Home Care In Parkersburg, IA

OnTheGoMedia has announced changes coming to its newly acquired stations in Parkersburg IA.

Soft AC 98.9 KQCR-FM Parkersburg will relaunch on Monday, March 27 with a focus on 1970s and 80s Yacht Rock as “99 The Wave“. The Wave will feature core artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Christopher Cross, Toto, Elton John, Eagles, Doobie Brothers, and Steely Dan.

KQCR will also feature Gemini XIII’s recently launched TJ Show hosted by former “Amp Radio 103.3” WODS Boston morning host TJ Taormina from 6-10am.

Shawn Dietz’ OnTheGoMedia Inc. acquired 98.9 KQCR-FM and Country 104.9 KLMJ Hampton in November for $1.25 million. Dietz previously served as Program Director of the stations under former owner CD Broadcasting from 2009 to 2020 and General Manager from 2018 to 2020.

Craig Donnelly’s CD Broadcasting sells AC Parkersburg IA to Shawn Dietz’ On the Go Media, Inc. for $1.25 million. He most recently served as an account executive for NRG Media in Waterloo IA.

Starting Monday, March 27th, listeners of 98.9 KQCR will notice a makeover of sorts as the station will have a new brand and distinct musical direction. 99 The Wave will officially launch at 6 a.m. on Monday with the debut of “The TJ Show” which will air weekdays from 6 until 10 a.m.

“The TJ Show” is hosted daily by a cast of personalities that aims to entertain and inform. Led by TJ, who began hosting his own morning show in Boston in 2013, and joined in the studio by friends JBo, Heather, “Producer Kenny” and Josh. TJ was the kid who walked to school with his headphones plugged into his radio and started working in radio as a volunteer while in high school.

Additionally, the music direction for KQCR will be familiar, but more distinct. The music on KQCR has been dubbed “Soft, light, music for the heart” for years. Moving forward, we will focus on a cousin to that soft, light sound to a genre known as Yacht Rock.” The music library will be more focused on hits from the mid-1970’s to mid-1980’s and include artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Christopher Cross, Toto, Elton John and will be broad enough to include Eagles, Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan and many others.

We are also launching a new logo for KLMJ 104.9 FM. While the audience won’t hear as many changes on KLMJ, our new logo reflects our respect for the past while embracing our future. KLMJ will continue to provide listeners a throwback to the old days of small town radio. Features like birthdays, funeral announcements, local news and high school sports will continue to drive our success as we reach out to develop new experiences for our listeners and marketing opportunities for our advertisers.

KLMJ and KQCR will remain co-branded as the “RadioOnTheGo” Network for coverage of local news, high school sports and weather forecasts as well as on-location “RadioOnTheGo” commercial broadcasts.

OnTheGoMedia, Inc. announced the completed acquisition of KLMJ/KQCR Radio on the Go from CD Broadcasting, Inc. on March 1st. Both stations broadcast from their office and studio location in Hampton.

PARKERSBURG, Iowa (Iowa's News Now) — With much of Iowa currently under drought conditions, many shallow lakes and wetlands will either be dry or nearly dry, making scouting an important part of hunter’s preparation ahead of the 2021 waterfowl season.

The issue is most pronounced at Big Marsh Wildlife Area, near Parkersburg, that relies on the West Fork of the Cedar River to provide water for its expansive network of wetlands.

“Our permit requires us to maintain a minimum of 64 cubic feet per second flow in the river and last Sunday, it had dropped to 59 CFS,” said Jason Auel, wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “That basically means we can’t take any water from the river.”

The rain that recently passed through northern Iowa provided a temporary bump in the river level but unless rain begins to fall consistently in the watershed, Big Marsh will struggle to fill this year.

“Under normal circumstances, it takes us up to two weeks to fill the marsh. The river reached 100 cubic feet per second from the recent storm and at that level, it will take about six weeks,” Auel said. “We’ll take as much rain as we can, but hunters shouldn’t expect normal water conditions in there anytime soon.”

Roughly 30 miles to the east, Sweet Marsh Wildlife Area, near Tripoli, is close to typical water level for teal season.

My advice is to get out and scout as most areas are dry with a few exceptions being the larger or deeper wetlands,” he said. “What we need is a couple of inches of rain each week for a month.

In southwest Iowa, the pumps have been running at Riverton Wildlife Area, near Sidney, as soon as it was allowed, but because of the drought, it will take time for water to reach the main boat ramp.

“There should be water in the channel in the Jensen Tract. Smaller boats with mud motors should be able to operate at least in the channels on the north end, but larger boats with outboard motors will probably have trouble getting around,” said Matt Dollison, wildlife biologist with the Iowa DNR in southwest Iowa. “For the early season, the main marsh will have water for birds and be better for walk in hunting.”

As for the other areas in his district, Dollison said many of the other marshes are completely dry, but there is a little water in the deepest portions of the wetland excavations along the Missouri River. “We’re in a drought and when we’re in a drought, scouting becomes important,” he said.

At Goose Lake Wildlife Area, in Clinton County, the drought conditions combined with a construction project means hunters who use the north pool to hunt ducks will probably need to change their location.

The project to replace the dam at Goose Lake is behind schedule and the north pool is mostly dry, said Curt Kemmerer, wildlife biologist with the DNR covering Iowa’s east central region.

“The center pool, which is the smallest pool, will have boatable water and the south pool will have water as usual, but it is walk in hunting,” Kemmerer said.

The drought has impacted Muskrat Slough, in Jones County, that underwent an annual drawdown to revegetate the popular natural marsh. But once the boards were in place to begin holding water, the rains haven’t come.

“One to two big rains could change that,” Kemmerer said. “But it’s likely walk-in hunting unless the rains come. It’s a Mother Nature thing.”

He said the Green Island and Princeton areas have good vegetation and duck food and should be fine unless something happens to the pumps. They will begin pumping water to those areas by the end of August.

In central Iowa, Todd Gosselink, wildlife biologist with the Iowa DNR said the options in his area has been limited by the drought. “We can’t pump at Hartford Marsh is the water being released from the Red Rock dam is at the minimum outflow.”

He said the options for hunters include the Boxcars at the delta, where the Des Moines River meets Lake Red Rock, but the area is so shallow that only kayaks or mud motors can get to the mudflats where teal are feeding on invertebrates. Access will also be difficult to get to the oxbows at Chichaqua, he said.

“The Runnels Marsh has water, but it’s not reaching the vegetation,” Gosselink said. “It’s walk-in hunting and has had good hunting in the past. Other than that, we’re pretty dry.”

The only area not suffering from severe drought is southern Iowa from Lake Rathbun east to the Mississippi River.

Each impoundment varies in water level. The majority of our wetlands are either half or two thirds full, but hunters will need to put in some time scouting to find huntable water,” said Heath Van Waus, wildlife biologist with the Iowa DNR covering Iowa’s south-central region. “It’s probably not enough water for the big boats but small boats with mud motors, canoes, kayaks can get in to the areas.

The Iowa DNR posts a report on wetland habitat conditions to its website at https://www.iowadnr.gov/Hunting/Migratory-Game-Birds. The first report will be posted on Aug. 27.

Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier

PARKERSBURG, Ia. – A new feed mill is taking shape near Parkersburg, which will mean bigger production volumes for clients and perhaps a 40 percent increase in its employee roster, its manager says.

Sinclair Elevator Inc., which operates a couple of miles east of town, is building a 170-foot-tall structure that will virtually double the production capacity of its current facility on the property, from about 400,000 tons to 800,000 tons of feed annually, said Jim Lubbers, plant manager.

“Hopefully, next October or November, we’ll be able to start manufacturing feed out of the facility, but we’ve got quite a ways to go yet,” Lubbers told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

When finished, the new building will need additional employees — perhaps 20 to 25 more — to go with the roughly 35 workers now there, Lubbers said.

Workers from Younglove Construction Co., which recently completed the new Zinpro Corp. manufacturing plant in Shell Rock, already have come a long way on the project, running four miles of natural gas lines from Parkersburg to the new plant and pouring concrete for 24 hours a day over an eight-day period, Lubbers said of that process.

“Once you start that, you can’t stop,” he said.

The new plant will be able to turn out about 500,000 tons of hog feed in the form of pellets, with the rest as a ground or mash-type product, Lubbers said.

The main structure was completed Dec. 9, but there is plenty of construction left to do, Lubbers said.

“We’ve basically got a good start on things,” he said. “We do have the main structure just completed, but we’ve got many more buildings to put along the side of it, such as a warehouse and receiving building. We’ll have several more things to do and, of course, we have to put all the equipment in and wire it. It’s going to take 10 to 12 months more to get everything finished up and done.”

The new plant will replace one that went up around 1997, Lubbers said. The old facility will remain in place and serve as a backup, he said.

“Since it’s in a different area, it’s not hurting anything, and that will be a backup in case we have a breakdown or have any problems or we’re fortunate to get the new facility to capacity,” Lubbers said. “It will be nice to have it available if we needed it. I don’t foresee that happening, but the main purpose would be as a backup.”

Lubbers declined to disclose how much the company is spending on it. However, Jeff Kolb, executive director of the Butler County Development Corp. and the Grundy County Development Alliance, said the company is applying for some financial help with the project.

“I’m helping them with getting some state and local financial assistance,” Kolb said. “They have an application into the state, and we are in the process of formally approving everything they’re looking to do.”

Butler County will chip in some incentives, Kolb said, although he noted that it was too early in the process to provide specifics.

“We’re probably going to do a property tax rebatement,” he said.

How much depends on the redeveloped property’s assessed value, Kolb said.

“I do know it’s a multi-million-dollar project, and they have pledged 21 jobs,” Kolb said. “They’ve been a good employer for many years, and we want to help them as much as we can.”

The new facility will have space to store feed ingredients, such as dried distiller grains procured from ethanol plants; soybean meal; bakery products; and wheat midds — a wheat byproduct, Lubbers said.

The new plant will produce a wider array of products and even customize to the needs of a particular client, Lubbers said.

“Let’s say, for instance, they can get a cereal grain product from Quaker Oats, if they can buy that product correctly, they may want us to put those in the rations for them,” Lubbers said. Now, we’re just so limited on space, we just don’t have as many bins as we’d like.”

That won’t be a problem with the additional plant, he said.

It was just time for growth, Lubbers said.

“We’ve just outgrown those facilities, plus the fact that the vast majority of hog producers prefer pellets for efficiency, vs. a meal feed,” he said. “We haven’t had the ability before, and now we will. And technology has changed a lot, as far as different ingredients, as far as having space to handle and store alternative ingredients.”