Sigourney Mayor Speaks with Senator’s Representative

SIGOURNEY – On Nov. 15, Michele Beck, a representative for Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, held open office hours at the Sigourney City Hall, speaking with locals so their problems could be passed onto the senator. Beck spoke extensively with Sigourney Mayor Jimmy Morlan, who again brought up Keokuk County’s continued problems with a lack of childcare. He stated that KCED was advancing in their work to establish a childcare center in Sigourney and that they had reserved a building. He requested either help from the federal government to set up childcare or at least shorten the certification process. Beck stated Ernst had proposed a bill that will open up Small Business Association Loans for non-profits, which would help.

Morlan stated that the area lacked police officers and that no one wanted to become policemen anymore. He stated that Adam Clark of the Sigourney City Council tells applicants that Sigourney is a great place to live, like Mayberry from the “Andy Griffith Show,” and that maybe that was the wrong way to put it, given the lack of applicants. He noted that Sigourney had briefly found a new police chief last year, Kris Metcalf, but that Metcalf had been forced to leave to avoid losing his IPERs.

Morlan stated that, in the past, the City of Sigourney had hired police officers by offering to pay for their academy training, in return for the officers staying for four years. Repeatedly, after three years, officers left for the Keokuk County Sheriff’s Department, which pays better, after the Sheriff’s Department offered to pay the cost of leaving the contract early. He stated Sigourney had attempted to enter a sharing agreement with Keota, but that that had fallen apart after Keota’s police chief left for the Washington County Sheriff’s Department. He stated that Indian Hills Community College was considering offering police training at the Sigourney Career Academy, but needed more high schools to be interested in it.

He claimed that there are a lot of people in Sigourney who were unemployed and lived off government benefits, saying that he “wished they weren’t here.” He brought up a homeless woman living in town. She had attempted to live in a tent, but the city had told her she couldn’t, and she now sleeps on a staircase. Morlan stated the woman had burned bridges with apartment landlords and her family, thus having nowhere to go. The city had attempted to take her to homeless shelters in Oskaloosa and Washington, but they rejected her for having a criminal record. Morlan stated he didn’t know what the woman would do when it got cold.