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Atlantic guts out win over Greene County to move to 4-0

Sports

September 13th, 2024 by Chris Parks

A fourth quarter score and a red zone stop helped Atlantic gut out a 21-17 win over Greene County on Friday night at the Trojan Bowl. Atlantic moves to 4-0 to start the season; the first time that’s happened in decades.

The game started a little rough for Atlantic with an opening drive interception on a fourth-down play. That set Greene County up at the Trojan 20-yard line, and they eventually got a 32-yard field goal to open the scoring. The two teams then traded punts and Atlantic was able to change momentum when the Rams booted it away. Ethan McNeal caught it on the run and bolted to a 50-yard punt return touchdown to put Atlantic on top. Two drives later Atlantic capped a long drive with a 4-yard touchdown run by Gavin McLaren. The Trojans would take that 14-3 lead to the half.

Greene County then struck back when Trevon Keely took the 2nd half kickoff back 80-yards for a touchdown. The point after attempt failed making it a 14-9 score. Four possessions later the Rams hit on two big pass plays to Keely to take the lead. Crew Conner hit Keely on a 14-yard pass to score. The Rams then ended up going for 2 and after initially being ruled short, the officials changed the call to deem the try good, putting Atlantic down 3.

The Trojans wasted no time in responding. Two big runs from Tyson O’Brien put Atlantic back on top. The second run being a 45-yard score. The point after try was good and Atlantic was back in front 21-17. Greene County drove all the way to the Trojan ten, but back-to-back incompletions would end the Rams chances. Atlantic got the ball back on down with 2:24 to go and grinded the clock down to :38 left. After a timeout the Trojans brought the offense out on 4th down and successfully got the Rams to jump offsides with a hard count to seal the game.

Listen to the postgame interview with Atlantic Head Coach Joe Brummer:

Atlantic will take their 4-0 mark on the road to Winterset next week. We’ll have coverage on KJAN. Watch the full replay of the game HERE.

Griswold Hosts 5-Team Volleyball Tournament

Sports

September 13th, 2024 by Christian Adams

The Griswold Tigers Volleyball team is hosting a 6-team tournament on Saturday at Griswold High School. In addition to the Tigers, ACGC, AHSTW, Denison-Schleswig, Riverside Southwest Valley will all be in action Saturday.

On Tuesday, Griswold played two matches in Hamburg against the Wildcats and #9 East Mills.  After sweeping the three sets versus Hamburg, they played a spirited match versus East Mills but came up short. However, Head Coach Jody Rossell loved how her team competed.

Griswold comes into to season with a veteran group of players. The tigers roster features nine seniors. With a large number of seniors, you will usually have some depth to work with. And although depth helps, it the leadership that the seniors provide that can be just as important.

In that group of senior leaders Gabbie Grieman is having a great season. Through 12 games she leads the Griswold offense with 79 kills and a kill efficiency of .295. Defensively she also leads the team with 15 blocks. Rossell knows that her dedication and versatility have contributed to her success on the court.

In addition to the seniors, there are a few standout young guns patrolling the court for the Tigers. Sophomore Carsyn Adams leads the team with 66 digs and sophomore Amanda Houser is fifth on the team with 29. This has Rossell not only exited for the present, but also the future of Griswold Volleyball.

The tournament will kick off at 9am at Griswold High School. The tigers will look to improve on their 6-6 record. Rossel is looking forward to the opportunity of seeing some new opponents and continued growth from her squad.

Wheelers rout Audubon 72-0 on homecoming night

Sports

September 13th, 2024 by Asa Lucas

The Audubon Wheeler football team had a dominant win against the Exira-EHK Spartans on Friday night scoring 72 points on the evening. Right from the start Audubon looked control as the Wheelers scored in under a minute at the top of the first quarter thanks to an Aaron Olsen 45-yard touchdown run putting them up 8-0. Exira-EHK was then forced to punt on the following drive giving Audubon the ball back and the Wheelers looked to Olsen again as quarterback Carson Wessel threw a sharp pass to Olsen who dashed his way for 50 yards back into the endzone making it 16-0. On the following drive the Audubon defense held firm forcing another punt and giving their offense one more chance to score before the end of the first quarter. Wessel would once again find Olsen for another touchdown pass near the sideline adding on to their 24-0 score.

The second quarter saw no improvement for the Spartan offense as Exira-EHK quarterback Bryce Brabham threw an interception in the Audubon redzone to Olsen. The Wheelers did take advantage of the turnover as Wessel had a dime pass to Austin Christensen for 39 yards and a touchdown. The game fully tilted in Audubon’s favor as they now led 30-0. The momentum swing did not stop there as midway through the second quarter the Spartans had a punt tipped giving it an awkward trajectory that turned into a 35-yard touchdown return by Jack Stanerson creating a 36-0 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter the Wheelers committed to keeping their foot on the gas and had an 18-yard touchdown reception by freshman Jorgen Nowatzke to put them up 44-0. The Spartans did force a turnover of their own as Owen Juhl picked off freshman quarterback Aiden Kjergaard getting the ball close to midfield for Exira-EHK. The result of their next drive was a turnover on downs and Kjergaard had a designed quarterback run go 33-yards for a score seeing a 50-0 Audubon lead grow. The fourth quarter saw Audubon seal the game with 3 touchdown scores on the ground one a Colin Hartl 4-yard sprint near the goal line, the next a 25-yard scramble by Kjergaard, and Mason Kasperbauer plunging his way through the maroon defense for 27 yards. The final score would be 72-0.

Wheelers head coach Sean Birks was proud of the way his team maintained their intensity throughout all four quarters.

Birks also noted that one of the strengths his Audubon team possess is the ability to be selfless and not focus on stats. Players like Aaron Olsen exemplify this demeanor to coach Birks.

The Wheelers turn their record into 3-0 with a win and face a talented St. Edmond team on the road next Friday. Coach Birks does not plan on underestimating the Gaels.

The Spartans drop to 1-2 with their loss and head back home to face Sidney next Friday.

Griswold School Board to meet Monday evening

News

September 13th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Griswold, Iowa) – The Griswold School District’s Board of Education will meet Monday evening (Sept. 16, 2024) in the Conference Room at the High School/Middle School/Elementary Building. Their monthly session begins at 5:30-p.m., and includes the following (tentative) agenda items:

• Call Meeting to Order

• Reading of Mission Statement

• Approval of Agenda (D.R.)

• Public Input

• Superintendent’s Report:

Thank You Card(s) (I)
The Month in Review – Administration (I)
Board Learning Opportunities (I)

– Honor August Recipients

– Select September Recipient(s)

• Consent Agenda (D.R.)

Approval of Minutes

Approval of Financial Statements

Approval of Bills

A) Personnel

B) Gifts, Memorials, Bequests

Old Business:

  1. Board Policies – Second Reading (D.R.) – 904.1, 904.2, 905.1, 905.1R1, 905.1R2, 905.1E1, 905.1E2, 905.2, 906
  2. Approval Of Facility Bids (D.R.)
  3. Approval Of Safety Grant Bids (D.R.)

New Business during the Griswold School Board meeting is as follows:

  1. Approval Of Request For Allowable Growth And Supplemental Aid For 2023- 2024 Special Education Deficit (D.R.)
  2. Consider Approval Of 2024-25 School Improvement Advisory Committee (D.R.)
  3. Open Enrollment Report (I)
  4. Board Policies – First Reading (I) – 101, 102, 102.E1, 102.E2, 102.E3, 102.E4, 102.E5, 102.E6, 102.R1, 505.05, 907, 907.R1

[D.R]= Decision Required

[I]= Informational only

The final agenda will be posted in the Central Office no less than 24-hours before the meeting.

Atlantic City Council to act on City Clerk appointment & Board of Adjustment reappointments

News

September 13th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Atlantic, Iowa) – [NOTE: Meeting begins at 4:45-p.m.]  The Atlantic City Council will meet Monday evening in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall. The meeting would normally be held on Wednesday this week, but was moved to Sept 16th due to the Iowa League of Cities Conference. September 16, 2024 City Council Agenda Packet-compressed

On the agenda for the Council’s session that begins at 4:45-p.m., is action on a Resolution appointing Laura McLean as the Atlantic City Clerk, and setting her compensation for FY 2025. Assuming the Council passes the Resolution, McLean will be Sworn-in near the end of the meeting.

McLean currently serves as a member of the Atlantic School Board. If approved, she would succeed acting City Clerk Rich Tupper, who was appointed as City Clerk following the resignation on March 6th, of former City Clerk Barb Barrick.

The Council will also act on:

  • Orders to reappoint Shawn Shouse and Melissa Ihnen to the Board of Adjustment.
  • An Order to close Indian Trail Drive on Sept. 29th from 4-until 9-p.m., for Church Worship Night.
  • The 3rd and final reading of an Ordinance “Vacating the 66-foot wide Street Right-Of-Way on W. 4th Street, in Atlantic,” as previously described in the two previous readings that were passed by the Council.

The Atlantic City Council will also act to review and act on a recommendation/request from the Parks Commission, for the addition of trees to the “Do Not Plant” list. And, they are scheduled to receive a presentation from officials with SHIFT ATL with regard to the property at 201 W. 14th Street, which the non-profit organization remodeled over the past year, and recently sold. It was the second remodeled home that Shift ATL sold since they began efforts to find and fix-up and flip. Shift Atl’s representative(s) are expected to talk about reimbursing the City’s Housing Development Fund.

Five area fire departments battle greenhouse fire in Union County Friday morning

News

September 13th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Creston, Iowa)  – Officials with the Creston Fire Department report firefighters were dispatched at around 3:48-a.m. Friday (today) to a structure fire at The barndominium and greenhouse, in rural Union County. When crews arrived at the scene off 240th Street, the structures were engulfed in flames. Occupants of the residence were able to safely evacuate prior to firefighters’ arrival. (Photos by Chuck Spindler, Creston Fire Dept. – from Facebook)

Creston Fire received mutual aid from the Afton Volunteer Fire Department, Lenox Fire Department, Prescott Fire & Rescue, and Corning Fire Departments.

Additionally, all five fire departments made multiple shuttles with their tanker trucks to provide water to two portable dump tanks and a pumper, keeping firefighters supplied with a constant source of water to fight the fire. Officials say Creston and other departments conducted a rural fire fighting, live burn exercise last December in which they trained for the type of water shuttling operation put into use Friday morning.

Iowa school raising money for scholarship in memory of airplane crash victims

News

September 13th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

JEWELL, Iowa [KCCI] –  The South Hamilton Community School District is raising money for a new scholarship in memory of recent graduate Owen Renaud and his uncle, Jesse Ostheimer. The two men were among four Iowans killed last week in an Indiana airplane crash.

Authorities say their single-engine Piper PA-46 plane left the Fort Dodge Regional Airport around 6:30 a.m. Sept. 6 and crashed around 9 a.m. near a small airport in Anderson, Indiana, northeast of Indianapolis.

Renaud, 19, and Ostheimer, 41, were killed along with 68-year-old Joseph Scallon and 36-year-old Braden Hicks. The plane was owned by a LCC registered to Scallon, and Indiana authorities have said he was piloting the craft at the time of the crash.

KCCI reports South Hamilton announced that tonight’s (Friday night’s) home football game against Roland-Story will be a white-out. White T-shirts with Renaud’s name and football number (6) will be available during the game for a free-will donation. Online shirt orders can be placed here.

Money raised from the shirt sale will go toward a new Flying High Scholarship Fund created in honor of Renaud and Ostheimer.

 

Sierra Club lawsuit challenges approval of Summit CO2 pipeline permit

Ag/Outdoor, News

September 13th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – The Sierra Club’s Iowa Chapter has filed a lawsuit that seeks to overturn state approval of a permit for the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline.

In late June the Iowa Utilities Commission issued a permit for construction of the initial route for the carbon pipeline, giving Summit eminent domain authority to seize property from landowners who have not voluntarily agreed to let the pipeline run through their property. The Sierra Club’s Jess Mazour said people who objected to the pipeline did not get a fair hearing before the Iowa Utilities Commission.

“Our evidence was not given the weight that it should have and there’s some serious due process violations,” Mazour said, “but we really have a strong case and we finally get to take our case to court and have an unbiased decision maker.” Wally Taylor, an attorney for the Sierra Club, said the commission incorrectly ruled Summit’s pipeline had a public benefit as a so-called common carrier that may be granted eminent domain authority.

“It’s like when Walmart has their own semis pick up products from various vendors, put in on the semi and take it to a Walmart store, once it gets in that Walmart truck, it’s Walmart’s property,” Taylor said. “That Walmart truck is not a common carrier.”

Jess Mazour has been the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter’s conservation program coordinator for the past four years.

Taylor said the lawsuit cites other “misstatements of fact and faulty legal conclusions.” Mazour said the commission’s decision was not unexpected after Governor Reynolds replaced the commission’s chairwoman and appointed another commission member in the spring of 2023. “From that minute on, the process was sped up,” Mazour said. “They moved deadlines sooner than what we had been told by the former board.”

The Sierra Club is arguing the Iowa Utilities Commission showed a pattern of favoritism to Summit and contempt for pipeline opponents during the public hearing about the project that stretched over 25 days last fall. “We were expected to go through security and we couldn’t bring in water to the hearing or food, but yet Summit could go in the back door and had their lunch catered in and had coffee,” Mazour said. “It’s just little things like that throughout the whole process that it’s very obvious this new board had their mind made up.”

Five Iowa counties, landowners who object to the pipeline and nearly 40 Republican legislators have filed separate appeals. Summit Carbon Solutions issued a statement earlier this week, saying the company is confident in the Iowa Utilities Commission’s thorough review process. Summit, ethanol producers and Iowa Corn Growers have argued the carbon pipeline will help grow markets for ethanol in the U.S. and abroad and benefit farmers.

After plans were pulled for a separate Navigator CO2 pipeline, Summit has begun the process of seeking another state permit to extend its pipeline to ethanol plants that initially signed on to join the proposed Navigator pipeline.

With the dry weather, some Iowa farmers are starting to bring in the crops

Ag/Outdoor, News

September 13th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Some Iowa farmers are already firing up their combines to start harvesting crops. Angie Rieck Hinz, a field agronomist for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, says it’s a bit early, but “There are a few farmers who are taking out some corn and even some beans in a few places here in central Iowa.”

While Iowa came completely out of a four-year drought this spring with steady rains, it’s been much drier lately and about two-thirds of the state is now considered “abnormally dry” on the drought monitor map. Rieck Hinz says that can be an advantage at this time of year.

“The heat, coupled with those dry conditions, is going to push that maturity on those crops a little bit faster,” she says. “We still need to wait for crops to dry down in some cases, but it’s been relatively dry for the last month compared to how we started off the growing season.”

Combine harvesting corn. (ISU Extension photo)

There’s a very dry patch in north-central Iowa, from roughly the Webster City area to Iowa Falls, where Rieck Hinz says they’re more than three inches below average on rainfall for the past 40 days or so. “Dry weather is always great conditions for harvest,” she says. “We can get big machinery in and out of those fields. We don’t have to worry about soil compaction. We’re not fighting mud. Let’s hope it stays that way. So the weather can both hurt us and help us at the same time when we get to harvest.”

Forecasters say there’s a chance for some rain over the weekend in parts of the state, and again in the middle of next week.

Audubon County Sheriff’s report on arrests made June 1st thru Sept. 2nd

News

September 13th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Audubon, Iowa) – The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office today (Friday) issued a report on arrests conducted and citations issued, from June 1st through Sept. 2nd.  Most recently:
  • On Sept. 2nd: 25-year-old Guillermo Hernandez, of Harlan, was arrested on charges that include: Eluding; Driving While Suspended; Driving While Barred, and Possession of Stolen Property. The charges stem from a chase that began around the intersection of Highway 71 and Highway 44. Hernandez appeared before the magistrate and was held until he posted bond on September 9th.
  • On Sept. 1st: 32-year-old Christi Carpenter, was arrested on a Harassment 1st charge. The charge stems from an incident in the 300-400 block of W Washington in Exira on August 30th. Carpenter appeared before the magistrate and was held until she later posted bond;Christi Carpenter was also charged with Child Endangerment, Possession of Marijuana 1st, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Keeping a Premises for Controlled Substances. These charges stem from the unrelated arrested on September 3rd. She posted bond on all the charges and was released; 39-year-old Brentley Gross, of Exira, was summoned into court September 1st, on charges of Possession of Controlled Substance-marijuana 1st and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He appeared before the magistrate on a later date.
  • 40-yearold Rose Brabham, of Exira, was summoned into court on a Theft 3rd charge on August 13th, 2024. The charge stems from an incident in the 200 block of Kilworth on August 12th. She appeared before the magistrate on a later date. Audubon Sheriff
Other arrested or cited include:
  • 22-year-old Caelyn Bevins, of Omaha. She was cited June 1st, 2024, for charges of Possession of Controlled Substance- marijuana 1st and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. She appeared before the magistrate on a later date. The charges stem from a traffic stop in the intersection of Highway 44 and Highway 71.
  • James Black, age 46 of Audubon, was summoned into court on June 2nd, 2024, on a charge of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. The charge stems from a traffic stop around South Division and Highway 71. He appeared before the magistrate on a later date.
  • Jesse Brubaker, age 32 of Audubon, was arrested on June 5th, 2024, on a charge of Driving While Barred. He was released on his own recognizance and appeared before the magistrate on a later date. The charge stems from an investigation of a crash around Kingbird Ave and 200th St.
  • James Fulk, age 46 of Hamlin, was arrested on June 19th, 2024, on charges of Possession of Controlled Substance- 3rd or Subsequent and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He appeared before the magistrate and was held until he posted a $5,000 bond on June 25th. The charges stem from when Mr. Fulk was arrested on an unrelated warrant.
  • Teri Thompson, age 57 of Exira, was summoned into court on June 20th, 2024, on a charge of Bootlegging. She appeared before the magistrate on a later date.
  • Nicholas Swanson, age 44 of Kimballton, was arrested on June 21st, 2024, on a charge of Driving While License Denied or Revoked. The charge stems from an unrelated arrest warrant. He posted a cash bond and was released.
  • Thomas Strathman, age 53 of Brayton, was arrested on June 25th, 2024, on charges of Public Intoxication and Disorderly Conduct. He was released on his own recognizance and appeared before the magistrate on a later date. The charges stem from an incident on Highway 71 in Brayton.
  • Eduar Sabillon Yanes, age 33, of Audubon, was arrested on July 30th, 2024, on charges of Operating Under the Influence-1st, Driving on Wrong side of Two-way Highway, Open container and Failure to Yield Emergency Vehicle. He was released on his own recognizance and appeared before the magistrate on a later date. The charges stem from a traffic stop in the area of Chicago St. and Highway 71.
Note: Criminal Charges are merely accusations and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law.