An Omaha firm has its eyes on Atlantic as the possible site for housing development projects, such as re-purposing older buildings and building low-to-moderate income apartments or duplexes, for senior citizens. City Administrator Doug Harris said Mike Fallesen, Vice President for Affordable Housing Development with the Seldin Company, in Omaha, toured some sites in Atlantic, this past Monday.

Some of the locations include the former Jackson School, property behind the Fareway Store, and other areas. Harris said Fallesen seemed interested in obtaining more information from the City, such as its Housing Study. Harris said Seldin tends to combine their projects with Community Development Block Grants, plus tax credits and other incentives, in order to make it more feasible to build or rehabilitate properties.

The Seldin Company website says the firm specializes in property management, leasing, and development with more than 12,000 apartments units and more than 3.3 million square feet of commercial retail and office space across the central United States. Through the years, Seldin Company has built single-family homes, subdivisions, apartments, hotels, shopping centers and other commercial developments.

(on the web at http://www.seldin.com/)

The Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, approved the awarding of a contract for City auditing services to Gronewold, Bell, Kyhnn & Co., P.C., of Atlantic. Their decision followed discussion, and a recommendation by the City’s Personnel and Finance Committee. City Administrator Doug Harris said there were three bids for the three-year service (Fiscal Year’s 2014, ’15 and ’16). The other bidders included the State of Iowa Auditor’s Office, and Faller, Kinchloe & Co., PLC, of Des Moines.

Harris said Gronewold, Bell & Kyhnn are well qualified for the job and handle a lot of other municipal accounting jobs. He says their cost was slightly higher for the single audit then the other two firms, but when the cost is average for the three year contract, the cost is actually lower, and, it appears the other firms underestimating how long it would take to complete an audit, and therefore billed for lesser hours in their bid.

G,B & K’s combined bid for three-years of single audits was $42,150, which was just slightly higher than Faller and Kinchloe’s bid, and more than $4,000 less than what the State of Iowa had bid. G B & K’s FY 2014 single audit price was $13,750, and would take 220-hours. As a point of reference, the City’s FY 2013 audit cost $15,480, and took 260 hours to complete, including 28 hours for the single audit at a cost of $1,600.

In other business, the Council approved a 3% increase in compensation for non-union City employees (excluding the Wastewater Superintendent, whose compensation adjustment has already been approved by the Council). Doug Harris explained the 3% increase is the same increase granted to the two unions, and the funding increase for the adjustment was included in the adopted FY 2015 Budget.

Authorities in Cass County have identified a man who died during a farming accident Wednesday afternoon, northeast of Massena. Sheriff’s officials say 40-year old Brian Larry Follmann, of Massena, died when he became caught in a hay baler.

The incident was reported at around 2:37-p.m. Follmann died at the scene of the accident, located off of 760th Street, about three-quarters of a mile north of Highway 92.

w/ Ric Hanson

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Severe weather is possible across much of Iowa once again today. Already this morning, a Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued for parts of Carroll, Audubon, Guthrie and Greene Counties, with nickel-sized hail having been reported just east of Audubon at around 7:35-a.m.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK., has placed much of Iowa in a slight risk for severe storms. In addition to damaging winds and large hail, heavy rainfall is possible. An additional widespread 1″ to 1.5″ may fall over already rain-soaked locations… including those in the Flash Flood Watch.

Flash Flood Watch (green shaded counties- lower left image).

The slight risk area may shift throughout the daytime, so please make sure you stay up to date with the latest weather forecast information…especially if you have travel and/or outdoor plans today!

An Ohio man convicted this past March in connection with a high speed crash that killed a Council Bluffs man in September, was sentenced Wednesday to a maximum of 10-years in prison for vehicular homicide. The Omaha World-Herald reports 30-year old Eric Shiplett, of Zanesville, OH.,  could be eligible for parole in as little as three-years.

Shiplett was driving a vehicle that left Interstate 480 in Omaha at a high rate of speed on Sept. 6th, 2013. The vehicle careened out of control near the 30th Street exit and rolled several times off to the side of the road. A passenger in the car, 19-year old Matthew Doty, of Council Bluffs, was ejected during the crash, and died at the scene.

Prosecutors said Shiplett’s blood-alcohol level was nearly three-times the legal limit of .08 (Point Oh-eight).

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Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones and Councilman Dana Halder are asking residents to try and resolve any differences they have in-person, when it comes to noise issues. Jones said the City received a letter from a resident who asked the Council to consider creating an ordinance that would address noise issues, especially with regard to lawn mowing and yard waste removal.

Jones said an unidentified female resident called him Saturday night and other members of the Council Sunday morning, to complain about a neighbor who was using a skid loader to remove tree and other yard debris Saturday evening. Halder said he received two calls from the complainant. One came just after 8:30-p.m. Saturday, the other at around 7:30-a.m. Sunday. Halder says he promptly investigated the situation and found no valid reason for the complaint. He said he arrived with 10 minutes of each call received, saw the person operating a skid loader in a valley, cleaning up some brush about 80-yards from the woman’s property line.

Halder said he spoke with another neighbor who said they didn’t have a problem with what was happening. Halder said also, that the man in question had apparently built a new house and was trying to clean-up the brush piles before wet and stormy weather arrived. He said the irony was, that as he was leaving, Halder had the windows down on his vehicle, and could hear the woman talking in her backyard…over the noise of the skid loader.

He said the man with the skid-loader confirmed the next morning that he was trying to get the land waste cleaned-up before the weather. When he arrived Sunday morning, the skid-loader, which he described as having a small motor, was on a trailer. Halder said he thinks the matter could have been handled better by the citizen. He said they need to “work a little harder to get along,” and understand people sometimes can’t mow and work outside when it’s convenient for their neighbors. He says talking with your neighbor when you have an issue, according to Halder, makes for a better level of understanding , and equates to “Honey going a lot farther than salt, I guess.”

He said none of the neighbors he spoke with had a problem with skid loader noise on the days and times in question. Atlantic does have noise ordinances that pertain to Amplified sound, barking dogs, disorderly conduct, engine brakes and identified “Quiet Zones,” but nothing specifically pertaining to the operating of equipment during certain hours.

Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones expressed his gratitude Wednesday evening for the outpouring of support the community and residents of Cass County showed during Monday evening’s Honor Flight motorcade from Atlantic to Des Moines. During the Atlantic City Council meeting, Jones also thanked the two Atlantic natives (Jeff Becker and Roger Underwood) who made the trip possible, and former Council member Steve Livengood, who was instrumental in organizing the local effort.

The veterans and their guardians boarded three buses in Atlantic as they prepared to visit the nation’s war memorials in Washington, D-C. Jones said they were ecstatic at how residents of the community and county showed their support. He said “They were hoopin’ and hollerin’” He said it was a great atmosphere, with the motorcycle escort to Des Moines, and seeing all people lining the streets of the communities the motorcade passed through, including Wiota, Anita, all the way to near Adair.

Jones said everything went pretty smoothly in D-C, although it was a bit on the hot side.

The East Mills School Board has decided to close an elementary school in Malvern in a cost-saving measure. The Daily NonPareil reports the Board voted on the matter during a special meeting Tuesday. The  decision means students will not be attending Chantry Elementary School in Malvern next school year. The building will be shut-down as part of a strategy to address declining enrollment and financial troubles.