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CHARLES CITY PRESS | WWW.CHARLESCITYPRESS.COM | FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2025
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requests help from the Floyd and Colwell fi re departments, all those fi re fi ghters have to do is fl ip to the Charles City TAC channel and they can all talk to- gether seamlessly, he said. There’s also a roaming chan- nel so that if people are traveling out of the area they can still be in touch. “They can talk to us directly – anywhere in the state of Iowa, actually, if they’re on that chan- nel,” Gohr said. “Which is kind of a really nice thing if they’re doing transports or something like that.” Another feature, still to be set up, is a radio in each of the schools in the county that has an emergency button that when pressed will immediately sound an alarm in dispatch. “And we’d be able to talk to the school directly via the radio and fi nd out what’s going on,” Gohr said. An initiative in 2022 through the Governor’s School Safety Bureau provided ISICS-capa- ble radios to all the schools, but there hasn’t been an ISICS sys- tem in Floyd County to use it on until now. “That’s not all installed yet, but they’re still working on that,” Gohr said. The Iowa Department of Pub- lic Safety had for many years en- couraged public safety agencies to get on ISICS, a radio platform that began construction in 2016 and that provides communica- tions throughout the state. Floyd County public of fi cials had talked for years about join- ing ISICS, but the multi-mil- lion-dollar pricetag had always been a barrier. In early 2023, the Floyd Coun- ty 911 Service Board and the Floyd County Communications Advisory Commission – two groups with concerns regard- ing public safety communica- tions and with many common members – invited companies to come up with proposals to inves- tigate problems with the Floyd County communications system, RADIO Continued from page C5
and to recommend solutions. Gohr said the overview of the existing county system showed some equipment was 25 years old, some more than 30 years old, some of the equipment was broken, and there were no lon- ger replacement parts for the old VHF radios. “All the equipment was anti- quated and couldn’t be replaced, is why we went to move ahead with what we did,” Gohr said. In August 2023, the Floyd County Board of Supervisors acted on a plan put together by a group of people including Floyd County Fire Chief Ben Chat fi eld, Dispatch Administrator Gohr, Lt. Travis Bartz with the Floyd County Sheriff’s Of fi ce, and EMA Coordinator Webster. They had been working to design a system to meet the county’s needs with Motorola Solutions, the company that had designed and supplied the equip- ment for ISICS across Iowa, and that offered steep discounts on equipment as part of its state contract. The county supervisors ap- proved issuing about $5 million in general obligation emergen- cy communications bonds for a project that included purchas- ing new digital equipment that works on ISICS, and updating equipment and software in the county Dispatch Department at the courthouse. It also included updating the existing radio tower and equip- ment at the police station in Charles City, and erecting a new 300-foot tower on 1½ acres of farmland the county purchased adjacent to the Fossil and Prairie Park Preserve near Rockford. Those towers are now part of the statewide ISICS network. Other equipment included pro- viding new portable radios for all law enforcement of fi cers in the county, new pagers for fi re- fi ghters and Emergency Med- ical Service (EMS) personnel, mobile radios for squad cars and portable radios for fi re fi ghters and EMS to use when respond- ing to calls. The equipment remains the property of Floyd County, with the understanding that agencies will replace anything they break, and that if any agency dissolves, the equipment will be returned to the county. In his recent annual report to the board that oversees the Emer- gency Management Agency, Webster said the most rewarding thing he had been involved in in the past year was working to up- grade the county’s public safety radio communications system. “I’ve learned a lot on that. It’s been fun to be a part of that $5 million program,” he said. “Between I and Deputy Bartz, and Ben Chat fi eld from Floyd, and John Gohr in dispatch, I think we’ve done a good job. We’ve kept it well under bud- get,” Webster said in his report. “So we’re excited about that,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, the sheriff’s been doing it for a long time. We’ve been suffering big time with communications for quite a while. It’s really a rewarding thing getting updated, getting current with the times.”
locker room and they gym, for an annual lease of $1. TLC pays for utilities, trash removal and internet as well as routine maintenance, repair and janitorial services. TLC’s lease is up in 2026, and the cen- ter is in talks with the school district on what will happen next – an extension, pur- chase of the property, or other options. A developer is planning on turning the west end of the building into apartments, and has said the nearness of the child care service would be a neat combination. In addition to gaining the kitchen, the use of the old middle school gym has been invaluable for the center. “The gym is a life-saver,” Forsyth said. “If it’s cold, raining, hot and humid in the summer, we can go to the gym.” A lot of work – and community support – went into the TLC move, which was founded in 2001. The center has received $1.675 mil- lion in funding for the project, includ- ing $100,000 from the city of Charles City ($33,333 each year for three years), $10,000 from Floyd County Community Foundation, $10,000 from Charles City Area Development and $5,000 from the Floyd County Board of Supervisors in 2022 It has also received $1.525 million from the state of Iowa in various grants over two years designed to support child care services. “We’re in communication with the state and always willing to meet with business- es” about projects, Forsyth said. Iowa Child Care Resource and Referral, a source for families, providers, commu- nities and employers alike, has also been a huge source of state support, down to the design of rooms, Forsyth said, adding that community outreach is an ongoing com- mitment. Renovation on the building began early in 2022, and the move was made the fi rst week of 2023. The structure of the old middle school down to its classrooms, was a perfect fi t. Children are able to be in age-appro- priate rooms: Infants, 3-months to 1-year; Wobblers, age 1; Toddlers, age 2; Step- ups, age 3; Early learners, age 4; and school-age, kindergarten through fourth grade, who meet in Karen’s Kid’s Corner, a room dedicated to the memory of former board member Karen VanderLee. “She was just a really big part of TLC in the early years,” said former board Presi-
Dave Ruble photo for the Press Miss Tonia works with children in the Step-up group at TLC: The Learning Center.
Dave Ruble photo for the Press Murals throughout The Learning Center were created by Robin Macomber. This friendly dinosaur is in the Step-up room for 3-year-olds.
dent Lisa Garden. VanderLee’s legacy was a crucial com- ponent to see the building project to com- pletion. As renovations were nearing com- pletion, the center was about $275,000 short on construction funds. VanderLee’s father, Bill Fenholt, donat- ed the money needed to complete the proj- ect in memory of his late wife, Doris, and in honor of their daughter. “Bill was very supportive of everything education,” Garden said. “He wanted to make sure this continued.” Each room also has its own fl avor,
thanks to the murals of Robin Macomb- er, Forsyth said. There is also a Mommy Room, a small, intimate space where new mothers can be with their infants, and the building also has a tornado shelter, a hold- over from its days as a middle school. While the center is not a licensed pre- school, it does partner with the city’s schools and pre-schools. School-age chil- dren are picked up and dropped off by school buses, and the city taxi also works with the center, which is open Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
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