The Iowa Department of Transportation is asking for your help in determining which state rest areas along interstate highways are staying, and which ones will go away. D-O-T spokesperson Andrea Henry says this is the third phase of the review the rest area program.”What we have done is come up with a draft plan of what we recommend to do with the rest areas in the next 20 years. As part of that plan…we put that out for public comment and let people look through that and give their feedback,” Henry explains. The state has 38 full-service rest areas and 16 that are for parking only. She says they have looked at a variety of factors to see how the rest areas are being used. “Usage of the rest area — which includes how the normal everyday citizen is using that as well commercial drivers like truck drivers,” Henry says. “We’re looking at the ages of the facilities, we are looking at the services they provide, spacing between rest areas.”

Henry says they took all the information and came up with a plan. “We treated each one of the rest areas and then we ranked them to look at ones that we could potentially close and still be able to provide the same services or resting points for the traveling public, and made those recommendations for closures,” Henry says.

The best rated rest stops are in line for money to improve them. They include (in alphabetical order) :I-80 Adair eastbound and westbound; I-380 Cedar Rapids Northbound; I-80 Davenport Westbound; I-35 Dows northbound/southbound; I-35 Northwood northbound/southbound; I-80 Tiffin Eastbound; I-29 Pacific Junction Northbound. The lowest rated include: I-80 Davenport eastbound; I-680 Loveland eastbound and westbound in Pottawattamie County; I-29 Missouri Valley northbound; I-29 Onawa northbound and southbound; I-35 Osceola northbound and southbound; I-29 Sergeant Bluff northbound; I-35 Story City northbound.

Henry says they would like to shut down the lowest rated rest stops in the next 20 years to ensure they have run out their useful life. Henry says they want to make sure they are getting the most use out of the reststops because it takes a lot of money to run them. “They currently cost about three-point-seven million per year for operations. That’s just to keep them going,” she says, “and then of course we have the improvements that we program. In the current five-year program that includes seven point-five million over the next five years.”

Henry wants anyone who uses the reststops to look over the recommendations and give their opinion. “You can go to our website — which is Iowa-D-O-T-dot-gov-slash-rest-area-plan (iowadot.gov/restareaplan). And on that are all of the background materials as well as that draft implementation plan. There is also a nice video on there that helps explain the process and our approach to the rest area system,” Henry says.

Henry says they will be taking public comment through September of 2019. She says it stretches for more than one year to give time for a study of truck parking that’s underway to be completed. “And then after that we will take all of those comments into consideration and look at the draft plan and draft a final plan,” Henry says. The rest areas were first constructed along the interstates in the 1960’s. Federal officials originally recommended that there only be a 30 minute drive between a rest area or other available facility, and that was later changed to one hour. The availability of services along the interstates has changed as cities grew up around them and that has sometimes led to reststops that are no longer needed. The D-O-T closed two reststops on I-80 near Waukee after a survey in 2012 found they were not being heavily used.

(Radio Iowa)

Red Oak Police, Thursday, arrested 48-year old Shelby JoAnn Olivares. The Red Oak woman was taken into custody in the 500 block of E. Market Street on a charge of Public Intoxication. Olivares was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 cash bond. And, 19-year old Jacob Anthony Anderson, of Red Oak, was arrested Thursday afternoon for Possession of a Controlled Substance/1st offense. Anderson was booked into the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CDT

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Another person has been sentenced in connection with the distribution of a powerful synthetic opioid that led to the death of a Council Bluffs man. Federal prosecutors say 24-year-old Amalia Pandis, of Carter Lake, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute fentanyl that caused death. Prosecutors say Pandis was part of a drug trafficking ring responsible for obtained fentanyl from a source in China and selling it western Iowa and eastern Nebraska.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A man who operated a western Iowa dog kennel where three dog carcasses and dozens of malnourished dogs and puppies were found has been charged with 40 counts of animal neglect. Thirty-five-year-old Dustin Young, who billed himself as a dog breeder and trainer, appeared in Pottawattamie County’s District Court on Thursday to face the 36 simple misdemeanor counts and four serious misdemeanor counts.

SPENCER, Iowa (AP) — Days of heavy rain is causing wastewater runoff from some cities and livestock facilities in northwest and north-central Iowa and threatens to shut down some municipal water wells. Ken Hessenius is supervisor of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Spencer field office. He says, so far, cities have able to meet the demand for safe drinking water. But flooding is causing many cities to prepare to shut down some of their wells if needed.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Waterloo man has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for traveling to Mexico to sexually abuse a girl, whom he used to produce child pornography. Federal prosecutors in Iowa say 36-year-old Juan Rangel was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty in December to one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place and one count of distribution of child pornography.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office report 44-year old Joseph Edward Harris, of rural Essex, was arrested Thursday at the Page County Jail, after he turned himself-in on Page County warrants for Burglary 3^rd Degree and Theft 2^nd Degree.  Harris was unable to post the $10,000 bond, and is currently being held in the Page County Jail pending further court proceedings.

Joseph Harris

Also arrested Thursday, was 32-year old Laura Christine Hartman, of Coin. She was taken into custody at the Page County Courthouse, on a Page County Warrant for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.  Hartman transported to the Page County Jail.  Bond was posted on the Simple Misdemeanor at the Page County Courthouse for her, and Hartman was released pending further court proceedings in the case.

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports 35-year old Deandre Eugene Cooper, and 30-year old Charles Jesse Beuterbaugh, were sentenced in United States District Court Wednesday, for Possession of Contraband by a Federal Prisoner. The sentencing was handed down in Council Bluffs.

Cooper was sentenced to 100 months imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release. Beuterbaugh was sentenced to serve eight months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Their sentences were each ordered to be served consecutively with sentences they previously received in other matters prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Iowa and the District of Nebraska.

Cooper and Beuterbaugh, along with other co-defendants, while incarcerated at the Pottawattamie County Jail, distributed K-2, a synthetic cannabinoid. On May 17, 2017, corrections staff seized the substance from co-defendant Ivan Cervantes’ cell with the use of a drug detecting dog. Lab reports confirmed the substance found hidden in Cervantes’ cell was a synthetic cannabinoid. Further investigation revealed Cooper and Beuterbaugh had distributed K-2 to other inmates.

The case was investigated by the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement and the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.