The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reports 31-year old Laurel Curtis McDonald, of Exira, was arrested Thursday, on an outstanding warrant charging him with OWI/1st Offense, and three-counts of Child Endangerment. The charges are the result of an investigation into an accident that occurred Nov. 2nd on Littlefield Drive, near Pheasant Avenue.

McDonald was brought to the Audubon County Jail and released after appearing in front of the magistrate. His preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 29th.

An official representing the Elite Octane, LLC ethanol plant, issued a Press Release today (Friday), saying the Cass County Board of Supervisors have received an updated proposal from Elite Octane, with regard to the construction of an ethanol production facility in Atlantic.  Nick Bowdish, President and CEO of N Bowdish Company, LLC, said the proposal provides for new infrastructure to be completed in Cass County that will be paid for entirely by property taxes generated by Elite Octane.  Bowdish says at the completion of the proposed project, Cass County will have an additional two and a half miles of newly paved roads that should help facilitate development of the area surrounding the proposed plant.

According to Bowdish, property taxes generated by Elite Octane’s proposed project will also support the installation of a “gray water” line that will recycle a waste stream the community has released down the Nishnabotna River for more than 75 years. The recycling of gray water, he says, is certainly a positive from both water conservation and environmental perspectives, but is also important to the viability of the ethanol facility itself. Recycled gray water is an important component in plans for Elite Octane’s proposed $190 million dollar investment, which will bring with it 49 long-term, high quality jobs and a local payroll in excess of $3.5 million.

While previous proposals contemplated Cass County carrying a greater share of the project’s financial and infrastructure burdens, as neighboring counties have done with ethanol plants in the past, Bowdish says Elite Octane’s newest proposal contemplates that Cass County taxpayers will not pay for any of the new infrastructure required by the project. These will be entirely funded by Elite Octane’s future property taxes. Cass county residents will, however, enjoy the benefits of immediate and certain job growth as well as a value-added processor for corn grown in the region that should drive local farm incomes higher.

In addition, Bowdish says there will be opportunities for further economic development on the newly paved roads, which will be paid for entirely by the tax revenues generated from the asset investment Elite Octane proposes to make in Cass County. “It has always been Elite Octane’s intention to pay its own way into Cass County,” said Bowdish. “Elite Octane looks forward to finalizing an agreement with Cass County that will enable it to promptly sign construction contracts, avoiding further delay and risks of labor and material escalation which could potentially delay, or even stop, the project.”

Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman said a public hearing on a Development Agreement, based on the new proposal, will be held during the Board of Supervisors meeting at 9-a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14th.

*********************

Elite Octane, LLC is a privately held, development-stage ethanol production company.  The Company is in final stages of due diligence and anticipates it could begin construction in January 2017 on an ethanol plant near Atlantic, Iowa that will consume over 40 million bushels of locally grown corn and produce approximately 120 million gallons of ethanol and 300,000 tons of distiller’s grains per year.

The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld the rezoning of land around the Field of Dreams movie site near Dyersville. The Dyersville City Council voted to rezone the area that contained the site where the movie was filmed from agricultural to commercial so a developer could build a multi-field baseball and softball complex. Several community members challenged the rezoning arguing the city council was not impartial and the move was contrary to the city’s comprehensive plan.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruling says the council made the decision to rezone the Field of Dreams site in consideration of the best interests of Dyersville. It says the city council considered the economic impact of increased tourism and investigated any traffic, crime and other issues the rezoning could create, while keeping the overall zoning scheme of the city in mind.

(Radio Iowa)

A non-profit traffic safety group is getting a 25-thousand dollar grant to launch a new initiative after a southwest Iowa teen was hit and killed while jogging on a rural road east of Council Bluffs last year. Tom Everson is founder and executive director of the Omaha-based organization, “Keep Kids Alive Drive 25.” Everson says the effort is in memory of Tristan White of Treynor. “He was 14 years old and he was running with his wrestling team for practice in November of 2015 when he was struck,” Everson says. “He died as a result of his injuries from being hit by a pickup truck.”

Everson is working with members of the Junior Optimist Club at Treynor High School and the students have helped develop a course of action to remember Tristan. “His family connected with our mission which is to help make streets safer for all who walk, cycle, play, drive and ride, so, essentially, that’s all of us,” Everson says. “We’re concerned about traffic safety on and along roadways.”

The traffic safety education campaign is being called “A License To Drive” and it targets everyone. Pedestrians, cyclists and others need to actively work to prevent themselves from becoming a hazard for motorists. “As a motorist, that includes paying attention to speed, putting our cell phones away, throwing them in the trunk if we need to so we can concentrate on the task of driving, not following too close, observing stop signs and traffic signals,” Everson says, “doing things the correct way.”

The grant comes from State Farm, the largest auto insurer in Iowa and Nebraska. Everson founded Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 in 1998 as he and his wife were concerned about the safety of their kids, who ranged from age 4 to 10 at the time. He’s since worked with more than 16-hundred communities in the U-S, Canada and Australia.

(Radio Iowa)

A Guthrie County farmer’s passion for telling the story of Iowa agriculture, and his involvement in the community, has earned him an award and prizes from the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.

Adam & Mary Ebert and family

Coon Rapids area farmer Adam Ebert was presented with the Bob Joslin Excellence in Agriculture Award during the IFBF’s 98^th Annual Meeting in Des Moines this week.

The award, presented by IFBF, honors a young farmer, under 35 years old, who demonstrates outstanding leadership in Farm Bureau, agriculture, and their community.   The award is named in recognition of Bob Joslin, IFBF president from 1986-1987, who was well known for his support and encouragement of young farmers.

Six years ago, the Eberts started farming in Guthrie County, where he and his wife Mary grow corn, soybeans, and hay, in addition to raising hogs and cattle. Mary also works for the local ISU Extension.

As the Joslin Award winner, Ebert receives a $1,500 Home and Workshop certificate from John Deere, the award sponsor, a 90-day no-payment and no-interest (NPNI) John Deere Financial Certificate up to $5,000, a $750 FAST STOP gift card from GROWMARK, and expense-paid trips to the 2017 American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Annual Convention in Phoenix, and the 2017 GROWMARK annual meeting in Chicago in August.

Winter is coming to Iowa about ten days early. National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Lee says the first statewide snowstorm system of the season is about to swoop over the state. Lee says, “Our confidence is pretty high for snow across about the northern half of the state on Saturday and maybe a more widespread but lighter snow on Sunday.”

The latest computer model shows southwest Iowa getting just an inch or two of snow while the opposite corner may get a lot more. “It depends on how you define ‘a lot,’ but there’s definitely the possibility for more than six inches of snow total between the two days across northeastern Iowa,” Lee says. “Anybody up there is going to have to break out their shovels and snowblowers, that’s for sure.”

An area from Mason City and Waterloo to Decorah and Dubuque could get seven inches of snow, or more. “The most significantly accumulating snowfall will begin in northwestern Iowa on Saturday morning and spread to the northeast by the afternoon, falling through the night and tapering off and also spreading out on Sunday,” Lee says. “Some areas, particularly north and northeastern Iowa, may see nearly continuous snowfall for about a day and a half, and that’s where the highest totals are expected.”

The calendar says winter officially arrives on December 21st. Iowa’s been walloped by big snowfalls before Halloween in some years, but Lee says this storm’s right on track. “This is really pretty normal,” Lee says. “It seems like most years in Iowa, we see the first significant snowfall generally in the first half or so of December. There’s a lot of variability. Some years it’s in November, some years it’s not until Christmas, but this is pretty close to normal.”

The storm will leave behind bitter cold temperatures as part of what’s known as a Polar Vortex. Wind chills early next week may be 10 and 20-degrees below zero.

(Radio Iowa)

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) – Some district parents have asked Dubuque schools to formulate a policy that would have teachers keep obscene materials out of their classrooms. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports  that seven people made the request Tuesday to members of a school board committee. The issue arose last month during debate over a novel that included descriptions of sexual activity and drug use. A committee composed of parents, teachers and students voted against barring “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” from classrooms.

The book is a coming-of-age novel that was on the American Library Association’s list of the top 100 challenged and banned books from 2000 to 2009. School board member Tami Ryan told the seven Tuesday that their request will require some research before any new policy is considered.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A state official credits increased use of overdose antidotes for a decline in deaths due to heroin and pain pills in Iowa. A report released by the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy on Thursday shows the number of pain-pill overdose deaths jumped from 11 in 2003 to 77 in 2013, but fell to 42 in 2014, and 43 last year. The number of heroin overdose deaths quadrupled from five in 2009 to 20 in 2013, and then fell to 15 in 2015.

Steve Lukan, director of the office, tells The Des Moines Register that emergency medical responders and police officers have more training and experience in how to recognize and respond to overdoses. He says more first responders also carry antidotes, such as naloxone, that can counteract the effects of narcotic overdoses.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS