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The findings of an energy audit conducted by Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities (IAMU) for the City of Harlan have been released. Officials with Harlan Municipal Utilities say included in the report are specific recommendations on how to decrease electric, gas and water use at City facilities. Street lights and traffic signals are the largest energy consumers followed by the swimming pool, the waste water treatment plant and Veteran’s Memorial Building.

HMU says the audit was a necessary and productive effort in order to save money to citizens in Harlan. The new street lights and traffic signals will have a big impact on the savings. The utility company converted the stop lights to LED lights and is in the process of changing all street lights over to LED lights as well. The savings is estimated around 50 percent and that will the savings will be passed on to the consumers.

HMU Additional buildings and facilities included in the audit were: City Hall/Police station, C.G. Therkildsen Activity Center, Waste Water Treatment Plan, Developsource Building, the Library, the fire station, Dog Pound, Parks and Rec building, and the street maintenance building.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

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Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County arrested a Villisca man late Wednesday night.  28-year-old Joshua Dean Cooney was arrested for possession of a controlled substance/marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was taken into custody following a traffic stop at the intersection of Highways 34 and 48.

Cooney was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Three people have been arrested in connection with an investigation into thefts in Villisca. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 40-year-old Joseph Lamoni of Villisca, 20-year-old Justin Wagner of Farragut and an unidentified female juvenile were arrested Wednesday. The trio was taken into custody after law enforcement received tips from the public.

Authorities were able to locate stolen property in the vicinity of where the suspects were taken into custody. Officials say Lamoni faces Accessory after the fact, 2nd degree theft, and 5th degree theft charges. Wagner was being held at the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center on a valid Montgomery County warrant, and on charges of being an Accessory after the fact, and 5th degree theft.

The female was released on a juvenile citation, and awaiting a court decision.

A state senator from southwest Iowa is formally set to announce her bid for the U-S Senate. Senator Joni Ernst announced on a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/joniforiowa) Wednesday, that she intends to kick-off her campaign next week. An official announcement is expected to come 9-a.m. Wednesday (July 17^th)   at the Montgomery County Courthouse, in Red Oak.

Afterward, the 43-year old Ernst will reportedly travel to Council Bluffs and Sioux City for similar announcements. Her official campaign page www.joniforiowa.com , says Ernst is seeking the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Tom Harkin, in 2014. Ernst filed the paperwork for her candidacy,Wednesday.

Ernst serves in the Iowa’s 12^th District, which covers Fremont, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Ringgold and Taylor Counties. Prior to being re-elected last November, Ernst served as Auditor in Montgomery County. She won a special election to fill a seat vacated by Kim Reynolds, who would go on to become Iowa’s Lieutenant Governor. For the past 21-years, Ernst has also served in the Iowa Army National Guard, and is a veteran of the second Iraq war.

Other Republicans seeking the GOP Senate nomination include Ames Lawyer Matt Whitaker, David Young, a former aide to U-S Senator Charles Grassley, Sioux City talk show host Sam Clovis, and attorney Paul Lunde. Congressman Bruce Braley is only Democrat to declare his Senate candidacy.

Officials at Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic, say the East Entrance to CCMH will be closed beginning 9-a.m. Saturday, July 13th, through approximately July 27th. The entrance will be closed to allow crews to replace the concrete parking pads used by mobile diagnostic imaging services, as well as some of the adjoining parking lot area.

The East Entrance enters into the Atrium area of the hospital, near the laboratory. Patients who normally use the East Entrance during the day and evening (6 am – 9 pm) should use the North Atrium Entrance near Atlantic Medical Center during this temporary closure.

All patients and visitors arriving at the hospital between 9 pm and 6 am will need to use the Emergency Department Entrance, and request entry over the intercom.

A man who has announced his candidacy for the U-S Congress, will be in Atlantic, next week. Gabe De La Cerda of Des Moines, will speak and meet with the public at the Cass County Court House’ Basement Conference Room, beginning at 7-p.m. Tuesday, July 16^th. De La Cerda will be available for questions, and explain why he wants to run against Tom Latham, the current Congressman for Iowa’s Third District.

Gabe De La Cerda

A lifelong member of the working class, De La Cerda says understands first-hand the hardships faced by the everyday Iowan. He says he aspires to serve in Congress to help solve those issues.

Currently a communications student at Des Moines Area Community College, De La Cerda served as Iowa Political Coordinator for the United Steel Workers Union during the 2012 campaign season. After working as a union member at Firestone AG Tire Factory in Des Moines, De La Cerda made the decision in February 2013 to dedicate his time to pursuing his education and running for Congress.

Iowa Congressman Steve King is leading opposition to the push to pass some sort of immigration reform through the U.S. House. “Legalization is amnesty, is citizenship eventually and if we do anything like that, then this perpetual amnesty that has already passed the senate — and it looks like there are members in the House that support it — then we can never control our borders again,” he says. King and other Republicans in the U.S. House met privately Wednesday afternoon to discuss the issue.

“I did have an opportunity to speak. It wasn’t in the time of the meeting when I thought it should have been,” King says. “The leadership and the committee chairs spoke for a full hour explaining their agenda and their bills before any member was allowed to step up to the microphone and speak, so the inertia of the meeting was already set…For me, it was an hour and 50 minutes of waiting waiting for one-minute-and-30-seconds to speak and I made all the points that I could.” King suggests House Republican leaders structured the private meeting in such a way as to sway newer House members who may be undecided on the issue and King worries the ground may be shifting against him.

“I think there’s a good, solid core of members that say, ‘No legalization of any kind because we know that is amnesty and it turns into citizenship. We can’t be rewarding people that broke the law. Let’s reward the people that honor our laws,'” King says. “I think there’s a good, solid core of that, but I wouldn’t be confident that we have enough people on our side of this to prevent what would be perpetual amnesty.” Some Republicans argue the G-O-P will continue to lose ground with the growing ranks of Latino and other minority votes if Republicans in the House kill immigration reform. The bipartisan immigration reform plan that cleared the U.S. Senate last month calls for a so-called “border surge” that would send thousands of additional federal agents to the U.S./Mexican border. King doesn’t think that’s necessary.

“We’re spending over $6.5 million a mile on our southern border right now and that’s plenty of money to secure the border,” King says. “If they would give me Janet Napolitano’s job, the budget that she has and a president who didn’t tie my hands, in three years I’d be up into the 99th percentile of the border security that we would have.” One alternative under consideration in the House is for Republicans to pass a series of bills related to different parts of the immigration debate — like a bill offering citizenship to young adults who were brought into the country illegally, when they were children. King not only opposes a single, “comprehensive” immigration reform bill, but he opposes any effort from his fellow Republicans to make changes in any federal immigration policies.

“I don’t think that there’s a need to try to pass more legislation,” King says. “This is an executive problem of a president who refuses to enforce the law and honor his own oath of office. It’s not something that the legislature can fix. Any law that we would pass, he can just do like he’s done with ObamaCare and just refuse to enforce it.” The Obama Administration recently announced it was delaying a requirement that large employers provide health insurance for full-time employees or pay a penalty. White House officials released a report Wednesday, suggesting immigration reform is an “economic and national security imperative.” A national polling firm also released details about surveys in key congressional districts suggesting voters would be less likely to vote for Republican incumbents who oppose immigration reform. None of the surveys were conducted in Iowa. All the district surveyed were “toss-up” areas with a history of close contests between Republicans and Democrats.

(Radio Iowa)