(Exira) – Two people escaped a house fire in Exira over the weekend. According to reports, firefighters from Exira, Brayton and Audubon responded to the scene at 104 E. South Street in Exira, at around 3:18-p.m., Saturday.

Flames had fully engulfed the home by the time the first firefighters arrived on the scene. Audubon fire crews were requested for additional manpower, tanker and pumper trucks.

No injuries were reported. The home was declared a total loss. A cause of the blaze was not immediately known.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man wanted on a Shelby County warrant for Harassment in the 3rd Degree, was arrested Monday, in Red Oak. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 39-year old Keith Andre Smith, of Red Oak, was transferred to the authority of Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies. Smith was being held in the Shelby County Jail without bond.

Keith Andre Smith

BONDURANT, Iowa — Authorities in Polk County says the death of a woman found outside of an assisted living facility in Bondurant “suspicious.” KCCI in Des Moines reports that at around 6:30 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 21st Polk County deputies responded to a call for medical assistance. A woman staying at the Courtyard Estates at Hawthorne Crossing, an assisted living facility for people with dementia in Bondurant was found outside. The low temperature that morning was -9 degrees.

The woman was conscious and being treated inside the facility by the time deputies arrive, but she later died at the hospital. The official cause of death has not been released. The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals told the television station that assisted living programs for people with dementia are required to have an operating alarm system on each exit door.

According to reports from the Iowa DIA, Courtyard Estates at Hawthorne Crossing was fined $1,500 in summer 2020 for not having a policy or procedure for their alarm system. The report filed back then shows somebody on staff noticed a resident was missing. The man was returned by police and he showed the nurse how he exited the door and climbed over a secure fence. The facility was later found to be compliant in a 2021 report.

Monday afternoon, the DIA was at the facility in Bondurant conducting an investigation. Officials say Courtyard Estates at Hawthorne Crossing is cooperating with the investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – The long debate over automated traffic enforcement cameras has resumed at the state capitol. A bill that’s cleared a Senate subcommittee would prohibit Iowa cities from using out-of-state companies to install and maintain the cameras or to issue the tickets for speeding and running red lights. Pete McRoberts, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, suggests requiring only Iowa companies be involved ensures they’re accountable to Iowans.

“Companies that sell products to cities for the purposes of issuing demand letters to citizens, well, those should be within reach of the Open Records Act or at least legal discovery,” McRoberts says. Mike St. Clair is a lobbyist for Sensys Gatso, a company based in the Netherlands with a U.S. subsidiary that manages the traffic camera systems in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and other Iowa ciites. He says the bill is anti-free market.

“The cities should be able to choose whichever vendor best suits the needs and provides the best service and frankly it comes down…who has to the best technology.” St. Clair says. “…That’s part of why we’re representing and working with as many cities as we are in Iowa.” Independence Police Chief Dave Niedert says his community has never had a problem with Sensys Gatso and the bill takes away local control.

“The State of Iowa and many municipalities use out of state contractors and firms for many reasons,” he says. Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman also opposed the bill. “The company can be located anywhere in the world and as long as they work in partnership with a city and a law enforcement agency to provide safe roadways. that’s the issue that everyone should be concerned with,” Jerman says.

Another bill that’s under consideration in the Senate would require police departments to hold at least two public hearings to explain the data collected from traffic enforcement cameras and what alternatives have been tried in the areas where cameras are ticketing speeders.

(Radio Iowa) – The superintendent of a small, southern Iowa school district based in Humeston has died of Covid, two days after the death of his father. The Des Moines Register was first to report that the Mormon Trail School District had announced on Facebook that Superinendent Kerry Phillips “lost his battle with Covid” on Sunday. According to an online obituary, Phillips was a native of Ottumwa and died at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City. He was 61.

Phillips had worked as an educator at Indian Hills Community College, Simpson College, Buena Vista University, and in the Cardinal and Harmony School Districts. Phillips had been Mormon Trail’s superintendent since the start of the 2017 academic year. His 85-year-old father died Friday at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics according to an online obituary that does not list a cause of death.

Gene Phillips owned and operated Phillips Sanitation in Ottumwa for nearly 50 years before retiring in 1998. The obituary for Kerry Phillips indicates he has been owner/operator of the family business.