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Atlantic Parks & Rec update

Ag/Outdoor, News

February 15th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

The Atlantic Parks and Recreation Board met electronically Monday evening. Parks and Rec Director Bryant Rasmussen reminded the Board and Public about the Snow Sculpture contest underway through the end of the month. Residents are invited to create a snow sculpture and submit it via Facebook Messenger. He said they had received seven submissions so far. The public will vote for their favorite sculpture. The winner gets $25 in Chamber Bucks.

The Parks Board voted to approve not to replace the playground equipment at the Nishna Park, which is down the hill from the Atlantic High School, and instead use the park for a Nature Walk/relaxation area. The playground equipment had been removed when tiling was being done last year.

Rasmussen said with approximately $1,000 in donations, the Parks Department was able to acquire multiple packages of Prairie seeds, that will cover about 1,000 square feet of different prairie sections throughout the City of Atlantic. Some locations include the Schildberg Rec Area, Sunnyside Park, and Nishna Park, to help educate the public on the many different varieties of Prairie vegetation that is available, and provide a colorful natural habit for certain wildlife.

Rasmussen is working with Nishna Valley Trails’ (NVT) Dave Chase to implement facets of the Trail Head at the Little League Park near KJAN. He said they’ve ordered a bike repair station. NVT will purchase a plaque to recognize those donors who have allowed the trailhead to be placed there. There will also be maps for Cass County trails, and vegetation around the outside of the trailhead.

Bryant told the Board, once the weather begins to warm-up, they will set-up another Treasure Hunt, where the key to finding the “Treasure,” comes in the form of a riddle that points participants toward one of the parks. A treasure box with several trinkets in it will be placed somewhere in the park as a reward. In other business, Ramussen said Parks and Rec is collaborating with the Cass County Conservation Board for a “Snow Fun Afternoon” this Friday, while school is out. Details are still be worked out. Stay tuned.

Bryant said also, because it has been so cold, they haven’t been able to get snow removed from the trails, plus, there is a wiring issue with their plow. The plan is to borrow a plow from the Wastewater Treatment Plant to get to work on getting the trails cleared. He said the final version of the Walkability Maps are being finished for proofing and printing. The hope is to roll those maps out this Spring.  And, thanks to the Dog Park donations, there will be three-to four new tables installed at the SRA Dog Park, and about the same number of benches.  Tires have been received for painting, also. Those will be sunken into the ground at the Dog Park, for exercise and dog fun.

More than 50 cities set record low temps on Valentine’s Day

News, Weather

February 15th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) There was nothing sweet about the weather on Valentine’s Day as the brutal cold continued its grip on the state. State Climatologist Justin Glisan says many areas saw records. “Over 50 stations broke their daily minimum high temperature on Valentine’s day. So that is the coldest daytime high they had seen for the 14th. Anywhere ranging from zero degrees in Oskaloosa to negative 16 degrees in Rockwell City,” Glisan says.

Halfway through the month, we are averaging double digits below the normal February average temperature of 24 degrees. “We’re currently sitting at six degrees,” according to Glisan, “so 18 degrees below the monthly average. The caveat being there is that we will rebound ass we add more days to the month, and as we do warm-up.” Glisan says a disturbance in the polar vortex is allowing the cold air to flow into Iowa and many other states. Record snowfall in many areas is also contributing to the low temperatures.

“Snowpack acts to reflect the light up, that solar radiation up, that is coming in from the sun — and that does tamp down these daytime high temperatures. When you don’t get those temperatures up during the day, you are only on the downhill slope at night when the sun goes down. So yes it does impact the temperature that we do see,” Glisan says. He says you can see the impact in trees.

He says if you look at large trees you will see a tree ring from where the tree is absorbing solar radiation short wave in and emitting long-range radiation, or heat out. “And you will start to see those rings expand as you get into, hopefully sunny days and warmer days, ” he says. Glisan sees the impact in other ways as well. “Some of the remote sensing tools, the satellites that we are using looking at clouds — we are actually picking up the snowpack at the surface since it is so cold,” he explains. “You can get snowpack down into negative temperatures as well.” Glisan says we saw the same phenomenon back in January of 2019.

“That was over a four to five day period where we had temperatures actually colder than what we are seeing now — but just over two or three days in the negative 20s and the negative 30s. We had wind chill values up in northern Iowa in the negative 50s to the negative 60s. That’s extremely cold air,” Glisan says. The forecast is calling for things to slowly warm up through this week and moving toward the 20s for highs by the weekend.

AP Women’s Basketball Top 25 02/15/2021

Sports

February 15th, 2021 by admin

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ women’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 14, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking

Record Pts Prv
1. UConn (26) 16-1 746 2
2. South Carolina (2) 17-2 700 1
3. Louisville 19-1 675 3
4. NC State 13-2 642 4
5. Texas A&M (1) 19-1 639 6
6. Stanford (1) 18-2 627 5
7. Baylor 16-2 564 7
8. UCLA 12-3 530 8
9. Maryland 14-2 515 9
10. Arizona 14-2 505 10
11. Michigan 11-1 432 12
12. South Florida 11-1 386 14
13. Oregon 12-4 377 11
14. Indiana 13-4 332 15
15. Ohio St. 12-3 303 12
16. Gonzaga 18-2 272 17
17. Kentucky 14-5 260 20
18. Arkansas 15-7 248 18
19. DePaul 11-4 174 22
19. West Virginia 16-3 174 19
21. Tennessee 12-5 172 16
22. Georgia 16-4 139 24
23. South Dakota St. 17-2 130 23
24. Northwestern 11-4 92 21
25. Missouri St. 13-2 79 25

Others receiving votes: Rutgers 10, Stephen F Austin 7, Oklahoma St. 6, Florida Gulf Coast 5, Georgia Tech 3, Mississippi St. 2, Virginia Tech 2, Rice 2.

AP Men’s Basketball Top 25 02/15/2021

Sports

February 15th, 2021 by admin

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 14, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking

Record Pts Prv
1. Gonzaga (59) 20-0 1595 1
2. Baylor (5) 17-0 1541 2
3. Michigan 14-1 1469 3
4. Ohio St. 17-4 1402 4
5. Illinois 14-5 1311 6
6. Houston 17-2 1170 8
7. Virginia 15-3 1129 9
8. Alabama 17-5 1085 11
9. Oklahoma 13-5 1071 12
10. Villanova 13-3 1060 5
11. Iowa 15-6 910 15
12. Texas 13-5 885 13
13. West Virginia 14-6 836 14
14. Creighton 16-5 793 19
15. Texas Tech 14-6 791 7
16. Florida St. 11-3 624 17
17. Southern Cal 17-3 586 20
18. Virginia Tech 14-4 513 18
19. Tennessee 14-5 452 16
20. Missouri 13-5 412 10
21. Wisconsin 15-7 274 21
22. Loyola of Chicago 0-0 166 22
23. Kansas 15-7 140
24. Arkansas 16-5 111
25. San Diego St. 15-4 75

Others receiving votes: Oklahoma St. 71, Rutgers 49, Belmont 47, Louisville 40, Colorado 31, Oregon 30, Drake 22, Purdue 20, Clemson 17, LSU 16, Florida 16, UCLA 10, VCU 10, Saint Louis 5, Xavier 4, Toledo 2, Western Kentucky 2, North Carolina 2, UC Santa Barbara 1, BYU 1, Wichita St. 1, Wright St. 1, Utah St. 1.

University of Iowa reinstates Women’s Swimming & Diving program

Sports

February 15th, 2021 by admin

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa announced today that it is fully reinstating women’s swimming and diving as an NCAA and Big Ten Conference program. The team is currently competing in the 2020-21 season and was originally scheduled to be discontinued at the end of this year due to financial challenges created by the pandemic.

“Every student-athlete in all 24 sports at Iowa has experienced challenges and uncertainty since the pandemic began. This has been especially true for the men and women in the four sports we announced would be discontinued after this season,” said Gary Barta, Henry B. and Patricia B. Tippie Director of Athletics Chair. “The women’s swimming lawsuit brought forward last September, combined with the recent court order mandating the continuation of the sport during the legal process, has created additional uncertainty that could last several months or even years.

“We made the decision the right thing to do was to re-instate the women’s swimming and diving program and remove any uncertainty moving forward for our current student-athletes as well as high school swimmers considering attending the University of Iowa.”

In August 2020, the Iowa Athletics Department estimated a financial deficit of $75 million brought on by the COVID pandemic. A plan was developed to help mitigate the shortfall that included operational budget cuts, salary reductions, position eliminations and the discontinuation of four sports (men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s gymnastics, and men’s tennis) at the conclusion of the 2020-21 season. The estimated deficit has been reduced to approximately $50-$60 million due to those mitigation efforts and limited revenues generated during the modified football season, but the financial challenge remains significant and the decision to discontinue the three men’s sports identified will remain in place.

“We remain committed to support and care for those student-athletes, honor their scholarships if they choose to remain at Iowa and provide academic, medical and mental health support as requested,” said Barta.

In September 2020, a lawsuit was filed challenging the decision to discontinue women’s swimming. The University continues to disagree with the claims made in the lawsuit, and the subsequent preliminary injunction to continue offering the sport in 2021-2022 while the lawsuit makes its way through the court system. However, in the interests of serving our student-athletes, coaches and community, the University believes more certainty will be beneficial for the future of the program. Accordingly, the University has decided it is in the best interests of the student-athletes, coaches, and the athletics department to voluntarily reinstate the program, regardless of any outcome related to the lawsuit.

The Iowa Athletics Department is committed to Gender Equity and has a rich history in the success of its women’s sports programs. The University has been, and is committed to continuing to be, in compliance with Title IX. From 2015-2019 the University diligently cooperated with the federal Office for Civil Rights as it conducted an extensive investigation of the Iowa Athletics program. In 2019 OCR confirmed that the program had demonstrated compliance with all aspects of Title IX that it had investigated.

Donarski tabbed Big 12 Freshman of the Week

Sports

February 15th, 2021 by admin

IRVING, Texas – Iowa State women’s basketball guard Lexi Donarski picked up her third Freshman of the Week award, the league announced Monday.

Donarski had the biggest game of her young career, as she dropped 32 points in Iowa State’s win over TCU. Donarski went 10-of-14 from the floor and connected on six treys. Her 32 points marked a school record for points in a game for Iowa State freshmen.

Donarski is averaging 12.7 points on the season, which is the most of any freshman in the Big 12, while shooting 40.9 percent from the field and 42.6 percent from long range.

The honor was the sixth Freshman of the Week honor for the Cyclones this season, as fellow freshmen Emily Ryan (2) and Kylie Feuerbach (1) have also claimed the honors for the Cyclones.

Iowa State returns to the court on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. to take on Kansas on the road on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.

Iowa Wrestling restarts some in-person activities

Sports

February 15th, 2021 by admin

At the direction of the University of Iowa medical team, the Iowa Athletics Department announced Monday that the Iowa Wrestling program has returned to limited in-person activities, ending a seven-day pause in response to positive COVID-19 test results within the program. Iowa will continue to follow Big Ten Conference medical protocols and the direction of the UI medical team regarding a full-team return to in-person activities.  

Iowa’s dual with Northwestern scheduled for Friday, Feb. 19, has been postponed out of an abundance of caution surrounding the health and safety of the participants. A determination on the Hawkeyes’ dual scheduled at Wisconsin for Sunday, Feb. 21, will be made later this week.

Joe Wieskamp tabbed Big Ten Player of the Week

Sports

February 15th, 2021 by admin

IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa men’s basketball junior Joe Wieskamp has been named the Big Ten Player of the Week, it was announced Monday by the Big Ten Conference Office.

Wieskamp (6-foot-6, 212 pounds) averaged 23.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, two assists, and one steal in Iowa’s pair of double-digit wins last week over No. 25 Rutgers (79-66) and Michigan State (88-58). The native of Muscatine, Iowa, shot a combined 59 percent from the field (16-of-27), including a blistering 71 percent from 3-point range (10-of-14).

In Iowa’s 13-point triumph over the Scarlet Knights, Wieskamp posted his third double-double of the season and seventh of his career. He led all scorers with 26 points and controlled 10 defensive rebounds. Wieskamp made 64 percent of his total field goal attempts (9-of-14), including 5-of-7 from 3-point territory.

Wieskamp eclipsed 20 points for the second consecutive game in Saturday’s 30-point victory against Michigan State at the Breslin Center, netting a game-best 21 points and grabbing seven defensive rebounds. The 30-point win was Iowa’s largest margin of victory ever in East Lansing and the Spartans’ worst home defeat in 46 years. Once again, Wieskamp was dialed in from distance, sinking five of his seven 3-point attempts.

As a result of Wieskamp’s totals from last week, he is the first junior in program history to amass more than 1,100 points, 500 rebounds, 150 3-pointers, 100 assists, and 75 steals.

No. 11 Iowa (15-6. 9-5) will face No. 21 Wisconsin (15-7, 9-6) on Thursday. Tipoff is slated for 6:01 p.m. (CT) at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

Clark earns Big Ten Co-Player, Freshman of the Week

Sports

February 15th, 2021 by admin

IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa freshman Caitlin Clark was named Big Ten Women’s Basketball Co-Player and Freshman of the Week, the conference announced Monday.

Clark has tallied 16 Big Ten Weekly honors on the season, including 10 freshman honors, four Big Ten Player of the Week honors, and two Player of the Week Honor Roll nods. Clark’s 10 Freshman of the Week honors and four Player of the Week nods tie Big Ten Records. The first Big Ten student-athlete to receive 10 Freshman of the Week awards was Nebraska’s Jessica Shepard during the 2015-16 season. Minnesota’s Amanda Zahui B. is the only other freshman to earn four Player of the Week nods. Her four Big Ten Player of the Week honors as a freshman are believed to be the NCAA record.

Clark recorded her third consecutive and seventh 30-point game of the season against Nebraska. Her seven 30-point games are tied for the most in the NCAA this season. Against the Cornhuskers, Clark’s 39 points earned her a spot in the Nebraska record books, marking the most points scored in Pinnacle Bank Arena — male or female.

Clark is the second freshman since the 2015-16 season to record seven 30-point games – the first was Texas A&M’s Chennedy Carter during the 2017-18 season. Carter played 19 more games than the Hawkeyes have played this season.

The West Des Moines, Iowa, native recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 39 points and 10 rebounds and was three assists shy of a triple double.

Clark now ranks third on Iowa’s all-time freshman scoring list with 451 points on the season. The record holder is Jaime Printy with 501 points during the 2009-10 season. Clark is the first Iowa freshman to record 400-plus points, 100-plus rebounds, and 100-plus assists in a season.

Clark and the Hawkeyes host Penn State on Thursday inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Tip is set for 3 p.m. (CT) on Big Ten Network.

Bill directs state to buy or lease system to periodically check eligibility for food stamps

News

February 15th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – A new computer system would periodically check if Iowans are eligible for food stamp benefits if a bill that’s cleared a senate subcommittee becomes law. Republican Senator Jason Schultz of Schleswig proposes that the Iowa Department of Human Services buy the system or pay a private company to verify eligibility for food stamps by July 1st of 2022.

Janee Harvey of the Iowa Department of Human Services says Equifax has offered the agency a FREE, one-year trial of its system.

In addition, Harvey says the bill would spend state money on a system the federal government will be providing all states, at no charge, in late 2022. Senator Schultz says he expects to draft changes in the bill before it’s considered by the Senate Commerce Committee.