Des Moines/West Des Moines is in the news again! They are #1 on Forbes In Pictures: America’s Best Places To Raise A Family list. What makes this the best place for you to raise your family? I often read about people who have moved away and are now returning because they know Iowa is where they want their kids to grow up.

It begins with a youngster and a basketball and it ends with the state tournament.

The Iowa Boys Basketball State Tournament is being held March 9-14, 2009 at Wells Fargo Arena (directions). There’s a great week of games coming up. Don’t miss it!

The schedule and brackets

The results

photo by flickr by flasporty

If you’re looking for something to do this Saturday – and the weather is supposed to be wonderful – head on over to Woodbine, Iowa, for the 20th Annual Applefest. We had the pleasure of meeting three Woodbine residents who were staffing the Main Street Iowa Program booth at the Iowa State Fair. That’s how we found out about this event.

Patt Kneen, Patty Reisz, and Roger Kenkel of Woodbine

Here’s just a few of the activities, starting with a pancake breakfast at 6:30 a.m. in the REC building.

• Classic Car Show
• Quilt Show
• Tractor Show
• Doll Show
• Merry Brook School & Geneological Society Tours
• Depot & Caboose Tours
• Flea Market
• Craft Show
• Archery 3-D & Fun Shoot
• Children’s Activities
• Apple Bake-Off
• Entertainment

If you like to eat, how about apple pie, cider slush, chicken noodle dinner, onion blossoms, grilled ribeye sandwiches, homemade ice cream, and caramel apples? There will be apple vendors there, too. And there’s NO admission fee. (Flier)

Just for fun, here’s an apple picking guide for Woodbine.

Call 712-647-3434 for more information.

Randy Torgeson, the King of Cubes (as in cubic inches) is known around the world for building cylinders and other parts for the biggest American-made, V-twin motorcycle engines on the planet. His project last week was a 167 cubic inch engine that is heading to Australia. When I visited on 8/2, an engine had just arrived from a customer in South Africa. Hyperformance in Pleasant Hill is not the place you will find someone to work on just any bike, but if you want a complete, Hyperformance long block engine, cylinders machined from ductile iron (an iron-magnesium alloy), titanium connecting rods, or other specialty parts, you’ve come to the right place. You’ll find Randy Torgeson working in his shop 65-70 hours a week. His specialty cylinders and an engine he built are in a 205 called Woody (styled after a California Woodie) built for Doc Hopkins, a Harley dealer in WI who likes to ride with Jay Leno. Another set of cylinders is going into the world’s largest custom motorcycle engine, a 260 being assembled in Des Moines by Radical Cycle and Randy’s business partner Kent Croskey. You can see the bike on You Tube. You will also find Randy answering technical questions at his website or at the V-Twin Forum.

What a great city! Author Richard Louv is speaking tonight (July 30, 2008) at 7:00 p.m. at Hoyt Sherman Place. The award winning author of the best selling book Last Child in the Woods will present a free lecture. Since seating is limited you may want to reserve your tickets just to be sure.

The book has been reviewed positively by

Do you live in Polk County Iowa? Have you ever suspected you had food poisoning and wondered how to report it? I’ll show you how.

This year food poisoning is in the news on a daily basis; unfortunately in my household we may have had our own personal brush with a foodborne illness.

Four weeks ago two of us got sick about 12 hours after eating – same restaurant; same menu items; same symptoms; same timing; same sense of which food was responsible. When I Googled the symptoms, the hits displayed said salmonella, salmonella, salmonella, salmonella, which is much in the news although its exact sources are still a mystery. Here is what they are saying:

• CDC
• Associated Press (You Tube video as seen on Google news; go to +video)
• Globe and Mail (an opinion piece from Canada)
• Arizona Republic (on-line)
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (on-line)
• seattlepi.com (on-line)

The Center for Disease Control (CDC), our federal watchdog agency, knows it is very important to track and record outbreaks of food poisoning in order to discover and eliminate the source. Thus once I was back on my feet, I started my quest to report two suspected cases of food poisoning. I Googled “report food poisoning” and “Des Moines Iowa.” Lots of hits but not one hit was relevant to reporting food poisoning in Des Moines.

I perused the web sites of the Health Department of Polk County and the Department of Health of the State of Iowa. I didn’t find even the slightest suggestion of a place to report food poisoning.

Lacking information, what better place to start than the Polk County Health Department? I went to the web site on a Saturday, found a contact address, and sent an email with information. I got a call back on Monday informing me that the Polk County Health Department “has nothing to do with that; call the State Department of Inspections.” When I asked if the county keeps records of such outbreaks, I got an instant  reply, “Do you want the number or not?” As Steve Martin used to say, “Well, excuuuuuse me!!!!”

In contrast, my reception at the State offices was helpful, cordial, and to the point. Judy Harrison is the Bureau Chief for Food and Consumer Safety for the State of Iowa. When she found out that I wanted information, she called me back promptly. Between Bureau Chief Judy Harrison, Administrative Assistant Terri Duden, and the website I know exactly how to report suspected food poisoning.

How to report food poisoning in Polk County

Go directly to File a Complaint with the Proper Agency.

(If you were starting from the State of Iowa web site you would have to go through a series of pages State of Iowa, Health and Human Services, Agencies, Inspections and Appeals, Informed Dining, View an Inspection Report, before you would get to where you want to be which is File a Complaint with the Proper Agency.)

Once on the File a Complaint with the Proper Agency page, you can enter the appropriate food source (restaurant for example), minimal information (a single word is sometimes enough) about the establishment (restaurant) name, or address, or city, or county, or ZIP and the database will return Search Results, most likely a specific restaurant. By selecting the establishment (restaurant) name in the search results you are directed to a page on which you can really report your illness (on a page also called File a Complaint). This complaint form will ask for your name, phone number, date of visit (to the restaurant), and a description of your complaint. Once submitted, a proper regulatory authority will investigate.

The question that I asked Bureau Chief Judy Harrison was, “How does the reported data get translated into identification of the origin of an outbreak of food poisoning?” The answer? The individual reports make their way to the Iowa Department of Health and they do the epidemiology. I especially like the word origin as noted by Wikipedia: epidemiology, “the study of what is upon the people…”, that is, what sort of plague has beset the people and where is it headed? If you really want to know about epidemiology of infectious disease, check out the lecture materials in an open course from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.  At a national level the epidemiology is done by CDC, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. You will find current information on Salmonella, West Nile Virus, Fluoridation, and the 2008 Olympics (plus lots more).

And finally something you might not want to know: CDC estimates there are 76 million cases of foodborne illness per year in the U. S. Most but not all are trivial. Several are considered more serious, e.g., Salmonella, E. coli, hepatitis A.

So now you know how to report foodborne illness in Polk County, Iowa. I hope you don’t have to.

photo on Flickr by Aleutia.

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Long-time contributor M.R. Field is leaving AroundDesMoines.com. She intends to devote her time to her paying job, as well as working on poetry and fiction, and posting commentaries at MRF Communications.

She has made hundreds of unique contributions to this site, and they have been appreciated throughout the community. I will miss her support and insightful comments on the arts, events, school board and transportation.

Thanks for your energy and tireless promotion to involve others in the community! I wish you success in your endeavors.

Writer: Sandy Renshaw is a self-employed communications consultant. You will also find her blogging at Purple Wren.

According to several realtors and mortgage brokers I know in the metro area, home sales are better than we hear about in the news. After all, fear sells more soap than good news.

There’s many options to sell your house. If you choose to do it yourself, there is a new website – Hawkeye FSBO – that lists real estate in Iowa that is for sale by owner. This is a free listing. Check it out! I talked to the owner of the site and he created this site because he noticed there are a lot of FSBO homes for sale around town but not a simple way to find them online.

What is involved in selling your own house? A post titled “For Sale by Owner in Iowa” by Matt Gardner on the Iowa Law Blog may answer some of those questions. It’s probably a good idea to retain the services of a good real estate attorney to help you through the legalities.

Listed below are links to Amazon for books about selling your own home. I didn’t realize so many people are choosing this option. Have you sold your own house or purchased a home that was for sale by owner? How was the experience? Would you recommend it?

Writer: Sandy Renshaw is a self-employed communications consultant. You will also find her blogging at Purple Wren.

Now that the flood waters are beginning to recede, people are able to get in and assess damage. One of the most heart-wrenching things is the loss of precious photos. They cannot be replaced. However, they may be able to be restored. There is an organization called Operation Photo Rescue that was started after Katrina and they are open to helping where they can in Iowa. They are a network of volunteers who can repair photographs damaged by natural disasters – at no cost to the owner.

And, there is a local photographer who is involved – Kevin Barber of Barber Photography. He is gathering other volunteers who may be able to help.

Contact him today if you can help, or if you have damaged photos and need help.

Here’s tips for salvaging flood and water damaged photos. It’s important to take immediate action – and the right steps.

Writer: Sandy Renshaw is a self-employed communications consultant. You will also find her blogging at Purple Wren.

I’m teaming up with Angela Clark of enrgPATH. She is embarking on a raw journey for the next 90 days.

Are you interested in healing your body with food?
What’s the big deal with raw food?

Join Angela‘s Raw Adventure via her blog at www.blog.enrgPATH.com to see how she is using local resources to eat a 90% raw food diet for 90 days.

• See Angela‘s “before” pictures
• See pics of Raw Food
• Get Information on Raw Food Demonstrations
• Find out where you can join Angela for a meal
• Find links to raw food web sites, blogs, and recipes
• Find the local connections to raw food

Writer: Sandy Renshaw is a self-employed communications consultant. You will also find her blogging at Purple Wren.

[tags] Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News, enrgpath, RAW food[/tags]