The Atlantic City Council will hold a special electronic meeting 5:30-p.m Wednesday (April 22nd). The session will be conducted via ZOOM (at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86252926528?pwd=RFo1aVNQQlN0ZDJlbEk1SUR1QXJtdz09), and will begin with a Public Hearing on a proposal to “Enter into a General Obligation Refunding Loan Agreement and to borrow money thereunder in a principal amount not to exceed $200,000.”

The Hearing will be followed by action on passing a Resolution “Taking additional action on Proposal to Enter into a General Obligation Refunding Loan Agreement, Combining Loan Agreements, Providing for the Issuance of $3,685,000 General Obligation Refunding Bonds, Series 2020, and Providing for the Levy of Taxes to Pay the same.”

Over the course of next eight-years, the move (if approved) is expected to save the City almost $93,194 in interest.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ daily press briefing on COVID-19. We plan to have live audio of the presser on KJAN as well. The press conference is set to begin at approximately 11:00 a.m.

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — A state audit has found a former Southeast Iowa sheriff’s deputy made more than $7,400 in improper purchases with county money including buying bullets for a personal gun, computers and drones. Iowa Auditor Rob Sand says former Des Moines County Chief Deputy Jeff White returned about $3,100 worth of items he bought but more $4,200 worth of items could not be located. Some of the items that remain unaccounted for include an Apple computer and ammunition. White retired from the sheriff’s office in December 2018 after some of the purchases were challenged.

(Updated 10-a.m.) – The Griswold FFA Greenhouse will soon be open three days each week beginning Thursday, April 23rd. Superintendent Dave Henrichs said there will be many beautiful flowers, 157 hanging baskets and veggies, including tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. For the safety of everyone involved, there will be a limit as to the number of customers in the greenhouse to two people at a time. Persons entering the greenhouse must use hand sanitizer provided outside, before they enter. Customers will go through the greenhouse in a clockwise direction. The checkout stand will be set-up outside.

Henrichs said “It’s certainly not all about the money by any means, but just for perspective purposes, we have about $3,500 in product right now as far as the school’s cost. We’re hoping to recoup at least some of that anyway, and have a bigger and better greenhouse even, next year.”

More information is available on Facebook at Griswold CSD.

Contrary to some rumors circulating recently, the Cass County Fair in Atlantic is still set to take place July 22nd through the 28th. According to officials with ISU Extension in Cass County, nothing has been decided yet. Concerns over whether the Fair would go on were raised by some, over the uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the highlights of this year’s Fair include:

July 23rd – The Little Miss & Little Mister Contest; King & Queen Contest; Senior Recognition.

July 24th – Mutton Busting for the kids, and Bull Riding.

July 25th – The County Fair Church Service.

July 27th – Grand Champion Beef Selection

July 28th – The Livestock sale.

Learn more by following The Cass County Fair (IA) on Facebook.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa City man has been shot to death, and police are offering a $1,000 reward for information in the case. Police say in a news release that the shooting happened Monday morning, just before 10 a.m., when officers were called to the area for a report of a shooting. Arriving officers found a man, later identified as 21-year-old Kejuan Winters of Iowa City, inside a home suffering from gunshot wounds. Police say Winters later died from his injuries. No arrests had been reported by early Tuesday morning, but investigators do not believe the shooting was random. Police are asking anyone with information on the shooting to contact CrimeStoppers.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Board of Parole has approved 482 inmates for early release from the state’s prisons to reduce overcrowding during the COVID-19 pandemic. Iowa Department of Corrections director Beth Skinner says another 90 state prison inmates are approved for future release. “It’s critical each of these have safe, sustainable housing before they are released,” Skinner says. “Additionally, we are working closely with community based corrections to safely parole those that have been approved back into the community.”

A month ago, the state prison system was at 22 percent over design capacity. “We are working closely with the Board of Parole, which has the authority to release those who would likely success in a community setting,” Skinner says. “Together our agencies are working to find a balance of good public safety and safety of the institutions for our staff and those incarcerated.”

Over the weekend, officials announced an inmate transferred into the state prison system on Thursday had tested positive for COVID-19, but had never been in the general population and was in quarantine. Earlier this month a correctional officer working at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville had tested positive for the virus. Today (Monday) Skinner announced a second officer who had been around that person has also tested positive.  “The good news for the facility is this team member has not been at work since April 9,” Skinner says. “Because they started staying home before ever experiencing symptoms, we do not believe there was any exposure by inmates or staff to this individual.”

All staff AND inmates at the Coralville facility are now required to wear face masks as a precaution and temperatures are being taken twice daily to check for fever. The state agency is asking county officials to keep any inmate with COVID-19 quarantined IN THE COUNTY JAIL and to NOT transfer them into the state prison system. “We ask sheriffs to suspend admissions and revocations at this time,” Skinner says. “and this is to prevent the unnecessary exposure to jail inmates and reduce the likelihood of another opportunity to introduce COVID-19 into our prisons.”

No visitors have been allowed inside the state prisons since March 14th and inmates on work crews are no longer allowed to work outside of prison property.

(Radio Iowa) — The director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority says her agency has been largely focused on big business expansion projects, but Debi Durham says that’s about to change. “I’m going to propose to the legislature that we do a revolving loan fund for Main Street businesses,” Durham says.

Durham isn’t ready to say how large she’d like the fund to be, but she’s asked the state’s bankers if they’ll manage the loans for businesses in Iowa’s rural communities. “We think that’s the best way to do it because they have the relationship,” Durham says. “It’s ready, so it’s just a matter of when the legislature convenes, presenting something to them.”

Earlier this month, Durham’s agency distributed 24 MILLION dollars in state GRANTS to hundreds of small businesses — but nearly 14-THOUSAND business owners had applied. As she announced the grants that HAD been awarded, Durham called small businesses the backbone of Iowa communities.  “Our team has spoken with or emailed with a large percentage of our small business owners from every industry sector and region of our state,” Durham said. “To our small business owners: we heard you.'”

Beyond the addition of a small business loan fund to the state economic agency’s portfolio, Durham plans to ask lawmakers to financially support other programs aimed at Iowa’s small business sector. “Absolutely you are going to see us step up in a bigger way than we have before, because as you know we ten to play with the ‘High Quality Jobs’ (program) is a big business initiative,”Durham says. “We’ve had our ‘Main Street’ and our ‘Targeted Small Business’ (programs) but they’re very small in comparison, so you’re going to see us have a totally different focus.”

Durham made her comments this weekend on Iowa P-B-S on the “Iowa Press” program. The 2020 Iowa legislative session is currently suspended, but lawmakers must reconvene at some point to at least debate and pass a spending plan for the 12-month state budgeting year that begins July 1st.