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Work on new Lansing bridge halted by high water

News

June 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Work on the new Mississippi River bridge from Lansing to Desoto, Wisconsin has stopped. D-O-T engineer Clayton Burke says high water made conditions unsafe. “The contractor is completely leaving the site until the water goes back down,” he says. “There’s very little they could possibly do to overcome the water levels that we’re seeing so yeah it’ll it might be a while before you see those cranes swinging around.” Burke says Mother Nature will determine when the work gets underway again.

“We’re seeing about a week out the river gauge is going to be over 16 and a half feet. And we need that to get back down to about 12 before we can keep working on the bridge again,” Burke says. “And we’ve seen in the past when the Mississippi goes up, it goes up fast but it stays there for a long time. So we might be losing weeks to a month of scheduled time here.”

Burke says the contractor will likely bring in multiple crews once the water goes down so they can work nights and weekends to make up for lost time. The new bridge is was scheduled to be completed at the end of 2026. Burke says around 29-hundred people cross the Lansing bridge each day. The bridge that’s being replaced at Lansing was closed for a time in February after two piers shifted and they had to be repaired.

Field is nearly set for next week’s John Deere Classic

Sports

June 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

The field will be set Friday night for next week’s John Deere Classic in the Quad Cities. Two-time John Deere champ and three-time major winner Jordan Spieth was the latest big name on the PGA Tour to join the field. Tournament director Andrew Lehman.

Lehman says being two weeks before the British Open has helped them attract more big names.

Lehman says the John Deere Classic has a mix of tour regulars and young golfers trying to break through.

Players have until Friday after the second round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit to join the field and Lehman says there is the possibility of adding three more players ranked within the top 50 in the world.

Today is the final day for the public to play the TPC at Deere Run and Lehman says the tournament takes it over Thursday morning.

Lehman says they already have more than two thousand volunteers for next week.

The first round of the John Deere Classic is July fourth.

State Auditor Rob Sand urges Iowans & government entities to be on the look-out for scams during natural disasters

News

June 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

Des Moines, IA – State Auditor Rob Sand today (Wednesday) urged Iowans and their community leaders to be on alert for people preying on victims of the flooding in Iowa. Sand says “Iowans are known for rallying around victims of natural disasters.  Communities come together to help with clean-up and provide for people who have lost everything. Unfortunately, natural disasters are also calling cards for con artists.”

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the most common fraud following a natural disaster includes fake housing inspectors and building contractors, phony disaster donation efforts, and calls or texts requiring account information in exchange for financial assistance. Sand says “These scammers are not stupid.  They’re sneaky. They’ll use all means to try to steal personal and public funds – phone calls, texts, emails.  They’ll even pose as government officials to get account information or social security numbers.”

Sand offers these tips for avoiding scams in the wake of natural disasters:

  • Never give out social security numbers or account information over the phone or via text or email.
  • Confirm that emails from vendors are legitimate by calling the vendor through a verified number, not the number in the email.
  • Never pay a contractor a large sum of money upfront.
  • Make checks for materials payable to the contractor and the supplier.
  • Request a copy of the contractor’s liability insurance information.
  • Require that all work be outlined in a contract, including completion dates and costs for materials, permits, and labor.
  • Get at least three estimates from contractors and be leery of “too good to be true” offers.
  • Federal and state workers will never ask for money and will always carry identification badges.

Retiring Iowa community college president sees growing demand for skills, not 4 year degrees

News

June 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – The president of the North Iowa Area Community College is predicting enrollment at community colleges will grow in the years ahead. Dr. Steven Schulz is retiring at the end of the month. “Let’s be honest, the methodology’s changing. There’s going to be more people in this sector, people looking for skills, not four year degrees,” Schulz says. “There’s lot of change going on.”

Schultz has been president of NIACC in Mason City for the past decade. Schulz, who’s retiring after a 42 year career as an educator, says he worries about the future for students in rural areas of the state. “I think it’s going to be up to communities and local school boards and local community colleges to really tell their story and express their needs in way that the legislature can see we’re still here,” Schulz says, with a laugh, “and we want to do the work of our communities.”

NIACC president Dr. Steven Schulz is retiring at the end of this month. (NIACC photo)

Schultz is a native of Geneva, a small town in Franklin County. He holds degrees from Wartburg College, the University of Northern Iowa, Drake University and Iowa State University. Schulz previously worked at Des Moines Area Community College and U-N-I, He served as the superintendent of Carroll Community Schools from 2000 to 2004.

Fitzgibbon, Bell Added to Iowa’s Football Class of 2025

Sports

June 26th, 2024 by Jim Field

Iowa added two more commitments to 2025 recruiting clas.

New England cornerback CJ Bell announced he would be joining the Hawkeyes via social media Monday afternoon.  Defensive linemen Brad Fitzgibbon announced his commitment Tuesday.

They became the 11th and 12th known verbal commitment in the recruiting cycle.

Fitzgibbon (6-3, 280) is a three-star prospect, the No. 90 DL nationally in ’25 and the 23rd best player overall in Illinois for the cycle according to 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking also sees him as a three-star recruit. That site puts him No. 82 on the D-Line and 24th in his state.

Bell joined fellow weekend visitors Cameron Herron and Lucas Allgeyer, who announced their pledges on Sunday.

At the end of May, the 6-foot-2, 168-pound Bell released a list of his top schools. It included Iowa, Notre Dame, Penn State, Minnesota, Boston College, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Rutgers and NC State. He officially visited the Hawkeyes and Rutgers before deciding.

The On3 Industry Ranking shows Bell as the 81st-best cornerback nationally in ’25 and the No. 8 overall player in Connecticut for the class. The 247Sports Composite Ranking pegs him as the No. 96 player at his position and 12th in the state for the cycle.

DONNA CORNELISON, 84, of Creston (No Svcs. are planned)

Obituaries

June 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

DONNA CORNELISON, 84, of Creston, died Monday, June 24, 2024, at the Unity Point Health-Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines.  Per her wishes no services will be held for DONNA CORNELISON.  Lamb Funeral Home in Greenfield is in charge of the arrangements.

Online condolences may be left to the family at www.lambfuneralhomes.com.

Last night’s storms brought baseball-sized hail, 90 MPH winds and at least three twisters

News, Weather

June 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – More severe weather stormed across Iowa on Tuesday night, bringing high winds, heavy rain and large hail. National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Lee says there were perhaps 30 sightings of funnel clouds statewide and a few of them touched down to become tornadoes. “Preliminarily, we think there may have been three, and they were pretty weak funnels that just briefly touched down and didn’t really produce any damage,” Lee says, “so it’s kind of hard to tell how many there were because most of them didn’t really damage anything.”

Tornadoes were reported near Cumming, Van Meter, Lambs Grove, Patterson and Ely — with reports of funnel clouds stretching from Charter Oak in western Iowa all the way to the Cedar Rapids area in the east. Lee says the active nighttime weather pattern followed a very hot, humid day. “We had a lot of instability and a kind of boundary laying across roughly the I-80 corridor across the state,” Lee says. “It was able to spin up those little funnels but thankfully, most of them didn’t touch down and weren’t of any particular severity, so it was a spectacular sight but not one that did a lot of damage, thankfully.”

While there was no damage reported from tornadoes in this series of storms, Lee says there -was- damage from other elements. “The largest hail stone that we had reported fell near Winterset and that was about roughly baseball-sized,” Lee says. “We also had some strong winds, particularly out close to Omaha, that were measured wind gusts up around 90 miles an hour with some damage, so it was a night for severe weather across at least the southern half of the state.”

Storm damage Tuesday night (6/25) west of the Tri-Center High Schoo by about 2 miles or so. Winds gusted up to 60 mph. (Photos courtesy Zach Ploen)

The typical tornado season in Iowa runs April, May and June, and the state’s seen an above-average number of twisters this year. “It doesn’t really end in June. It just gradually tapers off,” Lee says. “We can get tornadoes in any month of the year and they’re most likely in May and June, but they still occur fairly regularly in the other summer months as well. We have a long way to go, particularly in an active year like this one.”

Prior to last night’s (Tuesday night’s) storms, the National Weather Service reported Iowa had 86 tornadoes so far this year, with 44 in April and 42 during May. The average in a year is about 50. In 2021, Iowa had a record 63 tornadoes in a single day — in December. That was during the state’s second derecho in as many years, and that December outbreak set another record for most EF-2 tornadoes in one day — at 21. Iowa’s worst-ever day for deadly tornadoes was May 15th of 1968, when the state saw five massive F-5 tornadoes that killed 18 people.

Heartbeat Today 6-26-2024

Heartbeat Today, Podcasts

June 26th, 2024 by Jim Field

Jim Field visits with Dolly Bergmann about the Atlantic Rotary Club Pancake Flight Breakfast on July 4th.

Play

Creston woman cited for allowing an animal to run At Large

News

June 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston, Tuesday evening, temporarily arrested, and then released, a woman who allegedly allowed an animal at her residence, to run at-large. 26-year-old Paige Nicole Westbrook, of Creston, was cited at the scene and released on a summons to appear in court.

Former conservation director in SW IA, facing criminal charges, sues for malicious prosecution

News

June 26th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

The former Ringgold County Conservation Director is suing the county for alleged discrimination, defamation and malicious prosecution. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Kathryn Mortensen Zimmerman is suing the county, the board of supervisors, the county auditor, a county deputy and an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation employee, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

According to her lawsuit, Zimmerman began working for the county in 2010 as the director of Ringgold County Conservation, which maintains three public parks for camping. Beginning in January 2021, she alleges, the supervisors, particularly Colby Holmes, engaged in a pattern of gender discrimination, sexual discrimination, age discrimination, retaliation, harassment, slander and defamation.

The lawsuit alleges Holmes “fabricated and disseminated false information” pertaining to Zimmerman’s work ethic, character and competence, while stating at a board meeting that she would be “better off as a janitor.”

Holmes is also accused of falsely claiming Zimmerman hid money within her budget and used it on personal expenses, and of telling the county’s conservation board “it isn’t right that (Zimmerman) is making more money than some other male employees,” according to the lawsuit. Holmes is also alleged to have posted a hostile comment to Facebook alleging Zimmerman could not do her job and should leave.

The lawsuit alleges that after Zimmerman filed complaints about Holmes with the county auditor, county attorney and the Iowa Public Information Board, Holmes urged the conservation board to reduce her compensation for overtime.

In December 2022, the lawsuit alleges, Holmes “intentionally physically assaulted (Zimmerman) with his vehicle and yelled, ‘move your ass!’ and ‘get out of the way!’ ” The lawsuit claims that after Zimmerman filed a police complaint on the matter, she was investigated by the DCI and charged with filing a false police report.

According to the police report in that case, Zimmerman claimed Holmes struck her with his vehicle — a statement that police say was contradicted by witnesses and by Zimmerman’s own initial statement to officers.

A second criminal charge against Zimmerman alleged interference with official acts. According to an April 2023 press release from the DCI, that charge stemmed from a Dec. 5, 2022, incident at Poe Hollow Park. According to the DCI, Zimmerman refused Ringgold County deputies and bomb technicians entrance to the park so they could work on an explosive device found earlier that morning.

Court records indicate the two criminal charges are still pending, with no trial date set.

Due to the alleged hostile work environment in the county, the lawsuit alleges, Zimmerman was constructively discharged in February 2023. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for sexual discrimination, retaliation, defamation and malicious prosecution.

The county and the DCI have yet to file a response to the lawsuit.