(Atlantic, Iowa) – Members of the Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department Board will meet at Noon today (Feb. 28th), in a Special Session in the City Council’s Chambers at City Hall. On their agenda is action on a request from the Figgins Family to install memorial benches along the Bull Creek Pathway, and Consideration of a recommendation to the City Council, that an increase in the Hotel/Motel Tax from 4-percent to 7-percent be placed on the November 2023 ballot.

With regard to the two memorial park benches, Ed and Lois Figgins are requesting they be installed for their sons, across the creek from their house.

The Board will also discuss creating an informational brochure for the Hotel/Motel Tax, and the splash pad.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Mills County report a man from Red Oak was arrested Sunday morning on Arson & other charges. 19-year-old Jayden Alexander Briggs was taken into custody at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office, on charges that include Arson in the 2nd Degree, and two counts of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. Briggs was being held on bond amounting to $10,000.

Early Friday morning, 40-year-old Anthony Tobias Taylor, of Mitchell, NE, was arrested in Mills County, on an out-of-county/out-of-state warrant. He was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail.

And, at around 10:45-a.m. on Feb. 23rd, 27-year-old David Gene Barrett II, of Glenwood, was arrested at the Pottawattamie County Jail, on a Mills County warrant for Possession of Controlled Substance and Interference with Official Acts. His bond was set at $4,000.

(Radio Iowa) – Union workers marched through the Iowa Capitol Monday, rallying against a bill to expand the hours and places teenagers may work in Iowa. The bill would let teens work longer hours at night and work in places where they are not allowed to work today. The bill would give two top state officials the power to issue waivers, so teenagers could do more jobs in food processing plants or manufacturing facilities. Iowa Federation of Labor president Charlie Wishman is accusing Republican lawmakers of trying to use kids for cheap labor.

“Our kids, we see their dreams. You all see profit,” Wishman said, “That’s why you’re doing this. Our kids are not for sale.” Sandy Conway, a member of the United Steelworks Union, is an ultrasonic inspector at Arconic in Riverdale. “Everything in our plant gets moved by a fork truck, a crane, a vacuum or hooks,” she said. “It’s no place for 14 or 15 year old kids to be.” Jesse Case is secretary treasurer of Cedar Rapids based Teamsters Local 238.

“We don’t need more kids working in factories and packing plants,” Case said. “We need to pay higher wages for their parents, so their kids don’t have to work in factories and packing plants.” The Republican chair of the Senate Workforce Committee says he’s working on changes to the bill, but hasn’t revealed what those changes may be.

(Iowa DNR News) – A bypass was reported in the city of Mount Ayr Monday morning from the Pasture lift station east of 105 Deerview Lane.

Sewage overflow from the station was expected to have begun around 6 a.m. Monday and was discovered shortly after. The bypass ended around 7:30 a.m.

An estimated 1,250 and 1,500 gallons were diverted into the Middle Fork Grand River. Lime will be spread on the ground.

Residents should keep children and pets away from the area.

(Radio Iowa) – Members of the Iowa House are considering extending a tax break for the Knoxville Raceway. In 2018, the Iowa legislature approved a $1.8 million sales tax rebate for the track. Jason Reed, general manager for the Knoxville Raceway, says state government red tape has kept the track from claiming the money.

“We got the bill passed and then there was some confusion on the rules on how it was going to be paid. We thought we were on the right road several different times where they told us, ‘Fill out these papers, send them in and you’ll get your money,’ but we ended up just getting denied in those two or three years in there and then COVID right after that,” Reed says. “We kept improving stuff. We thought we were going to be getting money back, but we weren’t getting it.”

Reed says it took three years for the Department of Revenue’s rules for the rebate to be functional. “A little over $700,000 that we’d done improvements to turn in, and then we were denied on,” Reed says.

The projects ranged from new restrooms to making the facility more handicapped accessible. Republican Representative Brook Boden of Indianola and two other members of a House subcommittee have advanced a bill that would extend the tax break until 2030. “When we wrote this and we decided to help Knoxville, we had great intent and I think it still has great intent,” Boden says. “We want to do what’s right and make that right with Knoxville and their community.”

Boden says the tax break supports a small community that hosts a big event. There are about 30,000 fans in the stands for four straight days of the Knoxville Nationals in August, plus there are big crowds in the 10 days of qualifying races leading up to the nationals.

“The Knoxville community grows by four or five times during that time frame,” Reed says.

The Knoxville Raceway is on the Marion County Fairgrounds. Weekly stock car racing began in 1954, but a few years later lighter weight sprint cars began racing on the track. The first Knoxville Nationals were held in 1961.