(Radio Iowa) – The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing financial aid to Iowans for some COVID-19-related funerals. FEMA spokesman Bryon Boka says the agency is covering up to nine-thousand-dollars per person.  “If they’ve lost more than one person, they can apply for multiple individuals,” Boka says. “That does have its own max as well, up to a maximum of $35,500.”

The aid applies to COVID funeral expenses incurred after January 20th of 2020. Boka explains some of the qualifications.”It’s any individual who has assumed those costs upon themselves and have no other form of insurance or pre-paid burial costs that are tied to the deceased individual,” he says. To apply, call FEMA’s COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Hotline Monday through Friday at 1-844-684-6333.

(Radio Iowa) – The State Health Facilities Council has reversed its vote of six months ago and approved a plan for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to build a 230 million dollar hospital in North Liberty. The 4-1 vote Tuesday reversed the 3-2 denial of the plan in February. The administrators at other hospitals in the area say plan if for the new facility to expand beyond specialty care and take away their patients. U-I-H-C C-E-O Suresh Gunasekaran says they provide complex treatments beyond what the other hospitals offer. “So, what we’ve seen is as the Iowa population is aging — not just complex care — but care being delivered for complex patients,” Gunasekaran says.

He says other hospitals are closing their residencies for new doctors while the U-H-I-C wants to expanding by 100 in the next five years — and the new hospital provides more space to do that. Gunasakren says the new facility will not take away the patients of the other hospitals in the area. “Let’s be clear, over 70 percent of U-I-H-C volume comes from outside of Johnson and Linn County. The patients are not choosing between U-H-I-C and the other hospitals in Johnson and Linn County,” he says. “They are choosing whether to get their tertiary care at U-H-I-C or whether to seek it out of state. Sixty-eight-hundred patients leave Iowa every year for care that U-H-I-C can provide.”

The C-E-O of Unity Point in Cedar Rapids, Michelle Niermann was one of those to speaking opposition. Niermann says the plan presented is nearly the same as the one that was turned down. “It has the same potentially detrimental impact to community hospitals — which is what we are here to talk about today. It represents the same governmental entity competing with private enterprise, competing with community hospitals,” Niermann says. She says the U-H-I-C is trying to expand to take in more patients who need less specialized care while the hospitals in the area have the capacity to handle patients. She says most have more than 50 percent of their capacity available and will continue to struggle as “the University of Iowa seeks to pull and keep care from our system.” Niermann says the U-H-I-C hasn’t shown the need is there for a new facility.

“We’ve heard over and over today that this expansion is necessary for the university to meet the most complex needs of Iowans — yet across 50 slides, three consultants, and dozens of pages of correspondence about their resubmitted application — we still don’t have a specific description of how it addresses needs,” Niermann says. Several other speakers testified before the state body throughout the afternoon — with both sides at times saying the other was not telling the truth. The members of the Facilities Council asked questions during the testimony, but did not make any comments before taking the vote approving the facility. The new hospital would be completed in 2025. The opponents have an opportunity to appeal.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety, today (Wednesday), report that on Tuesday, August 31, 2021, the Jones County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from the residence located at 23966 42nd Street Martelle, in rural Jones County.  Upon arrival, deputies observed a large structure fire and they also encountered an individual with a knife. Multiple law enforcement officers from the surrounding communities responded to the scene.  Initial reports indicate the subject did not comply to orders given by law enforcement to drop the knife.  Law enforcement deployed non-lethal and lethal rounds.  The subject received multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene.

Two deputies from the Jones County Sheriff’s Office discharged their service weapons and have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation.  Three officers from the Anamosa Police Department discharged their service weapons and have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation.  A Linn County Deputy deployed non-lethal rounds and has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation.  It is standard protocol for the deputies and officers of the aforementioned departments to be placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an Officer Involved Shooting investigation.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) was requested to investigate the officer involved shooting.  The Iowa State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFM) was dispatched to investigate the fire. Both investigations are currently ongoing and no additional information will be released at this time.  The names of the Sheriff Deputies and Police Officers will be released once they have been interviewed by the DCI.  The name of the decedent will be released pending notification of family.

Agencies that responded to the incident were: Jones Sheriff’s Office, Linn County Sheriff’s Office, Anamosa Police Department, Mt. Vernon Police Department, Monticello Police Department, Iowa State Patrol (ISP), Martelle Volunteer Fire Department, Lisbon Volunteer Fire Department, Anamosa Volunteer Fire Department, Mt. Vernon Volunteer Fire Department and the Morley Volunteer Fire Department.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday morning, received a presentation on ISICS (The Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System). During a nearly 2-hour Q&A session, ISICS Interoperability Coordinator Chris Maiers explained the difference between a VHF “legacy” system and a “trunked” radio communications system like ISICS. The latter utilizes the 700 megahertz, digital frequency, while the old system is analog.

VHF, he says, may have channels that are idle 90-percent of the time, while the trunked radio system can be configured to support the entire county. The problem is the County has signal “drop-out” zones, or “dead spots.” Cass County has bent over backwards over the years to prepare for communication upgrades, including purchasing a new console for the Cass County Communications Center, along with mobile radios, to name a few of the improvements. But the dead spots in signal reception remain, due to the county’s topography. Supervisor Steve Green said Cass and other Counties were caught between a rock and a hard space when ISICS came out.

Green said the County has been negotiating with Motorola for a tower and related enhancements for a tower site, to complete ISICS connectivity.

The latest proposal calls for the construction of a communications tower to handle ISICS. It’s estimated the cost will be approximately $3-million. Installing a pad for the tower, erecting the tower and other facets of the it, could take anywhere from nine-to 18-months.

Steve Green said before the County takes any action, he wants to see the City Council’s for each city in the county, to discuss with their citizens the advantages of the system, how much it would cost, and if bonding for the project is a viable option.

In other news, the Supervisors, Tuesday, approved a request for grant matching funds from the Cass County Fire Association which received a Department of Homeland Security grant for the purchase of mobile radios. The 5-percent local match totals $17,699.62. The Supervisors also approved the fiscal year 2020-2021 Urban Renewal Report.