Due to some issues with students riding on Griswold Community School District buses, the Griswold School Board, Monday, opted to have ride-along bus monitors set in-place around the start of the new year. Superintendent Dave Henrichs told KJAN News there have recently been more than normal issues with discipline on the buses. The School Board gave administrators permission to place human bus monitors on three individuals on three separate buses to control unruly students. They are looking for people to fill the role, and have them ready to go by the first of the year.

Speaking of buses, Henrichs said a third bus will be added to transport students during the afternoon from Lewis Elementary to the High School for a rendezvous. The buses are currently very full. The third bus, which will be added following the first of the year, will hopefully reduce crowding on the buses. In other business, the Griswold School Board set the date/time for a joint meetings between the Board and Lewis City Council. The purpose is to hear proposals from persons interested in buying the Lewis facility. It will be held Jan. 16^th at 6:30-p.m., in the Griswold Middle School/High School Building. The goal is to select one of the proposals to move forward in the sale process.

A meeting will also be held between the Griswold School Board and Lenox School Board, to discuss the shared the position of Superintendent, which expires in June. The meeting will be held 6-p.m. Feb. 6^th at the Lenox High School, and is to discuss the potential extension of the current sharing agreement. The Griswold School Board, Monday, also agreed to purchase a van from Charles Gabus Ford, for $26,918. The Board sold a 2005 Ford Taurus to a private individual for $100, and received a $100 donation from the Tuesday Music Club. Those funds will help to pay for students in the 5^th Grade to attend a performance by a symphony.

The Audubon Community School District’s Board of Education, Monday night, tabled the hiring of a superintendent to succeed Brett Gibbs, who retires at the end of the current school year. Gibbs said the decision is not something the Board takes lightly. They’ll follow up on a couple of interviews Wednesday (12/19) and hope to make their decision sometime soon thereafter.”

There were originally 13 applicants for the Superintendent’s job in Audubon. Those were narrowed down to five finalists for interviews. They included: Eric Trager, Audubon 5th-12th grade Principal; Dennis McClain, current shared Superintendent/Elementary Principal for the Clay Center Everly Community Schools; Michael Still, Secondary Principal for the Lenox Community School District; Jeff Privia, Elementary Principal for the Underwood Community School District, and Cory Lahndorf, PK-12 Principal for the HLV Community School District, in Victor.

Once the final choice is made, Gibbs said they’ll hold a public meeting and vote. The Audubon School Board chose not to hire a search firm for the job of finding a Superintendent. Instead, they relied in-part on Gibbs’ experience in guiding them. In other business, the Audubon School Board approved three Early Retirement Applications: Randy Spies, Roxanne Hansen and Jo Littleton.

(9-a.m. News)

A woman from Crawford County was arrested on an OWI/1st offense charge Monday morning, after Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s deputies received a call from a motorist on Interstate 80, who reported an erratic driver in the area of the 27 mile marker. The motorist described the vehicle to be all over the road, with varying speed. The vehicle, a 2014 GMC Sierra pickup, was subsequently stopped. During the course of the stop, the driver, 22-year old Selena Elizabeth Gomez-Argueta, of Denison, displayed clues of impairment were observed. She then taken into custody at around 4-a.m. on the OWI charge.

And, 23-year old Derick Wayne Fuller, of Council Bluffs, who was already serving time in the Pott. County Jail on two counts of Disorderly Conduct and Harassment in the 1st degree, was presented with a warrant out of Sarpy County, NE.,, Monday, for Being a Fugitive from Justice. He was then returned to the custody of Corrections Staff and held without bond.

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

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GREENE, Iowa (AP) — Two rural northeast Iowa school districts intend to offer firearms safety courses for middle school students this spring. Joel Foster is superintendent for both the Clarksville and North Butler school districts, and he says he hopes the courses will prepare students in both districts to react in the event of an active shooter situation. Students will use inoperable guns with replica ammunition to learn how to load and unload bullets and hold and care for firearms. Foster says they’ll also learn how to safely carry guns and how to recognize when firearms are loaded.

The hunter safety courses are expected to last about a week as part of the physical education curriculums and will be taught by a naturalist from the Butler County Conservation Board. Parents can opt to have their children sit out the courses.

The Creston Police Department reports 29-year old Steven Behlers, of Afton, was arrested Monday afternoon. Behlers was arrested at the Union County Jail on a Union County warrant for Theft in the 3rd Degree. He remains in the jail on the latest, and other charges, with his total bond set at $17,300.

And, a Creston woman reported to police Monday morning, that sometime between 7-p.m. Sunday and 8-a.m. Monday, the back window of her vehicle was smashed while parked outside her residence in the 400 block of N. Oak Street. The damage was estimated at $200.

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

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FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) — The Fort Dodge City Council has approved a plan use a portion of fireworks fines to help pay for professional pyrotechnics show on Independence Day. The Messenger reports that the council voted 5-1 for the plan Monday. The city will give to the fireworks show whichever is greater: $5,000 or half of the fireworks fines collected each year.

City ordinances say people may use fireworks from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. July 1-3 and from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. July 4. They also may be used between 5 p.m. Dec. 31 and 12:30 a.m. Jan. 1. People convicted of violating the fireworks rules can be fined $500. Fort Dodge police officers responded to 604 fireworks complaints between June 1 and July 8 and issued 49 citations.

(Radio Iowa) — Managers representing Governor Kim Reynolds are negotiating new contracts with four unions that represent state employees. The Republican governor’s administration has just offered the union representing about 24-hundred social workers and scientists in state government a one percent raise in each of the next two years. Reynolds isn’t sending any public signals about the negotiations.

“We’re grateful for our state employees. They’re the boots on the ground. They’re the ones that’s carrying out the mission every single day. They do a great job,” Reynolds told reporters Monday. “I am so proud of our state workers and, you know, it’s no different than what a business does when they’re putting a budget together, so we’re going to do the best that we can with the resources that we have.”

All the unions representing state workers are asking for raises for all employees covered by union contacts. Administrators representing Reynolds will make more counter offers to other unions before the end of the year. Reynolds says “a lot of preliminary work” has been done on her proposed state spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1st. A missing piece of the puzzle was revealed last week. A panel of financial experts set the official estimate of state tax revenue growth during the period at one-point-eight percent.

“We really can’t start to finalize stuff until we get the numbers, which we have those now,” Reynolds says, “and so we’ll sit down and get those kind of hammered out over the next week or two.”

Reynolds will deliver her policy agenda and proposed state budget to legislators on Tuesday, January 15th. Reynolds will be inaugurated to a full, four-year term on Friday, January 18th.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is reviewing water testing done for nitrates in 43 public water supplies after discovering some results which didn’t look right. D-N-R environmental specialist, Kathy Lee, says the problem happened with samples tested by Mangold Environmental Testing in Storm Lake. “We noticed some irregular sample results and we investigated with Mangold and we determined that after they put a new piece of equipment in place, some incorrect sample results were calculated,” Lee says.  Lee says they asked Mangold to stop doing samples and have been working with them to try and determine what went wrong. “At this time we don’t have any information to suggest that there is any problem with any of the drinking water supplies that utilized Mangold environmental testing,” according to Lee.”However, we are reviewing all of the data — particularly to see if any of the results can be recalculated — so we can replace those values in our database.”

She says they haven’t determined that any of the samples tested had high levels of nitrates. Lee says the water supplies are periodically tested to be sure the nitrate levels meet acceptable federal standards. “High levels of nitrate in drinking water can be harmful to infants less than six months old — causing what’s commonly called ‘Blue Baby Syndrome’,” Lee explains. “So we want to prevent any exposure to that.” Lee says Mangold has been cooperating with them as they try to figure out the issue. She says the D-N-R does requires notification within 15 days when new equipment is placed into service at testing facilities and Mangold didn’t let them know for a couple of months. Lee doesn’t know yet if the company will face a penalty for the late reporting.”Our investigation is ongoing and…any decision regarding enforcement action has not been made at this time,” Lee says.

The D-N-R and Mangold each sent letters to the operators of the water supplies to notify them of the issue. The 43 entities impacted include (locally): Breda Water Supply; Early Municipal Water Supply; E-Stop (Council Bluffs); Hamburg Water Supply; Lewis And Clark Monument; Mapleton Municipal Water Plant; Oakland Municipal Water Utility; Schuler Manufacturing; Shenandoah Water Dept ; Sidney Water Supply; Southern Iowa Rural Water Association – Corning/Brooks ; Southern Iowa Rural Water Association #2 (Creston); The Learning Journey ( Council Bluffs); West Central RWA; Woodbine Water Department.

Other public water supplies impacted include: Akron Water Supply; Battle Creek Water Supply;Danbury Water Supply;Dow City Water Works; Evangelical Covenant Church; George Water Supply ; Gilmore City Waterworks; Grand Jct Municipal Water Dept;  Holstein; Humboldt Country Club; Ida Grove Water Utility; Iowa Cage Free; Kingsley Water Supply; Lake View Water Supply; Linn Grove Water Works; Livermore Water Supply; Mallard Water Supply; Marathon Light & Water Department; Pierson Water Supply; Quimby Water Supply; Rembrandt Enterprises Inc (Rembrandt); Rock Valley Rural Water District; Schaller Water Supply; Sioux Rapids Water Department; Smithland Water Supply; Tobey Jacks Mineola Steak House; Twin Lakes Utilities; and Ute Water Supply.