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Audubon School Board Special Mtg. & Public Hearing set for Monday

News

August 28th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Audubon, Iowa) – Members of the Audubon Community School District’s Board of Education will hold a Special Session and Public Hearing Monday evening, on the proposed issuance of approximately $3.4-million in School Infrastructure Sales, Services and Use Tax Revenue and Refunding bonds. Superintendent Eric Trager has said approval of the bond measure is part of the process needed to finance the district’s building renovation project. Following the public hearing, the Board will take action Monday on a resolution supporting the issuance of the aforementioned bonds

The meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. in the Board Room at the High School. The next regular Board meeting will be held Monday, September 20th.

 

(Podcast) KJAN News, 8/28/21

News, Podcasts

August 28th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

The broadcast News at 8:05-a.m. from Ric Hanson.

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Filming scheduled to start in November for movie about Algona’s WWII POW camp

News

August 28th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Filming is scheduled in November, in Kossuth County, for a movie about a World War Two camp near Algona for German prisoners. The movie’s crew was in the area last weekend, scouting possible filming locations. D. J. Perry is the C-E-O of Collective Development and author of the screenplay for “Silent Night in Algona.” “If we find something and then the owners are agreeable to having us shoot there, sometimes it’s actually deconstructing or taking modern stuff out temporarily,” he says. “Sometimes it’s set directing and adding stuff to a location.” Perry says they’re looking for homes and buildings that were around 77 years ago — during the fall and early winter of 1944. The crew was in Whittemore and Lone Rock this past weekend, searching for places to film. “We’ll be back in end of October with our art team and starting to turn everything into 1944,” he says.

The film will focus on a four month period in late 1944 — from September through December. “It’s about unity, it’s about patriotism — a lot of themes that are very relevant to what’s going on now as well and it’s important that things aren’t forgotten from the past,” he says. “As we know, we are doomed to repeat mistakes if you don’t learn from your past.” Lead actors for the film have been cast, but Perry says they’ll be looking for area residents to be extras and assist in other ways. “When you see those end credits of the movie — all the special thanks and all the people involved, that’s what it takes,” Perry says. “It takes a small army to make these things happen.”

Perry says filming will take about three weeks and he expects the movie to be released in 2022. Perry’s company is based in Michigan and announced this summer two German actors will play lead roles in the film. Another actor who had role in two t-v dramas — St. Elsewhere and Tour of Duty — will portray the Kossuth County Sheriff in the film. Algona was notified in 1943 that a P-O-W camp would be built in the county and an estimated 10-thousand German soldiers passed through until it was dismantled in 1946. A 20-foot by 60-foot nativity scene carved by six German P-O-Ws remains in Algona.

(Podcast) KJAN News, 8/28/21

News, Podcasts

August 28th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

The broadcast News at 7:05-a.m., with Ric Hanson.

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City of Atlantic Personnel & Finance Committee to meet Aug. 30

News

August 28th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City of Atlantic’s Personnel and Finance Committee is set to meet 5:30-p.m. Monday, Aug. 30th, in the City Council’s Chambers, at City Hall. During their session, the Committee will review and act on a recommendation to the City Council, with regard to a request to connect the City’s Sanitary Sewer to a commercial property at 60365 Glacier Road. City Administrator John Lund says a new business has signed a lease for the building on the City’s northwest side, that will create 10-to-12 jobs, and are requesting a sanitary sewer hook-up.

Persons with property outside the City Limits must receive approval from the Atlantic City Council before the hook-up can be made. Lund says he will endorse the P&F Committee recommendation because “It is in the best interest of tax payers,” and it would expand the tax base, creating “Downward pressure on property taxes.” Lund says in the future, the City should “Insist on annexation of properties wanting to connect to our utilities.” In this instance, however, the City has already extended utilities far beyond the limits, and there are parcels of land in between “that make annexation impractical, if not unfeasible,” according to Lund.

He added “The City has placed itself in this situation, where we cannot leverage sewer access to compel annexation. We should consider this an instructive lesson. This is not something we should ever do again.”  In other business, the Personnel and Finance Committee will review and act on making a recommendation to the Council, with regard to East 3rd Street Place Land Donations, and with regard to a New Business Incentive Proposal.

ISU takes part in ‘authoritative’ study on climate change

Ag/Outdoor, News, Weather

August 28th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) -A new report on global climate change is being released with help from researchers at Iowa State University. The study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had more than 200 authors from a dozen chapters around the globe. William Gutowski, an I-S-U professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, says the report was three years in the making. He calls it sharp and authoritative. “We have to review all of the scientific literature that’s out there that’s relevant to our chapter and we have to discuss it, decide what we learned from it, what we think is good information and what we think maybe is not so important,” Gutowski says, “and then we get reviewed by people on the outside. I think my chapter had to respond collectively to over 5,000 review comments.”

I-S-U’s chapter covered central North America, where weather extremes in the past year ranged from brutal cold in Texas last February to the drought in Iowa and across the Midwest. Gutowski expects continued weather extremes. “When we look at the future scenarios, there’s different options that we consider,” Gutowski says. “One would be, just keep letting things go along as they have been. Other scenarios we consider are ways that we might control the rise in greenhouse gases, maybe even start to have the level of greenhouse gases go down.”

It all comes down to what actions humans may take, he says, as to how quickly the changing climate may be impacted. “Trying to change things, it’s a long, slow process. It’s like trying to turn a ship around. You don’t just do it overnight,” Gutowski says. “Nonetheless, we can do things now that set the stage for a much better future for our children and their children down the road with actions that we start to take right now.”

Gutowski says the report is a wake-up call to do something and it has to involve countries around the world. Iowans can help to stave off climate change, he says, by doing things like conserving electricity and gasoline, and promoting wind and solar power.

Prison inmate James Blair dies

News

August 28th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

IOWA CITY– The Iowa Department of Corrections reports State Prison inmate, 61-year old James Lee Blair was pronounced dead Friday evening at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Officials say his death was likely due to complications related to COVID-19 and other preexisting medical conditions. Blair He had been transported there recently from the Iowa State Penitentiary due to his declining health.  He was serving a Life sentence for Murder-1st Degree in Polk County.  His sentence began on November 24, 1982.

23-year old Marine raised in Red Oak among those killed in Afghanistan attack

News

August 28th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

A 23-year-old U.S. Marine with ties to Red Oak was among 13 service members killed in a terrorist attack Thursday in Kabul, Afghanistan. According a statement from the family released to KETV in Omaha, Corporal Daegen William-Tyeler Page was killed when a suicide bomber detonated a device near the city’s airport in the wake of mass evacuations from the country.

The statement said Page was raised in Red Oak and attended high school at Millard South in the Omaha metro. Corporal Page joined the Marines in 2019. He was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California.

His family says after finishing his enlistment, Daegan planned to come home and go to a local trade school, possibly to become a lineman.

Harris files for Anita City Council vacancy

News

August 27th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

The Cass County Auditor’s Office reports one person submitted their nomination papers Friday. Deputy Auditor Sheri Karns says Anita Councilman Mark Harris filed to run for a Vacancy position on the Anita City Council. The Council vacancy position became available following the death of Mayor Tom Harris. Councilman John Knutson served as Mayor Pro-Tem, and was appointed in March to serve until the November elections.

As of Friday, the following candidates have filed to run for City offices in Cass County:

Mayor of Atlantic:

Current Councilpersons Pat McCurdy, Grace Garrett and Kathy Somers.

Atlantic City Council, 5th Ward:

Dick Casady (Incumbent)

Mayor of Anita (to fill a vacancy):

John Knutson.

Anita City Council (To fill a Vacancy)

Mark Harris

City of Atlantic Parks and Recreation Board:

Shirley Jensen.

Nomination papers may be filed with the Cass County Auditors Office until 5-p.m., Sept. 16th.

Iowans/former US ambassador to Cambodia comments on Afghan withdrawal

News

August 27th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Dubuque native Kenneth Quinn, a former U-S ambassador in Asia, says he’s been very troubled by some aspects of the U-S withdrawal from Afghanistan. “The good thing we got…most of the interpreters out,” Quinn says, “but to me it doesn’t look like we did as good a job as we should have with the civilians…who put their lives at risk, worked on behalf of our country and are just as deserving and many, perhaps even most of them, are women.”

Quinn is a former U-S ambassador to Cambodia. While he’s never been to Afghanistan, Quinn is in contact with a group still trying to leave from Kabul’s airport. “I think we could have been better prepared. I knew where every American citizen was in Cambodia when I was ambassador. We had a network so we could contact them every day,” Quinn says. Keeping more troops in Afghanistan and getting more people out sooner would have helped, according to Quinn, but he says Afghanistan’s government fell quicker than many had predicted.

Quinn made his comments during taping of “Iowa Press” which airs at 7:30 tonight (Friday) on Iowa P-B-S.