A Shelby County resident is being showcased in a new exhibit at the Union Pacific Railroad Museum. Dan Bieker of Harlan was selected to be General Grenville Dodge in a new exhibit inside the museum. The Union Pacific Railroad Museum was constructing the exhibit to educate visitors on how the railroad was built west of Iowa. Bieker says the museum struggled to find an actor to play General Dodge so his family reached out to him. He says his sister-in-law and his photographer brother asked him to play the role after they were unsuccessful in finding an actor. They said Bieker had the right stature, facial features and age to try the role. He says it was fun, and an experience he never thought he would have. 

Theatrical makeup was applied to him and the camera crew added more silver to his hair to make him look like General Dodge. Once Bieker was ready to go, he was placed in front of the camera. He says after his audition, officials decided to make his character a part of the museum. Bieker is featured several times throughout the museum on a video screen. He introduces himself as “General Grenville Dodge, Union Pacific’s Chief Engineer,” at the start of construction of the U-P Railroad. He’s on three different screens throughout the museum. The other screens talk about how Dodge met President Abraham Lincoln, and how the railroad was built west of Omaha without any locally available materials – they had to be shipped-in, by steamboat. 

The museum officials told Bieker the display will be around for the next 20 to 30 years. The Union Pacific Railroad Museum is located at 200 Pearl Street in Council Bluffs and is open from 10am to 4pm Tuesdays through Saturday. Admission is free. Bieker says it was an honor and a privilege to be chosen to play the role of General Dodge.

The Iowa Department of Transportation, in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration and Illinois Department of Transportation, is about to wrap up the second public input portion of the Chicago to Omaha Regional Passenger Rail System Planning Study. Log on at www.iowadot.gov/chicagotoomaha/ to find out more from the online, self-directed open house meeting, which is active through Monday, May 21st, 2012. 

The open house is intended to illustrate various route alternatives, explain the process used to evaluate the route alternatives, discuss results of the alternatives analysis, and gain public input. One of the possible routes in the study would utilize the Iowa Interstate Railroad which passes through Iowa City, Des Moines and Atlantic.

All comments received during the public comment period will be reviewed and considered during development of the draft Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement. which will be compiled and released to the public for additional input later this fall.

w/ Ric Hanson

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Authorities in Montgomery County say one-person was arrested late Wednesday on a couple of charges, following an incident in Grant. 34-year old Jeremiah John Wieseler, of Grant, was taken into custody at around just before midnight, on charges of Child Endangerment and Serious Assault, following the incident in the 400 block of Jefferson Avenue. Wieseler was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $2,000 bond. Sheriff’s deputies were assisted by the Montgomery County K-9 Unit, deputies with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office and Red Oak Police, in handling the incident.

An accident Wednesday morning in West Lubbock, Texas involving a bus from Iowa Western Community College has taken the life of  one person. According to Lubbock NBC affiliate KCBD, 21-year-old Emily Leatherwood, of Brownfield, TX, died, after the car she was driving crashed IWCC bus, which was transporting athletes to the NJAA National Outdoor Track and Field Championship in Lelleland, TX. 11 people were on the bus. Two of them reportedly suffered minor injuries, but refused medical treatment. Authorities in Texas said the bus was stopped at a railroad crossing when Leatherwood’s car hit the back of the bus. Under Texas law, buses are required to stop at railroad crossings. Failure to do so could cost the driver a fine amounting to as much as $500. Officials are trying to determine if something distracted Leatherwood, since there were no skid marks. The woman was not wearing her seat belt, as required by Texas law.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

The Atlantic City Council, Wednesday evening, passed a resolution amending the Fiscal year 2012 Budget. The move followed a public hearing on the matter, during which no comments were received or heard. As mentioned earlier during our previous report on KJAN, City Administrator Doug Harris summed up the areas where the changes were to be made. They included Public Works, Culture and Recreation, Community and Economic Development, and Enterprise, which includes Storm Water and Sanitary Sewer cost overruns and unanticipated expenses.

Councilman Shaun Shouse clarified what the amendment really boils down to. He said “We have to amend the budget to have the authorization to spend the money.” Most of the areas are items where there will be income to offset the expenses. Shouse said it is not “all new tax revenue…the money is there, but (they) didn’t anticipate having to spend the money,” during the current Fiscal Year. Therefore they have to amend the budget in order to have the spending authority.

In his report to the Council, Doug Harris said he was pleased to announce progress was being made on the S.F. Martin House on Poplar Street (a local bed and breakfast) the exterior of which has been an eye sore for many years, and other properties within the city. Harris said the City has been encouraging property owners to take care of their property, under the Minimum Maintenance Code, which the Council approved last November, and is designed to: preserve the quality of buildings in Atlantic; to help preserve property values; and to prevent the spread of “Urban blight.” It requires property owners to keep structures in reasonably good repair.

Harris said also, he’s been working with several entities, including the Southwest Iowa Planning Council (SWIPCO), the Chamber of Commerce and USDA, to try and find funds to revitalize the downtown area, especially with regard to business facades, many of which are beginning to show wear due to age. He says there may be CDBG – Community Development Block Grant – funds available for those types of improvements. Another source of funding might be available to provide housing in the upper levels of downtown businesses, that would make those buildings “more viable,” according to Harris.

A meeting will be held at Noon on June 12th at SWIPCO in Atlantic, for downtown business owners, Chamber and other City leaders or officials, to explain what funds are available, how the process works, and how it could increase public and private investments. Darren Smith, Project Manager in the City of Woodbine, will be on-hand at the meeting as well, to explain the requirements and other related matters. A couple of years ago, Woodbine was awarded a $500,000 Downtown Revitalization Community Development Block Grant as part of a $900,000 Façade Master Plan to renovate 23 buildings in the City’s Main Street District.  (For more information on that project, go to http://www.woodbineia.org/main-street-chamber)

Harris said grant applications aren’t due until January 2013, so there is time to take a close look at how to proceed with any possible plans for downtown revitalization.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of a Red Oak man Wednesday afternoon.  At about 2:00 PM Wednesday, 55-year-old James Piunti of Red Oak was arrested on a valid warrant for probation violation out of Pottawattamie County.  Piunti was being held on $10,000 cash bond and waiting transportation to Pottawattamie County.

A report from a non-profit environmental group says extreme storms are hitting the Midwest more frequently and the flood damage they’re causing is getting worse. Stephen Saunders, president of the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, says their research covered records from more than 200 weather stations in Iowa and seven other Midwestern states from the years 1960 through 2011. The lead author of the report, Saunders says, “We found the total precipitation from all the storms in the Midwest went up at a rate of 23% over that 51-year period.” Scientists point to global climate change, he says, as the culprit behind the rising severity of storms over the five decades. During that time, there was no change in the pattern of minor storms, while they found the nastier storms appeared much more often.

Saunders says, “The frequency of storms that dumped 1-2″ of precipitation in a day went up by 34%, storms of 2-3″ went up by 81% and what we call the extreme storms, those that had 3″ or more of precipitation in a day, went up by 103%.” Incidences of the most severe downpours doubled over the last half century. “The last decade, the last dozen years, has been particularly tough,” Saunders says. “Of the first 12 years of this century, seven of the nine worst years for extreme storms in the Midwest occurred in those 12 years.” The study found the two most destructive years for flooding in our region during the five decades were 1993 and 2008, years that hold foul memories for many Iowans.

“As people who lived through those floods in the Midwest know, those were two years of the worst flooding the Midwest has had in more than 80 years,” Saunders says. “In 2008, the flooding caused $16-billion in damages and in 1993, the flooding caused $33-billion in damage in the Midwest.” He says global studies already blame human-caused climate change for driving more extreme precipitation, and if emissions keep going up, Saunders says the forecast is for even more extreme storms in the region. One of the group’s recommendations is: enacting comprehensive mandatory limits on global warming pollution to reduce emissions by at least 20-percent below current levels by 2020 and 80-percent by 2050. The report is called, “Doubled Trouble: More Midwestern Extreme Storms.” Learn more at the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization website: www.rockymountainclimate.org

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)