(Radio Iowa) — A special investigation by the state auditor’s office indicates the office manager for a southern Iowa landfill failed to deposit tens of thousands of dollars in facility fees. Jennifer Nickell was the office manager for the Solid Waste Management Commission for Wayne, Ringgold and Decatur Counties. According to a letter from the state auditor’s office, Nickell admitted to the commission she had taken “cash collections for personal use.” She resigned rather than be fired in the middle of last year.

Auditors reviewed four years of records related to the fees charged for dropping off trash at the landfill that’s near Grand River — and identified nearly 62-thousand dollars in cash hadn’t been deposited in the commission’s bank accounts. The report indicates cash was withheld from over 90 percent of the deposits made during Nickell’s tenure.

The special investigation by the state auditor’s office has been turned over to state and local authorities.

The City of Atlantic’s Parks and Recreation Department reports all public park restrooms are being shut-down until next Spring, and will be winterized. The change takes effect today (Oct. 10th), so you should plan accordingly.

An Aviation Program being offered in the Atlantic Community School District was discussed during a meeting Wednesday evening of the Atlantic School Board. Aviation Program Coordinator Lisa Sonntag said the District is just getting started with their program here. The District is one of 165 schools nationwide that offer the curriculum this year. She said Clarinda and Atlantic are the only schools in Iowa to offer the program.

From left to right: Aviation Program students Chase Vogl and Corbin Logemann; Aviation Instructor Lisa Sonntag. (Ric Hanson/photo)

The need for such a program, she said, is evident in light of the number of pilots who will be retiring from Commercial airlines in the coming years. She said Boeing reports they will be about 240,000 pilots short in about 20-years. The FAA gave out only 5,500 licenses last year. UPS is also going to be looking for pilots and mechanics just to keep their fleet running. Another element of the program deals with drones. In fact, the students had a chance within the past couple of weeks to look at and operate some drones, under the guidance of Technology Director Roger Warne and Eric Miller, Industrial Tech & Ag Instructor.

Sonntag said program is set up for four-years, but only the year-one curriculum is rolled-out. This year is the test year for year-two. Each year, another year is added to the curriculum. After year two, the students should be able to take the written FAA ground test for an eventual pilot’s license. Twenty students are participating in the curriculum this year. Students each semester’s build will cover different topics, including the construction of a small scale wind tunnels. The course includes the use of two cockpit flight simulators similar to a video game, but much more technical in nature. Sonntag said she’d eventually like to have four-to six more simulators as the years progress.

The program course features two Career and Technical Education pathways: Pilot, and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Drones). All curriculum materials are provided to schools at no cost, thanks to generous donations made to AOPA (The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) Foundation.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say two people were badly injured by a house fire in Dubuque. Firefighters were sent to the home about 9 p.m. Tuesday, and the Dubuque department says the blaze was largely contained within 15 minutes. The man and woman injured were hospitalized. Their names haven’t been released. Fire Chief Rick Steines says the fire burned mostly in the basement, but there was smoke damage on all the floors. The cause is being investigated.

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

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(Radio Iowa) — The beauty of autumn is about to come alive with the change of colors on Iowa’s trees. Joe Herring, an Iowa D-N-R forester from Iowa Falls, says the fall leaf show is already starting. “If you see some really bright red colors, if you’re in a forest area on vines that are growing up trees, those are woodbine,” Herring says. “Along the roadsides, we’re seeing nice red colors in the sumac bushes as well as some dogwoods.”

Some trees in far northern Iowa are beginning to show reds and oranges, but the majority of the state is still in the early stages. Herring says, “Across the landscape, you can see the gradual change from the deeper forest green color to more of a lime green and some yellows showing up from some cottonwood and ash and walnut and elm right now.” Herring predicts the color show won’t really peak in Iowa for at least another week, likely closer to October 19th. “That’s a little later than I normally would predict,” he says, “but I think with the late start to the growing season that some of these trees will hang on just a little bit longer than normal.”

The Iowa DNR website offers a weekly fall color report: https://www.iowadnr.gov/Conservation/Forestry/Fall-Color

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — Police have arrested a man suspected of leaving the scene after his vehicle fatally struck a bicyclist in the eastern Iowa city of Muscatine. County court records say 57-year-old Terry Gough, of Morning Sun, was arrested Monday. He’s charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for him. Gough’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 25.

Police say 49-year-old Devin Estabrook was struck Aug. 12 while riding his bike in south Muscatine. He was a member of the Grandview Volunteer Fire Department.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Creston Police Department reports 26-year old Michael Cox, of Creston, was arrested Wednesday afternoon on two Union County warrants. The warrants are for charges that include: 2 counts Violation of Probation; 2 counts Violation of Probation on original charges of Burglary, Possession of a Controlled Substance/2nd offense; and Violation of Probation (2-counts). Cox was being held in the Union County Jail while awaiting a bond hearing.

(7-a.m. News)

(Radio Iowa) — The U-S Fish and Wildlife Service is entering the final phase in approving a plan for MidAmerican Energy to help prevent the number of bats and eagles killed by its current and future wind farms. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Kraig McPeek says the final plan is now available for public comment following an earlier public hearing. “We’ve taken those comments that we received form that public commenting period last spring — incorporated changes edits and updates into the document — and now it’s going back out for a final 30-day review for the public,” McPeek says.

McPeeks says there were around 100 comments in the spring. He says they could be grouped into categories that included overall displeasure with a permit that allows for the taking of bats and bald eagles, another category that was appreciative of the data-driven approach, and then comments on ways to improve the permitting process in the future. The plan would issue a permit to allow for a limited number of deaths for four bat species and 10 turbine-related incidental bald eagle deaths each year. Bats covered by the permit include the federally endangered Indiana bat, the federally threatened northern long-eared bat, the non-endangered little brown bat and tri-colored bat. McPeek says MidAmerican has agreed to take some measures that would cut down on the number of deaths of each species.

“They’re going to feather their blades below their cut-in speeds where they being to produce electricity — that’s been proven to reduce impacts to bats,”McPeek says. “Working with land owners and county road commissions to be sure that road kill deer are not left — carcasses are not left where roadkill deer would bring them into contact with turbines.” McPeek says the company has a set number of eagles and bats that can be killed and they will pay for habitat improvements designed to replace those animals. “They will mitigate to basically create areas for bats to breed and create more bats, and to protect and breed more bald eagles in the wild,” according to McPeek.

McPeek says there are still some things that are not known about the impact of wind turbines, but MidAmerican has taken a lot of time to analyze the information available to come up with the best plan. “They’ve spent almost five years now collecting information on their existing wind farms to inform this plan,” he says, “and we’ve combined that information with information from across the great Midwest. So, we do have nearly a decade of information to help us make these decisions.” And he says if they find out that what they are doing is leading to more deaths then expected — they have to take more action.”There’s what we call an adaptive management strategy. And so the company will be monitoring annually to determine if the number of animals killed is was we had expected or if it was greater or lesser,” McPeek says. “And then we have adaptive management triggers in the plan if they do begin to exceed what the expected number of fatalities were — then they do need to take measures to bring that back down.”

McPeek says this is a little bit like the process when electric lines started going up and changes were made to keep animals from getting killed on them. He says the work continues on solutions. “This company and many other companies are working to keep bats away from insulation on power lines to keep bald eagles from being electrocuted. There’s some things that can be done to scare them away from wind farms,” McPeek says. You can view a copy of the plan online. Paper copies will be available at 22 county libraries in Iowa. A final order on the plan will be issued after the 30-day comment period.