The Atlantic City Council voted 5-to-2 Wednesday evening, against passing a “Resolution of Objection” to the POET, LLC ethanol transfer, or trans-loading station, in the northern downtown area. Councilpersons Steve Livengood and Linda Hartkopf voted in favor of the Resolution, while Councilpersons Jimerson, Somers, Halder, Hayes and Shouse, voted against it.

The Resolution essentially objected to the location of the trans-loading station, but not the project itself. The concerns centered around the facility being located within 100-feet of the downtown fire district. The Resolution, which Livengood said would merely be for the record and “last longer” than a notation in the minutes, does not absolve the City from any legal action in the event of an explosion, a point Councilman Shawn Shouse said essentially renders the Resolution a moot point.

Shouse said he personally, thought the whole matter could have been handled better. He said POET had no legal responsibility to talk to the City Council before construction of the facility, which has since been completed, but he says “It would seem to have been prudent to do so.” Shouse said the Resolution, if approved, could be detrimental to the future of the City bringing in new business. He said people more familiar with business than himself, tell him this could be viewed as “Obstruction to business…being an unfriendly place to do business.”

Shouse said there is the potential for the City’s reputation to be harmed by passing the Resolution. Councilperson Kathy Somers said the Resolution does nothing to address and/or fix the safety concerns mentioned by the Mayor and others. Shouse agreed. He said the Resolution is “Retaliatory verbage,” against POET for not having informed the City of the company’s plans, and therefore there is no benefit to it. Some people were concerned that passing the Resolution would have caused POET to bring an ethanol plant to Atlantic, but Mayor Dave Jones said the company is not even considering the community in its future plans.

Councilman Livengood said while the Resolution has no legal teeth, it puts POET on notice that the City is “Watching them,” but Somers said it’s not the City’s job to “Watch them,” since they have the necessary permits from the Federal government.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Technology snags that kept people from successfully buying insurance in the new exchanges set up by the federal government are continuing into a second day. Some consumers have turned to insurance companies offering polices for information.

West Des Moines-based CoOportunity Health, which sells policies in Iowa and Nebraska, says it hit a daily high for website hits Tuesday with more than 500 people logging in to get quotes and about 100 people calling the company’s toll-free call center. Cliff Gold, the company’s chief operating officer, says people likely turned to insurer websites when they couldn’t access the federal government’s site.

He says he’s been telling people to wait a week or two. Consumers who want coverage starting Jan. 1 have until Dec. 15 to enroll.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A health system that operates multiple hospitals and clinics in Iowa says someone had unauthorized access to the personal records of about 1,800 patients.  UnityPoint Health said in a news release Wednesday that the unidentified individual may have viewed names, insurance account numbers, as well as Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.

Letters have been sent to affected patients about the security breach, which occurred between February and August. They will be offered a credit-monitoring service, and law enforcement is investigating the incident.

UnityPoint said the person who viewed the records was employed through a third-party and used other people’s passwords to get into the electronic medical record system. UnityPoint, previously called Iowa Health System, operates in both Iowa and Illinois.

A dog running out of  a ditch in Page County Tuesday morning caused an accident that sent one person to the hospital. Page County Sheriff Lyle Palmer reports a 1994 Ford Mustang driven by 18-year old Brandon Meyers, of Clarinda, was traveling west on 230th Street at around 8:20-a.m., when Meyers swerved to avoid a dog that came onto the road.

The car went out of control and entered the south ditch before it came to rest after hitting a tree. Meyers was transported to the Clarinda Hospital for treatment of non-incapacitating injuries. Damage to the car was estimated at $5,000. No citations were issued.

The warm and sunny conditions around Iowa are about to change. Kurt Kotenberg is a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. “We’re going to go, basically, from 80s and sunshine the past couple days, to stormy Thursday and especially Friday, to cloudy, cold and gloomy for this weekend,” Kotenberg says.

Clouds will be on the increase across the state tonight, with some areas possibly receiving rain. A better chance for rain arrives tomorrow (Thursday). “Especially from around the Des Moines metro area and locations to the north, we’ve got a 60 to 70 percent chance (of rain),” Kotenberg says. “Heading into Friday, we have a greater chance of strong to severe thunderstorms across much of Iowa. We’ll definitely be watching that closely.”

More fall-like temperatures will arrive on Saturday. “Saturday will be pretty cloudy all day, kind of a very raw November-like day…kind of drizzling all day and cold,” Kotenberg says. “Temperatures will struggle to reach the mid to upper 50s and it will be windy also.”

Winds on Saturday will be between 15 and 25 miles per hour, according to Kotenberg. Sunday’s forecast calls for a clear to partly cloudy sky and highs mainly in the 50s.

(Radio Iowa)

Harlan City Administrator Terry Cox says the City has Harlan received an anonymous donation of American flags for the downtown square flag replacement project. Cox reported the news to the City Council, on Tuesday. The Shelby County Supervisors, City of Harlan and Harlan Municipal Utilities will work on replacing flags around the square and will ask businesses to help with the upkeep of the flags.

Cox also said next Monday or Tuesday, the new Harlan Police Department building project will get started, weather permitting. The project was to start this past week, however work was held off until after the Harlan Community School District Parade which will be held on Friday.

Cox also reported the Iowa Department of Transportation has grant money available to change the street lights on Highway 44 to LED lights. He said HMU will do the work once the approval of the grant has gone through from the DOT. Cox said he is hoping the work can begin later this fall.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

Police in Audubon report the arrest on Sept. 21st of a local woman on an assault charge. 46 year old Michelle Ann Cardoza, of Audubon, was taken into custody for Simple Assault. Cardoza was transported to the Audubon County Jail and held to be seen by a magistrate.

And, on Monday (Sept. 30th), officers with the Audubon Police Department arrested 53 year old Jeffrey Dennis Spencer, of Omaha, for Public Intoxication/3rd or subsequent offense. Spencer was transported to the Audubon County Jail and held to be seen by a magistrate.

An Atlantic man was arrested this (Wednesday) morning, on an assault charge. 57-year old Terry Calhoun faces a charge of Domestic Abuse Assault, according to Atlantic Police. Calhoun was booked into the Cass County Jail. And, 27-year old Tony Mack of Atlantic, was arrested on a charge of OWI/1st Offense. Mack was also booked into the jail, in Atlantic.

w/ Ric Hanson

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