w/ Chris Parks

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The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of an Omaha man on a drug charge on Friday. At 8:41pm deputies arrested 36-year-old William Glen Porterfield of Omaha in the 1300 block of Highway 34.  Porterfield was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance and transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $1,000 bond.  The Montgomery County K-9 unit assisted in the investigation.

Representatives from the Ann W. Wickman Child Development Center in Atlantic hosted area business and community leaders to a luncheon on Friday to discuss the deficit the center is facing.

The Nishna Valley YMCA is contracted to operate the center and Executive Director Dan Haynes informed the crowd that the center can’t continue to operate as it is now.  The center has lost $141,417 over the last five years, averaging out to $28,283 per year.

Haynes said the biggest reason for the centers operating loss is the high number of part-time users compared to full-time users.  He said that center Executive Director Diana Williams and Wickman Committee members have toured other area facilities and found that most of them have a high number of full-time users and most work on a contract basis.  The Wickman Center currently operates on an hourly charge basis which accommodates those part-time users.

Haynes said the YMCA is looking into a number of different options to turn the center profits around. Those options include seeing if someone else can run if more efficiently than the YMCA.  The center has considered changing to a contract rate structure or if staying hourly raising the rates especially for those not attending full time. Scheduling and meal planning is also going to be more strictly enforced for parents in hopes of becoming more efficient.  The purpose of the meeting was ultimately to get feedback from area leaders and see if annual gift funding would be an option to help the center operate as is.

Director of the Ann W. Wickman Child Development Center Diana Williams also spoke at the meeting and said the Center is a DHS licensed center that cares for children six weeks to five years old. The center operates Monday through Friday from 5:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m with six rooms separated by age groups. The center currently serves 119 children, averaging 72 to 85 kids per day and their is a waiting list for some of their rooms.

The Center has 32 staff working various shifts and Haynes also noted that another issue is the center’s inability to offer employees a competitive wage and benefits.  Staffing has been a huge challenge for the center with the large number of part-time kids causing fluctuating staffing needs.

The center will continue to explore options and have a meeting set up with the Atlantic City Council Finance Committee in the near future.

Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope reports deputies with the Fremont County Sheriffs Office Narcotics and K9 units conducted an investigation into narcotics activity in Fremont County, Friday night. The investigation led to the arrest early this (Saturday) morning, of 30 year old Brandon Gutheil, of Council Bluffs.

Deputies arrested Gutheil for the Delivery of a controlled substance/methamphetamine. During the arrest, over 30 grams of methamphetamine was recovered, along with $1,626 in U-S Currency.

Gutheil was transported to the Fremont County Law Enforcement Center where he was being held on a $100,000 cash only bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — More than 2,000 family, friends and public safety officers gathered at a West Des Moines church to honor one of two Des Moines police officers killed in a head-on crash. The Des Moines Register reports it has been a difficult time for the family of Carlos Puente-Morales, who died with officer Susan Farrell Saturday in a crash with a wrong-way driver.

During the Mass at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Bishop Richard Pates acknowledged the family’s great loss in the past 16 months. Puente-Morales’ brother died in a November 2014 traffic accident and their father died months later.

Puente-Morales had worked as an officer in Ottumwa before moving to Des Moines police. A prisoner being transported by the officers and the other driver were also killed.

The Iowa Supreme Court rules on the definition of an accident in a central Iowa insurance case. An S-U-V traveling on Highway 5 near Hartford on April 29th of 2011 crossed highway and struck the trailer of a semi just before 5 a-m. Seconds after the collision, a motorcyclist ran into the damaged S-U-V. The driver of the S-U-V, John Crivaro, died in the accident.

Truck driver Marlin Just, and motorcyclist, Travis Hughes, both sued Crivaro’s insurance company for damages. The Farmers Insurance Company said Crivaro’s policy has damage cap of 500-thousand dollars for each accident. Hughes and Just sued saying there were two separate accidents.

The Supreme Court ruling says — while there were multiple vehicles involved — there was a minimal time between when the S-U-V struck the semi and the motorcycle struck the S-U-V, and it upheld the district court ruling that there was only one accident.

(Radio Iowa)

Authorities in Iowa are investigating the death of a northwest Iowa man. Officials say on Wednesday, March 30th, the Cherokee Police Department was notified by St. Lukes Hospital in Sioux City that 41-year old Jesse Wendelsdorf, of Cherokee, had been admitted to their hospital in serious condition one day earlier. Thursday evening, died at St. Lukes.

The cause and manner of Wendelsdorf’s death is under investigation.  An autopsy has been scheduled for April 2nd at the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner in Ankeny.

The Cherokee Police Department along with the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner are continuing to investigate. No other details concerning the incident were released.

Atlantic Parks and Rec Director Roger Herring reports the Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department has opened all of the public restrooms at Sunnyside Park and City Park for the public’s convenience. The Department asks that you treat the restrooms with the same respect as you would your own.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A judge has ruled that Iowa inmates have the right to legal counsel when challenging Department of Corrections’ decisions that can add time to their sentences. If upheld on appeal, the ruling could help inmates during classification and disciplinary hearings run by department officials. It’s not clear who would pay for their attorneys.

The department on Thursday appealed the decision by Judge Scott Rosenburg. The Iowa Supreme Court will decide whether to keep the case or send it to the Court of Appeals. The high court ruled last year that misdemeanor defendants have the right to counsel under the Iowa Constitution. Given that decision, Rosenburg says it makes sense that inmates “facing the possibility of an increase in the amount of time he or she will be incarcerated” also qualify.

Law enforcement officers in Page County, Thursday afternoon, arrested a man wanted on a Page County warrant for Probation Violation. Sheriff’s Deputies and Officers with the Shenandoah Police Department took 35-year old Michael Wayne England, II, of Clarinda, into custody at around 3:25-p.m.

England was wanted on a warrant associated with an original charge of Harassment in the 1st degree. He was unable to post a $2,000 cash bond, and was transported to the Page County Jail where he awaits an appearance before the court.