The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports one arrest after responding to a report of a burglary in Elliott on Monday. At 1:10pm Deputies responded to the call and arrested 35-year-old Cory Ross Smith of Elliott. Smith is charged with Burglary 3rd Degree and was held at the Montgomery County Jail until seen by a Magistrate.

The Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department Board held their monthly meeting Monday evening in the Parks & Rec Office, at Sunnyside Park. Parks Director Bryant Rasmussen said with the blessing of the Parks Board, they will begin the process of looking for a campground host at the Schildberg Recreation Area Campground. The campground will open in April but the unpaid position would begin in May and run through October. The job offers free camping for person selected.

The host would be responsible for a number of duties, including: making sure campers are registering properly; help with the purchase of firewood; make sure the rules are being followed at the campground; making sure extended-stay campers are keeping their area cleaned-up, and general maintenance of the bathrooms at the bath house. The Board voted to move forward with a job posting that’s been drafted.

Rasmussen said also, a sign with hours for Mollett Park will be posted when the weather permits. The Park is located at the end of 3rd Street Place. It will include raised garden beds and rain barrels to help supplement any water needed from AMU. He said flyers have been posted around town to describe where the gardens will be and how to acquire one for rent. Five other signs are being created for certain sporting activities at Sunnyside Park. The signs will have a scannable QR Code so persons may access instructions on how to play, for instance: Horseshoes, Disc Golf, Bocce ball, the Skate Park, and ladder golf.

In other business, the Atlantic Library has graciously provided eight of their unused, round  plastic recycling bins, which the parks department has painted blue, and will use to collect aluminum cans. They’ll be found at slow-pitch softball games, some of the campground shelters (such as the Camblin Addition and Kiddie Korral), and elsewhere. The recycling canisters would otherwise cost about $70 to $80, according to Rasmussen.

He said also, the Parks and Rec Department is coordinating with the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce and some businesses, to place Walking Maps in kiosks at the Schildberg Recreations, City Park and Sunnyside Park. Those kiosks will be installed this Spring.

Rasmussen said they’ve coordinated with the Street Department to address some of the high need maintenance areas along the Bull Creek pathway. As things start to thaw, and heat up, they’ll begin addressing at least one area of Bull Creek erosion control.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An operations manager at the Iowa Department of Transportation has been named the agency’s permanent director. Gov. Kim Reynolds says she has appointed Scott Marler, a 22-year veteran of the department who has worked in traffic operations, highway project development and regulatory compliance. He began work on Monday.

Marler succeeds Mark Lowe who was asked to resign by Reynolds in December. Her only reason was that she sought a change in leadership. Marler was the director of the operations division which has oversight of the construction and materials bureau, maintenance, motor vehicle enforcement and the traffic and safety bureau.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports 29-year-old Casey Baker, of Indianola, was arrested on a drug charge following a traffic stop for having expired license plates. He was taken into custody at around 1:30-p.m., Monday, in Prescott, after he was found to be in possession of a waxy substance containing THC. Baker was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance (THC Wax) and booked into the Adams County Jail, where he was held on $1,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) — Two police officers in the northern Iowa town of Milford answered an unusual Valentine’s Day 9-1-1 call Friday. The call came from an elderly man around 2:50 a-m. He told the responding officers Keaton Verner and Garth Wolff that he was lonely and wanted someone to talk to. The two officers pulled up chairs and said they would keep him company.

Officer Wolff

Officer Verner

The department posted a picture of the man and officers on Facebook — but then said it was taken down out of respect for the man’s privacy. The post says community policing is key to law enforcement having a good relationship with the citizens. The post encourages everyone to go out in their communities and pay it forward.

(Radio Iowa) — The coronavirus isn’t the only thing from China that’s invading America this winter. An insect expert says people across Iowa and the Midwest are reporting they’re finding droves of half-inch-long stink bugs in their houses. Creighton University Biology Professor Ted Burk says it’s a species of creature we haven’t seen in the U-S before and the critters are plentiful.

“What we’ve been seeing this year, more than we’ve ever seen before, is this new invasive species, the brown marmorated stink bug,” Burk says. “This is the first year we’ve really had lots of widespread comments about them getting into people’s houses.” The bugs don’t really do much but hide in cracks and crevices. They don’t bite but — like a skunk — they do emit a foul smell if disturbed. Burk says this is just the latest of several invasive species of insects that have found their way to Iowa in recent years.

“We’ve got the Asian long-horned beetle, we’ve got the emerald ash borer, we have the Asian multicolored ladybugs that have been invading people’s houses so much in the past few years,” Burk says. “It’s really just a reflection of the fact there’s so much worldwide trade originating in China now that things are being spread all over the world.”

Because of their odor, some people like to avoid trying to swat or capture the stink bugs, however, Burk says they’re resistant to most chemical insecticides. “You can buy little insect vacuums to vacuum them up in your house,” Burk says. “If you go to Amazon, there’s about ten different varieties of insect vacuums which seem to be developed mainly for stink bugs. There’s even one called the ‘Bugzooka’ for collecting them.”

Stink bugs are attracted to water and warmth, which we can use to our advantage. “You just get a tin foil roasting pan or something like that, put an inch or so of soapy water in it and then take a desk lamp and shine it on the pan,” Burk says. “The light will attract the stink bugs and they’ll drown in the soapy water.” He also suggests you focus on the future and work to caulk or seal any cracks and all entrances to avoid an infestation next fall.

There -could- be a threat to agriculture, as Burk says the brown marmorated stink bug feeds on more than 300 different kinds of fruit and vegetable plants.

(Radio Iowa) — A small group of Iowa House members and hunting enthusiasts are debating whether to increase the number of licenses for out-of-state deer hunters. Under current law, six-thousand deer hunting licenses are available for residents of OTHER states.

Representative Dean Fisher, a Republican from Montour, says expanding deer hunting opportunities would be good for Iowa’s economy. “As a landowner, I’ve got deer — including big bucks — running through my barnyard all the time and where I live, it’s just overpopulated,” Fisher says. “Instead of just keeping the number the same, adding to the licenses is what I would favor.”

Fisher’s on a House SUB-committee that’s embracing the idea of offering 15-hundred MORE deer hunting licenses to out-of-staters — and setting aside 500 of those licenses for hunters who’ve signed up with an Iowa-based hunting guide. The Iowa Bow Hunters Association opposes the move. Bob Haney is president of the group.

“What we have in Iowa is unique. It’s known worldwide when you talk about white-tailed deer, the quality of the herd that is managed by the DNR and enjoyed by the residents of Iowa is second-to-none. We’re all for maintaining that same similar kind of structure,” he says. “We also understand people want to come here. There’s a reason they want to come here. They don’t enjoy what we have in their home states.”

Eric Goranson, a LOBBYIST for the Iowa Bow Hunters Association, says Iowa hunters should be the priority — and it’s getting harder and harder for Iowans who live in urban areas to find places to hunt.  “If we don’t take care of them and give them access and keep them in mind during these conversations, our conversations 10-12 years from now are going to be very different,” Goranson says. “It’s going to be: ‘How do we get hunting back in Iowa again?'”

Jim Obradovich, a lobbyist for the Iowa Conservation Alliance, says other hunting-related proposals under consideration could complicate the system even more. “You look at it like one of those Jenga games and you can periodically pull one or two of those pieces out, but sometimes you pull the wrong piece out and the whole thing collapses,” Obradovich says.

There’s a deadline this week for all of these kinds of policy discussions. Most bills must be endorsed by a House or Senate committee by this Friday to stay eligible for consideration.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (Jefferson City News Tribune) — A former Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper who was driving a boat when an Iowa man fell out and drowned has dismissed three lawsuits he filed over losing his law enforcement license. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office says Anthony Piercy voluntarily dismissed lawsuits against the patrol, the state Department of Public Safety and the department’s director. He will receive more than $200,000 in back pay and for agreeing not to be reinstated to the patrol or to protest his peace officer’s license being revoked.

Brandon Ellingson, of Clive, Iowa, died in May 2014 at the Lake of the Ozarks after he fell out of a boat while handcuffed after Piercy arrested him.

(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds says state officials have been working with local emergency management coordinators to prepare for another round of flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers this spring. “We want to make sure the line of communication is clear so that if we have, especially, an evac order — we didn’t have a lot of time with this last go-round — and so we want to make sure that all of the procedures are in place.”

National Weather Service forecasts describe the flood threat along the western Iowa border south of Sioux City as “grim” and, in eastern Iowa, there’s a 95 percent probability of flooding along the Mississippi. Last week, Governor Reynolds approved 21 million dollars in state funding for a variety of flood-related projects around the state. Most of the federally-owned MISSOURI River levees that were damaged last spring have been repaired, according to Reynolds. “I think they’re up to about a 25 or 50 years flood, so not near where they need to be,” Reynolds says, “but we’re trying to do everything we can to be in the best possible position to be ready for this spring.”

Reynolds says the Army Corps of Engineers has begun increasing the amount of water that’s being released in the Missouri River from reservoirs upstream — to hold SOME of the melting snow that’s expected in the river basin. “And on the Mississippi we’re already five feet above where we should be, so we’re just continuing to put procedures in place to be ready,” Reynolds says.

National Weather Service hydrologists say snow pack in Minnesota and Wisconsin is heavier than a year ago — adding to the flood risk downstream. Last month, there was a flash flood in a Minneapolis suburb was caused by ice pack breaking up on the Mississippi River. This weekend, the National Weather Service in OMAHA issued a flood warning along the Platte River south of Fremont. The Platte drains into the Missouri River just south of Omaha.

(Radio Iowa) — As spring approaches, forecasters say Iowa’s in for some rollercoaster temperatures. While many of us enjoyed high temps in the mid 40s over the weekend, it’s back to winter today (Monday) with ice, sleet and snow. Meteorologist Kenny Podrazik, at the National Weather Service in metro Des Moines, says the northern few tiers of counties will see rain change over to snow this morning and this afternoon. “Anywhere from Algona, Estherville, Mason City, even as far east as Decorah, that whole area is going to see a decent amount of snow,” Podrazik says, “and there’s certainly the potential for a light glaze of ice as well.”

Parts of the region could get up to a half-foot of new flakes. “Estherville and Algona could see one-to-two inches of snow,” Podrazik says. “The further east you go, you could see higher amounts, like two-to-four in Mason City, and northeast portions of Iowa could see three-to-six or four-to-six inches of snowfall by later today.” Twenty-five counties across Iowa’s northern third are under a Winter Weather Advisory and where ice is accumulating, driving will quickly become hazardous. The forecast calls for a big dip into colder weather this week and another significant warm-up by the weekend.

“We could see some subzero temperatures Wednesday night into Thursday morning,” Podrazik says. “Then, by Saturday and Sunday, we’ll be back into the mid- or upper-40s and certainly couldn’t rule out a couple of spots topping 50 degrees on one of those days.” Spring will arrive in a little over a month on March 19th.