w/ Ric Hanson

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A family tradition was honored at the Shelby County Fair Thursday night. The family of Harriet and AnnaJean Ahrenholtz were surprised when Shelby County Fair President Kent Ganzer recognized them for the dedication and donation to the Shelby County Fair. This year, the Ahrenholtz family donated $60,000 to the board for the all new show ring. Clark Ahrenholtz, son of Harry and AnnaJean said the family wanted to honor their parents.

“Well my parents were always big promoters of the fair. My dad was president of the fair board and my brother and nephew carry on the tradition and we are happy about that. The show ring was something that was needed for a long time here. When it was put up originally, it was actually put up with used materials and we were happy with that at the time but we wanted to do something that mom and dad weren’t able to do when they were alive. We decided this would be a project that if we could kick into it and get the ball rolling. We would like to thank the Shelby County Fair Board because without them this wouldn’t be possible for us to recognize our parents”

Ahrenholtz said almost all of the family was able to come and be a part of the festivities. “I can start at the bottom that’s me. I am the last surviving child of my parents. I wasn’t raised to last but I am the last one. My sister Jane from Tuscan and her husband Rich were up. Then Annette and her husband were unable to attend due to health concerns. And then my brother Roger, who really took over from my dad as Mister Fair to make everything happen and we are getting Justin broke in on that. And then my oldest brother Harry was down from Jefferson.”

Clark said the family is fifth generation in showing cattle at the Shelby County Fair. He said the family is proud to call Shelby County home. “It takes a whole community effort. Like I said we want to remain humble about this because that’s the way our parents were. They kind of make you toot your own horn a little bit when it happens like this here. But we are just proud and very happy to be apart of this community and support the community this way.”

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

It was a night of royalty and recognition at the 2014 Shelby County Fair Thursday evening. The queen ceremony was held inside the all new show ring at the fairgrounds with twelve young ladies competing for the crown. Every contestant was asked two questions from the MC Lynn Brinker before the crown was handed out to Emily Pattee. She said the award was a complete surprise. “I was completely shocked. When I didn’t hear my name for princess, I thought oh there is no way I will get it. And then when I heard my name I was completely shocked.” Pattee was nominated by her group Portsmouth Super Production.

As the queen, Pattee will be involved in handing out ribbons and other activities at the Shelby County Fair and will represent Shelby County at the 2014 Iowa State Fair Queen contest. Pattee has lofty goals as she will be enrolling at the University of Iowa in the fall for bio-medical engineering. In other awards, Chelsea Assman received runner-up in the queen competition and Teresa Arkfeld won the 2014 Brownfield Ag Youth Award sponsored by our sister station KNOD in Harlan. Arkfeld said it meant a lot to her as she is heavily involved in Agriculture.

In addition to the queen ceremony, the Shelby County Fair Board inducted two couples into the Shelby County Fair Hall of Fame. Ed and Vickie Anderson and Kevin and Deb Rutherford were welcomed into the Hall of Fame. The other couple, Kevin and Deb Rutherford couldn’t remember how many years they have been running the 4-H food booth but they have enjoyed it. The Rutherfords said they weren’t expecting the award as they thought their daughter was going to receive an award instead. They called it a humbling experience and were well appreciative for the nomination.

The final recognition went to Linda Heflin who will be inducted into the Iowa State Fair Hall of Fame on August 18th, 2014. Heflin has worked the dog show at the Shelby County Fair for over 25 years.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Moisture returns to the region Friday and into the weekend with a series of disturbances combined with a stationary boundary expected to stall across central Iowa tonight (Friday) through Sunday. The National Weather Service says that combination will provide periods of thunderstorms late tonight through Sunday. The greatest chance for thunderstorms with heavy rain and severe weather will be Scattered thunderstorms central and north today will become numerous across the state tonight.

Thunderstorms are expected again Saturday in to Saturday evening. Some of the storms may be severe, producing heavy rain, high winds, and hail this afternoon in the west, and over the state Saturday afternoon and evening. Isolated thunderstorms are possible Sunday into Monday, followed by sharply cooler temperatures more typical of mid May on Tuesday.

Authorities in Fremont County say two people have been arrested in connection with several vehicle break-ins and burglaries in Hamburg. Acting on a Crimestoppers tip, sheriff’s deputies arrested 22-year old Kevin Junior Booher, of Hamburg, and 20-year old Torri Grace Perry, of College Springs. The pair were arrested on two felony charges of Burglary in the 3rd Degree, 14 counts of Burglary in the 3rd involving a motor vehicle (Aggravated misdemeanors), one aggravated misdemeanor count of 3rd Degree Theft .

Their bonds were set at $26,000 each. The arrests followed an investigation into more than a half-dozen reports of vehicles being broken into during the early morning hours of June 29th, in Hamburg. Sheriff’s officials say ALL of the vehicles were unlocked when the thefts occurred.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest on Thursday of a Villisca man. 57-year old John Robert Hausen was taken into custody at around 8:20-p.m. on an Adams County warrant for Indecent Exposure. The warrant was the result of an incident which allegedly occurred at the Adams County Jail on July 8th. Hausen was being held in the jail on $1,000 bond.

Sheriff’s officials in Adams County say one person was injured during a collision Thursday evening,  about four-miles northeast of Prescott. Authorities say the driver of a pickup, 33-year old Jason Mark King, of Red Oak, was transported to Alegent Health in Corning, after the pickup hit a semi. The accident happened at around 6:20-p.m., when a 2005 Freightliner truck driven by 66-year old Keith Rex Moore, of Creston, pulled away from the intersection at 180th and Union Avenue.

No charges have been filed in connection with the crash.

An investigation initiated by the Department of Human Services (DHS) and conducted by the Red Oak Police Department, has resulted in the arrest of two people on felony Theft charges. Authorities say 49-year old Cuba Cerene Lane, and 44-year old Danny Jo Lane, both of Red Oak, were arrested at their residence in the 2400 block of North 8th Street Thursday morning.

Danny Jo Lane was charged with six felony counts of Theft in the 2nd Degree, 1 count of Theft in the 3rd Degree (an Aggravated Misdemeanor), and two counts of Theft in the 4th Degree (Serious Misdemeanor’s). Cuba Lane, who is accused of helping take the funds faces one count each, of Theft in the 2nd, Theft in the 3rd and Theft in the 4th Degrees.

The couple were brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and held on $5,000 cash bond, each.

The Mercy Health Network and its related facilities in Iowa and Nebraska have won a grant of just over 10 million dollars to move to a system called “value based care.” Among the facilities included in the Mercy Health Network is: The Audubon County Memorial Hospital; Clarinda Regional Medical Center; Adair County Memorial Hospital; Manning Regional Healthcare Center; the Ringgold County Hospital; Madison County Health Care System, and the Dallas County Hospital.

Mercy Des Moines senior vice president, David Swieskowski says the new approach looks to cut costs and improve care by more closely following patients. “This grant will provide funding to put in the I-T systems to follow all patients with chronic diseases or healthy patients,” Swieskowski explains. “Patients with chronic diseases will make sure they’re getting the care that they need and make sure they we are getting the outcomes that we expect.” The network includes more than 160-thousand patients at 25 hospitals and 73 clinics located in 37 counties in Iowa and Nebraska.

“So if they are not getting the care, we are going to call them and tell them they are overdue for care and ask them to come in,” Swieskowski. Setting up the system to track patients is the first step, but Swieskowski says the most money will be spend on the staff to handle the care.”We’ll have health coaches who can work with patients to set goals and help them change their behaviors to get better outcomes,” Swieskowski. Another aspect of the program is working with those who already treat the patients.

“Part of it is you have to engage their health care providers — their physicians and advanced practitioners who are working within these sites — to support this and encourage patients to work with this process,” according to Swieskowski. What happens if the patients don’t follow up and get the care that they need? Swieskowski is a doctor who works in Des Moines, and says they have seen a positive response when working with their patients.

He says when they call patients who are overdue for care, they get 90-percent of the people to come in. “The most common reason people will give for not coming in is that they forgot or didn’t know,” he says. Swieskowski is not sure exactly when the program will get underway, but says it shouldn’t take long once they launch it. “We can get these data systems ramped up in three to six months, so I’m saying in six to 12 months patients in these locations will start noticing a difference in the way we are delivering their care,” Swieskowski says. The different delivery system is expected to save money for treatments and care that are not needed because the patient got better and not worse. The health system will benefit by making the program work.

“We have shared savings programs with Wellmark and with Medicare where if we reduce the costs we get a portion of the costs that we reduce, we share in the savings,” Swieskowski says. “So, initially we are going to fund this program through he grant, and when the grant runs out in three years we are hoping that the shared savings will be more than enough to continue the program.”

(Radio Iowa)