(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Mayor Grace Garrett, Wednesday, issued a reminder to persons who operate ATV’s and UTV’s…

The Mayor, during the Atlantic City Council meeting, also encouraged property owners to take care of weeds on those properties.

She reminded residents and property owners also, that they are not to blow grass onto City streets when you mow. The offense is a violation of City Code, and poses a safety hazard for bicyclists and motorcyclists. In other business, during the Council Committee reports, Councilperson Elaine Otte said the Housing Committee continues to look at what the options are, with regard to the new Prairie Hill housing development project, located on the Atlantic’s southeast side.

In early April, the Atlantic City Council approved the purchase of a little more than 41.5-acres of farmland for $830,000 from Jim Comes, now known as the Prairie Hill housing development project. The City is financing the project through a general obligation debt. The revenue sources toward the debt payments would be lot sales and farmland leases as the city sells lots for the construction of new homes and leases on the unused portions of the subdivision for farm use. Atlantic City Councilman Gerald Brink says they want to see the project happen and are currently looking for alternatives.

Otte said the City did not receive a grant they had applied for, with regard to the project.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council approved an Order allowing the Cass County Fair Association to set an electric sign on City Property at the corner of 7^th and Olive Streets. The sign will be in-place until July 30^th. The Cass County Fair runs from July 27^th through August 2^nd. They also passed the first reading of an Ordinance with regard to Parking Regulations on Palm Street, as it pertains to the Atlantic Food Pantry. Earlier this Spring, Pantry officials requested the City allow parking along the west side of Palm Street on Thursdays, between 6^th and 7^th Streets from 11:30-a.m. Until 1:30-p.m. The amendment would allow the cars to line up for the drive-through pantry distribution.

The Council approved a parking lot closing permit for LC Clinic’s Open House at 507 Chestnut, for their branch office. The lot, located between Chestnut and Poplar, will be closed from 10-a.m. Until 3-p.m on August 6^th. And, they approved a street closing for Adams Auto Accessories at 309 Walnut, on July 23^rd, from 5-until 9-p.m., with regard to a car show/open house and benefit for Travis Young. The closure affects Walnut Street, from 3^rd to 4^th Streets, during the hours mentioned.

The Atlantic City Council tabled action on a Resolution authorizing a development agreement with Boose Building & Construction, and the authorizing of an Internal Advance for funding of an Economic Development Grant, because the legal paperwork was not immediately available for approval.

(Radio Iowa) – A Burlington man who admitted he sold large amounts of illegal drugs has been sentenced to 17-and-a-half years in prison. Thirty-seven-year-old Jose Luis Escundino Romayor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in February and he was sentenced this week. Court documents indicate that in the summer of 2017, a police informant bought crystal meth from Romayor on several occasions.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, law enforcement seized a pistol and more than two kilos of meth from Romayor.

(Radio Iowa) – Starting today (July 21), the letters, cards and photos mailed to inmates in Iowa prisons will be digitized by a company in Las Vegas and later destroyed. Iowa Department of Corrections spokesman Nick Crawford says the mail will be scanned, printed in color and just the copies will be sent to each prison for delivery to inmates. “The purpose behind making this change to a new mail delivery system in our correctional institutions is to curb the introduction of mail contraband, specifically as a relates to the synthetic drug K2.” K-2 can be sprayed on paper.

Crawford says the decision to digitize prison mail was spurred by an incident last year when 60 inmates at the state prison in Clarinda were involved in either distributing or consuming K-2. “It causes some pretty serious side effects for our inmates if consumed,” Crawford says. “It causes erratic behavior, sometimes violent behavior. You can become very physically ill.” Crawford says staff who’ve been reviewing the mail delivered through the U.S. Postal Service and looking for contraband were endangered, too.

“There will still be a piece of the review process done by the staff at our facilities, it will just not be the hands-on process,” Crawford says. “…We’re taking our staff out of harm’s way.” Other states are making this move to restrict outside mail from being delivered in prisons and federal prisons in several states are scanning mail. Three companies submitted bids to digitize Iowa prison mail and Pigeonly Corrections in Las Vegas won the state contract. Crawford says the company will charge the state 42 cents for every piece of mail scanned.

“No charge to the inmate and then no charge to whoever’s sending them mail,” Crawford says. Mail for Iowa prison inmates must now be sent directly to Pigeonly Corrections in Las Vegas, although for the next 30 days the state will send mail being delivered to the prisons to the Las Vegas processing facility. There ARE new size guidelines for letters, greeting cards, post cards, children’s drawings and newsletters.

“These things are still able to be sent,” Crawford says, “they’re just going to a central processing facility Pigeonly operates, scanned in and then they will be provided a scanned copy at the institution and of those same things that they would have been receiving before.” Mail that directly deals with legal matters will not be diverted and will be delivered to inmates.

Prison mail has generally been a low-cost way for inmates and their families and friends to stay connected. Studies have shown regular correspondence reduces stress for many inmates and increases the likelihood they will not re-offend. This Iowa Department of Corrections announcement about the new mail system includes the Las Vegas address that must now be used to send mail to Iowa prison inmates. Pigeonly Corrections has information about the process here.

(Radio Iowa) – The pace of new business registrations in Iowa has been strong over the past 24 months and continues to set records. Iowans starting a new business or changing ownership of an existing business must file certificates of organization with the Secretary of State’s office. The number of business registrations set a record back in state fiscal year 2019, but slumped during the first months of the pandemic.

Business filings rebounded sharply, though. Fiscal year 2021 business registrations were 25 percent higher than before the pandemic and set a record. Over the past 12 months, 33-thousand-three-hundred-31 new business filings were registered with the state, yet another record high.