When the Atlantic City Council gathers at 5:30-p.m. Wednesday, they’ll start the meeting by paying special recognition to the Trojan varsity Girls Softball Team. The girls finished in 4th Place at the State Tournament. Prior to their strip to State the Trojans beat Anamosa in a memorable 11-inning game. They ended their season at State 34-7, setting a record for the program. The Mayor and City Council have made it point to recognize the positive achievements of Atlantic’s students.

Afterward, the Council will receive a presentation from SWIPCO Community Development Director Alexsis Fleener, with regard to an Upper Story Housing Grant Conversion Program offered by the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA), through the CDBG program. During the Council’s last meeting, Fleener said they’re looking to obtain grant funds for a project at 509 Chestnut Street, which would see the upper floors converted into two new residential units.

A public hearing will be held after the presentation, as part of the application process to IEDA, for the aforementioned CDBG program. If the Council approves SWIPCO proceeding with the application, and the funds are approved in the next round of grants, the City would simply act as a “Flow through” agency for those monies, and otherwise will not have a financial stake in the matter.

The Council will also act on approving an agreement with The Retail Coach, for retail recruitment and related services, at a total cost of $32,500, which is less than their original proposal of $35,000, and includes reimbursibles for some services. City Administrator John Lund says he has completed re-working the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) Progress Budget to accommodate the proposal, if the Council approves the agreement. He says to recover the cost of the investment, new retailer(s) in Atlantic will need to generate over $7.1-million in net taxable sales over a period of several years. New sales taxes generated would be distributed to all the taxing authorities in Cass County, according to Lund, and new commercial property value will benefit all the taxing authorities within the City limits, thereby creating downward pressure on the tax levies.

As part of the agreement with The Retail Coach, the City will receive the following services:

• A market analysis of competing communities, a customized retail trade area map with demographic and psychographic profiles, based on current cellular geolocation data.
• A determination of retail opportunities, including gap analysis and consumer propensity report.
• A development and redevelopment strategy, including 310 development sites and 20 retail site profiles.
• A list of 35 retailers and 20 developers, with their contact information.
• Development of a custom marketing and branding package for retailers, developer opportunity package, online retail dashboard and interactive site mapping, to track progress and response to proposals.
• Recruitment of retailers and developers by The Retail Coach, with status updates on the dashboard and monthly recruitment updates.
• Attention to the downtown retail trade area, with its own custom retail map, workshops with business owners, and more.
• And, ongoing coaching and support from The Retail Coach team, as well as representation of Atlantic at regional and national retail industry events (including the International Council of Shopping Centers [ICSC] recon, in Las Vegas.

Two men were arrested on Sunday on theft charges in Red Oak. The Red Oak PD reports the first arrest took place at 1:15 p.m. at 907 East Hammond Street in Red Oak. Officers arrested 28-year-old Ozzy Ray Hunter of Red Oak for Theft 4th Degree and Possession of a Controlled Substance 4th Offense. Hunter was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $2,000 bond.

The second arrest took place at 1:50 p.m. on Sunday at 106 W Coolbaugh Street in Red Oak. Officers arrested 41-year-old Michael Shane Webster of Red Oak for Theft 4th Degree. He was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $1,000 bond.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors will once again discuss and take possible action on filling open positions on various County boards or commission. The Supervisors are set to meet at 9-a.m. Tuesday in their Boardroom at the Cass County Courthouse, in Atlantic.

First-up on their agenda, is a regular, Secondary Roads Dept. update from County Engineer Trent Wolken. That will be followed by action on appointing one person as the Board’s representative to serve on the Cass County elected officials Compensation Board. (Compensation Board recommends annual compensation of elected county officials: the auditor, treasurer, recorder, sheriff, county attorney, and supervisors.  This is a seven-member board with two members appointed by the Board of Supervisors and one member appointed by each of the five other elected officials.) Last week, the Supervisors moved to re-appoint Kipp Harris as member on the Cass County compensation board, for a 4 year term beginning 7/1/21.

Discussion, and possible action includes:

• Filling a vacancy position of one Trustee and one Clerk for the Franklin Township
• Filling a vacancy position on a list of persons eligible to serve on the Condemnation in Eminent Domain proceedings Board. The person must be a city/town property owner.
• Possible action on appointing one person to the Cass County Conservation Board, to fill a vacancy for the term ending Dec. 31, 2022.
• and, possible action on the use of funds from the American Rescue Plan [ARP] (Pandemic relief), as related to proposals received to-date.  (Last week, the Supervisors discussed an e-mail from a Food Policy Council member, inquiring whether ARP funds could be used to enhance our local/community food system to enhance our self-sufficiency, i.e. lower dependence on external resources such as industrial meat processing. The board also discussed the possible use of ARP funds for courthouse climate control/HVAC improvements. )

The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest of an Omaha man following a high speed pursuit of a motorcycle on Sunday night. At around 9:00 p.m. on Sunday a Red Oak Police Officer was following a motorcycle as it popped a wheelie and passed a car at the bridge construction site west of Red Oak on Highway 34. The Officer activated his lights and sirens and the motorcycle took off, reaching speeds up to 110mph. The Officer was able to catch up to the bike near Evergreen Street and the driver eventually pulled over.

The driver was identified as 24-year-old Matthew Jacob Tortorilla of Omaha, NE. He was arrested on charges of Eluding and Reckless Driving. He also received a citation for traveling 110mph in a 55mph zone and another for No Valid Driver’s License.

Tortorilla was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $2,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The director of the Sawmill Museum in Clinton has written a book about Clinton’s 19th century “lumber kings.” The title of Matt Parbs’s book is “Hidden History of Clinton, Iowa” and he says it deals with some of the myths about the city’s position as a leader in the logging industry. “You always hear about how we had the most millionaires per capita or that we were the lumber capital of the world and none of those are quite true,” Parbs says. “To me what’s more impressive about our lumber story is that we were the headquarters of the monopoly that controlled like 90% of Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois.”

Parbs says many of the chapters in the book were generated by questions from visitors to the Sawmill Museum. Parbs used census data and other documents to chart Clinton’s history in the late 1800s. “We were probably the richest sawmill town, but we did actually have quite a large population. There are towns out there that actually do have the most millionaires per capita, depending on the years and ones like Cheyenne, Wyoming that had eight millionaires in a town of 3000,” Parbs says, laughing. “It’s kind of hard to beat that ratio.”

In its heyday from about 1870 to 1895, the Mississippi River Logging Company and other Clinton-based companies shipped logs and boards to the east and west or south down the river. Parbs released the book in March of 2020, at the start of the pandemic, so a tour to promote the book was cancelled.

(Radio Iowa) – A little less than a week is left for Iowa’s cities, counties and groups like the Boy Scouts to apply for state grants to plant trees as part of the recovery process from last year’s derecho. The state legislature is allocating 250-thousand dollars for the Derecho Community Forestry Grant Program. Gabriele Edwards, an urban forestry program specialist at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says the grants will go a long ways toward helping our towns restore some of that lost beauty. “This grant is targeting communities and public organizations,” Edwards says. “So, think local, state government, cities, municipalities. The public organizations would be more like scouting groups, county conservation, essentially any public group that would be planting trees on public property.”

The grants range from $500 to $5,000 and are to be used to buy and plant trees suitable to Iowa on publicly-owned lands. That can include all sorts of places like street right-of-ways, parks, school grounds, courthouse lawns, fairgrounds, cemeteries, libraries and trails. Trees are an underrated commodity, Edwards says, and few people seem to appreciate them until they’re gone. “You’re going to notice, the summers are going to be hotter, no shade to hide in, no shade for your building and you’ll be paying higher energy costs to cool your home,” Edwards says. “The same is true for winter when it’s cold out, you’ll have those winds hitting your house and making it cold.”

Some Iowa communities lost more than half of their canopies in the powerful storm on August 10th of last year. As new trees are planted, Edwards says there’s an emphasis on diversity in species, as she says a diverse canopy will be a resilient canopy.  “We can notice in the communities that were hit very hard, there are certain species that did well and certain species didn’t,” Edwards says. “Maples are weaker-branched trees and they’re more likely to lose limbs in big wind storms like this, versus and an oak or a hickory that has stronger branches that can withstand that.”

She says Iowa is overplanted with maples and people should consider other options, including the black locust, honey locust and hackberry trees. Grant recipients are required to provide a dollar-for-dollar cash match as part of the program. The deadline for applications is August 20th. www.iowadnr.gov/urbanforestry

A few area school district boards of education will hold their regular monthly meetings, Monday, Aug. 16th. The Griswold School Board meeting begins at 5:30-p.m. in the High School Conference Room. Among the items of New Business/action, are those with regard to: Approval of a New Hire, and, Compensation package; Approval of a Return-to-Learn plan, following public input; Discussion and possible action on Lifetime Activity Passes; a decision on staff Flu Shots; approving an evaluation system for Administrators, and, consideration of whether or not to enter into a closed session with regard to matters pertaining to school personnel (hiring, performance or discharge).

In Exira, the Exira-EHK School Board meeting begins at 6-p.m. in the Conference Room, and includes the following discussion & action items with regard to:

• The start of the School Year Return-To-Learn Plan
• Bus bids
• Approval of Personnel Hires, Transfers, Resignations, etc.
• A Closed session to review or discuss records which are authorized or required by state or federal law, to be kept confidential.
• Action on a late open enrollment request.

The Audubon School Board meeting takes place in the High School Boardroom at 7-p.m., and includes action on Vacation regulation; approval of: Student Handbooks; Election Publication; and the Return-To-Learn plan. The Board is expected to act also, on setting the date and time for a Public Hearing on the proposed issuance of SAVE Bonds. They will also act on any Personnel matters to come before them. In his report, Audubon School District Superintendent Eric Trager will provide an update on the District’s Building Project, including: a combined timeline; funding opportunities and a revised Budget. He’ll also discuss Back to School Pre-service Days, and the Transportation report.

The CAM School Board meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 17, beginning at 7:30-p.m. in the CAM High School Superintendent’s Office. Discussion/action items on their agenda included those pertaining to:

• Open sealed bids for disposal of excess vehicle.
• Facility Update: Discuss and Acts upon the Facility Committee”s Recommendation.
• School Board Election Process.
• Approval of Board Policies related to Legislative Updates.

The City of Atlantic’s Park and Recreation Board of Directors will meet 5:15-p.m. Monday, Aug. 16th, at the downtown City Park Shelter. Action Items and/or New Business includes:

• An update on the Schildberg Recreation Area.
• Produce in The Park.
• A National Fitness Campaign.
• Cass Health Pool Day
• Sunnyside Pool is closed for the season.
• Adult Tricycle Bike.

In the Director’s Report, Bryant Rasmussen is expected to mention:

• Adult Art in the Park (successful event held recently)
• Cass County Fair Booth (review of activities/turnout)
• Groundskeepers are done with the bulk of their work
• Atlanticfest/Kids Bike Ride results
• Produce in the Park
• and, Recreational items checked out.

A man and a woman on a motorcycle were seriously injured and transported to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinic, following an accident Saturday evening in northeastern Iowa’s Delaware County. The Iowa State Patrol reports the accident happened at around 6:40-p.m., when a 1997 Harley Davidson cycle operated by 57-year-old Thomas J. Hermsen, of Kieler, WI, failed to stop at the intersection of 250th Street and 220th Avenue. The machine was traveling north on 220th at the time.

The motorcycle went out of control, ejecting both Hermsen and his passenger, 54-year-old Marleen M. Goodin, of Dubuque. They came to rest on the north shoulder of the road.  A report on their condition was not available.

The Patrol was assisted at the scene by Delhi Fire and 1st Responders, the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, ambulance and towing services, and others.