(Atlantic, Iowa) – Thanksgiving is typically the time those at the table loosening their belts to take-in all the goodies, but when it comes to spending, the City of Atlantic is going to be tightening its financial belt. That’s the message City Administrator John Lund essentially conveyed to the Council during their meeting, Wednesday. Lund gave the Council a copy of the Property Tax Report he also gave the City’s Department Heads.

Lund said “It sounds like they’re (The legislature) gonna do more things related to property taxes this year,”and he urged the Council not to wait for their action to happen.

He says “No one likes paying property taxes, but what pays for fire, police, the libraries? Property taxes.

One way to reduce the property tax burden, is through growth: adding more businesses and residents. Lund says the push to establishing more housing units this year in Atlantic is a step in the right direction, but it isn’t easy to accomplish.

It remains to be seen what the Iowa Legislature will do to the property tax system, but it’s clear City Managers in the area are concerned enough to ask their leaders to lobby the legislature not to make any drastic changes, in light of the current economy.

Here is more information on the property tax and how it relates to a city’s financial situation. These documents were prepared by Erin Mullenix, Research Director for the Iowa League of Cities, and made possible courtesy Atlantic City Clerk, Barb Barrick:

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(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who smoke cigarettes are being encouraged to quit — just for today (Thursday). As part of the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, it’s hoped if smokers can kick the habit for one day, they can make the change permanent. Studies show the average smoker has to try seven times before they quit smoking for good. State health officials say about 17-percent of Iowa adults smoke and 10-percent of high school students.

Anti-smoking advocates are calling for Iowa lawmakers to raise taxes on cigarettes in January. The taxes are now a dollar-36 per pack in Iowa. That’s 45-cents below the national average and four dollars below New York’s taxes. For free help stopping smoking, call the Quitline at 800-QUIT-NOW.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston arrested a man for Failure to Appear in court. 21-year-old Andrew George Mills, of Creston, was arrested at around 10:30-p.m. Wednesday, at his home. He was transported to the Union County Jail and held on a $2,000 cash or surety bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The cost of the items used to prepare a typical Thanksgiving dinner for ten people is up again this year in the annual survey by the American Farm Bureau. A-F-B economist, Roger Cryan, says they pick 12 items for the survey. “The average in the U-S cost 64-dollars, five cents — which was up about 20 percent from last year. And that was last year was up 14 percent from the year before, so that’s a 36 percent increase in two years,” Cryan says. Cryan says the increased cost will be a burden for many, but farmers have done a good job of providing. “I think it’s worth pointing out that even with these increases, this market basket still works out to about six and a half dollars per person for what is essentially a Thanksgiving feast,” he says.

Cryan says general price inflation is part of the reason for the increase. “Inflation has been running at a rate of about seven to nine percent this fall, year over year. That’s about a third of the increase in the food basket and inflation is a serious issue that’s that we’ve been attempting to address general price inflation. It robs consumers and farmers of their buying power,” according to Cryan. He says increased production costs, supply chain issues, and other factors also contributed to the increase. The cost of the 16-pound turkey was up 21 percent from last year to around 29 dollars. Cryan says that’s an average, and you may be able to find some cheaper birds as we get closer to the holiday.

“Since we’ve done the survey, the number of stores that are featuring turkeys in their circulars at discounted prices,” Cryan says. “Those discounts will probably grow. Even though it’s been it’s been a tighter market. And even though there’s been some challenges in the turkey supply chain production is only down about two percent this year at this point compared to last year.” Cryan says the amount farmers make has not increased despite the retail price increase for the products. “The U-S-D-A has put out numbers on a regular basis that show pretty consistently for the last several years that farmers receive about eight percent of the retail price of food purchased for consumption at home,” he says.

Among some of the other items in the survey: the 14-ounce bag of cube stuffing mix is up 69 percent from last year, and frozen pie crusts and whipping cream are up 26 percent. A pound of frozen peas is up 23 percent, dinner rolls are up 22 percent. The can of pumpkin pie mix is up 18 percent, and the gallon of whole milk is up 16 percent. The 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries went against the trend — as it was down about 14 percent.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Food Pantry will be CLOSED on Thanksgiving Day, November 24. Officials say the drive-through distribution that week will be on WEDNESDAY, NOV. 23, 12:30 PM. Please note also, that Atlantic Food Pantry is now at 704 W. 7th Street, and not their old location on W. 4th Street.

Additional details on the Atlantic Food Pantry:

• Food Referrals are not needed.
• There is a pick-up limit of 3 households per vehicle.
• Pantry phone: (712) 243-5019 (9-11 AM Mon. and Thurs. only)
• Address: 704 W. 7th St., Atlantic, IA 50022
• Distribution Hours: Thurs., 12:30 – 3 pm (or until all food sacks are distributed).

Distribution Directions: Drive-through pantry. For safety reasons, there will be no access to the Pantry from 7th Street (Highway 6) during Thursday afternoon food distributions. Pantry Client vehicles will approach the Pantry from the East on 6th Street, turning South on Palm Street, then West on the access road directly in front of the Pantry to receive food. Cars will then exit north on the alley next to the Pantry. Traffic markers will guide the cars before and during food distribution.)

Donations: mail checks to “Atlantic Food Pantry” (P.O. Box 285, Atlantic, IA 50022)

(Radio Iowa) – Four children are dead after a house fire in Mason City on Wednesday morning. The Mason City Fire Department says they were called shortly after 5:00 AM to 509 North Washington for the report of a fully involved house fire. Two people, 55-year-old John Mcluer and 11-year-old Ravan Mcluer, were able to escape the house before firefighters arrived. They were taken to the hospital to be treated for burn-related injuries with their conditions not being known at this time. An immediate search of the structure by firefighters found four victims who were later transported to the hospital where they were pronounced dead.

The victims are three-year-old Phenix Mcluer, six-year-old Drako Mcluer, 10-year-old Odin Mcluer, and 12-year-old John Mcluer. Their cause of death is under investigation by the medical examiner’s office. Two firefighters also suffered minor injuries from battling the fire. The fire is currently under investigation by Mason City Fire and Police Department personnel as well as the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst has moved up one rung on the Senate G-O-P leadership ladder, to the number four position.  “I am very excited to be moving forward now with this new team,” Ernst said. Ernst’s colleagues have elected her chair of the Republican Policy Committee, after what have been described as tense meetings of Senate Republicans this week. Ernst is promising to foster collaboration.

“We heard a lot about that over the past several days,” Ernst said, “so we want to make sure that all of our voices are heard and their ideas are presented fairly.” Senate Republicans reelected Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell as their minority leader. However, after disappointing G-O-P results last week, McConnell faced opposition for the first time since 2007. Ernst will be developing the G-O-P’s message for 2024.

“As we move, of course, into the next election cycle, I know the American people will hear our message,” Ernst said, “and it will resonate with them.” Ernst remains the top-ranking woman among G-O-P leadership. She’s been vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference for the past four years.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s U.S. Senators have split their votes on legislation that would protect marriage rights for same-sex and interracial couples. The bill would grant federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley voted against allowing the Senate to consider the bill. Grassley says he opposes the bill on religious liberty grounds, but also believes it’s unnecessary. Senator Joni Ernst was among a dozen Republicans who voted to let the bill advance. It’s likely the U.S. Senate will approve the bill in the next two weeks.

The U.S. House passed a similar bill after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that opinions on same-sex marriage and the right to contraception were based on the same legal grounds as Roe v Wade — the 1973 abortion decision the court overturned this summer.

(Radio Iowa) – The state’s community colleges saw an increase in enrollment this year for the first time since 2010. The Department of Education’s, Jeremy Varner, says that’s somewhat of a surprise given the state’s low unemployment.”Community college enrollment is in part counter-cyclical. So we’re pleased to see enrollment growth this fall, particularly given the tight labor market, right, normally, we would expect to see some declines. So Iowa is bucking this historical trend,” Varner says.

He says the growth is split among the 15 schools.”So enrollment is up point-six percent to just over 82-thousand students. This growth is not evenly distributed amongst our institutions, seven of our community colleges are up, eight are down this fall. But we are seeing more institutions seeing growth,” he says. Varner says told the Board of Education this is a preliminary report on the fall and it shows the move away from full-time students continues.

“Students are continuing to shift from full-time to part-time. This is a trend that’s been going in our data since at least some time in the mid-1970s. So for a very long time,” Varner says. “Part of that is driven by growth and concurrent enrollment. But this fall, we’re also seeing growth in traditional student enrollment, those students that are in that 18 to 24 range.” He says they are seeing fewer students who are beyond the 18 to 24 range.

“We do have a decline in non-traditional student enrollment this fall, which is expected in a tight economy, but traditional students and concurrent enrollment students are up,” Varner says. “One trend that we are watching that we’re a little nervous about is that immediate enrollment is still down. That’s basically the students who just graduated from high school in May and are showing up in the fall. That number is still down a bit.”

Varner says the highest enrollment comes in one particular area. “Enrollment in career tech programs is up three-point-two percent. That’s more than other program areas. So students are really looking at those career programs that are going to get them skills, they’re going to help them in the economy,” he says. “That’s more nursing students, business students, these kinds of things are thinking there is that has to be in part driven by growth in our career academies and regional centers.”

Varner says they saw in online enrollment by four percent this fall after having huge surges in online enrollment during the pandemic. He says the number of high school students who enroll in community college classes is up by more than 44 percent with high school students in that concurrent enrollment making up 45 percent of the students and nearly 29 percent of community college credit hours. Varner says he will have more details on the makeup of the community college students in January.

Iowa Lakes Community College had the largest enrollment increase at eight-point-five percent, followed by Southeastern at six-point-seven percent. Northwest Iowa and Des Moines Area Community College each saw a five-point-four percent increase. Northeast Iowa was up three-point-four percent, Southwestern was up two-point-five percent. Iowa Central was up one percent. Hawkeye Community College lost the most enrollment, dropping by nearly six percent.

Western Iowa Tech dropped by five-point-five percent. Eastern Iowa was down four-point-two percent, Iowa Valley dropped one-point-eight percent, Kirkwood was down one-point-five percent, Iowa Western dropped one percent, Indian Hills dropped seven-tenths of a percent, and North Iowa Area dropped one-tenth of one percent.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic City Council met Wednesday evening (11/16/22) and acted on approving several items on their agenda. The first was an Order to award a contract for the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) Downtown Facade Improvement project to the lowest responsible bidder, which was Cornerstone Construction. Their bid was $454,044. The project covers Lloyd and Meredith properties that include 200-204 Chestnut Street. The owners were awarded a $400,000 grant in April, but the City is required to act as the grant recipient and the property owners as the subrecipient. The Council also approved a (Temporary) Easement Agreement for the 200-204 Chestnut CDBG project.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council passed a Resolution setting the date for a Public Hearing on the sale of real estate in Atlantic. More specifically, this applies to 301 Maple Street, which was once a dilapidated house that was acquired by the City and demolished. The City requested and received bids for the property, which were reviewed by the Personnel & Finance Committee. They in-turn recommended the lot be sold to Jamie Joyce, owner of JJ Design, LLC, in the amount of $10,000. He intends to erect a building to expand his business, with the purpose of warehousing, sign assembly, graphic application on vehicles, and business vehicle housing.

Having approved the aforementioned Resolution, the Council then proceeded to pass a Resolution approving the preliminary plat for the Prairie Hills Subdivision to the City of Atlantic. The Planning & Zoning Commission had already approved the plat and recommended it be approved as well, by the Council. City Administrator John Lund explained the preliminary plat is “Mostly just recording where a lot of the infrastructure and other details like the creating of parcels, will be done for the final plat.”

The Council heard an Annual report from Atlantic Public Library Director Michelle Andersen (We’ll have more on her report Thursday), and the passed the third and final reading of an Ordinance that calls for vacating a portion of a Country Oak Right-of-Way (ROW), between 2703 Country Oaks and 2605 County Oaks. And, the passed the second reading of an Ordinance amending the City’s Code of Ordinances with regard to changing the method of Storm Water utility billing from twice a year to once per year, beginning sometime next year.

They passed also, the second reading of an Amended Ordinance with regard to Zoning Regulations and removing the front yard setback for the Heavy Industrial District, and the second reading of an Amended Ordinance pertaining to Zoning Regulations that apply to removing the street yard setbacks prohibiting six-foot fences. The Atlantic City Council approved also, and Order to set the date of a Public Hearing regarding a platted Palm Street ROW as Dec. 7, 2022. Councilman Pat McCurdy quipped “It’ll be interesting, that’s all I’ll say.”

The property owners abutting an unbuilt City ROW on Palm Street, earlier this month sent the P&Za request for a hearing by the Council on the matter. The Council may determine if they wish the Planning & Zoning Commission to review the issue, or leave the ROW in its current form.  In his report to the Council John Lund discussed Property Tax, Street Finance and Department Head reports, and an upcoming Budget Session to focus on the financial matters that are ahead, with regard to legislative action that expected to come down the pike.