Election officials in Adams County said Monday, that Absentee Ballots are now available for voting in the Adams County Special Election to be held on April 9, 2019.  Only voters who live in the 5th Precinct are eligible to vote in the election.  The polling place is the Prescott City Hall/Library with polling hours on April 9th from 7 AM until 9 PM.

Absentee Voting will be available at the Auditor’s Office at the Adams County Courthouse at 500 9th Street, Corning, IA 50841.  Ballots may be voted there 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday-Friday until April 8th when the office will be open until 5 PM.

Voter Pre-Registration Deadline:  The last day to pre-register at the Auditor’s Office for this election is this Friday, March 29 before 5:00 PM. Voter registration forms may also be found at www.sos.iowa.gov.  Following the deadline and on Election Day, any new voter and any voter who has moved from outside the county will be processed using the requirements of Election Day Registration and must provide proof of residence and identity.

Election Day Registration. A person who is eligible to register to vote may do so on Election Day at the polling place for the precinct in which the person lives. The person must complete a voter registration form, sign an oath, and provide acceptable proof of both identity and residence. The most common example of an acceptable form of identity and residence is an Iowa driver’s license that is not expired and shows the person’s address on Election Day. Other acceptable forms of identity may be found at www.sos.iowa.gov.

Voting at the Polls:  All voters are required to provide an approved form of identification at the polling place before they may receive and cast a ballot.  Voters who are not pre-registered or voters changing precincts must also provide proof of residence.  Any voter who cannot show ID may have their identity attested to by another registered voter in the precinct who has proper ID.

For more information about voter ID, visit http://sos.iowa.gov/voterid or call 641-322-3340. Questions may be directed to the Auditor’s Office; our telephone number is 641-322-3340 or our email address is: acaudit@adamscountyia.com .  I will be out of the office for the next week so please direct your questions to the Adams County Auditor, Rebecca Bissell.  Her email is listed above.

(Radio Iowa) — One of the governor’s top aides is in southwest Iowa today (Monday) meeting with local officials to discuss how to repair the levees that have been breached by Missouri River flooding. Governor Kim Reynolds says she’s aiming for a regional approach to the flood disaster.

“We’re working to collectively get together with Governor Rickets as well as Governor Parsons, especially as we move forward with the levee repair and recovery,” Reynolds says. “We don’t have a lot of time. We’ve got to figure out how we do this differently.” According to the National Weather Service, high flood waters have returned in Montana, the Dakotas and northwest Nebraska along smaller rivers that feed into the Missouri.

Reynolds announced last week that every Missouri River levee from Council Bluffs to the Missouri border had been compromised. “We can’t wait ’til the river goes below flood stage because we haven’t started the snow melt and we certainly haven’t started the spring rains,” Reynolds says. “…At what point do we get in there and try to tackle this?” An overflow crowd gathered in Sidney Sunday to hear directly from local officials who’ve been evaluating flood damage.

Fremont County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Crecelius said he didn’t want to sugarcoat the situation. “There’s no way under God’s blue skies that the Corps of Engineers is going to be able to repair every breach in every levee from Missouri Valley to St. Joe before the spring thaw,” he said. “I need to say that to you folks. We’re going to have problems out there this spring, this summer, this fall.” Crecelius asked motorists and pedestrians to stay off the levees.

With previously-evacuated areas of the county still off limits and some county roads underwater, Crecelius urged residents not to drive around or remove barricades, or venture into flooded territory. “If you were evacuated and the evacuation order has not been lifted, there’s a reason for that,” he said. “…We have had one fatality and it wasn’t one of the local folks. It was someone who was traveling through here and they decided to go around a ‘Road Closed’ sign and they ran into water. We put the signs up for your safety.”

Shelters for flood victims in Fremont County remain open at the United Faith Church in Sidney and Shenandoah’s Old Armory. The governor submitted paperwork to the Federal Emergency Management Agency indicating it would cost 525 MILLION dollars to fix the river levees in southwest Iowa.

Deputies with the Page County Sheriff’s Office, Sunday, arrested 42-year old Jeffrey Wade Bartles, of rural Coin, for Driving while Barred/Habitual Offender. Bartles was arrested in Shambaugh as a result of a traffic stop conducted by the Page County Sheriff’s Office. He was transported to the Page County Jail. Bartles later posted $2,000 bond, and was released pending future court proceedings.

DES MOINES – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ office has released information to help Iowans impacted by the recent flood. Applying for assistance to recover from the recent flooding in Iowa is easy and can be done via phone or online.

Call  – Call 1-800-621-3362. You can call between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., seven days a week. People who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and use a TTY, can call 800-462-7585.

Go Online – Go online to disasterassistance.gov. You can apply online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

When you apply by phone or online, you’ll be walked through the kinds of assistance that are available and what you need to do to apply.  You’ll also be assigned a case manager to help you navigate the process.

As of today (Monday), residents in Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Monona, and Woodbury counties have been included in a Presidential Disaster Declaration, making their citizens eligible to apply for this assistance. However, if you’ve been impacted  by the recent flooding and you don’t  live in one of those counties, register anyway. By doing this, you could help the citizens in your county become eligible for assistance.

Who can apply? Anyone impacted by the flooding that started in Iowa on March 13.

WESTERN IOWA — DNR conservation officers and park rangers have responded in droves providing crucial equipment and fulfilling extraordinary public safety rescue missions.

Since Thursday, March 14, more than 34 DNR conservation officers and two DNR park rangers from across the state have responded to western and southwestern Iowa, working collaboratively in two-officer teams per boat from dawn to dusk. Those officers have performed rescue missions via DNR boats saving 31 people, 17 dogs, 9 cats, and one iguana.

Notable stories from the field:

• On March 14, DNR conservation officer and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services refuge officer responded by boat to rescue two non-ambulatory people trapped in their home by the floodwaters in Missouri Valley. Working with other emergency personnel, the officers broke out the window to the room where the victims were located to find both victims suffering from severe hypothermia and going in and out of consciousness.  During the rescue mission, the officers were faced with high winds and dangerous whitecaps making the rescue much more difficult.  Both people were rescued and taken to a local hospital and survived.
• On March 16, DNR conservation officers responded to Riverton to rescue two people trapped by the floodwaters after they drove around road closed barriers and their vehicle took on flood waters. One man had climbed a tree to escape the water and was clinging to it when officers arrived to rescued him. He was suffering from severe hypothermia and was transported to a hospital for treatment and survived. While trying to rescue the other man, officers held his head above the 34-degree water for nearly 40 minutes. The man received emergency medical attention but died on the way to the hospital.
• Other critical public safety missions provided so far by the DNR officers include transporting Mid-American Energy officials around towns and areas inundated by flood waters to shut down electricity, transporting other officials with assessing damage to public facilities and water treatment plants, assisting emergency management officials with assessing damage to levees and other infrastructure, as well as DOT with assessing structural integrity of I-680 bridges.

The DNR will continue to assist officials with equipment and public safety critical missions as well as provide expertise and resources as the focus eventually turns to clean-up and rebuilding.

HAMBURG, Iowa – A do not use advisory is currently in place in Hamburg advising residents to only use the water to flush toilets and avoid all other uses of the water. Over the weekend, DNR staff assisted the City of Hamburg in sampling an emergency test well that was recently drilled with hopes of getting an emergency well finished later this week to provide water pressure until the Hamburg water treatment plant can be repaired from the flood damage. At this time, the quality of the water from that emergency well is unknown; therefore, residents are urged to avoid use under the “do not use” advisory.

Residents of Glenwood are urged to continue conserving water, although residents should boil the water and use only for basic needs. Water continues to be transported in from Shenandoah and Red Oak to maintain pressure of the system and an emergency well is currently under construction. In the meantime, residents are urged to delay use of washing machines, dish washers, and other uses so that the system can maintain treatment.

Council Bluffs Police Chief Tim Carmody says “The Council Bluffs Police Department wants to thank everyone that has donated to the victims of the historic flooding. After speaking with the volunteers running the relief centers they have an overstock of clothing. At this time we are asking to temporarily suspend clothing donations. We are still accepting non-perishable foods, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene items, and water.”

The Chief added, “It will take months for these families to recover from this tragedy. We are completely humbled by the level of generosity of Council Bluffs and surrounding areas. It has been an awesome sight to see our lobby literally filled to capacity with donations. We have taken down several shipments to Mills County, and we have another 4 or 5 shipments just to clear out our lobby. Once the storerooms are full in Mills and Fremont Counties we will suspend collections until they are needed again. Thank you all again, and keep the donations coming.”

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office has released a report on arrests and/or incidents that occurred over the past couple of weeks. Authorities say last Thursday, Deputies arrested 20-year-old Tristan Michael Herrera, of Shelby. Authorities were dispatched to Shelby for a road rage complaint between parties and after further investigation it was determined that Herrera was charged with Simple Assault, and Interference with official acts both simple misdemeanors. Herrera was transported to the Shelby County Jail and currently being held under $1000 cash/surety bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Some residents in a suburban Des Moines neighborhood say they can’t access schools, work or emergency services for hours at a time because of idling railroad trains. Wayne and Rita Brasel live near Avon Lake, between Des Moines and Carlisle. Wayne Brasel tells the Des Moines Register that they’re among about 25 residents who become stranded when workers load and unload wind blades and turbine parts onto Union Pacific Railroad cars.

The Brasels say Union Pacific trains have blocked road access in the past, but the problem worsened when the Nebraska-based railroad built the Wind 2 Rail distribution center in 2017.
Union Pacific spokeswoman Kristen South says the company was unaware of the issue with the distribution center. South says the railroad will work with residents and businesses to find a solution.