The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday), received a quarterly update from County Conservation Director Micah Lee. Lee said the weather has really cooperated, and allowed the Conservation Department staff to conduct a lot of tree and shrub, and other necessary cleanup work at the various county parks and recreational areas.

He said also, their Environmental Education Naturalist, Lora Schwendinger, has been busy during the past quarter. Lee says she’s put on 96 programs and visited with 785 persons, from elementary-aged students, to senior citizens. Schwendinger has coordinated several workshops and events designed to educate the public about nature and the environment.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said today (Wednesday), a Harlan man was killed Tuesday evening after falling from a tree stand while hunting deer in Monona County. 21-year old Corey Custer was coming out of his tree stand at approximately 7-p.m. Tuesday, when he fell approximately 18-23 feet while bow hunting for deer southeast of Onawa. Custer suffered head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Atlantic Board of Education heard an update Tuesday night from the District Technology Coordinator Roger Warne, with regard to the new ICN (Iowa Communications Network) classroom at the high school. Superintendent MIke Amstein says Warne talked about running a fiber optic line that would complete the fiber optic system connecting the district’s buildings. He says along those lines, the Board approved of Warne negotiating with a vendor for the line, and placing the project out for bid.”)
Currently, the district runs a wireless system between the Atlantic High School and Middle School. And, while that’s ok in the short term, Amstein says the data demands of the high school limits what they can do in transfer data between the schools. He says the current amount of data they can work with, about 25 megabytes with the ICN, causes problems when combined with their wireless network.  Amstein said also, the Board approved on the second reading, a policy pertaining to the use of video cameras on school premises, and discussed the relocation of the Hospital School. Amstein says they had been looking at two sites, but have narrowed that down to one.

The City of Shelby will be getting some extra law enforcement help from Shelby County, through the addition of a part-time Sheriff’s Deputy. The hiring of a deputy was approved last week by the County’s Board of Supervisors. Once hired, the individual will increase protection to the City of Shelby, provide more District Court security, and assisting with the transporting of mental health patients and criminals. The Sheriff’s Office received 11 applications for the position. The next step begins on Friday, with a State required written test for those applicants. Shelby County Sheriff Mark Hervey says he spoke with the Shelby City Council for several months about the need to add a part-time deputy.

Hervey says they City has asked for additional patrols within the City. He says his deputies  currently put in 4-hours per week in addition to the 24-hour coverage. The extra hours are accomplished by those deputies putting in overtime. Hervey says the added patrol in the area is because Shelby has had more calls for law enforcement. The Sheriff says if the applicants who test on Friday score a certain percentage on the written exam, they will perform the agility test that same day, as well. If the applicant passes both the written and physical exam, the top three candidates will be interviewed by Hervey and the Chief Deputy Sheriff. Two finalists will be picked and sent to Des Moines for psychological testing. 

Hervey says as the Sheriff, he does feel added pressure to hire the right candidate for deputy sheriff. He says “Being the deputy sheriff for Shelby County is a great responsibility,” and they always look for the best candidate. Hervey says if they pick a candidate who is not certified by the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy, that candidate has to go to Des Moines for several more weeks of training, so it’s quite a process.”  The Sheriff says out of the 11 applicants, two are certified through the Iowa Law Enforcement academy, and will not have to take the written or physical tests. The person ultimately selected for the position will be required to reside in Shelby. The County will split the wages and benefits paid to that individual, subject to wage and benefit increases, with the City of Shelby, and will postpone replacing an existing vehicle until next year.

(Joel McCall/KNOD – Harlan)

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Police in Council Bluffs are investigating the robbery early this (Wednesday) morning, of a convenience store on North 16th Street. Officials say at around 2:55-a.m., a white male entered the Bucky’s store at 15 North 16th Street. The man approached the counter, displayed a handgun, and demanded money. He got away with an undetermined amount of cash. No injuries were reported.  The suspect was described as being about 5-feet 8- to five-feet 10-inches tall, and weighing about 150- to 160-pounds. He wore dark clothing with gloves, a baseball cap with a light colored bill, and a red bandana around his face. Anyone with information about the robbery, is asked to call the Council Bluffs Police Department at 712-328-4728.

The Iowa Transportation Commission, Tuesday, approved more than $1.5-million in funding for Safe Routes to School Program projects, nearly $5.3-million for 11 statewide Transportation Enhancement Program (TEP) projects, and more than $1.2-million for six Recreational Trail Program projects. The appropriations were approved during the Commission’s meeting in Ames, Tuesday. In our area, the I-DOT Commission approved $236,000 for the Shenandoah Safe Routes to School Program. The program was created in Iowa in 2005, using federal transportation funds. Its purpose is to increase the number of children safely walking and bicycling to school.

The I-DOT Commission also approved a $530,000 award to the Iowa Department of Natural Resource and Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, for the “Great River Road Scenic Byway” and “Loess Hills Byway” projects, and $554,000 to Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D), for the “Interpreting Iowa’s Byways” project, which involves the development and implementation of an Interpretive Master plan. Funds for the projects come from the Statewide TEP.

And, the DOT Commission, Tuesday, approved a $300,000 Recreational Trails Program award to Coon Rapids and Creating Great Places, for the Herndon to Coon Rapids segment of the American Discovery Trail.

Legislators are likely to engage in a spirited debate over what kind of bullets may be fired at doves. Last year, in uncharacteristically speedy fashion, lawmakers voted to legalize dove hunting in Iowa. But Senator Dick Dearden of Des Moines and others are upset with the Iowa Natural Resources Commission’s decision to forbid hunters from using lead shot when firing at doves. “People talk about the legislature sneaking this (law) through and the reality is they snuck through that (restriction),” Dearden says. “They came through at the last minute and made the rule.” The rule requires the use of steel shot for dove hunting, but a resolution that would nullify that rule is pending in both the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate. Representative Henry Rayhons, of Garner, stopped by a local gun shop last week and heard lots of complaints about steel shot.

“It’s not as accurate,” Rayhons says. “It’s harder on the guns and it’s darned near twice as expensive.” Critics say animals, like ducks and eagles, die after eating the lead shot lying on the ground that didn’t wind up in a bird. Dearden, a life-long hunter, accuses those opponents of using the lead-shot issue as a smoke-screen to try to derail the entire dove hunting law. “It’s all about doves,” Dearden says. “It has nothing to do with eagles or anything else.” Dearden says he got plenty of hate mail after spearheading passage of the dove hunting law last year.

“My favorite was a woman who said: ‘You’re a sick old man. I hope you die while hunting mourning doves,'” Dearden says. “I emailed her back and said: ‘So do I.'” Critics of lead shot say it’s a danger to humans, too, who eat bird meat that’s riddled with lead fragments. One study suggested lead particles have been found up to a foot and a half away, causing a greater risk of lead poisoning to humans than previously thought.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is addressing concerns about his agency’s plan to close 259 U-S-D-A offices, labs and other facilities. Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, told reporters in a teleconference Tuesday, that the closures are in response to Congressional budget cuts. The goal is to trim USDA expenses by $150 million a year. Vilsack said the plan involves $90 million in savings through reduced travel and supplies. The office and lab closures would account for the remaining $60 million in savings. Vilsack does not anticipate widespread layoffs as nearly 7,000 USDA employees took early retirement last year and many workers will be given the opportunity to transfer to other offices. Critics of the plan have raised concerns about the possible effect on food safety.

“I want to be very clear about this – the office closings we announced in the food safety area are about administrative personnel. They are not about inspectors,” Vilsack said. “We did not deal with the inspector issue at all. We’re still going to be in every single plant. The inspectors will continue to do the work that they’re doing in those plants and it will have no impact whatsoever on our responsibility to ensure the safety of the food supply in the United States.” In Iowa, the so-called “Blueprint for Stronger Service” would close three Farm Service Agency offices in Appanoose, Decatur and Union Counties. In addition, a Natural Resource Conservation Service office in Jefferson County would be shut down. Vilsack said public hearings will be held within 90 days in the counties where offices are to be closed.

(Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa)