(Radio Iowa) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hosting meetings this (Monday) afternoon and evening to discuss managing the Missouri River and the federal reservoirs that feed into it. John Remus, chief of the Missouri River Water Management Division, says 2020 has been an unusual year. “We began the year with wetter than average conditions in the basin,” Remus says. “However, as many of you know, the basin dried up and dried up quickly.”

The Corps has shifted from evacuating excess flood water from 2019 to managing the system to meet what Remus calls “flow targets” for the river. Each second, about 30-thousand cubic feet of water is being released from the Gavins Point Dam near Yankton, South Dakota, today. Remus says that volume will drop in early December when the navigation season ends on the Missouri River. He expects lower flows out of that dam through the winter because the area to the north is in drought. “That is what the system is designed to do,” Remus says.

The first public meeting about the Corps’ Missouri River management is at 1:30 p.m. today (Monday) and the other starts at 6 p.m. Both are virtual or online meetings and questions may be submitted in advance.

The General Election is almost here. The polls open will be open Tuesday, from 7-a.m. until 9-p.m. Here in Cass County, the local races to watch include:

• Board of Supervisors/District 5, where Republican Bernard Pettinger and Democrat Russell Joyce are vying for a seat currently held by Frank Waters. Waters announced earlier this year that he would not be running for re-election.
• The Ag Extension Council: There are five candidates running for four non-partisan seats, including incumbents Darrin Petty; Marcy Jo Dorsey and Jody Steffen, along with challengers Curt Rush and Alice C. Williams.
• There are two candidates for Edna Township Trustee: Dan Schrier and Keith Nelson.

In Adair County, Democrat Thaddeus Hawley and Republican Incumbent John A. Twombly are running for the Board of Supervisors in District 5. In Adams County, Democrat Incumbent Merlin R. Dixson and Republican Tony Hardisty are both in the running for County Supervisor/District 2. Audubon County voters get to choose two out of three candidates for the Board of Supervisors, including Incumbent Republicans Todd M. Nelson and Rick Thompson, and no party candidate Doug Sorensen.

In Guthrie County, there are two races set to be played-out: Auditor and Supervisor/District 5. Democrat Eric Tiernan faces a challenge from Republican incumbent Mike Dickson for the Board of Supervisors in District 5. In the Auditor’s race, Dani Fink, who was appointed by the Supervisors in May following the resignation of Marci McClellan, is being challenged by Democrat Hans Erickson. Fink had served as Deputy Auditor for three-years, prior to her appointment.

There’s a four-way race for two seats on the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors, with Democrats Lisa Lima and Frances Parr in the running, along with Republicans Brian Shea and Incumbent Tim Wichman. In Montgomery County, four candidates, including two incumbents, are running for three seats on the Montgomery County Hospital Board of Trustees. The candidates include incumbents Lorin Petersen and Sarah Wearin Smith, along with challengers James Norris and Ann Carter.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa District office of the U-S Small Business Administration is wrapping up its busiest-ever fiscal year of providing traditional and emergency loans to thousands of Iowa businesses. The S-B-A’s state director Jayne Armstrong says in a typical year, they process around 400 loans. This past year, with the pandemic that caused widespread economic turmoil, the figure exceeded 79-thousand loans. The agency offers two “traditional” loan programs. “We increased over last year, not only the number of loans but also dramatically on the dollar volume,” Armstrong says, “to start-ups and to existing businesses.”

The value of those traditional loans jumped from around 168-million dollars last fiscal year to a total of 233-million this fiscal year. The district, with offices in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, also approved more than 17,000 loans through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and another 61,000 through the Paycheck Protection Program. “On the PPP side, of course, that helps to keep the employees employed and on the payroll during the closures,” Armstrong says. “A lot of small businesses aren’t out of the woods yet. It’s critical that we get this next round of the stimulus package, whenever that comes.”

Calling 2020 an “unprecedented” year for the agency, Armstrong says the loan volume demonstrates the S-B-A’s commitment to Iowa’s small business community. “The unsung hero of the CARES Act was the SBA Debt Relief Initiative which SBA was making six months of payments on existing SBA loans and for all new SBA loans,” Armstrong says. “That really made a difference for a lot of small businesses to keep them afloat with helping them with the cashflow.”

More than 95-percent of Iowa’s businesses are considered small businesses, so the shut-downs due to COVID-19 were especially hard on multiple industries. Armstrong says a few key federal programs helped to keep many thousands of Iowa merchants in business during the exceptionally challenging times.

The City Council in Atlantic will meet during a regular session 5:30-p.m. Wednesday, in their Chambers at City Hall. One of the top items on their agenda is cutting the sleeves off of Atlantic Police Chief Dave Erickson, as part of Breast Cancer Awareness.

IA Gov, Kim Reynolds cuts the sleeve of Atlantic Police Chief Dave Erickson to get his pink Breast Cancer Awareness Month patch to benefit the Cass County Relay for Life. (A-PD photo)

Last week, the Chief presented Governor Kim Reynolds and Senator Joni Ernst with the opportunity to cut off one of the department’s pink police patches from his uniform, while they were in town. Both took him up on the offer and made a donation to purchase a patch. Money raised from the sale of the patches will be donated to the Cass County Relay for Life.

The Council will then receive an Annual report from Atlantic Public Library Director Michelle Andersen before taking action on a Resolution “Obligating funds from the Hotel Whitney Urban Renewal Area Revenue Fund for appropriation to the payment of annual appropriation TIF (tax increment financed) obligations,” which will be due in the next fiscal year. This will be the third year the City has been eligible to capture the taxes paid by the Whitney Group for their renovation project, using TIF. The appropriation will be an annual feature on the Council’s agenda until the maximum payment of $750,000 is paid-off, or 20-years expires…whichever comes first. The City will pull tax dollars from both the Hotel Whitney Urban Renewal Area and North Urban Renewal Area.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council will hold the third and final reading of an Ordinance amending the City Code, and entitled “Stop Required,” with regard to the proposed 4-way stop at 22nd and Olive, and the conversion to a three way-stop at 32nd and Chestnut. Afterward, the Council will hold a Public Hearing on an Ordinance calling for the City of vacate the Right-Of-Way for partial, non-connecting stub of E. 9th Street, east of Plum Street, which would agreeably increase the size of two taxable properties to the north and south, and provide a minor benefit to the City in the form of additional taxes.

The Council will hold the first reading of an Ordinance vacating a certain City alley, as previously discussed. And, they’ll act on an Order to approve the Fiscal Year 2020 Urban Renewal Report, as required by the Code of Iowa, for those cities with an active Urban Renewal Area. The report details everything related to TIF districts and projects.

(Update 10-a.m.) The Iowa Department of Public Health’s Coronavirus dashboard today (Monday), indicated the number of Positive cases in the State continue to rise, along with the number of deaths. There were 1,469 new cases statewide, and 17 deaths reported for a total of 1,733. Pre-existing conditions account for 1,132 of the total deaths. Cass County has one more death (total of 4), 16 more Positive cases, for a total of 495. Pottawattamie County has 29 new Positive cases.

Long-Term Care Facility deaths are up seven, 847. The number of outbreaks at LTC’s are down one, to 80. In Cass County, two facilities: Atlantic Specialty Care and the Griswold Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, have a combined total of 116 positive cases, with 17 recovered. Harrison County has 251 cases among three facilities, and 125 recovered.  (For more data not seen here, go to https://coronavirus.iowa.gov/)

Hospitalizations total 718 today (compared to 676 Sunday). There are 156 COVID patients in an ICU (Down from 164 on Sunday), 108 have been admitted since Sunday (down from 128 previously), and 57 are on a ventilator (up from 53 yesterday). In western/southwestern Iowa: there are 46 people hospitalized with COVID (compared to 43 yesterday); 10 are in an ICU, four were admitted and three are on a ventilator.

The IDPH reports a total of 984,539 Iowans have been tested for the virus, with 131,713 testing positive, and 851,139 testing Negative. The Individual Positivity rate is 13.4%, and the 14-day rolling average is 14.4%. There are 11 counties with a Positivity rate of 20% or greater, including: Cass County, at 21.9%;  Harrison County at 21.5%, and Taylor County at 20.1%.  Officials say 93,813 Iowans have recovered from the virus.

In the KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases in each county (as of 6-a.m., 11/2), along with the 24-hour change in case numbers {+#}; the number of persons recovered, and the total number of [deaths] (if any), since the pandemic began,

• Cass, 495 cases {+16}; 308 recovered; 4 deaths
• Adair, 230 {+9}; 77; 1
• Adams, 88 {+1}; 51; 1
• Audubon, 193 {+2}; 105; 1
• Guthrie, 440 {+13); 284; 15
• Harrison County, 745 {+5}; 351; 17
• Madison County, 401 {+5}; 275; 3
• Mills County, 489 {+16}; 233; 3
• Montgomery, 214 {+3}; 162; 7
• Pottawattamie County, 3,585 {+29]; 2,552; 45
• Shelby County, 430 {+4}; 360; 2
• Union County,  291; 232; 5