(Radio Iowa) – Arnolds Park Amusement Park in northeast Iowa’s Dickinson County is reopening today (Friday) after being closed nearly two weeks following a spike in local COVID-19 cases. The park’s marketing director Paul Plumb says staff felt comfortable reopening as new daily cases have come down and recoveries are rising. Plumb says the biggest new change is visitors will be required to wear masks. Plumb says, “Otherwise we’re still pushing social distancing, asking people to wash their hands regularly and stay that six feet apart.”

Before the park temporarily closed June 13th, all staff were wearing masks, while visitors were only recommended to wear them. At last report, Dickinson County had 232 positive cases of COVID-19 with more than 90 people considered recovered.

(By Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) — Saturday marks 25 years since the disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit. The former KIMT-TV anchorwoman was believed to have been abducted from the parking lot of her Mason City apartment complex early on the morning of June 27th, 1995. Her body was never found and the case remains unsolved. Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley says most people thought the mystery would have been solved by now.  Chief Brinkley says, “Our focus right now is still to make sure that we’re giving the case a periodic review and doing the things that we think are useful to that in terms of evaluating the evidence and some of those other things as time goes on.” Brinkley says information about the case continues to trickle in even 25 years later. “We get calls and we pass those all through to the investigators and they follow up on those,” he says. “The specifics of those, I don’t have any comment on, but we do continue to get periodic calls with people who are trying to help us with the investigation.”

Jodi Huisentruit (file photo)

Brinkley says there continues to be one person from the police department actively assigned to the case.  “We still have it assigned to an investigator full-time in their caseload, so as information comes in, as we have follow-up work we’re doing on the case, it is assigned to that investigator,” Brinkley says. “We have a DCI special agent that’s working with us as well on it. It does get regular review and regular follow-up.” Brinkley believes there are people they haven’t talked to yet that may have information that would be useful to the investigation.  “As we look at this case, I get that people have different positions about what they might know about this and may have different levels of trust or distrust in the police, or a relationship that did or didn’t happen back then that made their decision harder,” the chief says. “I think that’s where we’re resting a little bit of our hope and our encouragement for people is that if they’ve held back for whatever reason, personal or other, now would be a good time for them to come forward, contact the Mason City Police Department, contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and give us a chance to sit down with them, get that information, debrief them and kind of go from there.”

Brinkley encourages anyone who thinks they may have information about the case to contact the police department.  “Understand we’re in a different place in policing certainly today than we were 25 years ago,” he says. “Whatever might be holding them back, I would ask them to really think about that, consider that, and consider doing the right thing here for Jodi and her family, and helping us to work to continue to put this together.” If you have any information regarding Huisentruit’s disappearance, you can call the Mason City Police Department at 641-421-3636. Organizers of the website “FindJodi.com” are asking people to leave a porch light on or light a candle the next few days in memory of Huisentruit.

Red Oak Certified Reserve Police Officer Brad Baker says there will be a “Hero Cruise Night” in Red Oak, on July 11th, in coordination with Paul Baucom on the Red Oak Cruise Night.  The invite has also been extended to: The Montgomery County Memorial Hospital, Red Oak Rehab, the Good Samaritan Society, Arlington Place employees, local Fire/EMS, Dispatchers, Jailers, Police and Sheriff’s Officials, along with the Southwest Iowa Squadron of Heroes, to do a reverse parade.

Those Heroes will be lined up at 6:30-p.m. on the South side of the Red Oak High School, with the cruise coming through shortly afterward.  Cruisers can line up at Chautauqua Park and follow cruisers on the route beginning at 6:30-p.m, or do the route themselves.  As the vehicles come through the High School, everyone will be socially distanced. Those in their vehicles are being asked to stay in those vehicles, and to simply honk and wave.

Baker said the Hero Cruise Night is designed to show support for local first line workers for their efforts over the past few months, and always.  Questions or comments may be relayed to ROPD Chief Justin Rhamy, at 712-623-6500.

Creston Police report 50-year old Lisa Kay Foster, of Creston, was arrested recently. Foster was taken into custody at her home, on a charge of Harassment in the 1st Degree. She was later released from custody on a $2,000 cash or surety bond.

The latest (24-hour) data from the Iowa Department of Public Health’s Coronavirus website show there were seven more deaths from COVID-19 over the past 24-hours, and 493 additional, Positive cases of the virus. That brings the total number of deaths to-date to 701, and the total number of Positive cases to 27,555. Health officials report of the persons who died from COVID-19, 492 had preexisting health conditions, while 6,954 of those who tested Positive also have preexisting conditions. The state set a new record for testing on Thursday, with 7,111 test results returned. Officials say 17,140 Iowans have recovered from the virus. Of the 282, 013 tests completed, 252,080 persons tested Negative.

The last seven days of data show an increase in positive cases in the state, with approximately 500 more positive cases in the last week. Overall, positive cases are still down, or relatively flat, from an apparent high reported around May 6. Iowa’s death rate from COVID-19 continues to show a steady decline since late May. The number of Long-Term Care facility (LTC) outbreaks continue to decline, with the COVID-19 website currently showing 26. Among Staff/clients of those facilities across the State, 813 have tested Positive for the virus, 476 have recovered, and 360 have died.

In hospitalization data, the State show: 141 are currently in a hospital for treatment of COVID-19; 42 are in an ICU; 18 were admitted over the past 24-hours, and 24 are on a ventilator. In southwest/western Iowa RMCC Region 4; One person was admitted to a hospital, for a total of six; two are still in an ICU, and one person remains on a ventilator.

Audubon County reports 16 positive cases of COVID-19, one more than on Thursday. Guthrie County also has one new case, for a total of 64. In Shelby County, four more people out of the 97 total reported yesterday, have recovered from the virus. Pottawattamie County’s numbers continue to show modest increases, with 655 cases Positive, and 457 recovered.

There are no changes to the number of positive cases and the number of persons recovered, in Cass, Adair, Adams and Montgomery Counties.