(Lewis, Iowa) – The Cass County Conservation Board will hold a youth fishing derby at Cold Springs Park near Lewis, on June 11th 2022. The event is open to the first 50 youths age 15 and under to register for the event. Check-in will run from 8:15am to 8:45am with the derby starting at 9:00am and running till 10:30 am.

Prizes will be awarded for the most total weight, heaviest single fish, longest single fish and shortest single fish. There will also be a raffle following fishing. The Conservation board with have some live bait for use and a limited number of fishing poles for use as well.

The Board and Conservation Dept. staff want too thank all those that donated items for the event: Weirich Welding for the trophies, and Cappel’s Ace Hardware for prizes. To register or for further details please contact Micah Lee with the Cass County Conservation Board at 712-769-2372.

Officials with the Harlan Police Department report six arrests from May 10th through the 30th:

• On Monday (May 30), 31-year-old Anthony Michael Bennett, of Harlan, was arrested on an active Shelby County warrant.
• Last Wednesday (May 25), 32-year-old Jesse Eugene Hutton, of Omaha, was arrested on an active Pottawattamie County warrant.
• On the 23rd, 40-year-old Jasper William Daniel, of Atlantic, was arrested following a traffic stop, for Driving While Barred; and, 29-year-old Adams Tyrone Scheffler, of Harlan, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault, Assault, and Criminal Mischief.
• May 13th, Harlan Police arrested 41-year-old James Steven Ortiz, of Harlan, on an active warrant out of Colorado.
• And, on May 10th, 34-year-old Cory Robert Kyle, of Avoca, was arrested in Harlan for Driving While Barred, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, and Failure to Maintain a registration plate.

The Glenwood Police Department reports two arrests occurred Monday (May 30):

41-year-old John Adams, of Glenwood, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance 3rd offense, bond set at $5000 cash or surety. And, 42-year-old Sara Johnson, of Glenwood, was arrested for driving while suspended, bond set at $300 cash or surety.

(Radio Iowa) – The Republican leader in the Iowa Senate says there is gaming fatigue in the state Capitol and that’s why a temporary moratorium on new casino licenses was quickly passed last week. Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver says “Please just said, ‘We want a pause and see how this shakes out over the next couple of years.'” Whitver notes there was zero push back during Senate debate of the moratorium. “There were a couple of changes that the casinos wanted to make this year that really aren’t that drastic of changes, but one thing that our people wanted to see is they don’t believe we need another casino right now,” Whitver says.

There are 19 state-licensed casinos operating in Iowa today. The moratorium on new licenses would last until July of 2024 — if the governor signs the bill into law. In August of 2019, sports betting became legal and Whitver says that was a factor. “Especially after the sports gaming bill that passed, there’s so many ads, so much talk about gaming, that people said: ‘We just need to put a pause on this,'” Whitever said.

And legislators this year tabled the casinos request to allow wagering on video game competitions, often called E-sports. “Over the last few years there’s been a lot of changes to our gaming laws in the state of Iowa, and then there have been changes that will affect Iowa, like Nebraska bringing casinos on board,” Whitver says. “And so there’s a little — a lot of gaming fatigue within the Capitol.”

Whitver made his comments during last weekend’s “Iowa Press on Iowa P-B-S. On Monday, dozens of local investors and Cedar Rapids officials said they intend to apply fo a casino license as soon as state law allows. The plans for a 250 million dollar casino and entertainment complex in downtown Cedar Rapids include flood control measures.

Sheriff’s officials in Dallas County report a Union County man was injured during a collision Saturday between his motorcycle and a deer. The accident happened on I-80 near mile marker 110. Authorities say Anthony Hoadley, of Creston, was traveling westbound when the accident occurred. Hoadley was transported to Methodist by Dallas County EMS. Damage to the motorcycle was estimated at $10,000.

Police in Red Oak, Tuesday morning, arrested 58-year-old Rhonda Joann Sperber, of Red Oak. The woman was taken into custody at around 10:35-a.m. in the 800 block of Broadway, for Public Intoxication. Sperber’s bond was set at $300.

(Iowa DNR News) – The calls have been coming in to Iowa DNR field offices and conservation officers for the past few weeks and will only increase as the first few weeks of June marks the peak of the deer fawning season. Callers report finding an “abandoned” fawn in an unusual place, like a flowerbed or small patch of cover. The DNR says “Rest assured this is normal deer behavior.”

“The doe searches out an isolated location where she feels safe and on occasion those places are not what we may think of as ideal. She chose that location because it made sense to her,” said Jim Coffey, forest wildlife research biologist with the Iowa DNR. “The worst thing someone can do is to ‘rescue’ the fawn. Mom is likely nearby and watching you. Leave it be or if you did handle the fawn, return it to where you found it and walk away.”

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will not be rehabbing or co-mingling fawns with other deer to avoid the potential of spreading chronic wasting disease – or other disease – to new areas. The spindly legged newborn fawn is designed with a few survival tools built in –its spots are cryptic camouflage that emulates the sunlight spots on the leaf litter on the forest floor and its lack of movement the first two weeks helps to reduce scent patterns. This combination is its best chance at survival until it is able to follow the doe. After the fawns are born, the doe will return to fairly normal behavior – sleeping, feeding – but returning to nurse and care for the fawn.

The fawning season also coincides with an increase in deer vehicle collisions. “There is a lot of movement this time of year that is part of the social structure of deer. The doe is on the move looking for the safe isolated place to have the fawns.  In addition last year’s fawns – teenagers now – are starting to venture out to find new space. These yearlings have to make their own decisions for the first time, encounter other adult deer and build new social structures,” Coffey said. “This movement behavior can occur during all times of the day. Once it settles out, the active time will return to dawn and dusk.”

Drivers are reminded to drive defensively, avoid distractions, and slow down and not to veer for deer. If they hit a deer, drivers can get a salvage tag by calling either the local conservation officer or local law enforcement. There is no fee for a salvage tag it does require that the entire deer is taken.

Davenport, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Corrections reports 29-year-old Samantha Ann May, who was convicted of Burglary 1st Degree in Muscatine County, failed to report back to the Davenport Work Release Facility as required Sunday morning, May 29, 2022.

May is a white female, height 5’3″. She weighs 140 pounds. The woman was admitted to the work release facility on May 25, 2022. Persons with information on May’s whereabouts should contact local police.

Samantha May (IA DOC photo)

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors this (Tuesday) morning, unanimously agreed to adopt/pass Resolutions awarding ARPA (Covid recovery) funds in the amount of $50,000 for specified improvements to the Anita Child Care Center, and $120,000 for the Cass County Fire Association. Both requests had previously been discussed at length with the respective organization representatives.

Cumberland Fire Chief Jason Rouse appeared before the Cass County Board of Supervisors this (Tuesday) morning, to request ARPA funds for the purchase of new firefighter air packs and possible an air compressor, at an estimated total cost of $92,000. Rouse said currently, only nine out of the 11 airpacks they have, are fully functional. The age of their airpacks has also exceeded the industry norm.

The oldest airpack tank is dated 1988, while the newest is 2004. The other issue they have with the packs, aside from aging air bottles, is the pressure regulators. He brought one of the devices in for a demonstration…

He said the bottles would have to be replaced if they replaced the regulators with higher capacity pressure system. Rouse said they would like to replace their metal tanks with newer, lighter weight and extremely durable, carbon-fiber bottles. He said they only have one fundraiser per year (The Pork Chop Super), which, if they used all the funds from, would only allow for the purchase of one airpack.

Due to COVID, they couldn’t hold the supper in 2020, and in 2021 it was on a drive-thru pickup basis,which fortunately, “went very well.” Rather than fund all 11airpacks at once through the ARPA funds, the Supervisors favored staggering the purchases and allocation of funds over the course of three-years. The Board requested Rouse come back later with more details on cost and a plan to acquire.

In other business, the Board agreed to table any action on the hiring of a new employee or employees for the Treasurer’s Office, until the publication standards are met. It’s expected the Supervisors will be able to take action on the matter during their meeting on June 7^th.

The Board also agreed to enter into a joint participation agreement with SWIPCO, with regard to the Rural Transit System, but they tabled entering into a Business Service agreement with Mediacom for a DHS phone line, pending more detailed information and clarification.

Cass County Engineer Trent Wolken reported to the Board, an asphalt resurfacing project is underway on County Road M-56, southwest of Atlantic. A total of six-miles will be completed between today and tomorrow. Other projects, such as roadway pipe, are waiting on the ground to dry out a bit before work can continue or in some cases, begin.

(Radio Iowa) – Storm damage is scattered from one end of Iowa to the other after severe weather rolled through late Monday night and early this (Tuesday) morning. National Weather Service meteorologist Alex Krull says at least a dozen counties are reporting damage to trees, roofs and farm outbuildings, with some of the worst of it being found in Hamilton County. “We had some strong winds, anywhere between 60 and 70 miles per hour, that resulted in some downed power lines as well as grain bin damage,” Krull says. “We’re also looking at the potential for other tree damage that may have occurred in the county. We had some isolated reports of hail up to about quarter size with some of the initial storms that went up in northern Iowa.”

While it is tornado season in Iowa, Krull says it appears all of the damage from this storm was caused by straight-line winds. “We’ve not had any reports of tornadoes or suspect any of the damage was caused by a tornado, therefore we do not anticipate doing any surveys,” Krull says. “We will be calling emergency managers and other core partners to get more damage reports. If we do suspect that there is anything that may have been tornadic, then that would require sending crews out.”

Hamilton County Sheriff Doug Timmons says it was a rough night and clean-up is well underway. “We had a lot of tree damage, some structural damage to machine sheds, a little bit of roof damage to residential, some grain bins destroyed, a lot of power lines laying on the roads and power poles knocked over,” Timmons says, “but the biggest thing is that we’ve had no injuries reported.”

While some Iowa cities had high temperatures Monday in the 80s and low 90s, cooler weather is coming behind the storms that should mean highs by Wednesday only in the 60s and 70s.