The Harlan Community School District’s Board of Education and Harlan Community Education Foundation met for the ground breaking ceremony at Merrill Field Monday, prior to the regular school board meeting. Construction is slated to begin on Tuesday, April 29th. Superintendent Justin Wagner said at the ceremony the education foundation has raised a total of $1.7 million for the project. Wagner said the increase in funding will go towards the three alternatives for Merrill Field.

“We had the upgrade to the bleachers. So we have the I-beam bleachers which were an upgrade, the safety lane which will go around the entire track and the sidewalk as well.” The ceremony on Monday was to honor the Education Foundation along with the city and other entities that have worked together on getting the funding for the project. The completion date for the Merrill field is August 22nd and Wagner says that’s when a ribbon cutting will take place. “And it will be a big deal because we are going to invite the Vision Iowa folks down and other partners such as city of Harlan, Shelby County Supervisors and the athletic booster club. There’s just a lot of great partners that on August 22nd, we will take a moment to honor them.”

During the school board meeting, the board approved Thomas Cronin as a 5th through12th grade music teacher. Wagner said the position is a combination of a half-time position, a quarter-position, and a quarter- new position. Cronin comes from the Sioux City Heelan School District. And, the Harlan School Board discussed further, options on drugs and alcohol issues in the school district. The board is looking into adding classes in the Middle School with regard to drugs and alcohol, but nothing was approved. Wagner said further discussions are being held and the board will take action on the matter at a later date.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

A public hearing will be held during a meeting of the Cass County Board of Supervisors Wednesday morning, with regard to a zoning classification change. If approved, the change would affect a parcel of land 260-feet by 225-feet, near the southwest corner of a section of Noble Township, and would mean that parcel would become a Light Industrial District instead of General Agricultural. Following the hearing, which begins at 8:40-a.m. in the Supervisor’s Board Room at the Courthouse, the Board will vote on approving the zoning change.

In other business, the Cass County Supervisors will act on approving a construction contract for renovation of the building at 707 Poplar Street (the future home of the Cass County 9-1-1 Center), and the appointment a member to the Cass County Food Policy Council, and hear scheduled reports from the County Engineer and Mental Health/General Relief Coordinator, as well as quarterly reports from the County Conservation and Veterans Affairs Directors.

The meeting begins at 8:30-a.m.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two Glenwood men were arrested Monday on assault charges. 22-year old Derek Edward Rodwell was arrested at around 11:25-p.m. and held without bond on a charges of Domestic Abuse Assault and for Violation of Protection Order. He was also charged with  two counts of Criminal Mischief, for which bond was set at $5,000.

40-year old Jeffrey Dale Liddell, of Glenwood, was also arrested and held without bond, on a charge of Domestic Abuse Assault. He was also taken into custody at around 11:30-p.m., Monday.

This (Tuesday) morning, 30-year old Melissa Anne Holt, of Omaha, was arrested in Mills County on a warrant for Violation of a Protection Order. Her bond was set at $200.

The Griswold School Board Monday evening held-off on approving the 2014-2015 District Calendar. The decision followed a public hearing on the Early Start Waiver and conversion to an hour-based calendar, during which there were no comments from the public. Superintendent Dana Kunze said the Board did not approve the calendar as presented, and will instead, make some suggestions to the teachers group that made the initial proposal, and “re-work that.”

Kunze said the reason they didn’t approve the calendar was essentially for the same reason many schools don’t want to start too early. He said “The start date looking like it’s creeping earlier and earlier into August, and that was something they were concerned about.”

In other business, the Griswold School Board Monday, approved the list of Cass County Sheriff’s officials who applied for authorization to carry weapons while they are off-duty, on school grounds. They include Sheriff Darby McLaren, and Chief Deputy Sheriff John Westering, and Deputies Corey Larsen, Kyle Quist and Ryan Johnson.

(9-a.m. News)

Police in Lenox were involved in a foot pursuit Monday. Authorities say the chase began shortly after officers responded to an ambulance call at around Noon, Monday.

Cody Simmons

They later learned that one of the persons at the scene —  identified as 20-year old James Cody Simmons, of Indianola — was wanted on a Dept. of Corrections arrest warrant for violation of probation.

Officers were unable to locate Simmons, but at around 9:20-p.m., authorities received a call about  a suspicious male walking on the highway 1.5-miles south of Lenox. That person matched the description of Simmons. When officers responded to the area, Simmons ran into a field. After a foot pursuit, Simmons was taken into custody.

He was transported to the Taylor County Jail where he was charged with interference with official acts in addition to the warrant. Simmons was being held without bond in the Taylor County Jail.

Officials with Google and MidAmerican Energy have announced an agreement for MidAmerican Energy to supply Google’s Council Bluffs data center with up to 407 megawatts of wind-sourced energy. The wind power will come from several wind projects that are part of MidAmerican Energy’s Wind VIII program, an initiative under which MidAmerican Energy will bring 1,050 megawatts of new Iowa wind power online by the end of 2015. Officials say the agreement fully supplies the first phase of Google’s facilities in Council Bluffs with 100% renewable wind energy, bundled with and tracked by renewable energy certificates, and will allow additional phases to be supplied with wind-sourced energy as the company grows in Iowa.

Google has been working with MidAmerican Energy to procure additional renewable resources since the construction of Google’s data center in Iowa in 2007, and when MidAmerican Energy filed for approval for Wind VIII it had companies like Google in mind as customers.  The agreement represents Google’s sixth and largest renewable energy purchase to date, bringing the total amount of renewable energy Google has contracted for to over one gigawatt (1,000 megawatts).