(Updated 4:30-p.m., 8/23) – Candidate filings for City and School Candidates in Cass County began Monday (8/23).  All City candidates will file in the Auditor’s office and all School Candidates will file with the appropriate School Board Secretary.

Two people who had previously announced their plans to run for Mayor in the City of Atlantic, filed papers today.They include 3rd Ward Councilman Pat McCurdy and At Large Councilperson Grace N. Garrett, both of Atlantic.  In addition, 2nd Ward Atlantic Councilperson Kathy Somers filed her nomination papers for Mayor, Monday.

And, Shirley Jensen, of Atlantic, has filed to run for the City of Atlantic’s Park and Recreation Department Board of Directors. Additional candidate filings will be announced throughout the week, as they are made available to KJAN.

Police in Red Oak cited a teen for Failure to Obey a Stop Sign and Yield the Right of Way, following an accident that happened at around 4:50-p.m., Friday. Authorities say the accident happened at the intersection of W. Washington Avenue and N. Broadway, when a 2008 Chevy Impala driven by 16-year-old Cayden Gillespie, of Red Oak, failed to yield as he was traveling westbound across Broadway.

The Impala struck a 2001 Chevy Blazer broadside, at the intersection. The driver of the SUV was identified as 35-year-old Gregory Kyle Frazier Boehne, of Adel. Both vehicles sustained an estimated $6,000 damage, each. No injuries were reported.

One person suffered possible/unknown minor injuries during a collision Saturday afternoon, in Guthrie County. The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office reports the accident happened at the intersection of Chirma Road and Highway 4, at around 2:25-p.m.  Authorities say a 2015 GMC Canyon pickup truck was stopped or stopping northbound on Highway 4, and turning left onto Chirma Road, when his vehicle was struck from behind by a 2013 Ford F-350 pickup. The driver of the GMC, 33-year old Matthew Wilson, of Omaha, was hurt, but was not transported to the hospital.

Officials say skid marks at the scene indicated the driver of the Ford, 22-year-old Riley Barr, of Indianola, appeared a short distance from the impact site. Barr was cited for Failure to Stop in a Safe Distance, and Open Container as a driver. Damage from the collision amounted to $30,000 (15k each vehicle). The Ford was declared a total loss.

A man from southwest Iowa who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7^th, 1941, will be remembered during a Memorial Service on Sept. 25^th. Eli Olsen’s remains were identified from among 429 who were onboard the battleship U.S.S. Oklahoma when it was sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers. Olsen was a 23-year-old Navy Petty Officer 3^rd Class serving on the ship as a storekeeper. He was from Exira. John Henry Tibben, of the Ames area, is his nephew. Tibben – who is 80-years old – was just three-months old when his uncle died, so his memories are sparse.

Tibben says his grandpa and grandma didn’t have any specific idea of what happened to Eli. They had received a telegram saying he was “missing in action.” About three months later they were told Eli had been declared dead.

The remains were removed in 2015, following political pressure from Congress, USS Oklahoma survivors and their families. Olsen’s remains and those of 20 other soldiers and sailors from western Iowa and Nebraska were eventually identified through DNA analysis, at the Defense Department’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency Lab at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Eli Olsen, of Exira. KIA Dec. 7, 1941 on the USS Oklahoma. (Photo via the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)

His identity was confirmed in September, 2017. John Tibben said his mother Ruth Tibben (Eli’s sister) had a hard time dealing with the news Eli’s remains had been identified. He says when she was told Eli was coming back and would be laid to rest in Exira, “she didn’t want anything to do with it,” and that John could take care of it, because “She had dealt with that and gone through it all.”

Ruth Tibben was Eli’s last living sibling. She died in April at the age of 100. Her brother will be buried next to her and near his brother Paul, in the Exira Cemetery. The Memorial Service will be held in the Exira Lutheran Church. John Tibben says bringing his Uncle home after all these years is a “good feeling” for the family, and offers the chance for a family reunion.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa State Fair wrapped up its 11-day run last (Sunday) night and will evidently come up short on setting any attendance records. The final tallies will be out soon, but fair officials say they’re confident the event drew more than a million people this year, but will not exceed the attendance record set in 2019 of more than one-point-one million. Last year’s state fair was canceled due to the pandemic.

As of Saturday night, the fair counted 994-thousand visitors, which is about 70-thousand fewer than two years ago. The fair first topped a million in 2002.

POWESHIEK COUNTY, Iowa — An annual event honoring the life of Mollie Tibbetts will help in another high-profile search in Poweshiek County. KCCI reports the fourth annual Mollie Tibbetts Memorial Run will kick off from the BGM School parking lot at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 26. The 5-mile race collects donations in Tibbetts’ memory. This year, half of the funds will go to the University of Iowa’s Stead Children’s Hospital. The other half will go toward helping to find 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson.

Xavior vanished from his Montezuma home in May. The money raised during the race will be donated to the Find Xavior Harrelson Fund which has already raised $36,000.