(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic, Wednesday evening, heard an update from Mayor Grace Garrett, with regard to a visit late last month from a design team from Iowa State University, and a tour they took of the City, along with some City officials, in advance of a project selected by the Mayor. Garrett said she was one of six mayors from across the State chosen in April, and invited to join the “Mayor’s design workshop.”Other mayors include those from Council Bluffs, Marshalltown, Ottumwa, Cedar Falls and Fort Madison.

The workshop will be held July 30-31, 2024, in Ames. The goals of the program are to assist mayors in addressing complex design and planning challengers. They offer design,m financing strategies and implementation ideas.

Councilperson Elaine Otte said the City could choose one of two projects that would make the best improvements to the City. One was Bull Creek, the other was some sort of a safety building at the Schildberg Recreation Area. Councilman Jim Behrens said if the Bull Creek project is chosen, the ISU team will work with the Army Corps of Engineers, to overcome any issues the Corps has with the problematic area, including erosion and storm water run-off.

The Mayor chose to offer a comprehensive plan for Bull Creek.  She will make a presentation to the ISU Design Team on the project, and over the next 18 months, ISU plans to have a follow-up workshops involving the resource team. Studio courses will be developed for students around the project, to include support for preferences to address specific needs for the City of Atlantic, as they pertain to Bull Creek.

There is no charge to the City for input from the ISU Design Team.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic, Wednesday evening, passed an Order temporarily restricting parking on Palm Street, from 7th to 11th, and 10th Street, 150-feet west of the intersection with Palm. The restrictions are with regard to the Cass County Fair, and will be in effect from 6-a.m. July 27th, to 6-a.m. July 28th.

They also approved Temporary Road Closures and No Parking restrictions on select streets during the requested dates and times for the 2024 RAGBRAI ® event that takes place July 22nd & 23rd. The City expects at least 25,000 people coming to town on their bicycles, as well as support vehicles, event vendors and more. On a related note, Atlantic Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bailey Smith reported all those who were looking to find temporary housing for the large bicycling event, have found a place to stay. “We placed everybody,” she said.  A map of the route into and out of town can be found at https://atlanticragbrai.com/maps/

Bailey reports they have 211 volunteers to help make the event as smooth as possible for locals and those coming into town, but they could still use another 20-to 50 or so more, people to help. That includes traffic control, trash clean-up during and after the event. Volunteers will receive a free, orange shirt identifying them as being associated with the event..

Atlantic City Hall building

In other business, the Atlantic City Council received a report from the City’s Planning and Zoning Commission, which met Tuesday evening. City Administrator John Lund said the Commission had received some concerns with regard to the impact of storm-water run-off to the Camblin Hills housing and childcare development project, and the surrounding properties. City Engineer Dave Sturm addressed those concerns. Sturm said “There’s no doubt this development will increase the run-off from this parcel, however about 75-percent of this site [has] a ridgeline that runs from Lot 1 to Lot 48…that drains into the existing detention basin that comes off of Loma Circle.” That basin, he said, was designed and installed about 25-to 30-years ago to control the run-off to Bull Creek, and to have the capacity for the development of the land to be developed.

Sturm said “When this project is complete, we will clean-out that basin,” to remove some of the silt that’s been deposited over the years , but it is still adequate to handle the increased run-off from the development project. And, the Childcare Center will have its own detention basin. Another detention basin will be added on the southwest side of the housing development. Following the P&Z and Engineer Sturms reports, the Atlantic City Council approved the preliminary plat for the Camblin Hills Project, and the 1st Reading of an ordinance changing the Zoning Classification from R-2 (Low Density-Single Family) residential to R-4 (Multi-family) residential, and amending the Zoning Map to reflect the change.

(Radio Iowa) – Five Iowa breweries brought home awards from the 2024 U-S Open Beer Championships in Oxford,Ohio. Noreen Otto is the executive director of the Iowa Brewers Guild. “Iowa craft breweries broght home 13 medals at that national competition. It’s a really diverse competition with thousands and thousands of entries. So we’re really excited to see the Iowa brewing recognized for the quality craft that that’s coming out of the state,” she says.

There were more than nine-thousand beers representing over 170 different styles. Otto says the Iowa brewies won in several categories. “From Sioux City and Council Bluffs over to Decorah and then in the Des Moines area, it was really exciting to see you know some big names but also some emerging exciting breweries doing incredible things,” she says.

The following Iowa craft breweries received medal recognition:
Toppling Goliath Brewing, Decorah; Full Fledged Brewing Company, Council Bluffs;
Marto Brewing Company, Sioux City; Exile Brewing Company, Des Moines; Barn Town Brewing, Des Moines.

(Harlan, Iowa) – In an update to our previous post, Shelby County Emergency Management Coordinator Alex Londo says that at around 1:45-p.m. Tuesday, July 9^th, 2024, an employee called Emergency Management personnel stating that the elevator at the Farm Service Cooperative in Harlan, had broken and there were two employees stuck at the top of the grain elevator.

Shelby County 911 was notified and they dispatched Shelby County Sheriffs Office, Shelby County Ambulance, Emergency Management, and Harlan Fire to the scene. A high angle rope rescue was conducted, and the employees were able to climb down the ladder on the side of the grain elevator without incident.

All agencies left the scene around 3:00PM.