Atlantic, Iowa  February 8, 2019:  Southwest Iowa Planning Council (SWIPCO), which operates Southwest Iowa Transit Agency (SWITA), has completed the purchase of a 10,000 square foot vehicle staging and storage facility at 3236 Nebraska Avenue, Council Bluffs.  The new facility has indoor parking space for fifteen transit buses, a vehicle maintenance area, office space, training rooms, and driver waiting and storage space.  There is also a large, fenced exterior parking area that will be able to accommodate vehicles not in active use.

SWITA is headquartered in Atlantic and provides public transit services throughout an 8 county region in Southwest Iowa, including Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County.  It also operates the Special Transit Service (STS) for the City of Council Bluffs, which is the city’s para-transit service.  SWITA operates a fleet of over 100 vehicles and approximately 20 of those vehicles and 21 drivers are currently based in and around Council Bluffs.  All of the Council Bluffs vehicles are currently stored outside at various locations.  In 2018 over 100,000 public transit rides were provided by SWITA in Pottawattamie County, and an additional 250,000 throughout the rest of the region.

SWIPCO executive director John McCurdy said, “We have an excellent facility in Atlantic, which is our main administrative and maintenance hub, but we have been reviewing properties in the Council Bluffs area for over 2 years.  The 3236 Nebraska Avenue location meets all of our needs with a near turnkey solution that will be a great satellite location to our Atlantic base.  The recent frigid weather has underscored the need for us to get as many of our vehicles indoors as possible.  It extends the life of the vehicles, enhances the drivers’ ability to keep their vehicles clean and secure, and will improve the overall experience for our riders.”

The Council Bluffs facility is currently undergoing a few necessary upgrades and vehicles will begin staging out of it in the next few weeks.

Southwest Iowa Planning Council is a council of governments that serves Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Montgomery, Mills, Page, Pottawattamie, and Page Counties in Iowa.  Southwest Iowa Transit Agency is its public transit service.  All services are open to the public, and SWIPCO is an equal opportunity provider, lender, and employer

(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds has used a Utah law as the template for her proposal to let women get birth control directly from a pharmacist rather than having to periodically get a doctor’s prescription. Reynolds says the bill outlining the details may be released as soon as today (Friday).

“There is an age limit. I think you have to be 18 or older,” Reynolds says. There’s an assessment form that you have to fill out. You’re required to visit a doctor every two years.” Reynolds first talked about this issue last fall, during her race for a full, four-year term as governor. Reynolds says the proposal will expand access to the pill and other birth control products for Iowa women, particularly those in rural areas.

“The way that we’re doing it is similar to what we did with Naloxone,” Reynolds says. That’s the medication which temporarily reverses an opioid overdose. “So it would be a standing order that would give the pharmacists authority to prescribe,” Reynolds says. Reynolds indicated the bill is written so women who have insurance coverage of their contraceptives would continue to have that coverage. Reynolds describes the bill as a starting point for debate in the legislature.

“I think any time you drop legislation, you know that’s potentially not where it’s going to end up,” Reynolds says, “but we’ve tried to work really hard to identify any problems that we might run into.” Reynolds made her comments during taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program that airs tonight (Friday) at 7:30.

Utah’s Republican-led legislature embraced this move unanimously last May and Utah’s Republican governor signed it into law. A few other states like California and Oregon have similar laws and bills have been introduced in congress to classify birth control an over-the-counter medication nationwide.

(Radio Iowa) — New forecasts predict a rising risk for flooding across western Iowa in the weeks and months ahead. The U-S Army Corps of Engineers reports it has moved all excess water out of Missouri River reservoirs to prepare for this year’s runoff. Hydrologist Kevin Low, with the Missouri Basin River Forecast Center of the National Weather Service, says mountain snowpack is on trac

“Snowpack conditions in the mountains can be generally described as about normal for this time of year,” Low says. “By this point, we’d have normally accumulated about 60%, a little more maybe, of the seasonal peak snow-water equivalent in the mountains. We still have plenty of accumulating season left and much could change.” Given the snowfall so far and based on previous decades of record-keeping, Low says a runoff forecast is being released.

“The February water supply forecast developed by the National Weather Service projects a slightly below-average runoff volume for the 2018 season,” Low says. In spite of that, he says there will probably be some flooding on tributaries of the Missouri River this spring. “Areas likely to experience tributary flooding include eastern South Dakota, western Iowa, eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas and across the state of Missouri,” Low says. “The wet soils have enhanced the chances for flooding in these areas for this spring.”

The first flood forecast of the season will be released later this month.

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — A former central Iowa high school educator who taught for 30 years has been imprisoned for distributing child pornography. The Times-Republican reports that Glen Sedlacek, of Marshalltown, was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in federal prison. He’d pleaded guilty in October after prosecutors dropped two other counts. Prosecutors say Sedlacek had numerous computer files containing pornography of children younger than 12, dating back to March 2013.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose also ordered Sedlacek to make restitution of $6,000 to a female minor identified as Lily and $3,000 to a girl identified as Chelsa. Prosecutors say the two had appeared in porn films he’d viewed in his Marshalltown home.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports 27-year old Dylan Michal Frazier, of Malvern, was arrested Tuesday in Malvern. Frazier faces charges that include Possession of a Controlled Substance – Child Endangerment, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. His bond was set at $3,300. On Wednesday, Mills County Deputies arrested 33-year old Michael Paul LeDuc, of Mineola, for being a Fugitive from Justice. LeDuc was being held in the Mills County Jail without bond. And, On Thursday, 24-year old Daniel Cortes-Curiel, of Hawarden, was arrested on a warrant for Probation Violation. He was taken into custody in Douglas County, NE., and held in the Mills County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

The cause of a fire that reportedly occurred in the attic area of a home northwest of Brayton, is being investigated. Firefighters from Brayton responded to 3144 Goldfinch Place a little after 8-a.m. today (Friday). Mutual aid was requested from the Exira and Atlantic Fire Departments.The upper level of the home sustained damage. No injuries were reported. The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.

CLINTON, Iowa (AP) — A former high school teacher in eastern Iowa who sent nude photos of herself to a student has been given two years of probation. Clinton County District Court records say 32-year-old Ramsey Hinkle also was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and was ordered to register as a sex offender. She’d pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation by a school employee.

The records say Hinkle admitted sending the photos to a 17-year-old boy while she was a teacher at Central DeWitt High School in November and December 2015. The boy told a police officer that emails he exchanged with Hinkle were sexual in nature. He reported that they talked about having sex but didn’t because he was too nervous to follow through on the idea.

(Radio Iowa) — Hunter safety courses for middle schoolers in northeast Iowa, which drew national attention, are now underway in the North Butler and Clarksville districts in Butler County. Administrators announced in November that hunter safety, including firearms safety, would be implemented into the P-E curriculum for 7th and 8th graders. Steve Martin, a naturalist with the Butler County Conservation Department, is helping teach two classes daily and says students have to absorb a lot of information in the course. “The biggest challenge is probably having to do just one day at a time when we typically have done it, the entire course, over the course of two or three days and longer times so things kind of flow a little easier,” Martin says. “So, it’s been a little bit of a challenge just to make sure we get enough time on each topic that needs to be covered.”

Martin says they will teach nine different chapters on hunter safety as required by the Department of Natural Resources over the next several weeks. Topics include ethics and responsibility, preparation and survival skills, and firearms training. “We teach them about firearms and how they operate and then basic shooting skills, basic hunting skills, and most importantly, probably, how to safely handle firearms,” Martin says. “Even if they’re not going to be hunting and they happen to come into a situation where firearms might be present and that allows them to have an idea of the safety rules that they need to follow.”

Students will not fire live ammunition, nor will they use real firearms during the in-school hunter safety training. “We have dummy ammunition that we use to teach them how to safely load and unload a firearm,” he says. “Again, the firearms we use are inoperable as far as being able to be fired. They were designed without all the parts needed to fire.” The hunter safety training will run through the first week of March in the North Butler district followed by four weeks in the Clarksville district. Parents were able to sign waivers opting their child out the class if desired. Hunter safety courses, while part of the junior high curriculum, are optional for high schoolers in both districts.

(Radio Iowa) — Grocers and convenience stores, restaurants and the state’s horsing racing industry are competing with casinos for a piece of sports betting action. The debate played out this week in House and Senate committees reviewing bills to make bets on college and professional sports legal in Iowa — through a variety of venues. Iowa Lottery vice president Mary Neubauer briefed lawmakers on Delaware’s experience with a sports lottery AND sports book operations at casinos. “Real world examples show that different types of sports gaming products can co-exist within a state,” Neubauer said.

Doug Beach of Casey’s General Stores says basic bets on games could easily be placed through lottery terminals in convenience stores. “We think it’s important when you consider this type of legislation that you make it easy for Iowans to participate and that includes Iowans in all 99 counties and small-town Iowa,” Beach said. And Representatives for Iowa restaurants and grocery stores told legislators there would be an increase in foot traffic in stores in all 99 counties rather than just the 19 state-licensed casinos if their industries get to offer a sports lottery. Wes Ehrecke is president of the Iowa Gaming Association, representing the state’s commercial casinos, and he argued against the lottery’s involvement. “We do question having them involved with the sports betting aspect,” Ehrecke told lawmakers. “There’s a lot of risk and volatility.”

Ehrecke argued the casinos are best equipped to manage that risk. For the past six years Iowa’s horse racing industry has the contract for taking bets, in Iowa, on the Kentucky Derby and other horse races around the country. Representatives of the group are asking legislators to give THEM the only contract to manage sports betting within the state’s borders.

(Radio Iowa) — Clear Lake police are asking for the public’s help in finding heirlooms from fallen rocker Ritchie Valens’ family reporting missing after the Winter Dance Party festivities last week. The Clear Lake Police Department on Sunday responded to the theft report of two picture collages and one movie poster belonging to the Valens family. The items were reportedly taken from the Best Western Motor Lodge in Clear Lake on Saturday from a conference room during a family luncheon.

The return of the items is a primary concern for the family, saying they are precious heirlooms, with the actual value still being determined. If anyone has any information about this case, they are asked to contact the Clear Lake Police Department