The Mills County Attorney’s Office reports that a Mills County jury, Wednesday, deliberated for less than an hour before finding a Nebraska man guilty on three counts of Sexual Abuse in the 2nd degree – all are Class B felonies. 27-year old Laron Dpree Hampton, of Omaha, was formally charged on June 26th, 2017 with the offenses. Sentencing in his case is currently scheduled for 8:30-a.m., August 27, 2018.  A felony charge of Sexual Abuse in the 2nd degree carries with it 25-years of imprisonment.

Mills County Attorney Naeda Elliott says given the nature of the offenses, Iowa Code [Section 902.12] states Hampton must serve at least 70% before he will be eligible for parole. Hampton must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

The Adair County Board of Supervisors discussed several matters during their meeting, Wednesday morning. Among them, was paving the road to the Greenfield Municipal Airport. Adair County Auditor Mindy Schaefer said the gravel road is owned by the county, and there had been talk about paving it, but that’s very expensive. She said they also talked about putting down dust control, and possibly including paving of the road under an Urban Renewal Plan associated with the new wind farm in Adair County. Schaefer said John Schildberg mentioned that there had been interest by a couple of groups who wanted to hold a motorcycle rally or car show at the airport, but once they find out it’s a gravel road, they lose interest.

In other business, Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater recommended, and the Board approved, the hiring of Willie Tipling as a new Sheriff’s Deputy.Tipling will start August 1^st. Schaefer stressed he is an additional employee, not a replacement. They also passed a resolution for a Special Prosecutor Appointment. That person would only be used in the event County Attorney Clint Hight has a conflict of interest in handling a case, or is otherwise not available to handle a case or situation due to his case load. And, the Board discussed the possibility the District 4 DOT office in Atlantic may be moving to Council Bluffs in the future. Schaefer said the Board is opposed to the relocation because it will increase travel expenses for the County, when they need services provided by the Atlantic Office.

Another topic of discussion, was health and safety concerns with regard to two new wind farm projects set to be constructed in Adair County. Mid American Energy is constructing the Arbor Hill wind farm project which includes 125 wind turbines, and the Orient wind farm project, which includes 150 turbines with the option to add up to 100 more. Both are part of the company’s previously announced Wind XI project. MidAmerican officials say the 275 turbines, manufactured by Vestas Wind Systems, will add 550 megawatts of wind generation capacity for MidAmerican Energy customers – enough wind energy to power more than 230,000 average Iowa homes.

Adair County Supervisor Matt Wedemyer told KJAN News a man spoke before the Board, and brought along about 40 people with to listen. Wedemyer said MidAmerican is able to erect the wind farms because the County doesn’t have any zoning ordinances in the rural areas that would specify how tall, how many and other details about the wind turbines. He said the company is already moving dirt in preparation for turbine placement. He said also, there has never been an issue with any of previous three wind turbine placements in the County. 200-thousand acres have been leased for wind easements, he said, and they are financially beneficial for the land owner and the County. He said the County’s road use budget was at $3-million, but thanks to TIF revenue, the turbines help make that budget $15-million per year.

Wedemeyer could only speculate about what the concerns are people might have. He said he understands that some landowners and others may have concerns, but at this point, there’s nothing that can be done with the contracts between private landowners.

The monthly Healthy Cass County meeting was held Monday, July 9 at Cass County Public Health. Officials say the group discussed progress on the Cass County Community Health Needs Assessment and Health Improvement Plan. Walking maps for each community in Cass County have been distributed to each town or can be downloaded from the Cass County Public Health webpage. If you would like additional maps, please contact Public Health at (712) 243-7552 for copies. Healthy Cass County also reviewed and updated the Urgent Need Community Resource Guide. The guide is available online at the Public Health, Healthy Cass County and Cass County Extension websites for easy access to the latest version. For more information on local health and wellness events or resources, follow the Healthy Cass County Facebook page.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — A construction error is delaying completion of a new exit ramp for northbound Interstate 35 motorists at Ames. Iowa Transportation Department engineer Scott Dockstader told station KCCI that support beam piers for the new westbound exit onto U.S. Highway 30 were built too high. Workers have to jackhammer off the tops and pour new concrete to the correct height.

Dockstader says the human error likely won’t disqualify contractor Minnowa Construction from future Iowa projects. He says “all projects are complex, so we have issues with all contractors across the state.”
Co-owner Keith Bruening acknowledges the company mistake and says Minnowa is trying to determine how the human error happened.

Minnowa must forfeit $5,500 for each day the project is delayed. There is no additional cost to Iowa taxpayers.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety say an arrest has been made in connection with the death of an eastern Iowa man. At around 10-p.m. Wednesday, 64-year old Clarence Dean Pedersen, of Washington, Iowa, was taken into custody on a felony warrant for Murder in the First Degree. Earlier that same day, Washington Police Department responded to a 911 call reference a suspicious death in an apartment complex located at 601 West Adams.  Upon arrival, authorities located 70-year old Ed Jones within the apartment, deceased, with an apparent stab wound to the upper torso.

Authorities also located a large fixed blade lying on Jones’ lap with apparent blood on the knife.  Pedersen, Jones’ roommate, was interviewed as part of the investigation.  Pedersen confirmed owning a knife similar in appearance to the knife found in the crime scene.  Additionally, authorities located a handwritten note among Pedersen’s belongings, which stated, “Kill Ed”.  Jones is currently housed in the Washington County Jail and is scheduled for an initial appearance later today (Thursday).  First Degree Murder carries a mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

This investigation is cooperative effort by the Washington Police Department, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington County Attorney’s Office.

Officials with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports a suspect (or suspects) was arrested recently in connection with a case of illegal dumping. Authorities had asked for the public’s help in determining who was responsible for garbage, including a mattress, that was dumped along side the road near the junction of Hamburg Road and 655th Street. The identity of the suspected culprit(s) was not immediately released.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports 19-year old Shane Elam Rouse, II, of Oakland, was arrested on drug-related charge at around 2:35-a.m. today (Thursday).  Authorities say he was driving a 1999 Chevy pickup in the area of North 16th Street and Avenue L, in Council Bluffs, and was pulled over for driving off the roadway and nearly hitting a light pole. Rouse showed numerous clues of being under the influence of some type of narcotic and was detained for an OWI investigation. He was found to be in possession of a marijuana smoking pipe at the time he was detained, and was subsequently placed under arrest for possession of drug paraphernalia. An OWI 1st charge is pending until drug test results come back from the DCI Crime Lab.

A call to the Pottawattamie County Communications Center at around 11:30-p.m., Wednesday,resulted in the arrest of two people.  The caller stated a man and woman were arguing in the parking lot of the Wings America Truck Stop near Avoca. A deputy took into custody 25-year old Brandon Bradley Pospisal, and 22-year old Bridgett Destiny Bowman, both of Avoca. The pair were charged with Public Intoxication and booked into the Pott. County Jail.

A traffic stop Wednesday evening in Pottawattamie County resulted in the arrest of 26-year old Amanda Marie Jones, of Council Bluffs. Jones was wanted on a Council Bluffs Police felony warrant for Assault Causing serious injury.

And, a Council Bluffs man currently serving time in the Pottawattamie County Jail, was presented with a warrant, Wednesday afternoon. 36-year old Deward Lynn White, II, was served with a warrant for Violation of Parole. He was then returned to the custody of jail staff.

The Iowa Department of Transportation Highway Division is seeking federal funding to open a special facility in Jasper County that would train its employees and others who respond to traffic accidents and problems. The plan would use 70 acres of land provided by Jasper County near the Iowa Speedway to create the 11-point-eight million dollar Traffic Incident Management Center (TIM). The director of the D-O-T Highway Division, Mitch Dillavou, says the center will help them learn the best way to respond and clear accidents and other problems on the state highways. “We want to start clearing these incidents as fast as you can, because the longer people sit in traffic, the longer something can happen. Every minute that goes by there’s another two-point-eight percent chance of another incident happening. And we want to improve the way that we clear up incidents,” Dillavou says.

The head of the Motor Vehicle Enforcement, David Lorenzen, says a test track of sorts would be build on the site that features real-life roadways. “Two lane, four-lane, intersections, gravel roads. We’ll put roundabouts, cul-de-sacs, anything that would create what we have in Iowa today,” Lorenzen explains. Lorenzen says the need to be on top of issues has increased as the traffic volume has increased. “Our vehicle miles traveled are at an all-time high –thirty-three billion vehicle miles traveled in Iowa — and that continues to increase. Trucking is increasing it. The system is really strained, so we’ve got to do the best we can on the system to keep it clear,” according to Lorenzen.

He says the site would allow them to do the training in realistic conditions.”All this training can be conducted at the speeds that we run on our roads today — that is why it is such a large facility,” Lorenzen says. “It would also law enforcement and emergency vehicles to train in emergency operations modes.” Lorenzen says they used to do some training at the Iowa Speedway, but the track gets income from testing by race teams that are now using it. The D-O-T is seeking federal money to help fund the cost of construction, which includes the highway sections. “There would be one building which would be a multiple use classroom, very generic building that could be split off into various uses,” Lorenzen says. “We’ve also recently had conversations with the Jasper County Conservation Board, they are directly next to the Sheriff’s office and they are building a learning center out there and they want to talk with us about if there was a way for some coop opportunities so they would not have to build a classroom.”

Lorenzen says police and sheriff’s departments are interested, as is the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy to use the facility for training. He says Tennessee had the only center of this type and then one was recently built in Colorado. “So this would be the third one that we are aware of in the nation and we feel that it would have a pretty heavy draw from folks at least from the law enforcement end as a regional type draw because there’s just not a lot there. I know that fire folks are very interested in it too and some of those aspects,” Lorenzen says.

Dillavou says they are seeking the full cost of the center in what’s called a BUILD grant. They are hoping the 840-thousand dollar cost of the land will be considered as part of the state’s input for the project. Dillavou says the other states have used fees to help fund the ongoing costs of their centers, but that is something they would look into if the funding comes through and the center moves forward.

(Radio Iowa)