(Audubon, Iowa) – A Superintendent sharing agreement between the Audubon and Exira-EHK Boards of Education was finalized Tuesday night, when the Exira Board approved their part of the agreement. Audubon Superintendent Eric Trager said the Audubon School Board approved the agreement during their meeting Monday night.

The the new contract for Trevor Miller is for two-years, with the costs split between the districts. Trager previously announced he is retiring at the end of the current school year (June 30, 2024).

Eric Trager has served 38 years in education, with 36 of those years in the Audubon School District.

In other business, the Audubon School Board approved an annual request for Dropout Prevention to the School Budget Review Committee (SBRC) in the amount of $129,000. They also continued discussions held over the past couple of months or so, with regard to a bus garage project. The bus garage is one of the last district facilities to be upgraded.

The idea is to have an opportunity to keep their investment in the expensive buses under one roof

The Audubon School Board approved an application for a security grant with regard to camera systems.

Superintendent Trager said the Board decided to stay with Carroll Refuse for another year, with regard to a garbage collection bid. There wasn’t much to mention, he said with regard to Personnel matters.

The District will take its Winter Break from classes and activities, from Dec. 22^nd through January 2^nd. The Elementary School will dismiss at 2:05-p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21^st, and the Middle School and High School will dismiss at 2:15-p.m.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Republican Presidential Candidate and former Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, made a campaign stop Tuesday morning at Wickman Chemical, northeast of Atlantic. She was the guest of company owners Erich and Tammy Wickman. During her visit, Haley spoke of growing up on a farm near a small rural town in South Carolina.

Haley spoke of her time serving as United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and she harped on “How bad things are,” economically.

She said the decline in our economy can’t be blamed entirely on the Biden Administration, as most would like to do. She said Republicans have to take responsibility as well.

Nikki Haley in Atlantic 12-19-23; Photo credit: Jim Field/KJAN.

Nikki Haley said Republicans put $7.4-billion worth of pet projects and earmarks in the 2024 appropriations budget. Democrats put in $2.8-billion.

She said the nation’s education problems existed before COVID, and nothing’s changed to improve scores and proficiency in Reading and Math.

She also spoke about the “Border situation,” saying she has “truly run out of things to say about this,” except to say….

Nikki Haley criticized some of her Republican opponents who are in Iowa this week, accusing Donald Trump of cozying up to dictators. The Des Moines Register said Haley told a crowd in Carroll that Trumps policies were good, but his praise of dictators in this campaign puts our national security at risk.

Haley has stops scheduled today (Wednesday) in a trio of eastern Iowa communities.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in Montgomery County, Tuesday morning, acknowledged reciept of an initial bargaining proposal from the Union representing the County’s Secondary Roads Department. The Board passed a Resolution authorizing Montgomery County Engineer Karen Albert to submit an application for a $500,000 Fiscal Year 2024 Surface Transportation Block Grant, to repair a road that’s been on the County’s five-year construction plan”for quite a while,” according to Albert.

In order to qualify for the grant, the County must agree to certain stipulations. Supervisor Donna Robinson read the conditions set forth in the Resolution the Board approved.

The application deadline is January 31st. The project is expected to go out for a local bid-letting in May or June, 2024. Albert then updated the Board on Secondary Roads Department projects.

She mentioned also her department is still seeking applicants to fill a truck driver position.

In other business, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors approved the final plans for the L Avenue pipe culvert project.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday morning, heard a request from Massena Mayor Phil Przychodzin on behalf of the citizens of the town, for assistance with regard to fixing a road leading out of town.

The idea is to minimize the number of heavy trucks making their way through town.

He says the City recently purchased two properties that were on the north side of Clarke Street, so they could flatten the “S” curve and allow heavy trucks to bypass Main Street and keep the wear-and-tear on Clarke Street to a minimum. The plan is to re-route trucks through Clark Avenue.

Massena Mayor Phil Przychodzin (on the right in the camo jacket) speaks with the Cass BOS on 12-19-23

The road in question is about one-quarter of a mile long. The Supervisors noted that since Main Street is a designated Farm-to-Market Road, the City cannot place a weight restriction on it. It was explained that if the City of Massena wants to remove the Farm to Market designation, it would have to surrender an estimated $9,000 in funding for the road, as well attending a quarterly meeting with the Farm to Market Board.

Mayor Pryzchodzin said the City is willing to give-up those funds if it means Main Street would be prevented from continued damage from the overweight loads.

The board tasked Cass County Engineer Trent Wolken with finding solutions to the issue, including meeting with the Iowa Department of Transportation. Issues that remain include finding a replacement road to receive the Farm-to-Market funding, but that may be a project to include in the County’s 5-Year Road Plan.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Agriculture has confirmed a case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Mahaska County. The case involves a Iowa. backyard mixed species flock. There have been 19 outbreaks of bird flu found in Iowa since October. Seven have been in backyard flocks, four have been in game bird flocks, and the rest are in commercial turkey and chicken flocks,

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the recent HPAI detections in birds do not present a public health concern. It remains safe to eat poultry products. As a reminder, consumers should always utilize the proper handling and cooking of eggs and poultry products, including cooking to an internal temperature of 165˚F.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds is accusing former President Trump of airing an advertisement that misleads Iowans. Reynolds endorsed Trump rival Ron DeSantis in November. The ads currently airing in Iowa feature statements Reynolds made in the past that praise Trump — and Reynolds mentioned the ad as she campaigned with DeSantis.

“It is time for a new leader,” Reynolds says. “It is time for a leader that can win and, most importantly, it is time for a leader that can serve eight years, not just four.” Reynolds cites a timeline that started with Trump being “very upset” that she hadn’t endorsed him, then Trump said her public backing wasn’t worth anything when she endorsed DeSantis.

“Now, he’s using me to mislead Iowans as if I’m endorsing him and I want to be clear, you know I supported President Trump in 2016. I voted for him. I supported him in 2020. I supported his polities, but it’s a different day,” Reynolds says. “It’s a different time.” Reynolds says it’s o.k. for Iowans to move on from Trump.

Trump called Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird Iowa’s most popular politician last night during his campaign event in Waterloo. Bird endorsed Trump in October.

(Radio Iowa) – Former President Donald Trump spoke to a crowd in Waterloo last (Tuesday) night and made an indirect reference to a Colorado Supreme Court decision that could keep him off Colorado’s ballot. “We’re not going to allow them to rig the 2024 election,” Trump said, to cheers. Just before the rally, Trump’s campaign announced there would be a swift appeal of the ruling, which said Trump’s ineligible to run for president because of his role in the January 6th attack on the U-S Capitol. Trump’s hour-long speech in Waterloo focused on the themes of his 2024 campaign.

Trump repeated his promise to deport most of the people who’ve illegally crossed the border during Biden’s presidency. “We had a single highest day record of illegal border crossings ever recorded — 12,600 (in) one day,” Trump said. “We have no idea who any of them are.” Trump also dismissed criticism that his rhetoric about immigrants is similar to Adolph Hitler’s.

“They’re destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing,” Trump said. “…They don’t like it when I said that and I never read ‘Mein Kamph.'” Hitler described his vision for the Nazi party in the book. The Biden campaign calls Trump a threat to democracy. Trump says he’s being attacked because polls show he’s beating Biden. Trump urged the Waterloo crowd to turn out at the Caucuses on January 15th and provide a winning margin that would prompt his G-O-P competitors to drop out.

“We can put this to bed after Iowa, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. Trump has made four visits to Iowa in December.

(Radio Iowa) – While poinsettias have an undeserved reputation for being poisonous, as you’d have to eat a few hundred poinsettia leaves to get sick, an expert says two other traditional holiday plants -are- toxic. Registered nurse Tammy Noble, at the Iowa Poison Control Center, says mistletoe can be dangerous if consumed by people or pets, and also the red berries in holly should never be eaten.

“The berries can cause some gastrointestinal symptoms,” Noble says, “so things like nausea, vomiting, upset stomach-type of distress, maybe abdominal cramping, diarrhea also with it.” Noble says the symptoms can show up quite rapidly and may last for 24 hours or more.

“If somebody does happen to swallow a holly berry, we do recommend that they call the poison center so we can evaluate how many berries were swallowed and give you recommendations on what to do,” Noble says. “The big thing is we don’t want them to be so sick with vomiting and diarrhea that they could get dehydrated from that.” On the subject of berries, mistletoe’s white berries can also be toxic, and while sprigs of the plant are often placed above doorways to promote kissing, Noble says the entire plant should be avoided.

“The flower and the leaves of the mistletoe tend to be more toxic than the berry but we tend to get more calls about the berry than we do the flower or the leaves,” Noble says. “And with this one, also, it can cause the gastrointestinal, the GI upset.”

If you have questions or concerns, call the Sioux City-based Iowa Poison Control Center anytime at 1-800-222-1222.

(Radio Iowa) – The “Forest City Women Investors” has been recognized as the longest running stock club in Iowa. The group formed in October of 1983 with 21 members. It’s been meeting monthly for the past 40 years to study stocks and add to their portfolio. Sheila Davis is the group’s current co-chair. “It’s a good way to learn about the stock market and grow your investment over time,” Davis says, noting members invest no more than 50 dollars a month. Purchasing a particular stock requires a majority vote among the members.

“It’s a group portfolio, but we calculate how much on a percentage basis how much each person owns,” Davis says. “We have to do that on an annual basis just to figure out taxes on the gains or if you’ve sold stock within the period and
so forth.” All members of the stock club are women and Davis says the activity has been empowering. “It’s become a very good growth opportunity for us both on a personal level and for our financial purposes,” Davis says.

There are 13 women in the club today and two were members when it formed in 1983. A representative of the Heartland chapter of Better Investing met with club members recently to recognize the group’s longevity milestone. Better Investing was formerly known as the National Association of Investors. It’s a non-profit that was formed in 1951 to educate Americans about investing.

(Radio Iowa) – The governor of Texas has signed a law that allows state officials to arrest those who illegally cross the state border. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he hasn’t seen the Texas law yet, and says illegal immigration is something the federal government should handle.

“Isn’t this a perfect example of just the mess that this administration’s caused because they aren’t enforcing law?,” Grassley asks. “In other words, enforcing the law this way. You can enter the United States without our permission. So everybody that waves across the river to get to the United States is entering our country illegally.” Grassley, a Republican, says some of those who are entering the country add to the concern of illegal immigration.

“When you have 169 people that are on the terrorist watch list, come to this country maybe to do damage to our country, to threaten the lives of Americans, it’s a national security issue as much as it is a borders security issue, as much as it is a violation of our sovereignty if we have any sovereignty, which I don’t think gab when you have a open border,” Grassley says.

Grassley made his comments on a conference call for reporters.