Two people were arrested in Montgomery County, and a burglary was investigated, overnight Tuesday into early Wednesday morning. The Sheriff’s Office reports at around 1:45-a.m today (Wednesday), 62-year old Jackie Douglas Kendrick, of New Market, was arrested for Possession of Methamphetamine with the Intent to Deliver, and a Drug Tax Stamp violation. His arrest was the result of a traffic stop at 260th & Vine Avenue, east of Villisca. During the stop, Kendrick was found to the in possession of more than 14 grams of Meth. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $100,000 bond.

At around 11:15-p.m. Tuesday, deputies in Montgomery County investigated a residential burglary at 2791 V Avenue, south of Villisca. Officials say sometime between Dec. 29th and 30th, a person or persons unknown took multiple items from the residence. Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office at 712-623-5107, or Crimestoppers at 1-800-432-1001.

The sheriff’s department reports also, the arrest at around 10:20-p.m. Tuesday, of a Pleasantville man. 48-year old James Edward Stone was arrested on two warrants pertaining to Contempt of Court. Stone was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $2,000 bond.

Iowa’s Attorney General announced seven lawsuits in six counties in cases where construction started without a call to check for underground utility lines. A-G spokesman, Geoff Greenwood, says the complaints involve natural gas lines. “In all of these cases, they either hit a natural gas line or they got very close to hitting one,” Greenwood says. The suits involve companies or individuals in Linn, Palo Alto, Jasper, Woodbury, Franklin, and Pottawattamie counties. Anyone who digs is supposed to dial up the Iowa One Call Center, at 1-800-292-8989, or 811, to have them come and mark underground lines.

“In these cases, nobody was injured…no explosions, fires anything like that, but we’ve had cases before where people have been hurt, we’ve had explosions, we’ve had situations where power has been knocked out or emergency communications lines have been knocked out,” Greenwood says. “If an excavator doesn’t call One Call before they dig, they are threatening themselves and they are threatening the public. We take these cases very seriously.” The law has been in place for over two decades.

Greenwood says anyone who digs has been required to make the call since 1993. Even with years of promoting the call-in number and high-profile cases, Greenwood doesn’t know why people still dig without taking the time to call. “It’s hard to say, and there may be various reasons why they didn’t call. But one reason is not cutting costs, it’s a free call. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t call,” according to Greenwood. “We think that in some cases it’s possible that it was a case of poor planning. A company moved up a dig order or moved up a project and didn’t do so in time to call.”

The call center is open 24-hours a day, 365 days a year. The people in these seven cases face fines from 35-hundred dollars up to five-thousand. “We handle these on a case-by-case basis. There are a situations where we have filed cases that resulted in a major threat to the public — there was a large explosion, there was a power outage, there was a communications outage. In other cases it was nothing more than the excavator got very close to a line and we still file cases,” Greenwood says. Violators are subject to a civil penalty of up to 10-thousand dollars each day for violations related to natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines, and up to one-thousand dollars each day involving other underground facilities.

In a Pottawattmie County case, District Court Judge Timothy O’Grady, Monday, ordered that Wes Casson & Son LLC, of McClelland, pay a $5,000 civil penalty and permanently enjoined the company from violating the One Call law.

According to Miller’s lawsuit on November 11, 2013, the company conducted an excavation to install drainage tile and terraces in rural Pottawattamie County, without first contacting the Iowa One Call notification center and, thereby, failed to provide notice to operators of underground facilities. During the excavation, the company’s tiling equipment came to within seven feet of an eight-inch diameter natural gas pipeline, and during terracing went directly over the pipeline.

(Radio Iowa)

Voters in a state senate district in southwest Iowa have selected a farmer from Imogene to replace Joni Ernst. Ernst resigned from the seat in late November, after Iowa voters elected her as the next U.S. Senator from Iowa. Republican Mark Costello won Tuesday’s special election and will be sworn in a state senator in January. “I just kind of want to keep just quietly doing my job,” Costello says. “That’s my goal.”

Costello won a seat in the Iowa House in 2012 and he was reelected to the House in November. Now Costello will represent the six southwest Iowa counties of Senate District 12. Turnout in Tuesday’s election was sparse, but Costello was the overwhelming selection of those who did cast ballots.  “I’m so grateful to them for supporting me like this,” Costello says. “I love it that they show that confidence in me. It makes me feel really good.” Over 41-hundred ballots were cast in Tuesday’s special election and Costello got almost 74 percent of the vote.

Republicans held a majority of seats in the Iowa House in the past two years Costello has served there, giving the G-O-P the ability to control the debate agenda, but Democrats control the state senate. Costello will join 23 other Republicans in the state senate and be in the minority. He considers the senate a “good opportunity” to “affect legislation.”

“I’m looking forward to being a part of that team for the next two years,” Costello says. “I’m always optimistic. I’m hopeful that my side will take control in a couple of years.” Costello is a graduate of Nishna Valley High School. He graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1984 and work for five years as a computer programmer for Garst Seed before returning to his family’s farm. Costello and his wife, Rachel, have five children. The family raises corn, soybeans and registered Simmental cattle on their farm near Imogene.

(Radio Iowa)