The Atlantic Police Department Monday (Today) released additional details about an injury accident that occurred Sunday afternoon. Officials say SUV’s driven by Mandy Wolff, of Atlantic, and Patrice Amos, of Griswold, were traveling east and stopped at the traffic light on Highway 6 and the north entrance to the WalMart store, when an eastbound pickup driven by Ronald Simon, of Atlantic, approached the light in the left lane.

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The pickup turned to enter the right lane and hit Wolff’s Dodge Durango in the left rear. The impact pushed the SUV into Amos’ vehicle. Simon, Wolff and three passengers in her SUV, were all transported to the Cass County Memorial Hospital. Their injuries were described as non-life threatening. The accident happened at around 2:50-p.m.

Authorities say Ronald Simon was cited for Failure to Maintain Control, while Wolff was cited for having No Proof of Insurance. Damage from the crash amounted to $20,700.

After a rise in cases involving embezzlement from city coffers, the state auditor’s office has implemented a new audit schedule that aims to combat fraud in Iowa’s smallest towns. State lawmakers approved the new audit schedule, which went into effect earlier this year. State Auditor Mary Mosiman says as of July, cities with populations of fewer than two-thousand people will be audited on the basis of risk.

“So, if they have annual budgeted expenditures of one million (dollars) or more for two consecutive years, they are going to be subject to an annual examination,” Mosiman says. “If they do not have one-million or more for two consecutive years, they’ll have a periodic examination. That’s new this year.” Starting in July, towns with budgets of more than one-million dollars will get audited every year, and those with smaller budgets, at least every eight years. Mosiman says some towns never had anyone from the outside look at their books.

“Prior to July of this year, cities under the population of 700 never had to have an annual audit, and if there was a fraud in the government, it was typically one of those,” Mosiman says. “That’s something we hope helps with mismanagement and basically fraud in our smallest of cities.” The auditor’s office counted 32 cases of small town corruption in Iowa between 2005 and 2011. In the town of Halbur, population 246, for example, Mosiman says the city clerk leveraged her position as a bank employee to embezzle more than 290-thousand dollars. In another example, the city treasurer of McCausland wrote checks to herself and her husband to the tune of 187-thousand dollars, or about 650-dollars per resident.

(Radio Iowa)

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The Atlantic Police Department is warning residents about another scam letter is being sent out to the public. Officials say the most recent one some residents are receiving is from an “Investment Company” out of the United Kingdom. The letter says that they have sent other notifications to you stating that you have been the prize winner. It also says if they do not hear from you within 3 weeks the case will be closed and you will no longer be eligible for your prize winnings.

The letter has names, phone numbers, the claim number and is very detailed with information, but authorities say it is a scam. If you have any questions about this, or other possible scams, contact the Atlantic Police Department at 712-243-3512.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Monday (today) released a report on recent arrests. On Nov. 18th, 37-year old Lisa Marie Ferguson, of Hamburg, was arrested for a probation violation and on a Page County warrant. On Nov. 17th, 30-year old Jarrod Monroe Crawley, of Shenandoah, was arrested for Burglary in the 3rd degree and Theft in the 3rd degree. And, on Nov. 15th, 20-year old Derrian Ryan Bredberg, of Tabor, was arrested for OWI/1st offense.

A wood burning stove was the cause of a fire that destroyed a barn in Shelby County Sunday. The Harlan Fire Department was called to the fire around 9:10am Sunday morning to the Finken Tree Farm at 1440 Highway 44. Harlan Fire Chief Roger Bissen says smoke was coming from all directions when they arrived on scene.

“The entire inside of the barn was engulfed in flames with smoke coming out the doors and windows. We went into defense attack mode and put three attack lines on the outside, set up a tanker shuttle, called in Kirkman and Kimballton and extinguished it from the outside. After we got it mostly extinguished we had to get an excavator to bring the remainder of the building down.”

The chief says there were also problems with the excavator. “The trouble we had with getting extinguished was the inside was full of sawed lumber and firewood. Then the whole barn was wrapped in tin so we had all that burning underneath the tin as the building was coming down. We had to get the excavator to tear things apart and continue to extinguish as he was tearing it apart.”

Bissen says Steve Finken, the land owner, lit the wood burning stove early in the morning but then left for church before being called to the home for the fire. Along with Kirkman and Kimballton, Defiance was called to the scene for their rehab trailer. The departments were on scene for over three hours working on the barn fire. However, the fire rekindled later in the evening.

“We got called out about 7 o’clock. Steve had called me at home and said the area of the barn that had the firewood was burning pretty good again. He was afraid to go to bed and leave it so we went out and extinguished that and put some foam on it.”

The Harlan Fire Department was out on the scene in the evening for an additional hour. Bissen says the barn and the contents were a total loss. “He had a lot of wood working equipment, saws and planers and everything. He would take rough cut wood and planning it down and selling it. So he had all the equipment to do that. Steve said he had over $20,000 of equipment in there so we are probably looking at a $25,000 loss.”

No injuries were reported.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

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The state’s treasurer says it’s time to impose lower limits on the pensions retired state workers may receive, but the manager of the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System or IPERS says the move would do little to reduce the fund’s future obligations. State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald says under current policy 35-year state employees with salaries above a quarter of a million dollars can earn a maximum 160-thousand dollar annual pension once they retire.

“That is, I think, bad public policy,” Fitzgerald says. “I think that’s way too high. I think that’s a benefit we ought to scale back.” Donna Mueller — the chief executive officer for IPERS — says about one percent of the 340-thousand people who are either getting an IPERS pension or may get one in the future would be affected by Fitzgerald’s proposed limit. “In the actuarial picture — very, very, very few,” Mueller says. “…It isn’t what’s causing the $5.9 billion or $5.8 billion unfunded liability.”

IPERS currently has about 25-billion dollars in assets and paid out about one-and-a-half billion dollars last year in benefits. Iowa’s pension fund for state workers, teachers and employees of local governments is in far better shape, financially, than other states, but is about 20 percent short of its future obligations. Mueller says that money’s not due today, just like an individual doesn’t have to come up with the money for their 30-year mortgage on day one.

Legislators and the governor did act recently to increase current workers’ contributions into the system. Mueller and Fitzgerald made their comments this weekend during an appearance on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program.

(Radio Iowa)

There are roughly 130 turkey farms in Iowa that have been busy preparing for this week as Thanksgiving Day draws near. Iowa Turkey Federation Executive Director Gretta Irwin says Iowa ranks ninth nationwide in turkey production. “We’ll be raising close to 11 million turkeys in the state of Iowa (this year) and each one of those turkeys is going to add $24 to $25 of economic impact to our economy,” Irwin says.

Iowa ranks fifth in the country for turkey processing as Hillshire Brands in Storm Lake and West Liberty Foods in West Liberty, combined, process over 15.5 million turkeys annually. Irwin says Iowans will find great prices on turkeys as they prepare for the Thanksgiving Day meal. “I’m seeing them at 88-cents a pound or you can buy a ham and get a turkey for free, there are lots of great deals out there,” Irwin says.

The Iowa Turkey Federation’s website was recently revamped and includes a host of tips and ideas for preparing turkeys. “We have a free brochure you can download that shows you how to prepare that turkey,” Irwin says. “It walks you step by step through the process of cooking a frozen turkey, deep fat frying a turkey, grilling a turkey…lots of great ideas in the that brochure.”

Governor Terry Branstad will uphold an annual tradition today (Monday), by pardoning two Iowa-grown turkeys during a ceremony at Terrace Hill. The turkeys, from a farm in Ellsworth, will then be taken to live out their remaining days at Living History Farms in Urbandale.

(Radio Iowa)