(Greenfield, Iowa) – A semi tractor-trailer rollover accident in Adair County is blocking the right lane of travel this morning on Interstate 80 eastbound. The accident occurred at Exit 86 at around 5:17-a.m., according to dispatch reports. Unknown if there are any injuries at this time.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Sheriff’s Deputies in Montgomery County, assisted by Red Oak Police, were called to the 1700 block of 206th Street in Red Oak, at around 7:20-p.m., Monday, following a report of an alleged assault. Upon arrival and investigation, Deputies arrested 75-year-old Dennis Vanderhoof, for Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense. The man was transported to the Montgomery County Jail, and held without bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The U-S-D-A is predicting the average corn yield in Iowa this year will be 202 bushels an acre. That’s just a couple of bushels short of last year’s record. Iowa State University ag economist Chad Hart says drought conditions had a mixed impact on yields.

“The western side of the state faced more of those drought problems. As we move over, especially into east central Iowa, we saw some record yields from some producers there,” Hart says, “and so when we add it all up for Iowa, it was actually a pretty good production year.” Commodity prices are strong and the U-S-D-A predicts farm income nationwide will be about five percent higher than in 2021.

“Agriculture’s in a pretty good spot right now. We are seeing good revenues when we look across the board. The challenge is we are starting to see those input costs rising,” Hart says. “…Eventually those costs will catch up to the prices we’re capturing today.” Initial U-S-D-A projections for 2023 suggest Iowa farmers will plant more acres of corn next spring.

“That tells me that USDA is saying farmers are still chasing after the higher prices or higher returns that corn produces,” Hart says, “even though corn is the higher cost crop to produce.” Hart says lingering drought conditions have been a concern for farmers in each of the past two growing seasons and will be again in 2023.

“The longer we’re in this pattern, the most likely we are to see more dramatic impacts on our production,” Hart says, “and do some true economic harm to Iowa agriculture.” Officials in Texas say drought there is causing billions of dollars in losses for cotton farmers. In the American west, drought conditions have persisted for 22 years and ag operations are fighting to maintain access to water.

Click on the map to enlarge

(Logan, Iowa) – Harrison County Emergency Management alert- The city of Logan has issued a boil order until further notice for businesses and residents in the shaded area below.

A boil order is issued when an event has occurred with the potential to adversely affect water quality, or a situation has occurred where there is known degradation of the water quality. DO NOT DRINK WATER WITHOUT BOILING IT FIRST. Bring all water to a rolling boil, let it boil for one minute, and cool before using; or use bottled water. You should use boiled or bottled water for drinking, making ice, washing dishes, brushing teeth and food preparation until you are notified that the advisory has been lifted.

Officials also recommend the following steps:
• Throw away uncooked food or beverages or ice cubes if made
with tap water during the day of the advisory
• Keep boiled water in the refrigerator for drinking
• Do not swallow water while you are showering or bathing
• Provide pets with boiled water after cooling
• Do not use home filtering devices in place of boiling or using
bottled water; Most home water filters will not provide
adequate protection from microorganisms
• Use only boiled water to treat minor injuries
• It is safe to wash clothes without first boiling the water.

Everyone is encouraged to sign up for Everbridge if they have not already done so. Updates will be sent through our mass notification system. The link to do so is:
https://member.everbridge.net/892807736721501/login
Residents are also encouraged to monitor the Harrison County EMA’s Facebook page as updates will be posted online.
https://www.facebook.com/HarrCoEMA

Davenport, IA – Gerald Brian Hoard, age 49 of Bettendorf, Iowa, was sentenced today (Monday) to time-served following his plea of guilty to Attempted Transfer of Obscene Material to a Minor. Hoard went into custody on March 15, 2022. Hoard will serve three years of supervised release including one year at a residential re-entry center.

According to court documents, Hoard used the social media application Grindr, an online dating app, to communicate with an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old. Hoard sent a picture of his genitals to the purported minor. Hoard agreed to meet the minor at a local store for the purpose of engaging in sexual activities.

U.S. Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case. This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nationwide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children.

For more information about Internet safety education, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc and click on the resources tab.

(Radio Iowa) – With Thanksgiving behind us now, Iowa food pantries are bracing for the winter ahead and a dramatic boost in demand as the year-end holidays near. Matt Unger, C-E-O of the Des Moines Area Religious Council, says while pandemic-era assistance, like extra SNAP benefits and increased unemployment benefits, helped for a while, it didn’t address the underlying problems with food insecurity.

“We have this growth now, and the number of folks that are needing this kind of assistance, and we don’t have the same spotlight on the issue that we did during the pandemic,” Unger says, “so I think there’s the risk that we’ve got some complacency.” So far this month, Unger says DMARC has helped 14-thousand individuals. Zuli Garcia is the founding president of Knock and Drop Iowa, the first-ever Latino food pantry in Des Moines’s metro, which provides culturally-specific foods. Garcia says higher food prices are having an impact and lately, they’ve had to dip into reserves to make sure those in need have enough to take home.

“That’s what our fear is, that we’re going to get to the point where unfortunately, we’re going to have to start turning people away because things are getting expensive, not just out there for everyone, but even for the nonprofits,” Garcia says. “We can’t find the food that’s needed to be able to feed families.” Garcia says for just one day of the pantry being open, Knock and Drop spent 48-hundred dollars on food for 387 families. Officials with the Food Bank of Iowa say they are continuing to see historic need from communities around the state, serving about 150-thousand individuals each month since spring.

(reporting by Catherine Wheeler, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – A half dozen Iowans who’ve led their public libraries through disasters will be featured in an online discussion tomorrow morning. “The hope is that people watching or listening to the webinar can learn from our disasters instead of having to have their own before they learn those lessons,” says Cedar Rapids Public Library director Dara Schmidt, who’ll be one of the panelists.

Like the city it serves, the Cedar Rapids Public Library has had a recent run of emergencies, starting with flooding in 2016. “(That flood) was smaller than predicted and so we ended up not sustaining damage even though we were closed because we were in the inundation zone and then we had, just like everybody else, the pandemic and then the derecho,” Schmidt says, “and then a couple of months ago we had a fire.”

The fire started in late July in a large light fixture in the lobby of the library in downtown Cedar Rapids. The 200 people inside the library were safely evacuated and the fire was doused in a matter of minutes, but the library was closed for a month — to deal with smoke damage. Schmidt says given that history, she and her staff have developed plans that not only focus on responding the moment a disaster might strike, but how to restore services as quickly as possible.

“With everything that we’ve been through, what we understand is out community needs us and in times of great challenge our community needs us even more,” Schmidt says. “…Maybe our building does have to close, but how can we continue to provide service, even when those terrible things are happening to us?”

For example, Schmidt says this summer the library set up a computer lab in a vacant space across the street from the temporarily closed downtown library. Librarians from Bettendorf, Clinton, Marion, Sioux City and West Des Moines will join Schmidt in tomorrow’s panel discussion about disaster planning.

(Radio Iowa) – The Governor announced today (Monday), that a Mitchellville Elementary School teacher is the 2023 Iowa Teacher of the Year.

Krystal Colbert says she knew from a young age that she wanted to be a teacher. “I had a lot of amazing educators in my own life who helped kind of shape that for me. I remember from a very young age, I had teachers who made me feel valued, and loved and respected,” Colbert says. “And I could really tell that they cared about me as a person, and they cared about my success in the future.”

She says every child learns in a different way, and it’s her job to help them understand that. “I believe that student empowerment is when children are able to be in control of their actions and their learning environment. I think it’s really important to help students set goals and to help them know what steps come in reaching those goals. And I always think that children need to be involved in what they’re learning and how they’re learning it,” Colbert says.

Teacher of the Year, Krystal Colbert. (Dept. of Ed photo)

She says it’s important to have a one-on-one connection with every student, and that helps build a trusting community. “I really take the time to invest in the relationships that I have with my students, as well as their families. I like to keep them connected to what we’re doing in our classroom through weekly emails and newsletters,” she says. “And I think it’s also very vital to stay connected and build those relationships with my colleagues as well.”

Colbert has been teaching for 16 years and says she’s still excited to get up and go to work every day. She’s also happy to take on the challenge of being the teacher of the year. “I am so excited and honored to be the 2023 Iowa Teacher of the Year. And I look forward to being able to travel the state of Iowa, as well as do a little traveling throughout the United States and just be able to meet amazing educators,” she says.

Colbert lives in Altoona and made her comments in a Department of Education video.

(Pottawattamie County, Iowa) – Leaders in Pottawattamie County and the City of Underwood have come together to create a plan to greatly assist travelers in the west-central part of the county. The proposed project calls for reconstruction of Magnolia Road (G30) from Railroad Highway to the intersection of L52. The project will also include a two-way left turn lane (TWLTL) from the railroad tracks to the interstate ramps. This will require reconstruction of the Mosquito Creek Bridge to provide the additional lane and maintain two-way traffic during reconstruction.

“This project has community and regional significance as a popular commuter route, an emergency interstate detour, and provides vital interstate access for services and commerce,” said John Rasmussen, Pottawattamie County Secondary Roads Engineer. “Traffic has increased dramatically during the service life of the existing infrastructure and exceeds the capacity of the current design. It’s time for reconstruction to improve deteriorating conditions, traffic capacity, and safety.”

Rasmussen credits Tina Treantos, Operations Manager for Pottawattamie County Secondary Roads, and Cindy Sorlien, Underwood’s City Administrator for fostering the partnership. “It’s a great example of community teamwork,” said Rasmussen. “Our staff worked closely with the City of Underwood to address a real need and its leaders have been open-minded and exceptionally supportive.”

Treantos completed the process for a Competitive City Bridge Grant application, with the City of Underwood as the applicant. The City was awarded up to $1.5 million, and on Tuesday, November 22nd, Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors signed an agreement to utilize that grant on a joint City/ County project.

“We’re grateful for the incredible collaboration that’s gone into this project,” said Underwood Mayor Dennis Bardsley. “As a city, we’re blessed to work with Pottawattamie County. We understand its leaders have our residents’ best interests in mind.” The $5.5 million project is programmed for FY24 but may be delayed until additional funding is secured. The design is in the preliminary stages and will be shared at public meetings once plans are more adequately developed.

Pottawattamie County Secondary Roads Department encourages residents to subscribe to the Road Notification System. The Road Notification System provides advanced warning of projects as well as project completion updates for County residents. Subscribe at: https://www.iceasb.org/road-notifications/subscribe/

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Two central Iowa men were sentenced last week on separate sex-related offenses. According to U-S Attorney’s Office reports 30-year-old Kyle Taylor Tremblay, of Ankeny, was sentenced Nov. 22nd to 30 years in prison for Production of Child Pornography. And, 58-year-old Dennis Eugene Kimball, of Des Moines, was sentenced that same day to 20-years in prison for attempting to entice a minor to engage in illicit sexual activities. There is no parole in the federal system.

According to court documents, Kyle Tremblay, interacted with children on an online video-chat forum on multiple dates in early 2021. Tremblay directed the children to perform sexual acts to themselves, including children that Tremblay knew were 10 years old and 11 years old, and make explicit poses for the webcam. Tremblay video-recorded his online interactions with the children. Police located these recordings on Tremblay’s cell phone that was seized during a search warrant at Tremblay’s Ankeny residence in April 2021. Police also located videos and images of other child sexual abuse material stored on Tremblay’s cell phone. Tremblay sent numerous images of child sexual abuse material to multiple other persons via an online messenger application. Following completion of his prison term, Tremblay will be on supervised release for five years.

Court documents show Dennis Eugene Kimball communicated over the internet with an undercover officer posing as a 15-year-old female. During the messages, Kimball arranged to meet the person he believed to be a minor female at a hotel to engage in sex acts. Kimball was arrested by law enforcement in October 2021 when he arrived at the hotel expecting to meet the minor female for sex acts. Following his prison term, Kimball will be on supervised release for five years.

Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.