Cedar Falls

We visited 3 Power Fund projects today at UNI in Cedar Falls. One of the most interesting is a prairie project designed to learn about use of prairie to be harvested to replace coal. Certainly a long way to go to get to that point, but they are doing some interesting things.

We also voted to move to negotiation on several new projects. You can go to the Office of Energy Independence and keep up with the activities.

Power Fund

I am off to Cedar Falls today for a tour of some Power Fund projects and a Power Fund Board meeting. This will be an all day activity as I leave in a few minutes and will not likely get back until evening.

Maquoketa and Anamosa

I headed to eastern Iowa today - to a Town Hall meeting in Maquoketa and an Ag Teachers Academy in Anamosa. More discussion about the problems in the dairy industry. There is likely to be a story in the CR Gazette about that soon.

Office work today

Back in the office today. Plenty to get caught up on. Hopefully I will get back to your emails, phone calls and letters if I haven't yet.

An uneventful Exec Council this morning. We approved 20 pages of travel requests (two weeks worth of requests).

Back to emails...

Parades

I got in a couple of the largest parades in state - a wet one and a dry one.

West Des Moines was Friday evening and it was wet and long, but still fun to do. Though I think most of the kids were more happy to see the tractor than to see me - go figure.

Clear Lake was Saturday. It rained all the way up and most of the way back, but NOT during the parade! I am told there has never been rain during a Clear Lake parade. They must be doing something right. The crowd must know that, too. There were lots of people there. Great to see some folks I knew and to meet some new friends.

Town Halls

Some folks have already headed off for their 4th of July weekend, but we got a few more town hall meetings in today. We were in Eldora, Grundy Center and Toledo. Lots of discussion on how the drops are doing, energy/climate change legislation and grain and livestock prices. Never a shortage of issues.