Authorities in Montgomery County are investigating the theft of copper wire from a cell phone tower. The Sheriff’s Department said today (Wednesday), they received a report indicating someone had stolen 160-feet of copper wiring from the Chat Mobility tower at 1926 Ironwood Avenue, in Red Oak. The wire is valued at $2,000. The theft occurred sometime between October 25th and November 7th. Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call Montgomery County Crimestoppers at 1-800-432-1001.

Gasoline prices in some Iowa cities took a big leap last night (Tuesday), in some areas bounding more than a dime a gallon shortly after the polls closed at 9 o’clock. Gail Weinholzer, spokeswoman for Triple-A-Iowa, maintains gas prices have nothing to do with politics and she says Iowa’s overall average has dropped a long ways in the past month. “We’ve seen prices decline from just under four-dollars a gallon to just over three-dollars a gallon,” Weinholzer says. “In many places, they’re seeing relief anywhere from 60 to 80 cents, which is rather significant.”

Iowa’s average price for gas is three-32 a gallon, that’s fallen from three-38 a week ago and down from three-75 a month ago. She says there are essentially three reasons pump prices have been in a free-fall. “We finished the switch-over from the summer to the winter-grade fuel and as a result, prices declined,” Weinholzer says. “Secondly, crude oil is selling significantly below $100 a barrel, which is where it was at in August. Third, we’re past the summer driving season and as a result, demand has slackened off quite a bit.”

Despite the overnight bounce — like in Des Moines, where prices rose 12 to 14 cents a gallon in one swoop — she says gas prices should continue falling in Iowa for another few weeks. “We continue to see a decline and will until Thanksgiving,” Weinholzer says. “We’ll probably plateau around that time and then perhaps drop again a bit before we get to the holiday season.”

Iowa’s current statewide average price for self-serve unleaded is three-32, that’s 14-cents below the national average.

(Radio Iowa)

The Harlan City Council, Tuesday, welcomed a group of Shelby County citizens to discuss the Shelby County DevelopSource and Chamber merger along with the Hotel/Motel tax. During the Council’s regular session, Citizens for Betterment of Shelby County, led by business owners Ruth Ann Grimsley, Teresa Coenen and Judy Schroeder presented the council with a petition signed by current chamber members, non-members and other business owners supporting the merger. Schroeder read the letter to the board, which included comments about the merger.

The letter said the group applauds efforts to combine DevelopSource and Chamber. It said while the two organizations have different short term goals, the long term goal is to grow the county’s economy, and to that end, a pooling of resources and ideas, they said, would result in many positive outcomes on projects that are undertaken. Marty Burchett, another Shelby County business owner and current Chamber board member issued a rebuttal to the council. She said he didn’t think it’s a decision that should be rushed into. Burchett said that’s because DevelopSource has a new person and there are new board members that are not up to speed on the topic. Another reason he said was that “Some of the people that are pushing for this thought it was okay to split it up 10 years ago.”

Shelby County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dawn Cundiff reported that the Hotel/Motel Tax was being used for projects such as signage, vision Iowa and brochures. She also said the tourism committee has been working hard. The discussion then drifted from the merger and hotel/motel tax to discussion about Chamber ambassador visits, dues from members and other topics.  At a previous City Council meeting, it was suggested an audit should be completed on the Hotel/Motel tax. Since that time, an audit has been done and will be reported to the council at the next meeting on Tuesday, November 20^th.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)