The Atlantic School District’s Board of Education is set to receive proposals this week from the Collective Bargaining Units (CBU) representing the Certified and Non-Certified Staff, for the 2017-18 School Year The Certified Unit’s CBU will make its initial proposal to the District 3:30-p.m. today (Tuesday), in the Media Center at the Atlantic Middle School.

The Non-Certified CBU team will make its proposal to the Board Thursday afternoon at the same time and place. Both sessions are open to the public. No action will be taken during the initial bargaining sessions.

The Audubon Chamber of Commerce held its annual Community Banquet & Auction, Monday. Awards presented during the evening include: 2016 Citizen of the Year – Kate Hargens; 2016 Junior Citizen of the Year – Rebecca Nelson; 2016 Community Service Award – Audubon County Fair Board.

Kate Hargens won the Citizen of the Year Award for, among other things: spearheading – through grant applications and fundraising efforts – the establishment of the Children’s Nest Childcare Center in conjunction with the Friendship Home;  Being a prominent spokesperson for the Audubon County Early Childhood Organization; being active with her church committee; serving on the Rose Theater Renovation Board; and serving on the grant-writing advisory council for the Audubon School District’s “Launch” Program. She and her husband, Dr. Travis Hargens, have three children.

Rebecca Nelson – daughter of Bob and Janet Nelson – won Junior Citizen of the Year for being an active part of her school and community, and being an “Intelligent, compassionate, unselfish and focused young lady.” Nelson is Vice President of the Audubon School District’s National Honor Society, and has served as Student Body President. She’s been heavily involved in preserving the historic Ross Elevator, and has packed lunches for needy children as well as having fed hungry youth for the New Opportunities organization’s Summer Feeding Program. She’s also certified in CPR. After she graduates this spring, Rebecca plans to attend either the University of Iowa or UNI, majoring in Speech-Language in hopes of becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist.

And, the Audubon County Fair Board won the 2016 Community Award for their efforts to organize and run the Audubon County Fair, hosting numerous activities all-year around, and for maintaining and keeping-up the fairgrounds. Current Fair Board members include: Greg Jensen; Deanna Hansen; Gary VanAernam; Steve Randeris; Mike Bauer; Randy Blohm; Dan Madsen; Austin Hansen; Trent Petersen; Joe Vais; Neal Mesek; Steve Hansen, and Taylor Lewis.

A team from Sioux City is expected to join in the continued search today (Tuesday), for a teen missing since an accident last Thursday morning. 15-year-old Yoana Acosta, of Denison, disappeared after the car she was riding in went out of control, through a field and entered the Boyer River north of Denison, at around 3-a.m., Thursday. Four other people in the vehicle were able to make it to the roof of the submerged vehicle and were rescued or made their way to safety.

Each day since the accident occurred, law enforcement personnel along with firefighters and other volunteers have assembled to resume the search along the Boyer River. A early 40 mile stretch of the waterway from Denison to Logan has been searched and will continued to be monitored or searched, until Yoana is found.

Representatives of university towns are back at the state capitol this year, trying to get relief from loud and drunken student parties that are disrupting life in residential areas. The so-called slob renters bill pits landlords against residents who want peace and quiet for their single-family neighborhoods. Some college towns have passed ordinances to limit occupancy to three unrelated adults, so students don’t crowd into houses in single family neighborhoods, contributing to traffic and noise. But Joe Kelly with the Landlords of Iowa says that costs property owners money.

” We think properties should be looked at one by one. The size of the property, can it meet the parking ordinances, or whatever,” Kelly says. “That’s the way we think it should be done. ” The landlords back a bill to throw out the limits on renters. Ames Mayor Anne Campbell says under her city’s ordinance only three unrelated adults can share a house, but in her neighborhood near campus police are still called to break up noisy parties at houses.

“Houses like that are a magnet for massive parties that are not contained inside — they’re contained outside,” Campbell says. She says Ames isn’t the only community with the problem. “This is common behavior I’m ashamed to say in university neighborhoods,” according to Campbell. Representatives of college towns say such neighborhoods are also plagued with traffic and parking issues. The Ames ordinance survived a constitutional challenge before the Iowa Supreme Court in 2007. Bills to throw out the ordinances have cleared the Republican-controlled House in the past but were not taken up in the Senate when Democrats were in control.

(Radio Iowa)

A senate committee has voted to let Iowa businesses get hair samples from employees, to test for possible drug use. Iowa law already lets companies demand blood or urine samples from workers, for random drug tests. Seven Republicans on the panel voted to advance the bill to the full senate Senator Michael Breitbach is a Republican from Strawberry Point.

“Forty-seven states currently allow the testing of hair for drugs,” Breitbach says. “It’s another tool in the employer’s tool box to make sure that they provide a safe and viable workplace.” Four Democrats on the committee voted no, arguing hair retains evidence of drug use for months, even years. Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, says hair sometimes has a “long history.”

“I may have just started working with you this month…I’ve got long hair and you analyze my hair and it shows all kinds of fun,” Bisignano says. “You could go back two years, three years.” Bisignano says that’s not fair. Breitbach, the bill’s manager, says the industry standard is to test a hair sample that’s an inch and a half long — which would reveal potential drug use for up to three months.

(Radio Iowa)