Officials with the Iowa DCI said today (Friday), that on Wednesday December 4th, Chad Alan Wessels was arrested in Rock Rapids, Iowa, for First Degree Theft, a Class C Felony.   Wessels was the George Emergency Medical Services (GEMS) Treasurer from February 2014 to September 2019.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation was contacted in September 2019 due to concerns about the possibility of missing funds from GEMS.  The ensuing investigation identified approximately $18,000 in unauthorized checks written to Chad Wessels during his time as treasurer. It is also estimated that Wessels took approximately $8,000 in cash donations.

Wessels is currently out on bond from the Lyon County Jail.

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs today (Friday) announced it has awarded $90,000 to 10 Iowa communities for historic preservation projects. The department awarded $90,000 through its Certified Local Government program for historic preservation, which encourages governmental partnerships, provides training and technical assistance, and supports preservation of historic resources at the local level.

Iowa’s Certified Local Government program is one of the largest of its kind in the nation and is administered by the State Historic Preservation Office in conjunction with the National Park Service. The program was established as an amendment to the National Historic Preservation Act in 1980.

Among the list of Certified Local Government grant recipients announced today (Friday) is the:

• Council Bluffs Historic Preservation Commission, Pottawattamie County – Preserve Iowa Summit 2021, $12,500; The City of Council Bluffs will host the 2021 Preserve Iowa Summit to showcase the city’s history and preservation accomplishments to other preservationists from across the state.
  

  Council Bluffs (Carol Highsmith, Library of Congress) – Paula Mohr

• Creston Historic Preservation Commission, Union County – Intensive Survey of Creston’s Downtown, $13,439; The Creston Historic Preservation Commission will hire a qualified historian or architectural historian to complete an intensive survey of downtown.
  

  Creston Creston Historic Preservation Commission – Paula Mohr

• Manning Historic Preservation Commission, Carroll County – Schmidt Building Rehabilitation and Adaptive Use Plan, $13,500; This project will entail a physical assessment and concept-level feasibility plan for the rehabilitation of 507 Main Street, a historic cornerstone building.
  

  Manning (Manning Historic Preservation Commission) – Paula Mohr

The State Historic Preservation Office is overseen by the State Historical Society of Iowa, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. More information is available at iowaculture.gov or 515-281-5111.

The public won’t have time to scrutinize a 50-year plan to lease the University of Iowa’s utilities system to a for-profit operator before its governing board votes Tuesday. The university hasn’t released the names of the two companies that formed the winning bid or the size of the lump sum payment they’ll make under the deal. Iowa Board of Regents spokesman Josh Lehman said those details will be released at Tuesday’s meeting, which has been called to consider approving the transaction. The transaction could be lucrative for the investors. Over 50 years, the university projects that payments to the private operator could exceed $6.8 billion.

A settlement between the state of Iowa and three of its Department of Revenue workers whose genitals were secretly photographed by a male colleague while they were going to the bathroom won’t bring the matter to a close, as files found on the fired employee’s work computer show he may have victimized dozens of other men. The State Appeal Board voted Monday to settle the 2017 lawsuit brought by Daniel Wagner, Lloyd Lofton and Joshua Bates for $900,000.

The men, who will each pocket $185,290, said coworker Kenneth Kerr stalked them at work and that supervisors failed to act when they complained about it.

(Radio Iowa ) — A Starmont school employee has been arrested for having a sexual relationship with a student. The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office says 29-year-old Joshua Raymond Brown of Lamont has been charged with four felony counts of sexual exploitation by a school employee. Investigators with the Fayette and Buchanan County Sheriff’s Offices say they were notified of a potential sexual encounter between a contracted school employee and a 16-year old female student at Starmont.

After a month-long investigation, they discovered that the two were involved in a sexual relationship for the past two months. Brown has been employed by the Starmont Community School District for seven years as a contract IT personnel. Brown turned himself in to authorities early Thursday.

Police say a man has been charged with first-degree murder in a deadly Des Moines shooting. Police say in a news release that 39-year-old Wayne Jemerigbe, of Des Moines, was arrested Thursday and charged with first-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Police believe Jemerigbe shot and killed 29-year-old Karlos Goldman Jr. Goldman was found Monday afternoon with a gunshot wound inside a pickup truck. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died a short time later.

An Illinois man has been sentenced in an Iowa federal courthouse to 50 years in prison for more than a dozen counts, including domestic violence, stalking and illegal bomb-making. Federal prosecutors for Iowa say 43-year-old Chad Eric Mink, of Rock Island, Illinois, was sentenced Thursday in Davenport’s federal courthouse. He had faced up to life in prison for the convictions. There is no parole in the federal system. Prosecutors showed that Mink had used a stolen truck to ram a vehicle carrying his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend and had planted a pipe bomb near the ex-girlfriend’s hotel room.