encourage people to get out for some fresh air and help their mental health. I am personally trying to write a policy to open green spaces. Hopefully sooner than later.

I say this every week due to the importance of thanking all of our citizens for being strong and doing the things they need to do to keep our community safe. So many people have volunteered to help clean at facilities to help them reopen. We have a great town and great citizens.

Feel free to reach out to me with any concerns or questions.
[email protected]
Very Humble and Proud to Serve Ida Grove
Mayor Devlun Whiteing.