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City of Muscatine Press Releases

Musser Public Library is reaccredited by State Library

DES MOINES—The State Library of Iowa has announced that the Musser Public Library has met the conditions for state accreditation.

Achieving accreditation requires a significant, ongoing local commitment to high quality library services. The Musser Public Library has been recognized for its efforts in all areas of library operations: governance and funding, staffing, library collection, services, public relations, access and facilities. The accreditation status began July 1 and is valid through June 30, 2025.

“We commend the director and board of trustees of the Musser Public Library and the city of Muscatine for this achievement and their commitment to excellence in public library services for their community,” said State Librarian Michael Scott.

Musser Public Library Director Robert Fiedler credited many people for contributing to the library’s success. 

“Thanks to the library staff and board of trustees for all their hard work and time. And most of all, thank you to our patrons, who make us one of the most amazing libraries in Iowa. We’ll continue to do our best to serve our community,” Fiedler said.

Of Iowa’s 543 public libraries, 403 are accredited. Iowa’s accredited public libraries are recognized for being responsive to their communities and for exhibiting excellence in library services. 

More than two-thirds of all Iowans have active public library cards. Iowa libraries play key roles in workforce and economic development, lifelong learning and e-government activities. Iowans use their libraries to find jobs, do homework, locate a good book to read, research medical conditions, access government information, and more.

For more information on the State Library’s accreditation program, and to view the Public Library Standards, go to https://www.statelibraryofiowa.gov/index.php/libraries/search/accred-stand.

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City of Muscatine Press Releases

Unique format planned for State of the City 2022 address

MUSCATINE, Iowa – Muscatine Mayor Brad Bark will present his first “State of the City” address in a rather unique format this year. Joining him in a discussion of the past, present, and future of Muscatine will be City Administrator Carol Webb.

 

The presentation will be part of the March 31 Muscatine In Focus show. The City of Muscatine is inviting residents to submit questions they have about Muscatine’s future that will be presented to Bark and Webb during the presentation. Residents are asked to limit questions to 140 characters or less, be respectful with content, and submit the questions to Communications Manager Kevin Jenison (kjenison@muscatineiowa.gov) or to feedback@muscatineiowa.gov.

 

Questions will be compiled by subject matter with the most frequently asked posed to the mayor and city administrator.

 

Deadline for submitting questions is March 25.

 

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City of Muscatine Press Releases

State, local health agencies moving from response to recovery

MUSCATINE, Iowa – The State Public Health Disaster Emergency Proclamation will expire at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, February 15, 2022. For nearly two years, the proclamation waived specific provisions in Iowa code that allowed the state to shift resources to respond to the public health emergency. As such, the state publicly reported information that was more detailed and frequent than what the agency would typically produce. This allowed the state to respond and shift resources appropriately.

 

The expiration of the proclamation will result in operational changes related to the state’s pandemic response. State agencies, including the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), will now manage COVID-19 as part of normal daily business and reallocate resources that have been fully dedicated to the response effort to serve other important needs for Iowans. 

 

IDPH and your Muscatine County Public Health Department remain committed to doing the work we’ve always done around disease surveillance to protect the health of all Iowans. Moving forward the Iowa Department of Public Health will continue to provide critical data to understand COVID-19 prevalence in Iowa. The Muscatine County Public Health Department will refer our communities to IDPH for continued updates on COVID-19 beginning February 16, 2022.

 

Changes in Published Data:

 

  • Both the coronavirus.iowa.gov and vaccinateiowa.gov websites will be discontinued.
  • Weekly COVID-19 data points will be published on the IDPH website beginning February 16, 2022.
  • IDPH is no longer requiring Long Term Care facilities to notify them when they have three or more infections in residents, therefore this will no longer be reported publicly by IDPH. Instead, IDPH will use Centers for Medicare Services (CMS) data to identify and assist facilities in infection control.
  • Hospital general COVID-19 data is available through the CDC: www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/nhcs.htm

 

Moving Forward the IDPH Website, www.idph.iowa.gov, will Include:

  • Positive Cases
  • Positive tests since March of 2020 (age/sex/race)
  • Deaths since March of 2020
  • Case by county
  • Positive tests in past 7 days
  • Epi Curve since March of 2020
  • Variant breakdown by week
  • Vaccine Data
  • Total series completed
  • Booster completed
  • County map
  • Fully vaccinated (age/sex/race)

 

Public Health Work Continues

  • First COVID-19 data upload to IDPH website will be February 16, 2022
  • Access to COVID-19 testing and vaccine remain unchanged.
  • At this time, Test Iowa at Home will continue unchanged. www.testiowa.com
  • COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutic allocations continue.

 

For information related to COVID-19, visit www.idph.iowa.gov/ or Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) | CDC.

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