(Harlan, Iowa) – Shelby County Auditor, Mark Maxwell, reminds every eligible elector in Shelby County to get any voting information needed as soon as possible from the Auditors office.  Absentee ballot requests are now being accepted for the November 8th General election.  If you plan on voting absentee, get the process completed before any deadline has passed.  Call 755-3831 ext.6 with any questions.  Election deadlines are fixed by Iowa Code  to ease any confusion caused by documents not returned in time to be valid.

Some of the important dates to remember include:

Wednesday October 19, 2022—Absentee Ballots Ready. First day absentee ballots may be voted in the Auditor’s office and placed in the US postal service process, to the electors whose valid request have been received.
October 24, 2022—Voter Pre-Registration Deadline. The deadline to pre-register to vote for the General Election is 5:00 p.m. Voters may still register after this date but need to show both ID and proof of residence.
Monday October 24, 2022—Absentee Ballot by Mail Request Deadline. Deadline is 5:00 p.m. Postmarks do not count for requests.
Saturday November 5, 2022—Auditor’s office open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Monday November 7, 2022—Absentee Ballot In-Person Deadline.  Last day to request and vote an absentee ballot in person at the Auditor’s Office.
November 8, 2022—GENERAL ELECTION DAY. Polls open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.  Absentee Ballot Deadline to Auditors office 8:00 p.m.

(Creston, Iowa) – Before you get out of a vehicle with the engine running, you might want to make sure the vehicle is in “Park.” Creston Police report a local man was driving a 1995 Dodge Dakota pickup in his yard, while picking up sticks. When 83-year-old Lawrence Lewis Dorgan, of Creston, exited the vehicle at around 6-p.m., Wednesday, he forgot to put it into park. The pickup rolled backwards out of the yard, across the street, and into a fire hydrant. Authorities say there was no damage to the hydrant, but Dorgan’s pickup sustained $1,500 damage. The man wasn’t injured, and no citations were issued.

(Radio Iowa) – The chief of Iowa’s Parks, Forests and Preserves Bureau is asking Iowans to mark Saturday, September 24th on their calendars to lend a hand with sprucing up our state parks. It’s the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ sixth annual Statewide Volunteer Day and Sherry Arntzen is encouraging everyone who loves and uses our park system to sign up. “We have a number of different volunteer projects in some of the parks,” Arntzen says. “It could be putting together picnic tables, painting picnic tables, picking up trash, helping with some invasive species removal, planting trees, or staining other buildings that we have.”

There are projects planned all across the state at about one in every four of Iowa’s state parks. “So we have 71 state parks and forests. Right now, we have 18 parks that have scheduled events on the 24th,” Arntzen says, “but if people are interested in learning about other volunteer opportunities at some of our parks, we encourage them to reach out to the park offices direct.” Arntzen says Iowa’s state parks are “beloved places for many Iowans,” and the D-N-R staff greatly appreciates the help volunteers provide.   “We’re down a little bit this year on the number of scheduled projects especially since COVID,” Arntzen says. “We have a large increase in our number of guests that we serve in our parks, so we have been quite busy this year with just our day-to-day operations.”

Some of the projects can be tackled rain or shine, but if the weather looks inclement, volunteers should contact the individual park office in case of changes to the date, time or meeting location. To sign up, log on to: www.iowadnr.gov/volunteer

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Board of Supervisors met Wednesday at the Courthouse in Greenfield. During their session, they received a request for additional ARPA funding for the Mormon Trail Park Shower/Restroom Facility, near Bridgewater. The Board previously granted the Conservation Department $125,000 for the project, but Conservation Director Dominic Johnson said the bids came in well above what was projected. One came in at $176,000, the other just shy of $200-thousand dollars.

Board Chair Matt Wedemeyer…

Johnson asked the Board to cover the added expense because he doesn’t have room in his budget for the extra cost. Supervisor John Twombly wanted to why there was such as wide spread between the two bids. Johnson said he doesn’t know for sure, but it appears to be related to the rising cost of concrete and other supply/demand-related factors.

He said they could try to rebid, but he doesn’t anticipate any changes in those bids. The price of the structure itself, he said, was locked-in, this past January. The Adair County Supervisors passed a motion to increase the amount of ARPA funding for the project by $50,000, from $125,000 to $175,000. Anything about $175,000 will have to have to be discussed at a future time.

In other news from the Adair Board of Supervisor’s meeting, they approved a culvert project in Bridgewater, located at west 3rd and Main Streets, and, after receiving a presentation from Michael Clancy with Renodry USA, agreed to have the company prepare an estimate for the board to review, with regard to drying out the basement in the Adair County Courthouse.

(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Regents Facilities Committee approved a proposal Wednesday to ask the state to chip in some money to repair buildings. Regent David Barker laid out the proposal that now goes to the full Board for a vote today (Thursday). Barker says “Thirty-million dollars per year to be matched at 50 percent by the universities — to address these building renewal needs.” He says they would also like the state to contribute another 30 million dollars to the tuition replacement appropriation they have traditionally paid to fund the existing debt service on building revenue bonds. Barker says the request is not unusual.

“The Department of Administrative Services gets an annual appropriation or has certainly in past years for deferred maintenance type projects are building renewable projects, the Capitol complex, and other state-owned facilities,” he says. University of Iowa vice president, Rod Lenhertz, says the campus has 262 buildings and the needs and uses are constantly changed.  “Buildings that are built to last still have a scale of time of 20, 30,40 years where renewal for how we change the way we use those buildings, but also the systems within those buildings, the surfaces that protect those buildings from the elements have to be updated,” Lenertz says. He says 200-thousand square feet of antiquated obsolete buildings were removed from the main campus in the last three years and the plan in the next five years is to raze as much as 300-thousand square feet of obsolete buildings.

Lehnertz says even with those changes the University of Iowa’s deferred maintenance is 400-thousand dollars and ten buildings make up for 53 percent of that number.  “And they are the large ones and they are the old ones and they’re the ones that serve our students. Places like the union, our library, the pennant crest buildings, the Fieldhouse, and others,: Lehnertz says. “So believe me, when we come to the state and in asking for these dollars, they are importantly needed and that partnership will make a lasting difference for our campus.”

Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa administrators say they also have deferred maintenance, and all three schools say cuts in state funding for that maintenance in past years have allowed it to increase.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa House Democrats say legalizing recreational marijuana is one of their key priorities ahead of the 2022 election. Other priorities are lowering costs for Iowans, protecting abortion access, and investing more in public schools. House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst says these priorities are based on what the majority of Iowans support.  “We have heard from Iowans, that these are the things they want. These are the things that Democrats fight for, too. And so we want to make sure Iowans know where we stand, that we stand for pushing these,” Konforst says.

While Democrats say this is what Iowans want — Republicans have had the majority in both houses of the Iowa Legislature — and even expanded it in the last elections. That means Democrats haven’t been able to get any of their proposals passed. Konfrst says if they win more seats, they can block Republican attempts to further restrict abortion.  “If we can stop a total ban and allow some exemptions, that’s a nice starting place,” she says. “But our goal is to protect and defend reproductive freedom in this state. And we will do that through a constitutional amendment and every way we can before then.”

Democrats would need to make big gains in November — as they currently hold only 40 of the 100 seats in the Iowa House of Representatives

(By Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa company that’s proposing to pipe carbon dioxide from Midwest ethanol plants and store it underground in North Dakota says it’s secured the rights to more than half of the land it needs for its route through Iowa. Summit Carbon Solutions says it’s partnered with 800 Iowa landowners to sign 14-hundred easement agreements. But Jessica Mazour with the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club says she’s not convinced Summit has the backing it says it does. “Once they’re done filing their list of exhibit H, which is the properties they think they need eminent domain for, then I think we can consider what numbers they’re presenting,” Mazour says.

Environmentalists and many farmers and landowners worry about the safety of the pipelines and impacts to farmland. Don Johansson farms in Cherokee County and is one of the landowners affected by the summit pipeline. He spoke at Tuesday’s Iowa Utilities Board meeting. “One of the things that strikes me with this is when you talk to people, so many people are just totally unaware of it. And I worked the booth at State Fair this year for a day. And the same was true, people would come up and be totally unaware of what these pipelines are.”

He opposes the pipelines because of what he says is the potential danger with a rupture.
The ethanol industry says pipelines will help them lower their emissions and reach more fuel markets. Summit says it’s on track to start constructing the pipeline in late 2023.

(Kaite Piekes, Iowa Public Radio contributed to this story)

Norwalk, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety report, that at around 12:30-a.m. today (Thursday), Police in Norwalk were dispatched to a report of a death in the 600 Block of Knoll Drive. Agents from the DCI were contacted to assist with the investigation. Authorities say there is no danger to the public.

There is no additional information at this time. Further details will be released later today.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with the Atlantic Senior Alumni Scholarship Foundation (SASF) said Wednesday, that the late Gail Morse, a retired Atlantic High School English teacher, left a generous estate gift of over $33,000 to the Senior Alumni Scholarship Foundation. Ms. Morse, who died in Feb. 2022 at the age of 82, came to Atlantic to teach in 1967. She taught many courses, including English, reading and writing. She also was an advisor for the Yearbook, The Javelin and the school newspaper, The Needle. Gail retired in 1996 after 48 years in education.

Linda Robinson and Cathy Baragary, Executive Directors of the Senior Alumni Scholarship Foundation, are deeply grateful of Ms. Morse’ generosity. Her lifetime exemplified a commitment to education and her legacy lives on through the student’s lives she touched.

The late Gail Morse

In a recent meeting, the Scholarship Foundation voted to add an additional scholarship, with a total of four $2,500 scholarships to be given away in the Spring of 2023. Atlantic High School Seniors of the 2023 graduating class are encouraged to apply. The application for the scholarship is on the school’s website under Scholarships.

The Foundation also encourages any alumni of Atlantic High School to contribute and honor the school that gave them their educational start. Visit https://atlanticsasf.org or contact Linda Robinson at alinda@metc.net.