The Chairman of the Shelby County Relay for Life says this year’s event will be held around the square in downtown Harlan.  Since the beginning of Relay in the County, the event has always been held at Merrill Field in Harlan, with the exception of one year due to rain. However, according to Relay for Life Chair Joel McCall, those plans have changed with the recent fundraising efforts of the Harlan Community Education Foundation.

The Foundation is attempting to raise $2.1 million with $1.5 going towards upgrades at Merrill Field. The Shelby County Relay for Life Committee received word the school district will be making a decision in April on whether or not the remodeling will happen at Merrill Field this year. The Committee decided they could not wait until April to decide where the Event on Friday, June 7^th will be held. Instead, the Committee reached out to the Shelby County Supervisors and Harlan City Council.

A letter was written to each entity asking their permission to use the square and courthouse area for the event. The letter said  “The Committee believes the best location for the Shelby County Relay for Life Event would be around the square in downtown Harlan. We hope this would encourage more businesses to get involved in this great cause. The American Cancer Society has a certificate of insurance so there will be no risk to the city or county entities. We ask you today for your full support to have the Shelby County Relay for Life Event on Friday June 7^th, 2013 to be held around the square and the use of the Court yard area.”

The Supervisors and Harlan City Council approved the use of the square and downtown area during their meetings on Tuesday.

The Harlan City Council Tuesday, approved three appointments to the Hotel/Motel Tax Committee. In a regular city council meeting, Mayor Gene Gettys appointed City Councilman Dave Miller, Teresa Coenen and Lisa Meyer to the Committee for a 2 year term. Coenen will serve as the Harlan Business owner and Meyer will represent the Harlan Resident. Gettys also appointed Byron Christensen to the Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium Commission. The position became open once the City Council approved Terry Derby’s resignation. Derby had served on the Commission for 6 years but recently has been dealing with health issues. Christensen will finish out the term set to expire on April 19^th, 2015.

In other news, the Harlan City Council approved the Harlan Cemetery board’s request to use the south edge of the R.O.W along Cyclone Avenue to build a proposed retaining wall. Councilmember Aaron Anliker said the cement blocks will have designs on them and will set along the north edge of the Harlan Cemetery. Gettys said the Cemetery Board will need to work out details with Harlan Municipal Utilities and to come back with costs and options.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday) approved an agreement for the use of a local agency Road as a detour, while a short bridge on Highway 92, one-mile west of Highway 148, is being replaced near Massena. Engineer Charles Marker said the County detour request came from the Iowa Department of Transportation. The detour would take traffic along Highway 148 north and east of Massena to County Road G-43. From there over to N-28 (The Cumberland Road), and back south to Highway 92. The project is expected to begin sometime between August 1^st and conclude by October 31^st, and will take about four weeks, weather permitting.

In other business, Engineer Charles Marker presented before the Supervisors a 5-year (2014-to 2019) Bridge construction plan as required by the DOT.

Cass County Engineer Charles Marker’s 5-year bridge replacement plan for the IA DOT.

The plan will appear in his DOT budget when it is submitted to them. Marker says in the current fiscal year, bidding was let on Bridge #345, with Murphy Construction the low bidder. Construction began in Oct. 2012 with bridge 345. He says as of the end of the Federal Fiscal Year 2012 which ended September 31^st, the County had $879, 741 in its account. The County is allocated approximately $400,000 per year for bridge projects.

That’s federal money the County receives from the Road Use Tax and other taxing entities. Marker says projects are an 80/20 match, which means the county must pay for 20-percent of the costs. He says there will be two more bridge projects coming up this next Fiscal Year. Marker says there are three bridges that have an estimated life expectancy of “zero years,” or are approaching the “Critical point” for replacement, according to the latest bridge inspection report. Marker says two of those bridges have already been taken care of, but did not show as being repaired, while another is under contract to be repaired or replaced. He says his department is trying to stay ahead of the required bridge replacement schedule.

Cass County 5-year Road repair plan

Marker says as far as repairs on County roads are concerned, two are included in next year’s budget: G-43 from Lewis to Highway 71, and N-56, from the Atlantic Airport Road south, to Highway 6. Those projects are also included in Marker’s 5-year construction report to the DOT.

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports a Pottawattamie County man was sentenced Tuesday to slightly more than  2 1/2 years in prison for being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm. 25-year old Charles Edward Duncan, of Council Bluffs received his sentence from Chief U-S District Judge James E. Gritzner, in United States District Court in Council Bluffs.

United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt says Judge Gritzner sentenced Duncan to 34 months in prison,  and ordered him to serve 2 years of supervised release following his imprisonment. Duncan is also required to pay $100 to the Crime Victim Fund, and forfeit the firearm and ammunition found in his possession.

Duncan, the victim of a recent shooting, was allowed to remain under the supervision of the United States Probation Office to receive further medical care for his wound, pending the
Federal Bureau of Prisons designating the facility at which he is to serve his term of
imprisonment.

The indictment against him alleged that Duncan was an unlawful user of controlled substances
(marijuana) and that he had, prior to possessing the firearm, been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. Either circumstance barred Duncan from possessing a firearm. The charge arose out of the execution of a State of Iowa search warrant by the SouthWest Iowa Narcotics Task Force on April 11th, 2012, at Duncan’s residence in Council Bluffs.

During the search, officers found various indications of marijuana use by Duncan, and an AK-47 style rifle and ammunition. Duncan had, on November 15th, 2011, been convicted in the District Court of the State of Iowa for Pottawattamie County, of a misdemeanor domestic assault resulting in physical injury, and was at the time of the search subject to a domestic abuse protection order.

The case against him was investigated by the SouthWest Iowa Narcotics Task Force and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

Authorities in Adams County say a man wanted on a warrant for a violation of his probation has voluntarily turned himself-in. 25-year old Cody Wilson, of Corning, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant stemming from a domestic abuse incident earlier this month. Wilson was booked into the Adams County Jail and held without bond, pending a court appearance.

Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers says no one was killed or injured during a bizarre accident Tuesday afternoon. Brothers reports a 2007 Ford Taurus driven by 85-year old Violette Henneman, of Clarinda, was pulling into a parking stall at 402 West Willow Street at around 3:30-p.m., when Henneman hit the gas pedal instead of the brake.

Her car drove over a curb and down a yard before crashing into the Clar Haven Apartment building. Even though her car was inside an apartment rented by Merlin Cavner, Henneman still had her foot on the gas, as evidenced by a burn mark on the carpet which was caused by the fast-spinning front left tire.The collision also damaged a box spring mattress in an apartment.

Henneman told authorities she was not hurt, but the woman was transported to the Clarinda Regional Health Center for examination. Damage to the building and box spring was estimated at $20,150 altogether, while the car sustained  $10,000 damage.

w/ Ric Hanson

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The Shelby County Board of Supervisors moved one step closer to approving the 2014 Fiscal Year budget. In a special board meeting Tuesday morning, Shelby County Auditor Marsha Carter introduced eight options for the 2014 budget. After much discussion from the Board, the taxable valuation increase options were narrowed down to two, and finally one.

Shelby County Supervisor Steve Kenkel said the option they narrowed down called for “Ag property 5-percent, Land 5-percent, no increase for residential and minus 4 to Commercial. That was a total of 4.6percent.”  Auditor Marsha Carter told the board even if the option was approved, the County needed to be aware of changes to Mental Health Dollars.  Carter said “We have always been limited since 1993 when the state as froze our Mental Health tax dollars, they were funding with growth dollars to fill the deficit on the county level. Now the state has regionalized, at this point the max we can tax is $47.28 per capita which is a decrease of about $300,000. So that is taken into consideration when talking about the percentage of increase.”  She said the state could change the number later on and would affect the budget.

Before approving the option, Kenkel said every department was well prepared. “I appreciate the process you guys go through. We spent about three partial days and I thought all the department heads were very prepared when they came. We froze some budgets and we raised some for the cost of business and cut some too. We have a good process here and everything was well put together.”

The Shelby County Supervisors approved the Fiscal Year 2014 proposed Budget and set the hearing for Tuesday, February 19^th at 9-am in the basement of the Shelby County Courthouse.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

An animal rescue operation group is in the process of trying to find new homes for four horses that were found emaciated on a Fremont County farm. The one Arabian and three quarter horses were confiscated from a farm near Farragut, on Monday. Sheriff’s officials and a local veterinarian visited the farm late Monday afternoon, after they received a telephone tip.

The veterinarian examined the horses and determined they had been neglected. Two of the animals were said to be several hundred pounds underweight. A 22-year old man who released the animals while authorities were making arrangements to have them removed from the property, was cited on suspicion of interfering with official acts and livestock neglect. The unidentified man was taken to jail, plead guilty Tuesday, and paid a fine.

The horses were removed from the land by court order. Their current location has not been disclosed. Anyone interested in adopting the animals can call the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office at 712-374-2424. Hooves and Paws Rescue of the Heartland is trying to find homes for the horses.