Cass County Engineer Charles Marker says work on one bridge project in the northern part of the County is almost finished, while the bid letting for another project is slated to take place in December. Marker says work on a high overhead truss Bridge (#440) just west of the Buck Creek United Methodist Church, is almost finished.

Marker says emergency work on Bridge # 272, located about three-miles south of Wiota, was conducted, and the weight restriction set in-place earlier, has been removed. The bridge inspection crew had said the previously un-posted weight limit bridge needed to be reduced to an 8-ton limit, because a support pillar was rotted away at ground level. Marker says they utilized steel piling to replace the rotted 5-foot section, and they re-tensioned the I-beam overhead. The bridge is now open for the full legal load limit.

And, bid letting for Bridge #345 across the Nishnabotna River located near the old Research Farm southwest of Atlantic, is scheduled to take place on December 18^th. It will be up to the contractor to determine when they are to start on the project.  Marker says also, each instance of rain helps his Secondary Road crews make progress on eliminating some of the “wash board” conditions on County gravel roads, but because the roads dry out quickly, they are unable to work on section of the county until rain has fallen, and even then, only for a few days at a time, but they are making some progress.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Department reports an Arkansas man was arrested Tuesday afternoon on a warrant issued in connection with a bad check written to Audubon business in December, 2006. 53-year old Joseph Leo Collins, of Van Buren, AR, was charged with 5th degree theft. The sheriff’s department received assistance in conducting the arrest, from the Iowa State Patrol. Collins was held in the Audubon County Jail until appearing before the magistrate and pleading guilty to the crime. He was fined and later released.

The sheriff’s department said also, 52-year old Jeffrey Dennis Spencer, of Hamlin, was arrested Tuesday night at his residence, on an outstanding warrant charging Spencer with a Violation of his Probation. He was placed on probation in Oct. 2011, following a charge of 3rd offense Public Intoxication. Spencer has since allegedly violated the terms of his probation. He was being held in the Audubon County Jail on $3,000 bond.

This Saturday marks the first day of Fall, and Cass County General Relief Coordinator Teresa Kanning is warning persons who receive heating assistance (for electric, gas, propane or other heating sources), to make an effort to pay at least a portion of your bill from last year, or risk having your heat shut-off. Kanning says her office is starting to see clients come in with “Disconnect” notices, because they are behind on their utilities as they prepare to enter the LIHEAP, or Low Income Heat Assistance Program. She says the utilities are being adamant that clients be caught up in their bills before the October 1^st start of LIHEAP.

Several people she says, have told her they are 60 days behind on their heating bills. Before you can apply for LIHEAP,  Kanning says you need to have certain information available. LIHEAP starts taking applications on October 1^st at West Central Development. The program puts a moratorium on people have their utilities shut-off, from November 1^st through April 1^st, but if you didn’t make your payments last Winter, you’ll be shut-off.

She said they have some clients with bills from last Winter amounting to more than $1,000, but who haven’t made an effort to get caught up on those bills.  Kanning says she always tells her clients to make SOME payments all-year long, because LIHEAP doesn’t pay for the entire bill. It’s only an assistance program.

The Bureau of Energy Assistance administers the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The federally-funded block grant is designed to aid qualifying households in the payment of a portion of their residential heating costs for the winter heating season. The program’s energy crisis intervention components are designed to provide immediate response to alleviate potentially life-threatening situations, and the client education component of the program provides funds for activities that encourage regular utility payments, promote energy awareness and encourage reduction of energy use through energy efficiency, client education and weatherization. For more information about LIHEAP, contact West Central Development Corporation in Atlantic, at 712-243-5421. They are located at 304 Chestnut Street, and their office hours are Monday through Friday, from 9-am to 3-p.m. Other WCDC offices are located in Shenandoah, Council Bluffs, Sidney, Harlan, Red Oak, Logan, Malvern, Onawa and Denison. Or, go to this link to find the assistance office in your area: www.dcaa.iowa.gov/app_sites/liheap_map.html

The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office reports they are currently seeking information on the whereabouts of a 1950’s model road grader and a 1956 John Deere Model 70 tractor. The implements were last seen on a farm in central Guthrie County…about two-years ago. If you have any information on the disappearance of the equipment, contact Guthrie County Sheriff Marty Arganbright at 641-747-2214.

w/ Ric Hanson

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Members of the state task force assigned to address the controversial issue of when school should start in the fall has decided they don’t like the current policy that grants waivers to 98-percent of schools to allow them to start school in August. But the group decided to issue a majority and minority opinion on whether the state should set a concrete start date that everyone has to stick with. Waterloo Schools Superintendent, Gary Norris represented the eastern side of the state. He voted with the majority who want the school start date to be left up to individual districts.

“Generally the schools I represent — which are some of the larger districts in the state — believe that the needs of Iowa children are so unique from one district to the next that it is impossible to take a decision like this and make it perfectly at the state level,” Norris said. “So, we would prefer that it be made at the local level.” The minority side wants the legislature to set a school start date within the first week of September with no waivers. They argue earlier starts have an impact on the Iowa State Fair, tourism and student summer jobs. “We do understand the other competing interests here,” Norris said, “And clearly the economy of Iowa is a major factor here, and we respect that. The Iowa fair is a rich tradition.”

Department of Education liaison, Mike Cormack (the former Mayor of Massena) served as the moderator for the committee meeting and he says including both opinions is the best way to handle an issue that has admittedly become very contentious through he years. “I think that the viewpoint of the group was that this is one element of many elements and throughout all the other topics — which include the length of the school year, length of the school day, afterschool programming — there was a lot of consensus among this group. And so what they didn’t want was one area where there wasn’t consensus to distract from where there was,” Cormack explains. “So I think it (having two opinions) was basically a respect through a process of each other that served as taskforce members”.

Cormack said the issue of when to grant waivers to allow schools to start in August has been muddled by language that says there should not be “specific negative impact on students” from allowing earlier starts. He said everyone on this task believed that was to vague. “What each side would agree upon is that there should be clarity. The law should be defined and a decision needs to be made so that districts can do some long-term planning and so that businesses can do long-term planning as well,” Cormack said.

Superintendent Norris said everyone agrees there is not real evidence to show any impact on student learning based on when the school year begins. “You know there really isn’t. There’s a lot of emotion on either side, but there’s no that I know of, I’ve not read any definitive studies that talk about the start of the year,” Norris said. “There is some interesting studies that talk about that teenagers should start later in the day, there’s some definitive stuff on that, but the start date — as I tried to point out to the committee is largely driven by tradition.” The tradition included the agricultural calendar where kids had to be out of school to help with farm work. The committee will hold one final meeting by telephone to complete the language on their recommendation and then will send the majority/minority opinion on to the legislature to hash out the final start date.

(Radio Iowa)

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The family of a retired California firefighter who disappeared from an Amtrak train says it now appears that he may have fallen from the train somewhere in eastern Colorado or western Nebraska. Charlie Dowd’s family members had been organizing searches in Omaha and Lincoln for the 69-year-old San Mateo man because they believed he may have mistakenly gotten off the train at one of those stops. But Jen Dowd said Tuesday Amtrak police told the family a passenger on the California-to-Chicago train saw Dowd standing near a train door Thursday night. Another passenger later found an exterior door ajar around 11 p.m. Thursday. Jen Dowd says the search for her father will now focus on the 160 miles of track between Fort Morgan, Colo., and McCook, Neb.