The City of Atlantic’s Personnel and Finance  Committee, Wednesday evening, agreed to look into establishing a one-year, trial run 28-E agreement with the City of Marne, for the contracting of City Clerk services. Atlantic City Clerk Barb Barrick told the Committee Marne Mayor Randy Baxter called her a couple of weeks ago to say they will be losing the services of their City Clerk, Lora Hansen, who was the former City Clerk in Audubon, and has more than 30-years of experience.

Atlantic’s P&F Committee talks w/Marne Mayor Randy Baxter (clockwise, 2nd from the left)

The Marne City Council gave him their blessing to explore clerk service with Atlantic. Baxter told the Committee, Wednesday, that being a City Clerk is “A pretty specialized position. It take a fair amount of training and know-how to do all the reports and [other] things that the State requires.”

Baxter said his City has no employees and runs a lean business, and looks to be completely debt-free in two-to three-years. In fact they, cut their fund balance from $50,000 to $35,000 in the current year. Their budget is $100,000. Barrick said if the 28-E agreement is recommended to the Atlantic City Council and approved, she would share the duties with full-time Deputy City Clerk Ali Tupper, allowing her to gain some overlap in experience, as well. Any change would mean an extra 5-to-7-hours to their workload per month, divided among the two ladies.

Mayor Baxter said Marne would be willing to pay Atlantic $400 per month, the rate for their current City Clerk, not including FICA and IPERS. He said he’d be happy to offer more for the services of Barrick and Tupper. Before making any commitments or recommendation to the Atlantic City Council, however, the Committee requested Barrick explore in greater detail, the subject of Barrick’s compensation and the legalities involved.

In other business, the Personnel and Finance Committee agreed to a proposal from the Atlantic Parks and Rec Board, for an increase in salary for Parks Director Bryant Rasmussen. The change would bump him from his current $42,000 per year to $47,600 for Fiscal Year 2019-20, retroactive to July 1st 2019. Rasmussen was approved as Full-time Parks Director after having recently served as Interim Director, following the resignation earlier this year of Seth Stasshelm.

Parks Board member Jolene Smith said Rasmussen has being “Doing a great job.” She said “Anyone that started a job in the first six-months you get a flood, you get RAGBRAI and playground equipment with no company to help you set it up…he’s got a lot of great ideas…he’s a naturalist…we need to set his salary with the increase we’ve proposed.” Bryant has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in the area of Earth Science.

The Parks Board proposed a three-year step-scheduled pay increase to $53,300 in FY 2021, $59,000 in FY 2022 and $64,338 in FY 2023, commensurate with the median pay of persons in similar positions, education and experience. The proposed salary will be recommend to the Atlantic City Council for approval during their next meeting.

CRESCO, Iowa (AP) — A northern Iowa man convicted of killing his wife has been sentenced to life in prison. The Courier reports that 35-year-old Brian Fullhart was sentenced Wednesday for the shooting death of 34-year-old Zoanne Fullhart. Several of her relatives made victim impact statements prior to Brian Fullhart’s sentencing.

Zoanne Fullhart’s mother, Jo Olson, said her daughter was beautiful “outside and inside,” and that Brian Fullhart was “ugly on the outside and inside.” Prosecutors say Brian Fullhart killed his wife because she planned to leave him.

Police say he forced Zoanne Fullhart to kneel in the back room of a friend’s mobile home on Feb. 28, 2018, and he shot her in the head. He then police at bay for five hours — and shot arrows at officers — before surrendering.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A northwestern Iowa man has been charged with vehicular homicide and drunken driving in a crash last month that killed his cousin. The Sioux City Journal reports that 37-year-old Darrick Toel, of Le Mars, was arrested late Tuesday on the charges. He’s being held on a $50,000 bond.

Investigators say Toel was driving about 90 mph the night of July 1 when he lost control of his car, left the road, rolled and hit a tree. His passenger, 37-year-old Ryan Toel, of Struble, was critically injured and died two days later.

Police say Darrick Toel also was injured, and a blood test taken at a hospital more than an hour after the crash showed his blood alcohol content was .111 — more than the .08 legal limit to drive.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Federal prosecutors for Iowa say a former medical student who sold guns to a felon and tried to hire a hit man has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Officials say 36-year-old Steven Arce, of Waterloo, was sentenced Wednesday in Cedar Rapids to 90 months in federal prison. He pleaded guilty in March to one count of selling a firearm to a felon.

With his plea, Arce admitted that he sold an AR-15 rifle to someone he knew was a felon, asking the man during the exchange if he could kill one of Arce’s medical school professors. A couple of weeks later, he sold a second gun to the same man, and Arce arranged to meet with someone he believed to be a hit man.

The next day, Arce met with the hit man, who was actually an undercover officer. Officials say Arce offered a machine gun as down payment on the killing before he was arrested.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Federal officials have kicked off the construction phase of a $136 million federal courthouse in downtown Des Moines, defying requests that the 2-acre prime site be left for a development that would fit the city’s plans for the Riverwalk district along the Des Moines River.

The federal government says it will work with the city to maintain the Riverwalk access. City Council members Chris Coleman and Josh Mandelbaum said at a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday they must move beyond disagreement over locating the new tax-exempt courthouse on the west bank of the Des Moines River and work with the government to make the best of the project.

The seven-story building should be completed in late 2022. It will consolidate courtrooms and offices of judges and staff for the Southern District of Iowa, bankruptcy court, probation offices, a law library and the 8th Circuit federal appeals court.