The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation have scheduled a joint press conference from Noon today (Tuesday, May 20th), at the Carroll County Courthouse. The press conference is with regard to the double death investigation in Glidden.

No other details will be released until the press conference. KJAN will update the story  when information becomes available. The Department of Public Safety announced Monday that the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office received a call Sunday night about an unconscious person at a mobile home park in Glidden. Officers found the bodies of an adult man and woman.

Autopsies were scheduled for today at the Office of the State Medical Examiner in Ankeny.

The Griswold School Board held a public hearing Monday evening with regard to the 2014-2015 School Calendar. Superintendent Dana Kunze said there were two proposed options from which the district could choose from. Kunze said a number of teachers were present at the meeting to outline “Calendar A,” which was voted down last month, and would have had school start Thursday, August 14th. The Alternate start date “Calendar B,” proposed starting school on Monday, August 18th.

When it came time for a decision, Calendar B failed in a 3-4 vote. Calendar A passed on a 4-3 vote. Kunze says most people were concerned with the district starting school earlier and earlier each year, and the teachers pointed out that is true this year, but will likely be different next year. He said school traditionally starts on a Thursday, but August starts on a Friday this year, so that pushes the start date back one-week to a Thursday. Kunze said also that Christmas is on a Thursday this year, and that messes with the Christmas break, as well. He said he expects to see the start date to fall back next year as the calendar adjusts.

Kunze says the fall sports seasons starts August 11th, so parents and kids both are looking forward to getting the school year underway. In other business, Superintendent Kunze said the district’s Boiler and Rest Room projects are coming along nicely. He says they expect to see those projects completed before the doors to the school opens in the fall.

And, the Griswold School Board, Monday, voted to increase the amount students and adults pay for their lunches. Lunch at the Elementary School will go up 8-cents this fall, High School students will pay 12-cents more per meal, while the adult lunch prices are increasing by a dime, to $3.30. Kunze said the prices have gone up just about every year, because the Feds want schools to play catch up to rates that are deemed more appropriate, but Kunze said the Feds are allowing districts to gradually “Step-up” their prices for school lunch menus, rather than taking one big bite at a time.

He says the Feds expect the districts to met the criteria for reimbursement on lunch prices, but until that happens, schools are “Held hostage” and their arms are twisted to make them comply. And, after much community input and discussion, the Griswold School District has changed its motto from a long mission statement, to “Learn Today, Lead Tomorrow.”

Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker, today (Tuesday), said a warrant was issued Monday for the arrest of a teacher/coach with the Treynor Community School District. The warrant charges 44-year old Michael Douglas Travis with two counts of Sexual Exploitation by a School Employee, both of which are Class-D Felonies.

An investigation determined three separate females were victims in the case. Travis, a 5th grade teacher and Assistant Softball Coach, is accused of having inappropriate contact with former female students while the girls attended the Treynor High School. One victim, age 29, falls outside of the State of Iowa’s Statute of Limitations. The other victims, age 22 and age 27, fall within the timeline threshold for reporting.

Danker says on April 24th 2014, the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into Travis’ alleged activities after authorities were notified by Treynor School District Attorney Joseph Thornton that the School Board had received two separate letters written by former female students accusing Travis of inappropriate contact. Travis was placed on paid administrative leave from the district while authorities investigated the allegations against him.

w/ Ric Hanson

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The Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund has announced this year’s scholarship recipients. Officials say Maren McNees and Wyatt Saeugling each will receive a $750 scholarship plus an additional $200 will be sent to the charity of their choice.

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Police in Council Bluffs are investigating two robberies that occurred overnight Monday into early this (Tuesday) morning. Officials say at around 10:30-p.m. Monday, a stocky white male in his 20’s entered Eddy’s Gas Station at 611 East Broadway Street, displayed a gun and demanded money from the cash register. The suspect placed an undetermined amount of  money in a bag and left the store on foot in an unknown direction of travel. Officials say he was about 5-feet 9-inches tall, weighed 200-pounds, had a goatee and wore a black hooded jacket with a design on it, black gloves, and panty hose over his face. He was also carrying a black bag.

The second robbery happened today (Tuesday) at around 2:40-a.m., at the Kum and Go Store on Bennett Avenue (154 Bennett) in Council Bluffs. Officials say a similarly dressed suspect carrying a black satchel-style duffel bag confronted the clerk and brandished a handgun. He also got away on foot with an unknown amount of cash.

Anyone with information about either incident is asked to contact Council Bluffs Police at 712-328-4761.

The Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department’s Board of Directors Monday evening, approved a request from Eagle Scout Grant Podhasky, for an improvement project at Sunnyside Park.

Grant Podhasky

The project involves the replacement of the fire pit on the east side of the Camblin Addition to the park. The current fire pit is falling apart and patched together with concrete blocks as support.

The current fire pit

Podhasky said when he decided to pursue the project, he looked at three options for a new fire pit. He says he considered making it into a grill, but there’s already one in the area. He also looked into fire pit kits, but they weren’t visually and functionally adequate. Another option was to use retaining wall blocks.

The option he chose was using natural limestone, set in the form of a fire ring about 24-feet in diameter. Podhasky said the pit would have a concrete base lined with pea gravel and surrounded by timbers.

The ;proposed layout of a new fire pit.

The project would use 2,000-pounds of limestone and 5.3-cubic yards of pea gravel.

Limestone blocks would serve as the basis for the fire pit.

As for seating options, Podhasky says he considered several options there, too.  Split logs, wooden benches and limestone blocks were looked at, but ruled out for various reasons. The end solution was to use tree stumps, which provide a natural environment for the setting.

10 tree stumps would be placed in the circle around the fire pit. With the Park Boards’ approval, Podhasky can continue with fundraising efforts and acquire the necessary materials and equipment. Work on removing the current fire pit is expected to begin in June, with the project completed by mid-July.

Police in Red Oak say a Pottawattamie County woman was arrested Monday night on an OWI charge. 23-year old Jan Palubiak, of Oakland, was taken into custody at around 9-p.m. for OWI/1st offense. Palubiak was being held in the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center on $1,000 bond.

An SUV occupied by 9 people crashed early Monday morning in Adair County, resulting in two adults and two children, all from eastern Iowa, being sent to the hospital in Greenfield.  Three of the injured were not wearing seat belts. The Iowa State Patrol reports the injured were riding in a 2003 GMC Envoy that was traveling west on I-80 in construction zone at around 5:50-a.m., when the driver, 48-year old Lazaro Rodriguez Soto, of Cedar Rapids, fell asleep at the wheel.

The SUV ran off the road and hit a guard rail before overturning into the north ditch and coming to rest on its top. Transported to the Adair County Memorial Hospital in Greenfield was 49-year old MA Eugenia Montes-Vera, 26-year old Clara Rodriguez, a seven-year old and nine-year old child, all from Cedar Rapids. A report on the extent of their injuries was not available.