A Treynor woman who has used the services of the Treynor Volunteer Fire Department over the years has expressed her gratitude through a donation of $2,500. The Daily NonPareil reports Jolene Lammert‘s home caught fire twice over the years, and just a few years ago, her father-in-law was involved in a tractor accident. But every time, volunteer firefighters came to her aid. The 55-year-old woman still lives in that house, and her father is currently in good health.

On Monday, Jolene and her husband, Ron, donated $2,500 to the fire department to help pay for new hydraulic rescue tools. Lammert received the money when she was chosen by America’s Farmers Grow Communities as a winner for Pottawattamie County. The group works with farmers to support rural communities. Lammert entered the contest and, upon winning, was allowed to donate her prize to the organization of her choosing.

The Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors is considering whether to sell a portion of a county-owned park in Hancock to an adjacent grain storage company for an expansion. The Daily NonPareil reports the Scoular Co., which has a grain storage facility in Hancock, would like to purchase approximately 2.8 acres of land in Botna Bend Park, located alongside the facility. A Scoular official has said the land was in an unused portion of the park.

Botna Bend is a 119-acre park featuring a campground, playground, hiking trails and basketball and volleyball courts. The Scoular representative told the paper the campground area is still 400 to 500 feet away from the planned expansion site. A proposed new storage building on that ground would be 70 feet high, 180 feet in width and 420 feet in length.

Scoular reportedly will invest up to $4.5 million in this expansion,with $40,000 in additional tax revenue for the community. The purchase agreement calls for the company to pay $50,000 for the property and agree to pay an additional $50,000 for park improvements where needed. The new structure would be considered an “overflow” type of storage facility, especially during fall harvest time when current storage buildings reached their own capacities.

The five-member board of supervisors, before officially voting on the matter, requested the company and the county’s conservation office work out an agreeable plan for drainage issues. Also at Tuesday’s board meeting, the board set a public hearing on the 2015 fiscal year county operating budget for March 17 at 10 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors room.

The Omaha World-Herald reports a Nebraska man was found guilty Tuesday in the case of two Mills County girls who were sexually abused last September. The girls were eight- and nine-years old. 64-year old John R. Schondelmeyer, of Bellevue, NE., was convicted of two counts of second-degree sexual abuse and two counts of lascivious acts with a child. A  jury issued its verdict after less than an hour of deliberation.

Schondelmeyer faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison on each sexual abuse count and a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on the lascivious acts counts. He’s scheduled to be sentenced April 14th.

Schondelmeyer may still face charges in Sarpy County, NE.  However, it’s not clear what direction officials will take the case.

The Iowa Senate has approved a bill that would create a new state fund to help finance a statewide emergency messaging system. Senator Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, says the goal is to ensure the latest technology is in place to be used in all of Iowa’s 99 counties. “Currently 53 counties use some form of mass notification and emergency messaging systems,” Petersen says. “…The cost of the 53 systems is more than $600,000 per year.” The other 46 Iowa counties have no electronic warning system in place, relying on local broadcasters and weather radios to spread emergency messages.

The estimated cost of a statewide emergency messaging system is about 400-thousand dollars a year and the governor has included that figure in his state budget outline. “The system would be an ‘opt in’ system for local governments. It’s not a mandate and administration of the system would occur at the local level through emergency management commissions,” Petersen says.

Senator Jeff Danielson, a Democrat from Cedar Falls, says by pooling resources, this will help some Iowa communities save money on these so-called “reverse 9-1-1” systems. “And take advantage of all the wonderful, new technologies that we use in many ways for leisure and entertainment, but this could also be used for public safety good — Facebook, Twitter and all the other forms of social media,” Danielson says.

The cell numbers, web addresses and Twitter handles used in these emergency notification systems are to be kept confidential by the state and local governments, plus the bill offers an even more specific protection, saying all that information “shall not be sold” to anyone.

(Radio Iowa)