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Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
(Sidney, Iowa) – Fremont County Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Tim Bothwell reports, that “With milder weather [Deputies] will be doing projects with the Iowa State Patrol with the intent of seatbelt enforcement. During the projects [they] will be enforcing general traffic enforcement and looking for impaired drivers.” Bothwell says ” In the year 23-24 we have had a total of six traffic deaths and six serious injury accidents. Fremont County has had a higher percentage of unbelted traffic deaths per capita, of small counties in Iowa.”
In addition to motorists who are not wearing their seat belts, Deputy Bothwell said “We will also be looking for distracted drivers. Not just texting or on the phones, but other things that distract, like eating and drinking and not paying attention to the road, to animals in drivers laps.”
(Elk Horn, Iowa) -The Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton Community School District Board of Education, during a Special Meeting Tuesday evening, unanimously approved bids for the Exira-EHK School District renovation project. Superintendent Trevor Miller says the base and alternate bids came in under the engineer’s estimate.
HSI is the contractor for the Demolition, General Trades, Drywall and ceiling portion of the work.
For the Elk Horn and Exira parts of the base bid, Miller said they’ll be adding three classrooms to the stage, and one of those rooms will be a sensory room for those students with special needs.
He said the bids came out about $500,000 less than they thought it would be,
In other business, the Exira-EHK School Board approved the resignation of para educator Jacqueline Phippen, who has worked for the district a long time.
(Red Oak, Iowa) – A Montgomery County man was arrested this (Wednesday) morning, following a previous investigation. Red Oak Police report 25-year-old Justin LeRoy Newman, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 8:45-a.m., for OWI/1st offense. Newman was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and later released on his Own Recognizance.
Greenfield, Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in Adair County, today (Wednesday), approved courtyard use permits for Main Street Greenfield’s Easter Egg Hunt, and the Farmer’s Market (10 vendors per market), beginning June 9th and continuing every Thursday through Oct. 17th.
The Board also approved two Township Clerk wages, they acknowledged the receipt of three Manure Management Plan updates, and approved a Grove Cemetery mowing contract. In other business, the Supervisors in Adair County discussed Fairgrounds Grandstand funding. The Board determined the Fair Board should get their plans together and submit the necessary information – including the projected costs – to Auditor Mandy Berg, so it can be placed on the ballot as a referendum for the November General Election.
Supervisor Jodie Hoadley….
County Engineer Nick Kauffman presented bids to the Board for the N-19 Lincoln (Township) bridge project. The estimated cost was $890,000. The low bid of $705,911.50 was awarded to Murphy Heavy Contracting, in Anita. The Board also awarded a contract to Gus Construction in Casey, for the N-26 Lincoln (Township) box culvert project (140th Street). The estimated cost was $367,000. The low bid from Gus was $314, 276.60.
Kauffman requested and received the Board’s approval for longevity raises for two Secondary Roads Department employees, effective April 1st. And, the Board authorized the Chair to sign front page plans for FY24 FM [Farm-to-Market] Granular Surfacing Project (24-miles at $250,000)
(Harlan, Iowa/KNOD) – A motorcycle pursuit in Shelby County, Monday night, ended with the cycle crashing into a ditch, and minor injuries to the motorcyclist. The pursuit started at 9:40-p.m., when a State Patrol Trooper clocked a motorcycle at 125-mph on Interstate 80 near mile marker 13. A traffic stop was initiated, but the motorcycle did not yield and continued east on I-80 to exit 40.
At that point the motorcycle turned north onto Highway 59 and continued into Shelby County where the Shelby County Sheriff’s office assisted with the pursuit. After getting into Harlan, the driver lost control of the motorcycle at a corner and slid into the ditch. The driver, Cade Baratta, was transported to Myrtue Medical Center in Harlan for treatment of minor injuries and was then released and transported to the Pottawattamie County Jail.
He faces charges that include Felony Eluding (a Class-D Felony), and other traffic offenses. Baratta was paid a $5,000 cash or surety bond and was released with a preliminary hearing that’s set for April 3rd.
(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with the Atlantic Community School District today (Wednesday), announced on social media, that an anonymous donor has contributed $15,000 to the District to help reduce student hot lunch debt. The fund is made available when students can’t afford to pay for their hot lunch. The United Church of Christ in Atlantic also donated $2,000. The District says “When hardships hit our communities and families, we are fortunate enough to have community members step-up and help in any way they can. Thank you to our amazing community!”
SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – A train derailed early this (Wednesday) morning, near Salix, Iowa. Reports came in around 6:30 a.m. about several grain hoppers on its side spilled out on the ground. The derailment happened along Old Highway 75. Crews are on the scene working to clean up the spill. Additional details are currently not available.
(Council Bluffs, Iowa [KETV]) – The Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday, approved an updated set of regulations for wind and solar energy projects in the county. Their action came during the Board’s regular meeting. The guidelines are an update to the previous guideline that have been in place since 2007 on the wind side. They create a set of regulations on the solar side,
The new guidelines will be published next Thursday and updated on the county’s website on Friday. The board also plans to remove a moratorium it had in place on new solar and wind projects..
Among the regulations: projects must be set back three miles from communities, three miles from parks & recreation areas, three miles from the Council Bluffs airport and at least 2,400 feet away from dwellings on landowners’ properties.
Iowa’s rollercoaster weather is taking our wardrobe from shorts and t-shirts to winter coats, and back to shorts and t-shirts. While several Iowa cities saw record high temperatures in the 70s on Monday, today’s (Wednesday) highs will only be in the 30s after single-digit temps overnight along with scattered flurries. National Weather Service meteorologist Brad Small says today’s forecast will be fairly typical for late February, but a change is coming.
“We’ll be right back to where we started from to end the work week, with highs back into the 50s Thursday, 50s and 60s Friday,” Small says, “and if you look even further, into the weekend, highs back into the 70s again by the weekend.” The first day of Spring is March 19th.
[Iowa Capital Dispatch] – The Iowa House passed legislation Tuesday that would shift hotel and motel inspection requirements from biennial inspections to inspecting hotels typically on the basis of complaints. In the past decade, the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing’ has repeatedly violated the law requiring routine inspections of hotels every two years. House File 2426 would codify the department’s method of pursuing inspections based on both complaints and risk-based assessments to determine which facilities should be prioritized, removing the previous biennial requirement.
The legislation, passed 64-33, was amended to remove language eliminating a DIAL requirement to conduct annual inspections of businesses permitted to remove or encapsulate asbestos. The original bill would have only required inspections in cases where a complaint or referral is filed, injuries or accidents occur or if a “media notification” alerts the department that a danger exists. Rep. Jeff Cooling, D-Cedar Rapids, said the amendment took a “really, really bad proposed bill” to just a “really bad” bill. He criticized Iowa DIAL for not following current law requiring inspections every two years, and the lack of oversight and inspections.
While Iowa has 580 licensed hotels subject to inspections by the the state department, DIAL has inspected an average of 105 annually in the last three years, he said. Cooling said this may largely be because of inadequate staffing — there are currently 22 inspectors at DIAL, who also inspect food establishments, food processing plants and home food processing establishments in addition to hotels and motels. That leaves each inspector with an average 542 establishments to inspect. He said there were many cases showing the need for government review of these businesses.
Cooling shared stories of hotel inspections that found serious issues at establishments — like a 2022 inspection of a Des Moines motel that found smoke alarms were not working in five of the 12 rooms inspected, or a complaint about bed bugs at a Clive hotel that had not been inspected at any time in the seven years prior. These issues — as well as many other reported violations — have come through investigations using DIAL’s “current practice” of complaint-based inspections, Cooling said, while being out of compliance with Iowa Code. The bill’s floor manager Rep. Craig Johnson, R-Independence, said he did not want to imply “there aren’t bad operators, or that maybe some of our operators aren’t taking care of business,” but that his own experience of hotels in Iowa have largely been positive.
During January subcommittee meetings on the bill, advocates with hotel and lodging groups spoke in support of the legislation, saying that the state’s hotel industry thinks the complaint-based inspection system works well. But others, like Peter Hird, a lobbyist for the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, said there is still a need for routine inspections, as many Iowans staying at hotels do not think to file a complaint with the state when they encounter issues like mold or bed bugs at the place they’re staying. Johnson also spoke in support of DIAL inspectors, who he said are “doing the absolute best they can” in inspections with only 22 staff available.
The bill must first clear the Senate before going to the governor for final approval. The bill’s companion, Senate File 2203, passed through the committee process in early February.
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