“One thing I’d like to challenge the Democratic leadership to do this year: Allow Iowans to vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman,” DeBoef said.

In 2007, she explained, a judge ruled against that definition — in 2008, she believes it’s time for a vote to hear what the people think.

In Ottumwa, citizens are going to be seeing more construction.

“I think certainly we’re going to have more sewer separation on the south side,” said Mayor Dale Uehling. “We’re relatively sure we’ll be moving ahead on getting the airport hangar reroofed.”

In fact, there will be discussions of new sewers being put in at the airport, too, as well as discussions with county supervisors about other sewers.

While it may seem like the big news for Ottumwa in '08 is in the sewers, it wasn’t the people of Ottumwa who asked for the work.

“We’ll be keeping an eye on the Legislature, and the funding,” said Uehling. “We’re making changes because of mandates from the [state]. We’re seeing all sorts of outside forces affecting what’s happening in the community. I think that’s too bad, and I’d like to see some relief instead of [more] mandates.”

New requirements at the landfill have already forced the city to raise fees at the facility. Uehling said the city will continue to seek additional sources of funding for the various mandates.

Uehling predicts some full-time help with these and other matters.

“We’re hoping in the first couple months to have a new city administrator on board,” said Uehling, who said the search “is going pretty well, and there should be some things happening in the first couple weeks of January in that respect.”

One issue that hasn’t shown up yet will be apparent once the warm weather comes.

“With the kind of winter we’ve had, we’re going to see some issues with street repair,” he said.

And in case of emergency, he and other city officials are discussing a shelter that can be kept warm regardless of whether there is power in Ottumwa.

As a matter of fact, though he said it’s hard to look a year into the future, he does have a short-term 2008 hope for Ottumwa: “I hope we don’t have any more ice storms,” Uehling said. “Two ice storms is two too many.”

Reporter Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.