(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest on drug charges at around 1:52-a.m. Monday, of 52-year-old Kristen Marie Hughes, from Red Oak. Hughes was arrested on two-counts Possession of Controlled Substance, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Her bond was set at $2,300. And, at around 3:20-p.m., Monday, 44-year-old Shawn Lyle McKenzie, of Essex,  was arrested at the Fremont County Jail, on a warrant for Contempt – Resist Order or Process of District Court. Bond was set at $1,000.

(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.