Officials with the Atlantic Rotary Club have announced a partnership with the Cass County Child Abuse Prevention Council (CCCAPC) for their annual Rotary Auction Raffle. Proceeds from this year’s raffle will be used to support violence prevention efforts and educational activities at all three Cass County School Districts.

Kristen Templeton, CCCAPC coordinator, said  “Our goal is to focus on violence prevention education throughout the 2014-2015 school year in Cass County. We hope to do this by bringing in a dynamic speaker to start the year off and help spread this message to students and the entire community.”

The local Child Abuse Prevention Council has been in contact with internationally recognized speaker The Scary Guy about bringing his educational message to each school in Cass County at the beginning of the next school year. The multi-day program involves working with youth in each school, at an age appropriate level, to discuss concepts such as hate, violence and prejudice, while teaching youth skills to process information they see in the world around them and take responsibility for their own actions.

Community members interested in supporting this effort through the Rotary Auction Raffle are encouraged to contact a local Rotary member or CCCAPC member to purchase their raffle tickets. Tickets can also be purchased at the Atlantic Chamber, Cass County Public Health/Unity Point at Home in Atlantic, or at Rolling Hills Bank and Trust locations in Atlantic, Anita and Griswold.

Ticket prices are 1 for $20 or 6 for $100. Raffle prizes will be given as cash in the amounts of $2500, $1500 and $1000. The raffle winners will be drawn at the 31st Annual Atlantic Rotary Auction, scheduled for Saturday, November 16th at the Cass County Community Center. Seats are still available for the auction, and anyone interested in attending is encouraged to contact an Atlantic Rotary member to purchase tickets.

An Atlantic man was arrested Friday (Oct. 18th) on alcohol and child endangerment charges. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says 29-year old Nathan Patrick Kinzie, of Atlantic, face a felony OWI 3^rd Offense charge, and two aggravated misdemeanor charges of Child Endangerment. Kinzie was taken to the Cass County Jail where he was being held on $9000 bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Department of Public Health is expanding its free nicotine replacement program in hopes of helping more residents quit smoking or chewing tobacco. The agency announced Friday that beginning Wednesday, people who enroll in the Quitline Iowa program will be eligible for eight weeks of nicotine replacement therapy. That’s double the four weeks of therapy that was available.

Agency director Mariannette Miller-Meeks says the longer people have access to nicotine replacement patches, lozenges or gum, the better their chance of quitting use of tobacco. To enroll in the program, call 1-800-QUIT-NOW or go online to www.quitnow.net/iowa.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports an investigation into a Thursday afternoon fire at a home in College Springs has resulted in an arrest. 41-year old Steven Dean Lundvall, of College Springs was arrested at around 3:45-p.m. and charged with Reckless Use of Fire, following an investigation into a fire at 706 Iowa Avenue in College Springs. Lundvall was being held in the Page County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Officials say at around 3:27-p.m. Thursday, deputies with the Page County Sheriff’s Office responded to a request for assistance at a house fire in College Springs. Fire departments from College Springs and Clarinda were attempting to contain the flames in the home, which was unoccupied. The residence, owned by Kenny and Debbie McClarnon, sustained damage by heat generated from the fire.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office is issuing an alert to residents of the County, that beginning 10-a.m. October 25th, and lasting until Noon, the Sheriff’s Office will be upgrading its phone system. As a result, the Administrative lines will be down for the two-hour period. Officials stress that the 9-1-1 lines will still be functional, and anyone with an emergency on Oct. 25th from 9-am until Noon, can call. The 9-1-1 line will be answered by a neighboring agency.

The Atlantic Police Department reports the arrest on Thursday of 19-year old Andrew Laughlin, of Atlantic. Laughlin was arrested on a Cass County warrant charging him with Possession of a Controlled Substance with the intent to deliver. He was booked into the Cass County Jail.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A former manager at one of the nation’s largest grain cooperatives has pleaded guilty to accepting $480,000 in bribes from an Iowa farmer in exchange for deep discounts on products.  Former West Central Co-Op sales manager Chad Hartzler faces a 51-month prison sentence under the terms of a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett will decide whether to accept the plea deal at Hartlzer’s sentencing hearing, which hasn’t been set. Hartzler was released after pleading guilty to wire fraud during a hearing Thursday in Sioux City. He admitted to taking bribes from Lake View farmer Bill Wollesen starting in 2005. In exchange, he secretly gave Wollesen discounts on crop seed and farm chemicals.

Wollesen has not been charged and he denies the bribery allegations.

The City of Avoca is expecting a new hotel to be constructed at the Highway 59 and Interstate 80 interchange. According to the Avoca Journal-Herald, the Avoca City Council Tuesday approved an incentive agreement with Cobblestone Hotels for a 40 unit hotel. The project is estimated to have $2.5 million taxable valuation for the city. The company has shown interest in the past to build on the location but was unable to acquire a site.

The paper says  the hotel group has a purchase option on the site and has committed financing to the project. The city council incentive will have Cobblestone Hotel a minimum of $2 million in taxable value which in turn will generate $68,000 in annual property tax. The hotel will also bring in between $27,000 and $35,000 in hotel-motel tax revenue.

The agreement between the city council and Hotel Company allows the hotel to be eligible for additional tax rebates for the first six years. The hotel is expected to be completed in 2014.

A survey of C-F-Os at companies nationwide finds salaries in Iowa should rise next year at a higher rate than in most other states — in several key industries. Jim Kwapick, district president for the global staffing firm Robert Half, says people in professions that are in high demand will be seeing welcome boosts in their paychecks in 2014. “It is a significant uptick,” Kwapick says. “In other words, the average projected increase of salaries for people in Iowa exceeds that of our national average by quite a lot, actually.”

Chief financial officers, those who make the money decisions, were surveyed in multiple professions across the country, and Kwapick says those in Iowa were very optimistic about the year ahead. “For example, in the general accountant category, we’re projecting for large companies, a 6.9% salary increase. That compares to a national average of 3.4%, so, almost a doulbing,” Kwapick says. “That’s a significant uptick.”

For smaller Iowa companies, accountants may be seeing salary increases of eight-point-eight percent in the next year. Another industry that’s “white hot,” according to Kwapick, is technology. He says tech is a broad category with multiple skill sets. Kwapick says, “If you look more precisely at things like a mobile application developer, with frankly everything going mobile, there is huge demand and short supply which drives up wage rate.” While technology workers overall in Iowa will see a projected salary boost of five-point-six percent, those working in mobile apps may see a jump as high as 13-percent. He also points to gains ahead in several other fields, ranging from agriculture to health care. Learn more at: www.roberthalf.com/salary-guides

(Radio Iowa)