(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic will meet in a regularly scheduled session, beginning at 5:30-p.m. Wednesday (June 15, 2022). On their agenda, is the swearing-in of Atlantic Police Officer Jimmy James, who was promoted to Sergeant. Officer James joined the force in February (2022), and has served with the Perry Police Department, as well as the Louisa and Polk County Sheriff’s Offices. He has 16-years of law enforcement experience. The Council will also recognize Mike Henningsen and Dr. Carol Trewet, for their 20-years of service on the Atlantic Airport Commission, which is tasked with approving critical documents related to the FAA, and that provides major funding to the airport.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council is expected to approve a day long street closure for 4th Street, between Walnut and Chestnut, for SHIFT ATL’s Summer Soiree Summer fundraising event/dinner, set to take place July 16th. They will also likely approve a Wastewater Management Services Agreement with the City of Anita. Atlantic already has similar agreements in-place with Massena and Fontanelle. And, they will hold a Public Hearing on a second amendment to the FY 2022 City of Atlantic Budget. City Administrator John Lund has previously mentioned that neither her nor City Clerk Barb Barrick are happy about the amendment, and that there will be a full accounting on revenues and expenditures with the City’s Department Heads this Summer and Fall.

Other Council action includes the expected passing of a Resolution approving the Final Plat for the Redwood Subdivision in the City of Atlantic, and the dates for Fireworks, which are unchanged from last year. Fireworks are permitted in Atlantic on July 2nd, 3rd and 4th, from Noon until 11-p.m., under the current Ordinance.

(Radio Iowa) – The report on vehicle travel from the D-O-T is showing some impact on the state roadways. Stuart Anderson told the Transportation Commission Monday that municipal traffic in recent months has lagged behind pre-pandemic levels — reflecting long-term trends now of more teleworking.  “We did see in April an across the board and drop of about two percent in traffic counts statewide. And that was was really across the board and between rural and municipal,” Anderson says. Anderson says the higher cost of driving is likely behind the drop.

“That correlates really well with when we started seeing the big bump in fuel prices. That’s not inconsistent with what we saw the last time we saw a big increase in fuel prices back in the 2008-2009 time frame when I think traffic dropped to about five percent,” he says. He says the work-from-home trend is probably why the gas impact isn’t a big this time. “We may see a little more moderate of a drop since we already have a lot of people teleworking. So maybe that will temper this a little bit,” Anderson says. May traffic counts didn’t drop as much as April, and Anderson speculates that’s due to Memorial Day travel.

“Kin of the desire to travel over the Memorial Day weekend overrode the fuel price concerns. So maybe that’s a little bit of what we’re seeing in May, June data will be more perhaps meaningful about if there’s some more significant trends in travel based on fuel prices,” he says. Anderson says that’s very likely as gas prices have continued moving up after the holiday and into June.

(Radio Iowa) – A delegation of Iowa Department of Corrections staff have just returned from a trip to Poland for an international conference on prisons. Tennie Carlson, of Stratford, is a corrections officer with the Second Judicial District Department of Correctional Services. Carlson first went to Poland in 2019 as part of the Polish-American Development Council, which deals with the mental health of inmates. Carlson says, “It was my first opportunity to travel to Poland and educate them on the risk assessment that the Department of Corrections uses in assessing our clientele to determine their risk factors, their return to the community, if they’re likely to reoffend and that type of thing.” Carlson says Poland wants to bring its prison system up to modern standards, and doing a risk assessment is a big part of that.

“Poland does not have the luxury of those assessments so they really crave that information,” Carlson says. “They want to know more. They want to educate themselves on identifying those risks and then treating those offenders or clients according to their risk.” Offering an inmate too much help upon their release can backfire, she says.  “Statistics show that if you offer low-risk clients a lot of services, they’re more likely to become more criminal,” Carlson says. “So you want to make sure that your dosage of treatment matches their area of risk and their need of risk. Iowa does a great job of identifying that and providing the correct dosage of treatment to our offenders.”

Carlson says a delegation of Polish prison officials will be visiting Iowa in the fall to take tours and exchange more ideas.

(Winterset, Iowa) – Three members of the Madison County Ambulance Service are no longer employed with the county. According to KCCI, the county Board of Supervisors last week, voted to let go of Director Tadd Davis. Davis was put on administrative leave in May pending an investigation.

Two other employees also faced investigation, but their names were never disclosed. Last week, employee Bryan Snyder resigned from the service and Kayla Whitten had her employment terminated.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has signed two bills into law that are designed to address a lack of treatment options for Iowans seeking mental health care services. One bill sets up a loan repayment program for students who agree to work in an underserved are of Iowa after they get a degree in the mental health field. Representative Timi Brown-Powers of Waterloo says it will hopefully boost the number of mental health professionals working in rural Iowa.

“Right now we are only meeting 40% of the need of mental health folks in the state of Iowa, so this bill through student aid, I hope, will expand feet on the ground, hands in the air for our folks with mental illness,” Brown-Powers said. The other new law will let a state board issue provisional licenses to doctoral students in psychology — so they can practice during their internship with a license psychologist.

Senator Jeff Edler of State Center says it’s another in a long line of bills that have addressed the workforce shortage in the mental health field. “You know this will help provide avenues for treatment for people in mental health distress,” Edler says.

Governor Kim Reynolds signed a total of 21 bills into law on Monday. One will let adults with liability insurance drive all-terrain vehicles on two-lane primary highways — if the A-T-V is equipped with headlights. Another will increase the state incentive to school districts that share superintendents, special education directors and school resource officers.

(Shelby, Iowa) – Shelby County Emergency Management Coordinator Alex Londo reports that at around 6:24-a.m., Monday, the Shelby County 911 Center was notified of a structure fire on Des Moines Street, in Shelby, and that there were possibly people inside the residence.

Shelby Fire and Rescue, Minden Fire and Rescue, Medivac, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, and Shelby County EMA responded. Two people were transported to the hospital. The fire is currently under investigation by the State Fire Marshalls Office.

Additional details were not released.

(Cylinder, Iowa) – The driver of one vehicle died and the other was injured during a near head-on collision Sunday night, in northern Iowa’s Palo Alto County. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2011 Chevy Silverado pickup driven by 45-year-old Brian M. Freeman, of Garner, was traveling west on Highway 18 at around 10:07-p.m., and approaching a slight right-hand curve in the road. The pickup failed to follow the curve, and crossed the center line before colliding with an eastbound 2006 Chevy Trailblazer SUV.

The driver of the SUV, 26-year-old Landon R. Schiek, of Algona, died at the scene. Freeman was injured and transported by Mercy Air to Mercy Hospital in Mason City. Both drivers were wearing their seat belts. The crash remains under investigation.

The Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Palo Alto County Sheriff’s Office, Cylinder Fire Dept., Emmetsburg EMS, Emmetsburg Police, and the Palo Alto County Medical Examiner.

(Radio Iowa) – An attorney for the Iowa Utilities Board says the staff is reviewing several items in Carbon Solutions’ proposal to construct approximately 681 miles of pipeline through Iowa to carry liquefied carbon dioxide. A couple of people spoke during the public comment period of the I-U-B meeting about pipeline concerns. Cynthia Hansen and her siblings own a century farm in Shelby County in western Iowa.

“We have landowners who are being what we considered harassed by the land agents who are showing up multiple times when they’ve already been told know that the landowner is not interested in signing for voluntary easements,” she says. Hansen had another concern as well. “We have surveyors who are showing up even though landowners have not signed or have not received proper notice, and have not accepted proper notice through the U-S mail. And we would like to see that stopped,” Hansen says.

She says two people have told her that their elderly family members in the nursing home have been approached multiple times by landowners or land agents, even though they have told them no. I-U-B chair Geri Huser told Hansen there is a way to deal with these issues. “You have the right to file in the docket if there are situations that are arising that you believe are outside the statutory framework for proceeding of this type,” Huser says. She says the Board’s legal counsel would then review those filings to make a determination on how to proceed.

“Whether or not there’s any jurisdiction that the Iowa Utilities Board has to take action related to those complaints or situations that are arising,” she said. Hansen and another speaker asked about the number of landowners involved and how to get that information. They also expressed concern that last-minute changes would not allow them to take action before the proceedings began. Huser said they can talk with the I-U-B staff and get an update on the landowners, and the Board’s attorney said they will have all the information updated before moving forward.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s commissioner of elections says early voting in this year’s Primary Election will set a record in a non-presidential year. Secretary of State Paul Pate says more than 73-thousand Iowans voted by absentee ballot. “Redistricting and a lot of districts getting merged now and new faces and then of course we have a U.S. Senate race on the Republican and Democratic sides and a big primary here in the Polk area for a congressional race — I think you put all that together and it’s going to put some people out there to make sure their voice gets heard,” Pate said.

Pate’s been working today in the state election office in the Lucas State Office Building. He says county auditors report in-person voting today (Tuesday) was steady, but….”I’m not seeing, I don’t think, an overwhelmingly high number,” Pate says. Pate and his staff are guessing that means total turout is likely to be around 15 percent. “That’s very unscientific. I have nothing to go with it,” Pate says. “That’s just a gut check right now.” Pate has ordered all 99 counties to conduct a post-election audit of the primary election.

Tomorrow (Wednesday), there will be a random drawing to select one precinct in each county to be a audited. Pate says that will trigger a hand count of the paper ballots in each of those precincts. “Compare them to what the tabulator said
the results were and if there happen to be any discrepancy those will have to be resolved to determine what the issue might have been and also to determine if we need to take further action,” Pate says. “When we’ve done these post-election audits of General Elections in the fall, every one of them we’ve done has been 100% match, so I’m optimistic we’ll see the same again.”

Pate says in-person voting today (Tuesday) went smoothly and there were no reports of major issues.

(Atlantic, Iowa) [clarifies some info. in this update, 6/14/22] – Two people who are suspects in the theft of a wallet from a Wisconsin woman’s purse late Saturday morning, in Atlantic, are being sought by police. The incident happened at the Walmart store, sometime between 10:30-and 10:53-a.m. The elderly female victim reported she was in an aisle of the store when a woman with an accent approached her, and asked for help in finding the Alfredo sauce. 

During their interaction, and while the 84-year-old victim’s back was turned toward the shelves, the suspect’s accomplice quietly unzipped the victim’s purse, which was in a shopping cart, and pulled out her leather-style wallet. The suspect in the face mask allegedly took the wallet and zipped the purse back-up before the victim knew it was missing.

The suspects used the Credit card to make purchases at Walmart, Hy-Vee and Dollar General, in Atlantic. The victim was made aware of the theft, thanks to a call from her credit card company, asking if she had made the purchases. Hy-Vee officials confirm the suspects purchased multiple gift cards. In another store, cash was received from an ATM. The total loss from at least two of the stores), was at least $1,500, with a $455.95 purchase at Hy-Vee. An official with Walmart said an attempted transaction at the store was declined.

The wallet, complete with the victim’s checks, ID and medical information, was found on the ledge of a dumpster near the McDonald’s construction site. Some cash was missing, along with the debit/credit and credit card. The wallet was turned over to Atlantic Police, who have since returned it to the victim, who was visiting relatives in Atlantic.

Atlantic Hy-Vee surveillance images. Courtesy Hy-Vee and APD Officer Thompson.

Police were able to obtain surveillance video of the suspects at Hy-Vee. The footage at Walmart did not reveal anything of note, with the exception of the victim’s arrival in the parking lot. Police said other victims were affected by a similar scam, but further details are not available. If you have ANY information as to the identity of the persons shown in the still-frame images in this story, or have seen them and/or their getaway vehicle, please call the Atlantic Police Department.