DES MOINES – Iowa incumbent 3rd District, U.S. Republican Representative Zach Nunn, today (Tuesday) announced his re-election campaign chairs for all twenty-one counties of the Iowa Third Congressional District. In southwest Iowa, that includes, in:

Adair County – Ryan Frederick
Adams County – Ray and Elaine Gaesser
Cass County – Jim Triller
Dallas County – Kelley Koch and Eric Klein
Guthrie County – Laura Kuhl
Madison County – Katy Downes
Montgomery County – Jerald Palmquist
Page County – Karen Perala
Ringgold County – Carrie Main
Taylor County – Rep. Devon Wood
Union County – Laura Hartmann.

(Radio Iowa) – There’s more legal trouble for a former employee of a north-central Iowa chamber of commerce, who was originally charged after more than $200,000 vanished. Leah Mulholland of Webster City was arrested last Saturday, accused of violating the conditions of her probation. Mulholland admitted to the stealing of thousands of dollars from her employer, the Webster City Area Chamber of Commerce. She is being held in the Hamilton County Jail in Webster City. Mulholland is now facing the possibility of having to serve the ten-year prison term that was originally suspended in 2021. She has a probation revocation hearing set for October 7th in Hamilton County District Court.

Iowa Courts online reported that an application to revoke Mulholland’s probation was filed by her probation officer last Friday. Probation officer Dan Lindgren detailed some manners in which he says Mulholland violated her probation. One of them was her payment history toward her Hamilton County cases showed her to make regular payments.

CHR discharged Mulholland from treatment due to being a no call no show fourteen times in six weeks. She also missed a scheduled individual appointment with her substance counselor and missing a scheduled probation appointment plus continued sporadic attendance at mandatory meetings for probation.

Leah Mulholland (Hamilton County Jail photo)

In January, 2021, Mulholland was given a ten-year suspended prison sentence, five year’s probation and a $1000 fine which was also suspended on a charge of first-degree theft. It was in February, 2020 that Mulholland was originally arrested following a lengthy investigation related to more than $239,586.23 in improper disbursements from the Webster City Chamber of Commerce during the time of her employment.

(Radio Iowa) – Students in the Morningside University’s Applied Agriculture and Food Studies program put their work to good use by donating food from their on-campus garden Monday to the Food Bank of Siouxland. Food Bank associated executive director, Valerie Petersen, says it’s a great way to receive fresh food. “We can’t get any fresher in this can we? So we’ve worked with Morningside University for a long time now. We’ve worked with their applied Ag department for a long time, and we just kept working together, and eventually they said, ‘Hey, we have all this produce that’s going to be coming out. We would love to donate it to you.’ And we said, that’s great,” Petersen says.

Associate Ag professor, Dan Witten is also a board member of the Food Bank. “We’ve, as a faculty and as a department, have donated to a couple of the Food Bank’s outlets, but this was the first year we made an intentional effort to directly raise product for the food bank, and we hope it’s many to come,” he says. Witten says students did most of the work to raise the vegetables “Our students are responsible for an experiential learning activity known as May term on campus. While spring term was wrapping up and we were rolling into May and June term, students actually planted 90 percent of what you see growing out here, if not 95 percent of it,” Witten says. “And now, over the summer, we had multiple student interns help manage the crop. Now we’re using students to help harvest it.”

The students also donated food to local pantries, including 100 pounds of cucumbers donated to the United Methodist Church, which is located next to the Sioux City campus.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in Montgomery County, today (Tuesday) received numerous comments pertaining to the Summit Carbon Solutions carbon capture pipeline. Most of the comments were with regard to the establishment of a Survey Ordinance for land owners who have not signed an agreement for the pipeline to run on their land. It would request Summit contractors to have a permit, so the County would know when they would be taking measurements for pipeline installation, and have the proper identification when they are on a person’s property and that they are insured against property damage. Other comments were with regard to the threat of Eminent Domain by Summit, to take control of property to build the pipeline.

Mike Luna, who is a relatively new Montgomery County resident, said he “Hates” Eminent Domain.

A Montgomery County resident asks the Supervisors to establish a Survey Ordinance (8-27-24)

Luna said he would stand by landing owning Supervisors in opposition to Eminent Domain, if Summit tries to force land control for their pipeline. Summit’s initial network pipe in the state, which runs 690 miles, was approved by the Iowa Utilities Commission in June, but the company is barred from starting construction until they have received permission to build the system in North and South Dakota. The system is expected to capture carbon dioxide at ethanol plants in five states, and transport it to an underground storage area in North Dakota. The expansion in Iowa includes about 340 miles of pipe to connect to more ethanol producers after another company, Navigator CO2, abandoned its plans for a similar project. Summit said they have agreements with 30 of Iowa’s 42 ethanol plants.

The Supervisors approved a renewal of the Weed Commissioner’s contract with Damion Bond. There are no changes to the previous contract. The new Weed Commissioner contract will expire June 30, 2026. The Board discussed and then appointed Supervisors Mike Olson and Mark Peterson, who will meet with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS), to discuss the watershed structure maintenance for Montgomery County. In other business, the Montgomery County Supervisors passed a Resolution (2024-33), approving the placement on the November 5th General Election ballot, a Public Measure pertaining to the appointment of Township Officers, rather than by election. Supervisor Donna Robinson…

The Board approved a supplemental agreement with Snyder and Associates Engineers, for additional services pertaining to carbon capture pipeline inspections. Montgomery County Engineer Karen Albert provided the Supervisors with her weekly Secondary Roads Department report. The includes hauling road rock. She also mentioned the status of various, ongoing road projects.

Tenpoint Construction will be finishing-up concrete patch work this week on M-63, north of Stanton.

The Board’s next regular meeting is September 3rd, at 8:30-a.m., in their Montgomery County Courthouse meeting room, in Red Oak.

(Radio Iowa) – Much of Iowa’s eastern third remains under excessive heat warnings and heat advisories today (Tuesday) and many communities across the region are opening cooling centers. Polk County’s Extreme Temperature Plan also lowers the barrier for entry to homeless shelters. Brett McIntyre, with the county’s emergency management office, says the plan prepares for high temperatures at night, which can worsen the effects of daytime heat.

“When it’s hot during the day and it cools off at night, people are able to recover a bit more effectively,” McIntyre says, “but when it stays hot at night, that’s when you’re really able to see the uptick in heat illness and then stresses on other resources.” Under the county’s plan, Central Iowa Shelter and Services in downtown Des Moines offers daytime services to people of any age and overnight stays to those over 18. The plan also provides free rides on DART buses to shelters and cooling centers. McIntyre says increasing access to shelters can reduce heat-related illnesses and takes pressure off emergency rooms and other city services.

“The more avenues we can give people to get to places to cool down,” he says, “we can try to eliminate that extra burden on our healthcare system.” Polk County’s plan is in effect until 7 A-M Thursday.

People looking to use the cooling centers are advised to call ahead to make sure they’re open. A full list is available at polk-county-iowa-dot-gov.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Members of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education will hold a Work Session Wednesday, in the Achievement Center at 1406 SW 7th Street, in Atlantic. Their meeting begins at 5:30-p.m., and includes discussion with regard to:

1. Superintendent search plans.
2. A review of the District’s Attendance Policy and Practice.
3. PLC (Professional Learning Community) Process roll-out plans
4. Program size (educational & extracurricular).

The Board’s next REGULAR meeting is on Sept. 11th in the High School Media Center, beginning at 5:30-p.m.

You can view the Work Session meeting through this YouTube link.

(Radio Iowa) – More than 40 languages are spoken in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, ranging from Burmese to Bosnian, and from Spanish to Congolese French. Glen Keith, executive director of Love Incorporated, says the nonprofit faces an increasing challenge to provide housing and employment assistance to non-native English speakers as translators are in very short supply. “When you think about legal documents, people applying for different things, there’s an incredible need,” Keith says. “And then you think about all the nonprofits that are serving this community, we’re all in the same boat asking for help.”

Keith says it’s becoming harder to connect people with essential services due to the shortage of translators. “We have such a diverse community here in the Cedar Valley,” he says, “and oftentimes it bridges a lot of misunderstandings and cultural gaps, and being a volunteer-based organization, it’s always tough to find enough translators to talk with folks that are calling us for assistance.”

Love Incorporated has only 2 translators, one each for Spanish and French.

(Radio Iowa) – For the last time this summer, law enforcement agencies are ready to launch a STEP, or a Selective Traffic Enforcement Program. Iowa State Patrol spokesman Trooper Paul Gardner, from the Fort Dodge post, says STEP will put dozens of extra law enforcement officers on the roads during the upcoming holiday weekend, and they’ll be seeking out speeders, impaired drivers and other lawbreakers.

“Statewide, we’re at 195 traffic deaths to date, compared to 242 last year, so that’s almost a 20% reduction,” Gardner says. “We want to maintain that reduction in our traffic crashes and traffic fatalities, especially with Labor Day coming up. It’s a holiday where parties are common, drinking might be common as well, so we want people to drive sober, drive safely.” Garner implores Iowans who are hosting events for the holiday to make sure their guests don’t drive impaired by calling them a taxi or Uber, giving them a ride home or offering them a place to crash.

“If they’re going to be consuming alcoholic beverages, make sure they’re getting a sober ride to their destination,” Gardner says. “That way, we can make sure that they’re getting home safe and they’re not getting into trouble by either being pulled over and they’re under the influence and they end up in jail for the weekend, or even worse, they get somebody else hurt or killed.”

The three-months between Memorial Day and Labor Day are considered the “100 Deadliest Days” in Iowa, when there’s typically a rise in teen crashes and deaths. During that period, the patrol says Iowa often averages 30 deaths of drivers and passengers between 14 and 18 years old.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says the final round of Local Food for Schools grants are out for this year. Among the recipients in the KJAN listening area, are the following school districts: Atlantic, Audubon, Bedford, CAM, Clarinda, Council Bluffs, Essex, Griswold, Nodaway Valley, Panorama, Shelby County Catholic School, Shenandoah, Treynor, West Central Valley, and the West Harrison CSD. Naig says “What this is all about is providing some small grants, two-thousand dollars ($2,000) to those school districts, and that will be an incentive for them to buy locally.”

Schools can use the grants to buy meat, eggs, produce, dairy and other local foods from area farmers. “It is a case of, yes, it’s a it’s a good food and nutritious local food, fresh food for students, but also it can be a really nice market opportunity for farmers,” Naig says. He says 137 public and private schools were awarded grants in this round “We’ve been excited that 110 farms or food businesses have participated in this program, now entering its its third year,” Naig says, “and here’s the I think even more exciting is that we’re seeing a lot of interest in folks either expanding their farms or getting into it.”

IA Ag Secretary Mike Naig (RI file photo)

Naig expects the program to continue and grow. “While we’re able to supply …what schools are looking for in terms of today, right now, I think this is an area that’s growing, and so I believe we’re going to see increased interest in schools and institutions looking to buy local,” he says. “And I think we’re going to be seeing either an expansion of and the addition of some farms that are going to try to supply that marketplace. And really is a nice upside for folks.”

Naig says through the first two rounds, more than one-point-seven million dollars has been awarded to 162 Iowa schools, and more than 110 farms and food businesses have sold products to schools through the program.

Here is a link to the schools approved for grants: https://iowaagriculture.gov/sites/default/files/2024/2024%20LFS%20Iowa%20Schools_0.pdf

(Montgomery County) – Firefighters from Elliott, Red Oak and Grant were dispatched late Monday afternoon, to the 1100 block of Lumber Avenue in Montgomery County, where multiple haybales were said to be on fire. The Red Oak Fire Department posted on social media, that the first arriving units reported three bales on fire, and that there were bales on a trailer that were burning as well. The bales were extinguished by firefighters, assisted by local farmers with a tractor.

With the exception of Elliott firefighting personnel, all other crews were released from scene a little after 5-p.m. Elliott crews remained on scene to conduct mop-up operations. No injuries reported. The haybale trailer sustained minor damage and approximately three bales destroyed.

Other assisting agencies:

Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency

Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office – Red Oak, Iowa

Montgomery County 911