(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with Cass Health in Atlantic have announced General and Weight Loss Surgeon, Dr. William Rizk, will be providing care to patients starting this month. Dr. Rizk is a board-certified general and bariatric surgeon who specializes in weight loss surgery, and he has been performing laparoscopic weight loss surgeries since 2002. The Doctor says “People with obesity, particularly severe obesity, face a number of medical concerns that can be improved with weight loss surgery. It’s not an easy decision to make, and it takes commitment and lifestyle change to see long-term success. Weight loss surgery is a great tool, and I’m very excited to offer this surgery to patients in southwest Iowa.”

Iowa ranks 12th in states impacted by obesity, with more than 37% of the state’s adult population being impacted by obesity. According to Iowa Health and Human Services, 42.5% of adults in Cass County have an unhealthy body weight, which is classified as a BMI of 30 or higher. Dr. Rizk will perform sleeve gastrectomies, also known as gastric sleeve surgeries, at Cass Health beginning this fall.

Dr. William Rizek

“Our program will utilize a multidisciplinary approach,” said Dr. Rizk. “This will include several clinic appointments, nutritional counseling and behavior modification classes.  This education will help ensure the most successful outcome for patients.”

Patients interested in learning more are invited to come to a free educational class on the surgery on Tuesday, July 9th at 6:00 at Cass Health. Reservations are required; sign up online at casshealth.org/weightloss. Questions can be directed to our Program Coordinator at 712-243-7535; patients are also encouraged to talk with their primary care provider about the surgery and referrals.

(Radio Iowa) – Ag equipment maker John Deere is announcing plans to eliminate some 800 jobs at plants in Iowa and Illinois over the coming weeks. It follows word last month the company would shift production of its skid steer loaders and compact track loaders from Dubuque to Mexico by the end of 2026. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig is reacting to the news. “Anytime that you’re hearing about roll backs, layoffs, moving things outside of the state of Iowa or the United States,” Naig says, “you’re concerned about those things, you want to understand them.”

In a statement, the company cited rising manufacturing costs as a key factor, while lower crop prices have also caused a slowdown in new ag equipment sales. Some forecasters predict a 25-percent drop in farm income this year over last. Naig says the agricultural economy in general is experiencing what he called “softness” due to a number of factors. “The announcements that you’ve heard made of late are indicators of very much some softness in the ag economy,” Naig says. “Given the effects of inflation, high input prices, the cost of capital interest rates remaining where they are, all those things are contributing in the ag space to delaying decisions if you can — let’s just go sideways for a little bit.”

Deere is eliminating more than 200 jobs at its Davenport plant and another 99 in Dubuque at the end of August, and more than 500 in East Moline, Illinois at the end of September. Deere announced earlier this year it’s cutting more than 800 jobs at facilities in Waterloo, Ottumwa and the Des Moines metro. Naig says the souring economic effects aren’t just limited to the ag equipment sector. “That’s also playing out now in some of these announcements that you’re hearing made about even meat processing or manufacturing,” he says. “So, you try to take all that in and look at it holistically, but I do think that it’s certainly sending some signals about a softening in the economy or at least a lack of confidence in the economy, and those are things what we need to be addressing as a country.”

Secretary Naig says it’s imperative for the state to do everything it can to help agriculture and manufacturing continue to thrive, as they are key economic drivers in the state. His comments came Monday as he was in Davis County to tour a local parts fabrication business.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday morning, unanimously passed a Resolution (2024-21) allocating ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) Funds to a Childcare Facility project in Atlantic.

(That’s Board Vice-Chair Mark O’Brien). The Board also discussed and approved courthouse hours in advance of the RAGBRAI ® event in Atlantic on July 22nd and 23rd. Vice Chair Mark O’Brien summarized the Board’s decision…

Cass County BOS mtg 7-2-24

The Supervisors received a 3rd Quarter report from Cass County Veterans Affairs Director Mitch Holmes.

Among the paperwork issues he helped veterans with, were those associated with federal burial benefits. The Supervisors received a regular report from Cass County Engineer Trent Wolken. Wolken said crews were out checking the roads, following the heavy rain that fell over the area Monday night into Tuesday morning. He said as of Tuesday morning, there were no reports of water over the road.

Wolken also discussed the Safety Action Plan.

Cass County’s Safety Action Plan workshop is scheduled for August 27th in the courthouse basement meeting room. EMS, Police and other County Agency representatives are being invited to attend, including the Board of Supervisors.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa Food System Coalition representatives, Monday, announced a new plan for Iowa agriculture seeks to increase the state’s production of food rather than ethanol and animal feed. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports he plan, known as Setting the Table for All Iowans, outlines the coalition’s policy goals which include producing more locally grown food, getting more young people to become farmers and providing more financial assistance to farmers. Chris Schwartz, executive director of the coalition, said the plan is an opportunity to positively impact farmers, the economy and the local community.

From left to right, Chris Schwartz, Giselle Bruskewitz, Tommy Hexter and Aaron Lehman speak July 1, 2024 outside the Iowa Capitol about a coalition called Setting the Table for All Iowans. (Photo by Jack O’Connor/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Director of Grinnell Farm to Table food hub Tommy Hexter said many commodity farmers are struggling because most of the profits are going toward the middlemen like seed, equipment and marketing companies. However, Hexter said selling produce locally cuts out most middlemen and leads to more money going into farmers’ pockets. “Setting the Table for All Iowans provides an opportunity to build that system where Iowa’s farmers and small business owners can truly thrive,” Hexter said in the press conference.

The plan also focuses on how to retain and attract farming talent to Iowa through investments in obtaining refrigerated trucks, increasing the number of rural grocery stores and providing needed equipment to small businesses. President of the Iowa Farmers Union Aaron Lehman, a fifth-generation family farmer, said investments like those are vital for the Iowa agriculture industry where there are more farmers above the age of 65 than below the age of 35.

Over the past two years, the Iowa Food System Coalition has organized a Food and Farm Day at the Iowa Capitol and invited legislators and state agencies to a food policy summit. One of the next steps for the coalition is to educate legislators about the plan so it can be used as a guide to create state policies, Schwartz said.

(Radio Iowa) – Smithfield Foods announced it is closing its Altoona ham boning facility to consolidate production volume at other locations in Illinois, South Dakota and Nebraska to improve the company’s efficiency. The Altoona plant has 314 employees and the company says it will meet with them to provide additional details about the transition plan, severance pay, and potential employment opportunities with Smithfield. Smithfield employs nearly four-thousand people in Iowa at its farms and its food-processing facilities in Carroll, Denison, Des Moines, Mason City, Orange City, Sioux Center and Sioux City.

(Radio Iowa) -The Mississippi River at Burlington was above flood stage by Sunday night and is expected to reach more than four feet above food stage by Friday. Matt Wilson, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities, says it’s not clear yet how high the river will rise in places like Burlington and Fort Madison.  “The big thing that’s causing this flooding is all the rain that they’re getting up in Minnesota and Wisconsin,” Wilson says.

Wilson says the rivers that drain into the upper Mississippi are sending flood waves south, similar to what happened this spring as heavy snow melted upstream. Boating on the Mississippi River can be dangerous when it floods. “If we’re at major flood from Camanche down to Burlington, the river’s had mamy opportunities to reach out and pick up all kinds of debris from the river banks — dead trees, old campers,” Wilson says. “You’d be surprised what has been found deposited after floods from upstream to downstream.”

Shannon Prado is coordinator of the Des Moines County Emergency Management Agency. She says there’s some limited flooding in Burlington, but nothing is reaching critical infrastructure. “In 2008, if you go way back to 1993, they had severe river flooding in the Burlington metro area,” she says. “They really don’t see those impacts any more due to this floodwall.”

Docks are being pulled out of the Burlington riverfront along that floodwall and Prado says Hesco barriers that create temporary levies are being put up in the area.

The company that recently gained approval from state regulators for its carbon dioxide pipeline system in Iowa wants to proceed with expansion requests for that system starting in late August. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Summit Carbon Solutions has proposed new public informational meeting dates for 23 counties that would span about four weeks, according to documents recently filed with the Iowa Utilities Commission, formerly known as the Iowa Utilities Board. The first meeting would be Aug. 26 in Adams County.

The company must hold the meetings in affected counties before it can negotiate with landowners for easements and file petitions for permits to build the extensions.

The 14 proposed offshoots to additional ethanol plants from Summit’s initial proposal would increase the size of the system in Iowa by about 341 miles — or about 50%. The IUC indicated last week it would grant Summit a permit for the company’s initial proposal, which has about 690 miles of pipe.

The company hopes to transport captured carbon dioxide from ethanol producers in five states to North Dakota to be stored underground. The IUC has stipulated that Summit cannot start laying pipe in Iowa until it obtains permits in the Dakotas. It said the company can use eminent domain to force agreements with unwilling landowners to use their properties for the project.

North Dakota regulators are considering Summit’s pipeline route in that state and whether it would be allowed to pump the greenhouse gas into the ground. Summit has said it will reapply for a pipeline permit in South Dakota this month. The company hopes to start construction next year.

The IUC denied requests from pipeline opponents to consider the extensions along with the initial proposal. Those extensions and maps of their routes were unveiled in March while the initial permit process was still pending. Some argued, unsuccessfully, that parts of the system route should be revamped to shorten its overall length.

Instead, each of the extensions from the initial route will be subject to individual permits. Summit had hoped to hold informational meetings for them in April and May, but the commission rejected those dates without providing a reason.

Summit submitted new maps of the extension routes last week that increased their total length by about a half mile. A notable change was in Hardin County, where a proposed route moved slightly closer to Iowa Falls.

The new proposed meeting schedule — which has not yet been approved by the IUC — goes from Aug. 26 to Sept. 20 in the following counties: Adams, Bremer, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Butler, Clay, Fayette, Floyd, Greene, Guthrie, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin, Ida, Kossuth, Mitchell, Montgomery, O’Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, Sioux, Webster and Worth.

The Iowa Utilities Commission, formerly the Iowa Utilities Board, announced its name change on Monday and said it was the result of a state government reorganization last year that removed the agency from the state Department of Commerce.

DES MOINES – Today, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced appointments to Iowa’s boards and commissions. 

 The following appointments of the following from around the KJAN listening area, are subject to Senate confirmation (name/County): 

 Commission of Deaf Services   

Dustin Blythe, Dallas County

Tina Caloud, Pottawattamie County 

Board of Behavioral Health Professionals 

Lora Keipper, Dallas  

Plumbing and Mechanical Systems Board 

Randy Watts, Cass 

Jeffrey Miller, Pottawattamie     

Real Estate Commission 

Tanner Westberg, Dallas 

Accountancy Examining Board 

Jessica Richter, Dallas 

Lindsay Knoop, Dallas  

Board of Mortuary Science 

Martin Rieken, Pottawattamie 

John Parrish, Dallas 

Kelsey Lo, Dallas   

Landscape Architectural Examining Board 

Nate Weitl, Madison   

Real Estate Appraiser Examining Board 

Tonya Eller, Crawford  

Board of Speech Pathology and Audiology 

Caitlin McKenney, Dallas  

Architectural Examining Board 

Dan Dutcher, Dallas   

Interior Design Examining Board 

Cathy Koch, Dallas  

Engineering and Land Surveying Examining Board 

David Tallon, Harrison

State Workforce Development Board  

Jessica Dunker, Dallas  

The following appointments are not subject to Senate confirmation: 

Iowa Arts Council  

Donna Dostal, Pottawattamie

Council on Agricultural Education 

Ben Booth, Carroll  

Council for Early ACCESS 

Dr. Shelley Horak, Dallas

Statewide Interoperable Communications System Board (ISICS):

Jeffery Vanderwater, Adair 

Fire Service and Emergency Response Council  

Pamela Kenkel, Dallas 

State Banking Council 

Debora Quandt, Crawford 

(Radio Iowa) – The state fiscal year ends on June 30th and it looks like revenue from casino gambling is going to be down slightly. Racing and Gaming Administrator, Tina Eick says that’s been the trend through May. She says they are down less than two percent through May. The June numbers are expected to show the same thing once they completed.

“Keep in mind we are coming off a couple of really good post COVID years for AGR (adjusted gross revenue), so we have been trending upwards, but I would say this year we’re trending flat,” she says.

Gambling revenue in the last fiscal year was one-point-seven BILLION dollars.

ATLANTIC, Iowa- Southwest Iowa Transit Agency (SWITA) reports they have recently added two new members to the office team in Atlantic. Kyle Rock has taken the role of Maintenance Assistant and Michael Wolff was added as a Transit Scheduler.

Kyle comes to SWITA from the AHSTW School District and resides in Avoca. He graduated from Avoca and has a varied work background from teaching/coaching to beverage sales to driving. Kyle said he knew about SWITA’s services for a long time because his sister uses the service, and he came to SWITA to be a driver. It happened to work out that the Maintenance Assistant position would come open around the time he was set to join the team. With his background it was a great fit that gave him the type of hours he was looking for. Kyle will help to maintain the SWITA fleet and facilities, while also helping with driving as needed.

Kyle Rock

Michael comes to SWITA from Austin, Texas. He moved with his fiancé, son, and two dogs to be closer to family in the area. They moved up to Oakland with his parents while they search for a place in Atlantic. He found out about the position from his father, who is a driver for SWITA.

Michael Wolff