Two sections of the City of Atlantic’s Personnel Policy pertaining to how far our police officers can live from the City, and the number of non-union personal holidays allowed, will be discussed and acted on during a meeting Wednesday evening, of the Atlantic City Council. A resolution set to come before the Council would require the City’s police officers to live within a 25-minute response time of the City. The change to the current policy was requested by the Union and is supported by Police Chief Steve Green. The current personnel policy requires employees to live within five-miles of the City limits.  Green says the more lenient change in the policy would meet both the legal and operational requirements of his department.

The second portion of a resolution to the personnel policy would increase the number of personal holidays from two- to three- per year, for non-union employees. It would increase the total number of holidays from 10- to 11-days, and according to city officials, provide parity between the union and non-union workforce. John Lund, assistant to City Administrator Doug Harris, said his survey of surrounding cities indicated the average number of holidays provided was 11.5 days.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council is expected to hear a report from Nishna Valley YMCA Director, Dan Haynes. Their meeting begins at 5:30-p.m. in the Council’s Chambers, at City Hall.

The first of two public hearings pertaining to an amendment to the Cass County Zoning Ordinance, will take place Wednesday morning, in Atlantic. The hearing is with regard to a change in the zoning district or districts’ Permitted Principal Uses, and will take place during the regularly scheduled meeting of the Cass County Board of Supervisors. The hearing will be followed by the first vote on approving the amended ordinance. A second hearing and vote on the amendment will be held January 16th.

In other business, the Supervisors will receive a quarterly report from County Conservation Department Director, Micah Lee. And, they’re  expected to act on approving a new hire for the Secondary Roads Department. The meeting begins at 9-a.m. in the Supervisor’s Board Room, at the Cass County Courthouse.

w/ Ric Hanson

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A man who once served as the City of Denison’s first paid fire chief, has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of 1st-degree theft, in association with the misspending tens-of-thousands of dollars of city and county money. According to the Omaha World Herald, the plea by Mike McKinnon was made in exchange for a second charge of felonious misconduct in office, being dropped. McKinnon is scheduled to be sentenced on February 11th. He faces up to 10-years in prison, and a $10,000 fine.

State Auditor David Vaudt reviewed records dating from July of 2005 through March of 2010. The records showed about $96,000 of improper and unsupported disbursements from the Denison Fire Department. Vaudt said about $73,000 of that was from the City of Denison and another $23,000 was from the Crawford County EMS Association. The report shows nearly $40,000 was improperly paid to businesses owned by McKinnon. Vaudt said McKinnon also made thousands of dollars worth of personal purchases with the city’s credit card.

McKinnon has reportedly made a partial restitution, and has agreed to repay the City of Denison the more than $9,260 it paid for the special audit, along with nearly $1,000 the City was not reimbursed by its insurance carrier and, restitution to the Crawford County EMS, the amount of which has not yet been determined.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – More and more Iowa flu cases have been reported, and officials say the seasonal outbreak could get even worse now that children are back in school.  The Des Moines Register reports that at least 151 people were hospitalized for flu complications in Iowa during the last week of December. The Iowa Department of Public Health says that during the last week of December 2011, public health officials didn’t record any flu hospitalizations.

Department medical director Patricia Quinlisk said Monday that she doubts the tide of illnesses will ebb soon. Quinlisk says the flu incidences show “all the hallmarks of a relatively bad and prolonged flu season.”   She says people who traveled during the holidays were exposed to viruses that quickly could be spread by children who have resumed classes.

A new report finds the size of Iowa’s pheasant population has fallen 83-percent since the mid-1990s due to disappearing habitat and a series of harsh winters. Kevin Baskins, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says habitat loss alone would have meant only a 26-percent drop in pheasant numbers. “You kind of have an exponential effect when you have declining habitat combined with harsh winters because they have no cover to escape the conditions they’re facing,” Baskins says. “We’ve had several winters in a row with above-average snowfall.”

A milder winter a year ago, combined with the summer-long drought, helped the pheasant population somewhat. Baskins says the habitat loss combined with several severe winters is making it harder for pheasant chicks to survive. “The other big influence we have weatherwise is when we get into colder and wetter springs,” he says. “The chicks, when they’re hatching, if they’re exposed to those conditions, they succumb to the elements. They don’t have as high a survival rates when we get into the colder and wetter conditions after first hatching.”

Baskins says Iowa lost more than a million acres of habitat between 1996 and 2010. He says higher corn prices prompted many farmers to plow up land that normally would serve as habitat for the birds. Bob-white quail numbers are also in decline. The numbers come from the DNR’s 2013 report on the pheasant population.

(Radio Iowa)

A new federal report finds well over half the country is still in a drought, including all of Iowa and several neighboring states. U-S-D-A meteorologist Brad Rippey says it’s easy to forget about the drought during wintertime, because there’s no blazing heat and lots of snow, but he affirms, the exceptionally dry weather is continuing.  “We still have 61.09% of the contiguous U.S. in drought,” Rippey says. “That is down nearly three-quarters of a percentage point from December 25th but it does still leave, obviously, a significant portion of the country in drought.” That’s virtually unchanged since July when about 60-percent of the nation was in drought conditions. Rippey says we need to be prepared for the long-haul.

Rippey says, “It is not unusual, especially across the western half of the country, for droughts historically to last many years, in the vicinity of a decade.” The famed Dust Bowl drought started in 1931 and lasted until 1940. Rippey isn’t predicting this drought will continue that long, but he reminds, it can happen. While we’ve all heard of a flash flood, Rippey says the “flash drought” isn’t nearly as well known, although Iowa saw a couple of them this past summer. “It is a very fast-developing phenomenon where you have high temperatures and little-to-no rainfall for a short period of time, on the order of one to two to three weeks,” Rippey says. “That’s the situation we’ve seen many times in the last couple of decades where crops get into trouble very quickly.”

While the report finds a large portion of the country is in drought, that includes all of the following states: Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma and South Dakota. While parts of Iowa have seen a foot of snow or more already this winter, the report says to overcome the drought, it may take up to eight-feet of snow.

(Radio Iowa)

The Adams County Sheriff’s Department reports a Corning man was arrested Tuesday evening for a violation of his driving privileges. 29-year old Choua Ly was taken into custody at around 6:50-p.m., after being stopped in Corning for a simple traffic violation. During stop, it was determined Ly’s license had been suspended. He was subsequently arrested for Driving Under Suspension, and brought to the Adams County Jail, where his bond was set at $566.

Governor Branstad is again putting “education reform” on his to-do list for legislators. “I think we need to focus on things that are going to improve student achievement,” Branstad said recently during an interview with Radio Iowa, “and having great teachers is an important part of motivating students to achieve at the highest level possible.” Branstad will reveal the details of his proposal next Tuesday, during his “Condition of the State” Address to legislators. But the governor already has outlined his primary goals.
“You want to attract top quality people to the profession. You also want a career ladder that makes it possible for talented teachers to stay in the profession, move up to leadership positions at an earlier age,” Branstad says. “Those are all things that I hope we can accomplish in the education reforms that we’re looking at.”

Those ideas were included in a teacher pay initiative Branstad’s education director unveiled in the fall of 2011, but the proposals were tabled as the governor said the state didn’t have the resources to finance those moves. The state now has a billion dollar surplus, but it’s unclear how much Branstad will commit to the teacher pay effort, as using that excess to provide commercial property tax relief is a higher priority for the governor. Senator Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs, the top Democrat in the legislature, says lawmakers are “open” to raising teacher pay. “The idea of paying teachers what they’re worth makes sense,” Gronstal says.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha, the top Republican in the legislature, says legislators also need to ensure high-performing students don’t get bored in high school.  “A lot of that has to do with the high school years and the transition to college and how we smooth that, accelerate that, provide dual-credit opportunities — some of those different types of things,” Paulsen says. Senate Republican Leader Bill Dix of Shell Rock says legislators must address the shortage of math and science teachers, too.

“The private sector has offered better compensation packages and in order to maintain and attract quality people into the classroom, we may need to be more flexible in how some of those needs can be met,” Dix says. “Now whether it’s signing bonuses or flexibilities in how they are compensated, those skill sets clearly need to be accommodated at higher levels.” House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines expects Branstad’s education reform package to be in the range of 177-million dollars in additional spending.

“Increases in teacher pay, trying to find new efforts to recruit and retain the best and brightest teachers, and so at least thematically we will work with him in that regain and work with him in a bipartisan way,” McCarthy says. The Iowa legislature convenes Monday, January 14th.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)