A Clarinda Police officer was treated for minor injuries after he was allegedly assaulted at the jail Sunday by a man who was being booked into the Page County Jail. Police Chief Keith Mehlin said the unidentified officer was struck with a closed fist in the left eye region of his head. The officer was treated at the Clarinda Regional Health Center and released.

Twenty-two year old Dakota Jim Smith, of Gravity, was subsequently charged with felony assault on a peace officer. Smith was originally arrested on charges of public intoxication and simple assault, following a disturbance in the parking lot of a Clarinda apartment complex earlier in the day, Sunday.

A judge has sentenced a Shenandoah man to five-years in prison for selling more than $65,000 in Ag products and inventory that was not his. 28-year old Adam Sandahl had pleaded guilty in May, to selling products last year, that belonged to the Coin Seed and Chemical Company. He was arrested in June 2010 following a six-month long investigation by the Page County Sheriff’s Office.

Page County Attorney Jeremy Peterson said Sandahl’s sentence on Monday was suspended, and the man was placed on probation for two-years. In addition, he must pay the Ag seed dealership $65,405 within a period of two-years.

The Iowa Department of Transportation has been using and learning about new types of technology as it fights the flooding along state highways. D-O-T spokesperson, Dena Gray-Fisher says one of the new things they’ve been using is called “Trapbag.” It’s a large bag that is filled with rock and creates a barrier along the road. She says the Trapbag is a variation of the so-called Hesco barriers.

Gray-Fisher says the Trapbags are bags that are already connected together in a line and they move down the road filling them and can create about 400 feet of barrier in an hour. Gray-Fisher says the Trapbags let them put up a lot of barrier in a short amount of time. She says it allows them to be more efficient, and requires less labor, which she says is helpful when you are under time limits. Gray-Fisher says the new technology is used along with the old to find the best protection for roadways.

Gray-Fisher says they still use the traditional sandbags and barrier walls, and they also look at raising the elevation of the pavement. She says they’ve had plenty of practice in recent years in find ways to protect the highways, and they are getting more education from the western Iowa flooding.

For example, she says they’ve learned to use Trapbags in different ways on different roads to get the best results. Gray-Fisher says lessons learned in the past have served them well, but western Iowa also provides some new challenges.

She says this is very different because the flooding started happening in June and will last well into August, causing more seepage and impact from flowing waters than in past floods. Gray-Fisher says there is a lot of debris in the Missouri River and that can cause damage to roadways as well. She says they will have a lot more to learn from examining roadbeds and bridge structures once the Missouri River floodwaters finally recede.

(Radio Iowa)

Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones, Wednesday, announced his selection of individuals who will serve on an advisory panel to the Community Development Committee, in formulating a means to implement a fair and balanced Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Policy for the City to follow when it comes to doling out tax incentives to current and prospective business owners who either wish to locate in the community, or expand their operations here.

The advisory panel includes local developer Don Sonntag, the USDA’s Teresa Jorgensen, Greg Williams, Katrina Sonntag, George Howard, and Attorney J-C Van Ginkel. Jones says he had others who were interested in serving on the panel, but he wanted to limit the number to 6. Councilman Kern Miller objected to the selection. Miller said the only people who should be involved in determining with a CDC a TIF policy for the City, is the City Administrator and City Attorney.

Councilman Shaun Shouse, the City’s liaison to the Committee, says the panel will have no authority, implied or otherwise, to establish a TIF policy. It will only offer an opinion on how such a policy should be formulated and implemented.

Miller however continued to voice his objections over the Mayor’s selection to the panel, and insisted it wasn’t need.

The Atlantic City Council has given its blessing for the Community Development Committee to study the need for a Minimum Maintenance Code for properties. City Administrator Doug Harris said the Committee will be tasked with finding the simplest means of getting property owners to preserve at least the outside of their structures within the City, and put an end to the proliferation  of dilapidated structures, which are not only dangerous, and an eyesore, but which also adversely affect nearby property values.

He says the structures may become so dangerous, the City is forced to spend time and money enforcing the “Dangerous Structures” provision of the current code of ordinances, and ultimately abatement costs will exceed the value of the property. That means the City acquires it and has to deal with the added cost of demolition and grounds maintenance. Those costs are passed along to the taxpayers.  A Minimum Maintenance Code would be wide ranging in scope, but would not fall under the guise of the International or Uniform Property Maintenance Codes, meant exclusively for existing structure building, plumbing and mechanical requirements.

Harris says a MMC would be one tool to reduce the spread of property blight spreading in a neighborhood. On a related note, Harris said Wednesday the Iowa Department of Economic Development has approved the City’s application for a Community Development Block Grant, to rehab more than a dozen homes. The CDBG application was originally denied by the IDED. The grant application had been approved by the Council on Dec. 1st, 2001. With the IDED’s approval of the application, the City will receive a $484,500 grant, and be required to provide matching funds of $26,000. The funds should be sufficient to rehabilitate 13 homes.

Only those low-to-moderate income homeowners will qualify for a portion of the grant funds.