Firefighters from Atlantic and Marne responded Friday afternoon to a mobile home fire in Marne. The call came in at 4:36-p.m.  The trailer, which was located a little west  of the Roadhouse Bar & Grill, was unoccupied prior to the firefighters’ arrival. Heavy smoke was showing from the structure when the first units arrived on scene. The residence, which sustained extensive damage,  was being used by two adult females and their dog. The Red Cross notified, to try and find suitable housing.

Fire officials say the blaze apparently started in the kitchen area, but the cause remains under investigation. No injuries were reported.

Officials with the Cass County Memorial Hospital Auxiliary said Friday they will award two $1,000 scholarships to students entering into or continuing education in the healthcare field. Application forms have been sent to area high school guidance counselors. Forms are also available from the Human Resources office at Cass County Memorial Hospital.

The application must be returned to Cass County Memorial Hospital by March 31st. Applications can be dropped off or mailed to: Cass County Memorial Hospital, Attn: Human Resources, 1501 East 10th Street, Atlantic, Iowa 50022.

NELIGH, Neb. (AP) – A northeast Nebraska man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and her new husband has pleaded not guilty.  The pleas were entered on Wednesday for 33-year-old Matthew Hinrichsen, of Ewing,  in Antelope County District Court.  Hinrichsen has been charged with arson, two weapons counts and two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 25-year old Victoria Lee, a former City Councilperson from Missouri Valley,  and her husband, 30-year-old Alex Vargas.

Investigators found the couple’s bodies on Dec 8th, 2012, in a burned-out mobile home near Ewing. Hinrichsen was being held without bond at the State Prison in Lincoln, NE.  His trial is set to begin April 8th.

The Iowa Supreme Court has issued a ruling that has an impact on water and railroads.  In the spring of 2007 Union Pacific workers noticed a hole in the roadbed under their tracks in Hardin County and filled the hole with rock. The railroad did not know the hole was caused by the collapse of a nearly 100-year-old clay drainage tile, and the rock repair caused water drained by the tile to back up and flood farm ground. The local drainage district fixed the broken tile and sent a bill to the railroad.

The total bill — including crop losses — was over 100-thousand dollars. The railroad refused to pay, saying state law requires them to repair bridges and culverts, and a tile is not a culvert. The district court sided with the drainage district and said the railroad had to pay. But the Iowa Supreme Court ruling says the legislature was very specific in making the railroads responsible for bridges and culverts, and did not use the word drains to cover repairs to any pipes that drain water. For that reason the court said a tile is not a culvert and the railroad is not required to pay for tile repairs.

The court information says there could be hundreds of such tiles under the railroad bed that will be impacted by the ruling.

(Radio Iowa)

Two former government employees in southwest Iowa are accused of selling nearly $20,000 worth of county-owned scrap metal to a local salvage yard and pocketing the money for themselves. An investigation by the State Auditor’s office was launched after the Adair County Auditor received an anonymous letter outlining concerns with the sale of old iron and used bridge planks. Deputy State Auditor Tami Kusian says Duane Jameson and Cindy Butcher, who worked in the Adair County Engineer’s Office, sold the materials over a 10 year period. “The checks were being written to the two employees and we identified those being deposited in their accounts,” Kusian says.

Kusian says Adair County authorities learned of the alleged activity in January. Jameson was the Road Superintendent, while Butcher was the Engineer’s Office Shop Clerk. Both were fired last week. Kusian says the checks issued to Jameson and Butcher ranged from roughly $200 to $7,000. The state investigation covered the period between December 2001 and December 2011. Kusian says they identified $19,734 of undeposited collections.

The State Auditor’s report has been turned over to the Adair County Attorney and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

(Radio Iowa)

Many Iowans will are wearing red today (Friday) for a good cause. Cassie Wessing, with the Des Moines Chapter of the American Heart Association, says National Wear Red Day is designed to raise awareness about the number one killer of women – heart disease. Wessing is hoping Iowans will take it a step further and “go red” the entire month. “Wear red, decorate your house, business or office red. Anything you can think of. We want the whole world to be red through the month of February,” Wessing says. National Wear Red Day, held annually on February 1, was created 10 years ago.

“At that time, women didn’t really think of heart disease as a disease for them, it was an ‘old man’s’ disease,” Wessing says. “Even health care professionals didn’t really think of treating women and heart disease in personal ways and according to their body types.” The American Heart Association reports, since the first Wear Red Day 10 years ago, 21% fewer women are dying from heart disease. “We started this campaign, really, to raise awareness that heart disease is the number one killer of women. It’s not just happening to men,” Wessing said.

Other events are scheduled this month in Iowa to raise both awareness and money toward the fight against heart disease. That includes The Heart Ball on February 16 at the Embassy Suites in downtown Des Moines.

(Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Thursday, approved a request by Teddi Grindberg with Healthy Cass County, to place signs or banners in the courthouse promoting community wellness.

A sample of the new wellness signs to be rotated every 3 months at the courthouse.

The signs are made possible as part of a 5-year, $88,000 per year, Community Transformation grant. The grant comes from the Centers for Disease, Control and Prevention which was funded through a number of states, including Iowa. In Iowa, there were 26 counties chosen for the grant, which focuses on community wellness. Funds for the grant flow through Cass County.

Grindberg, whose office is at the Nishna Valley YMCA in Atlantic,  says there are a number of different wellness aspects that are focused on locally. The first year, 2012, focused primarily on the City of Atlantic. But the idea is to move the focus from community-to-community in Cass County, with emphasis on several areas. That includes: smoke-free multi-unit housing; chronic disease management, and work site wellness.

Teddi says they are also working with Live Healthy Iowa and other ways to make the communities in the county more physically active. Another aspect of the Community Transformation Grant, is information placed at strategic locations on an on-going basis, geared toward promoting health awareness, such as high blood pressure, etc.  She says new messages will be placed at different locations every three months or so.

The messages will be on easels in the courthouse, so as to not mar the finish on the walls.

An Atlantic man was arrested Thursday on a drug-related charges. According to Atlantic Police, 60-year old Samuel Miller faces two counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana. Miller was booked into the Cass County Jail and held pending a court appearance.

w/ Ric Hanson

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The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Thursday, passed a Resolution setting the gross load weight limits for certain secondary road bridges in the County. Cass County Engineer Charles Marker explained that as part of the County’s bridge inspection process, a consultant recommends any changes to posted weight limits based on the inspection results. Marker says there are currently 46 bridges which are below what is termed “Legal limit.” Even if the weight restrictions didn’t change on those particular bridges, the signs must still be put in place.

Marker said they inspect more than 230 bridges in the County. He says 46 out of 230 may seem like a large number, but percentage-wise, they are “Trying to hold our own” and keep up with repairs and replacements. Supervisor Charles Reiken said setting lower limits would create problems for some crop produces because they would have to haul smaller loads more frequently. The solution he said, would be to replace those structures with new bridges. He asked Marker if the issue was going to be more closely explored.

Marker says with the money that’s coming in from the State and/or Federal government for bridge replacement, it takes about three-years to accumulate enough money to replace a bridge of any substantial size. He says the money is not coming in fast enough to replace them, and while they’re replacing as many bridges – usually smaller length structures, 20-to-40 feet — as they can using County crews, they can still only handle about 3 or 4 per year.

In other business, the Supervisors passed a motion awarding a contract for the replacement of a 30-foot bridge over the Nishnabotna River on Lansing Road, to Murphy Heavy Contracting Corporation, of Anita, which had the low bid of $963,826.   The bid amounted to 75-percent of the engineer’s construction estimate. Work is expected to begin no later than May 6^th.