United Group Insurance

Nuke plant on Iowa border prepares for record flooding

News

June 6th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

Iowa’s only nuclear power plant is in Palo, near Cedar Rapids, but another one is located just across the now-flooding Missouri River in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. Mike Jones is spokesman for the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant and says they’re ready for any threat from the rising waterway.

We are trying to be prepared in case there is any flooding down the road here,” Jones says. “We have sandbagged some areas. We have filled a number of sandbags in case they are needed in other areas.” Jones says they’re taking a number of steps to protect potential danger zones.

“We’ve moved some equipment,” Jones says. “We’ve looked to make sure our flood gates are ready in case we need them. We are trying to be pro-active and be in a state of readiness.” In light of all that happened in Japan a few months ago when a power plant was washed over by a tsunami, Jones says people in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa don’t have to worry about any type of nuclear disaster here. He notes, the plant isn’t even running at the moment.

Jones says, “The plant is in a refueling outage so it is not operating but we want to be prepared should we be completed by the time the river goes back down to make sure we’re able to operate.” He says they’re keeping a careful watch on the Missouri River, which may continue rising into mid-June.

Jones says, “The best thing that we can do right now is what everyone else is doing and that is to keep a very close eye on the river and if it starts to rise, to make sure we are taking the appropriate steps.” The Fort Calhoun plant is reportedly designed to handle 14-to-15 additional feet of water from the current stage.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

Iowa man turns hobby into a museum

News

June 6th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (AP) — Charlie Wisecup began to collect antique farm equipment in 1981. Twenty years and more than 100 machines later, he opened up Wisecup’s Farm Museum in 2001.

“This started because of my love of farming,” said Wisecup, 75. “It was my hobby. Once I started collecting, you get two or three items, and then you want to have four. Then you start thinking you ought to preserve the past.

“I want to have it here for future generations.”

Wisecup’s Farm Museum, 1200 Canal St. off of U.S. Highway 30 in Missouri Valley, features more than 100 tractors and farm implements, ranging in model years from the early 1900s through the 1960s. Two barns house memorabilia from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

During a tour of the museum, president and former curator Russ Zack explained each and every item, leaving out no details.

“This here is an old steel wheel tractor from the 1920s. Double fuel, it ran on kerosene and gasoline. About 17 horsepower,” he said. “About the same as a lawnmower. And the tractor moves just as fast.”

Zack, 30, starts many sentences with “This here is” or “Oh, I should tell you about this.” His passion for the museum shines through, a product of his upbringing on a Woodbine farm.

“I never fit into the city crowd. I grew up with this. It’s familiar to me,” he said, adding about the importance of the museum: “I want to help preserve the past. People have to be reminded every once in a while where we come from.”

The north barn at the museum features “rooms” with antique household items, including a dining room, kitchen, parlor, bedroom and more. The museum holds a few country music events in the barn each year.

“This is a barn, so you’ll see frogs and spiders and bugs and birds,” Zack said as the tour began. “I kick them out at night.”

The south barn features old-time shops, including a doctor’s office, surveyor’s office and mercantile store. A replica one-room schoolhouse is nearby. New items include a refurbished U-diesel Minneapolis-Moline from the 1950s and a native prairie enclosure. A replica church is under construction.

A 1962 Minneapolis-Moline tractor outside runs on propane. Zack starts the machine up, turning the tank knob to get the propane flowing.

“Whew, stinky,” he said.

Zack estimated that about 80 percent of the tractors at the museum still run.

Wisecup grew up on the museum grounds. He farmed with his father, Art, and eventually took over. They used Minneapolis-Moline machinery, Wisecup said.

In 1981, his aunt gave him a 1947 Minneapolis-Moline “Z” tractor, which started his collection of antique farm equipment, though he began collecting in earnest in 1991.

Friend Bob Hansen, a Crescent farmer, helped teach him how to restore the old tractors, while another friend, Ray Wright of Missouri Valley, helped him paint.

“It turned into a neighborhood thing,” Wisecup said. “In the winter time, guys would show up at the shop and help me work on my tractors.”

The museum grew out of his collection.

“The location makes it nice,” Wisecup said of his Highway 30 digs. “The museum kind of turned into what it is by itself.”

The farmland is now tilled by Wisecup’s son, Lee, with the museum providing an eclectic fa�ade. Much of what’s displayed was donated to Wisecup over the years.

“A lot of the stuff I had out there, a lot of people gave it to me because they didn’t want their family to take it to the junkyard or the iron man,” he said. “They’d rather see it preserved.”

Wisecup told the story of a corn sheller that showed up at the museum one day. He said it took about three months to figure out who had donated the machine.

“Anytime you show up there’s a possibility something new will be there,” Wisecup said.

Missouri River flooding “increasingly serious”

News

June 6th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

A spokesman for Iowa’s governor calls the Missouri River flooding “an increasingly serious situation.” And the National Weather Service warns Interstate 29 would be flooded if a weakened levee in far southwest Iowa fails

Officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for about half of the town of Hamburg, Iowa, on Sunday — forcing about 600 residents to leave because of problems with a levee south of town. Derek Hill, head of the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management division, described the breach as a “boil” — a hole of less than an inch-and-a-half in diameter. It created a small geyser of water that began spraying onto the dry side of the levee. This geyser or boil was found about two miles south of the Iowa/Missouri border, but Hill says the water would flow back into Hamburg if the levee fails. “Because of the topography there — it’s fairly flat land; there’s not a lot of elevation change — and the hydrologists explained that’s more than likely the direction the water would flow,” Hill says. A Black Hawk helicopter was dispatched Sunday to the levee, which is about five miles southwest of Hamburg. One-thousand pound sandbags were dropped from the helicopter in hopes of plugging the hole. Hill briefed reporters by phone on Sunday afternoon.

“You use a helicopter rather than putting personnel on the level because of the danger of a…larger levee breach at that time,” Hill says. Hill has seen maps which indicate the Missouri may flood as far as two miles into Iowa at some locations.

“So the Missouri River, at a few points, is going to be extremely broad,” Hill said. Hill is urging Iowans to move all their belongings to higher ground if they’re within the predicted flood zone. The water will stay for weeks, in some cases months, and Hill says not only will mold begin to grow on the structure of a home, but even items which are above the water line in a home will begin to get moldy as well.

“This water is coming,” Hill said. “…The people that live within the inundation area need to be talking to their county officials as to how deep the water is going to be. Is there a way to mitigate against that water or do they need to be moving?” According to Hill, there are about 30-thousand Iowans who live in rural areas — outside of cities or towns — in the six Iowa counties that are in the flood zone.

“If they have vehicles or farm equipment that are out there, or anhydrous tanks, they need to be moving them to higher ground so they’re not floating down river,” Hill said. Propane tanks also need to be tethered down or moved out of the flood zone.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa; 4:54-p.m.)

CAM Interim Board to meet Monday evening

News

June 6th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

Members of the CAM Community School District’s Interim Board of Education will meet Monday evening at the CAM High School Media Center.

On the agenda for the 7-p.m. session, is discussion and/or action on: resignations; various Board policies; Contracts for high school Special Ed and custodians’ positions, along an Administrative Assistant contracts; a Preschool special education agreement; contract modifications for Shelli Miller and Jennifer Berns; 2011-2012 School Calendar revisions, and curriculum changes.

Saturday High School Softball

Sports

June 5th, 2011 by Jim Field

 

ATLANTIC TROJANN TOURNAMENT

GAME ONE:
Tri Center 7, Atlantic 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7  R  H  E
Tri 0 3 1 0 0 3 2  9  4  3
Atl 4 0 0 1 0 0 0  5 10  4

WP- Malory Christiansen LP-Marissa Berns

Atlantic Highlights…
1st- ReAnn Cappel led off the inning with a double and moved the third by
on a single by Bre VonWehye.  Tiara Edelman reached on a FC scoring
Cappel.  Paige Kennon doubled scoring scoring VonWehye.  Alisha Hinzmann
doubled scoring both Edelman and Kennon.

4th- ReAnn Cappel singled and stole second and third base.  She was driven
in on a ground out hit by Paige Kennon.

Comments by Coach Hinzmann…
“We simply were unable to put together a complete game.  We started out on
fire but allowed Tri Center to come back.  By the late innings the game
turned pretty sloppy for us. We hit the ball well again but just couldn’t
overcome our four errors.

GAME TWO:
Atlantic 2, Carroll 5
1  2  3  4  5  6  7  R  H  E
Atl 0  0  0  2  0  0  0  2  9  2
Car 0  0  5  1  0  0  X  5  5  1

WP-Lindsey Schulz  LP-Katie Groves

Atantic Highlights…

5th – With one out ReAnn Cappel doubled and scored on a single by Tiara
Edelman.  Edelman moved to second on the play at the plate and scored on
single by Mackenzie Holmes.

Comments by Coach Hinzmann…
“I felt we bounced back from our loss in game one pretty well.
Unfotunatly we allowed Carroll to load the based and (Jennifer) Semprini
made us pay for it with the grand slam.”

GAME THREE:
Atlantic 12,  Walnut 4
1  2  3  4  5  6  7  R  H  E
Atl 2  5  0  0  1  4  0  12 9  2
Wal 0  1  0  0  2  0  1  4  9  1

Atlantic Highlights…
1st – ReAnn Cappel led off the game with a home run.  Third hitter Tiara
Edelman walked moved to third on WPs and scored on a ground out hit by
Paige Kennon.

2nd – Liz Metheny led off with a walk, stole second and third bases and
scored on a single by Mackenzie Holmes.  Holmes moved to third when Leah
Tjepkes beat out a sac bunt, then stole second.  Both Holmes and Tjepkes
scored on a single by ReAnn Cappel.  Bre VonWehye was hit by a pitch.
Atlantic executed the double steal with Cappel stealing third and VonWehye
second and both scored on a double by Paige Kennon.

5th – Paige Kennon led off the inning with a single.  She stole second
then later third and scored on a sac fly by Alisha Hinzmann.

7th – Tiara Edelman led off with a single and stole second base.  Paige
Kennon doubled to drive in Edelman.  Alisha Hinzmann singled driving in
Kennon.  Hinzmann was lifted for pinch runner Maren McNees who stole
second and scored when Mackenzie Holmes beat out a throw from short.
Holmes moved to second on a WP and scored on an over throw at first on a
ball hit by Katie Groves.

Comments by Coach Hinzmann…
“Liz Metheny did a great job this afternoon shutting down Carroll in game
two and beating Walnut in this game.  We hadn’t planned on having her
throw today since she just returned from the state tennis meet.  We were
able to cut down our errors in game three and took every advantage of what
Walnut allowed us.”

Pool A- Results

  • Creston 4, Underwood 0
  • Creston 8, Audubon 5
  • Underwood 13, Audubon 10

Pool B –Results

  • CBAL 7, Red Oak 0
  • CBAL 13, AHST 1
  • AHST 2, Red Oak 1

Championship Game

  • Pool A #1 Creston 2, Pool B #1 CBAL 0

Consolation Games

  • Pool A #2 Underwood 10, Pool B #2 AHST 5
  • Pool B #3 Red Oak 4, Pool A #3 Audubon 2

Pool C –Results

  • Tri Center 9, Atlantic 5
  • Carroll 5, Atlantic 2
  • Carroll 3, Tri Center 1

Pool D- Results

  • Treynor 7, Walnut 0
  • Glenwood 11, Walnut 1
  • Glenwood 6, Treynor 1

Championship Game

  • Pool C #1 Carroll vs Pool D #1 Glenwood
  • Glenwood 8,  Carroll 4

Consolation Games

  • Pool D #2 Treynor 3, Pool C #2 Tri Center 2
  • Pool C #3 Atlantic 12, Pool D #3 Walnut 4

All Tournament Team

Lauren Baylor-11-AHST, Reann Cappel-10-Atlantic, Lindsey Schultz-11- Carroll, Molly Bryan-11-Glenwood, Cassie Kruse-10-Glenwood, Alex Snyder-11-Treynor, Katelynn Dilts-10-Underwood, Michaela Kennedy-11-CBAL, Taylor Powers-12-CBAL, Lacey Vokt-11-Audubon, Katlin Briley-11-Creston, Madison Frain-11-Creston, Maddie Holmgren-10-Red Oak, Vicky Kinney-8-Tri Center, Ashli Walker-9-Walnut.

Missouri Valley Tournament
Missouri Valley 10, West Harrison 2
St. Albert 6, West Monona 2
Woodbine 4, Thomas Jefferson 2
Lewis Central 7, Riverside 1
Missouri Valley 14, St. Albert 0
Lewis Central 10, Woodbine 3
West Monona 14, West Harrison 3
Thomas Jefferson 7, Riverside 1
7th Place – Riverside 10, West Harrison 5
5th Place – Thomas Jefferson 13, West Monona 2
3rd Place – St. Albert 3, Woodbine 2
Championship – Missouri Valley 3, Lewis Central 2

Corning Tournament
Corning 14, CAM 4
Mount Ayr 14, East Mills 2
Mount Ayr 5, Corning 1
Mount Ayr 11, CAM 3
Corning 13, East Mills 8
CAM 14, East Mills 3

Murray Tournament
Lamoni 14, Orient-Macksburg 5
Murray 9, Adair-Casey 3
Melcher-Dallas 3, Lenox 1
Martensdale-St. Mary’s 6, Nodaway Valley 1
Adair-Casey 14, Orient-Macksburg 5
Murray 5, Lamoni 2
Nodaway Valley 10, Lenox 4

Flooding information resources

News

June 5th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

Emergency Management officials in Pottawattamie County report several sources are available to keep current on expected flood conditions and preparedness efforts. Citizens can stay up to date on flood information by dialing 211.

In addition, web pages have been established at www.pottcounty.com and www.councilbluffs-ia.gov. You can also find information from Pottawattamie County Emergency Management on Facebook. The web resources will provide up to date information on the situation, preparedness activities and links to other useful sites.

A local call center for residents of Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County and other affected communities will begin operations on Monday, June 6, 2011 from 8am until 5pm. The number of the call center will be 712-328-4672.

Iowa using helicopter to drop sandbags on levee

News

June 5th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

Iowa is using a Blackhawk helicopter to drop 1,000-pound sandbags on a levee leak that threatens to flood a community in the southwestern part of the state. Gen. Derek Hill of the Iowa Department of Homeland Security says sandbags were being dropped Sunday on a leak in a levee in Atchison County, Mo. He says it was too dangerous to use ground crews for the work.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported Sunday morning there was a breach in a Missouri River levee that could flood Hamburg, Iowa. The city is about five miles north of the leak, and Hill says the land in that area is flat and the leaking water is expected to flow back into Hamburg.

The leak has forced the evacuation of 600 Hamburg residents.

EARL WEINHEIMER (6-9-2011)

Obituaries

June 5th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

EARL WEINHEIMER, 77, of Fontanelle, died Sat. June 4th, in Greenfield. Funeral services for Earl Weinheimer will be held 10:30-a.m. Thu., June 9th, at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Fontanelle. Steen Funeral Home in Fontanelle has the arrangements.

Visitation at the church will be held from 2-to 8-p.m. Wed., June 8th, with the family present from 6-8pm.

Burial will be in the Fontanelle Cemetery.

Memorials may be directed to a fund established in his name by the family.

Online condolences may be left to the family at www.steenfunerals.com.

EARL WEINHEIMER is survived by:

His wife – Betty, of Fontanelle.

His daughters – Vickie Weinheimer (& Roy Barlow), & Kelly (Ronnie) Sickels, all of Fontanelle.

His sister – Eleanor (Orval) Knee, of Urbandale.

3 grandchildren

Other relatives and friends

L. DARLENE ADAIR (6-8-2011)

Obituaries

June 5th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

L. DARLENE ADAIR, 85, of Panora, died Fri., June 3rd, at Lakeside Village in Panora. Funeral services for Darlene Adair will be held 10-a.m. Wed., June 8th, at the Twigg Funeral Home in Panora.

Visitation at the funeral home is from 4-8pm Tue., June 7th, with the family present from 6-8pm.

Burial is in the Brethren Cemetery at Panora.

BONNIE L. SHARON (6-8-2011)

Obituaries

June 5th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

BONNIE L. SHARON, 66, of Guthrie Center, died Fri., June 3rd, at the Guthrie County Hospital in Guthrie Center. Funeral services for Bonnie Sharon will be held 2-p.m. Wed.,  June 8th, at the Twigg Funeral Home in Guthrie Center

Visitation at the funeral home is from 4-7pm Tue., June 7th, where the family will be present from 5-7pm.

Burial will be in the Monteith Cemetery in rural Guthrie Center.