The public is invited to an open meeting of Nishna Valley Trails, Inc. in support of the future development of the T-Bone Trail and other recreational trails in Atlantic and Cass County.  The meeting will take place on Monday, June 13^th, 2011 beginning at 6:00 p.m., at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, off 14^th street in Atlantic.  The agenda will include a review of recent activities, updates on trail development efforts, and planning RAGBRAI.  Ride your bike and bring a friend!  For further information, contact Ed or Myra Kail at 712-2493-4265.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Democratic Party has filed an ethics complaint against Secretary of State Matt Schultz, alleging he used public resources to campaign again Jon Hunstman, a former Utah governor and potential Republican presidential candidate.

Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky on Thursday urged the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board to investigate Schultz’s use of public resources “for political purposes.”

Schultz on Monday used his office to send a press release in which he criticizes Huntsman on his intentions to skip the Iowa caucuses due to his opposition to ethanol subsidies.

Schultz says Thursday afternoon that he “defended” the Iowa caucuses and never said that anyone should vote for or against Huntsman. Schultz says the allegations are “without legal merit.”

Schultz, a Council Bluffs Republican, was elected in November.

A rainy weather forecast is heightening concerns for western Iowa residents who are preparing for record flooding along the Missouri River. In the Harrison County town of Missouri Valley, Mayor Clint Sargent says businesses have closed and homeowners in low-lying areas are moving out. Many people in the town of just under 3,000 residents have battled floods before.

“In the flood of 2007, we had hours to prepare,” Sargent said. “Obviously now we’ve got more time, but every hour we have, we’re making sure public safety is insured, we’re protecting critical assets and making sure everyone is moved out to higher ground.” The Red Cross has opened a shelter at Missouri Valley High School. Sargent requested 250,000 sandbags from Iowa Emergency Management to help protect Missouri Valley’s water treatment plant and sewer lift stations.

“There are additional bags we’ve received from other sources. Basically, our goal is to fill as many of those sandbags as possible to secure those assets and then respond to those areas where the water rises that we may not have prepared for.” Many volunteers who are filling sandbags in Missouri Valley have traveled 30 miles from Omaha/Council Bluffs.

“There’s youth baseball teams, church groups, a group from Denison and the Iowa Department of Corrections is involved” Sargent said. “We recently had a major hail storm come through and brought a lot of damage. There’s contractors that were doing work for private residents…they’re sending crews in to help with the sandbagging process. It’s an amazing site that everybody’s coming together to help one another.” It will soon become a little more difficult to travel to Missouri Valley. The Iowa Department of Transportation plans to close nearly 15 miles of Interstate 29 today or tomorrow (Friday) because of the rising Missouri River. No traffic will be allowed on I-29 from just north of Council Bluffs to the interchange with I-680 at Loveland. The timing of the closure will depend on how fast the river rises. The portion of I-680 leading from I-29 to north Omaha is also scheduled to be closed.

(Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa)

After the feds fled the flood, farmers from southwest Iowa are fighting the high water on their own. Hamburg Fire Chief Dan Sturm says the main levee along the Missouri River just south of town was seen to be weakening on Sunday and the levee sprung a small leak that shot out water like a geyser.  “It also had an additional collapse the following day just south of it about 100 feet,” Chief Sturm says. “At that time, the Corps of Engineers found it too unstable to be working on so they pulled out.” He says several of the locals formed a team to save the levee — and hopefully — save the town.

“A couple of farmers took it upon themselves to pull in some more heavy equipment,” Sturm says. “They brought in more dirt and heavy rock and they have really strengthened up that section of levee and it is really looking a lot better. We have have bought quite a bit more time with that and they actually may hold that section.” He says Hamburg could face a flood threat from the opposite direction, too, from the Nishabotna River, so that floodwall is being shored up, as well.

“Placing sandbags on the Nishna levee that runs on the east side of town,” he says. “That’s just a precautionary measure.” Sturm says, for now, the Missouri River is fine but the Corps is expected to drastically increase flows from the Gavins Point Dam, near Yankton, South Dakota, next week.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) — Cliff and Donna Ferguson had already hauled out chairs, a bed, their television – nearly everything that would be ruined if the Missouri River spills over its banks as expected and floods their home in the small southwest Iowa town of Hamburg.

With their Chevy pickup already packed, Cliff Ferguson looked up at the dozen deer heads hanging on walls above him.

“I was planning on leaving some of this stuff here, but I may end up taking some of these,” he said, nodding to the heads. “This flood’s going to be different. It’s going to be worse.”

The rising Missouri River is set to reach peak flows within days and won’t return to normal until September as the Army Corps of Engineers manages a series of swollen reservoirs in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota and faces the prospect of huge snowpack melting in the Rockies. That means people leaving their homes and businesses in early June may not be able to come back before late summer.

The timeline has even veteran river-town residents resigned

“It’s already worse because we’ve got more junk now, and we’re older,” said the 73-year-old Ferguson, who, like thousands of living near the Missouri, endured historic flooding in 1993.

The question in Hamburg is whether a levee along the river that already has sprung a leak will completely give way, leaving only a temporary barrier to protect the town of 1,100. Officials skeptical the levees will survive have ordered half the town to evacuate and warned that up to 10 feet of water could surge into Hamburg and then remain for weeks, or months.

Julee Smith said her home should be high enough to remain dry, but worries about her 84-year-old mother, whose home would be swamped. And if the town floods, Smith wouldn’t be able to get to her job at a Walmart across the river in Nebraska City, Neb.

“I really don’t have a good plan. I really don’t,” she said.

Terry Holliman has already closed his Napa Auto Parts store south of downtown Hamburg and removed much of the merchandise. He expects to lose $35,000 in sales in one month, even if the store remains dry. If the levees fail and the store is inundated, costs would climb to about $150,000.

“It’s serious money, no doubt about it,” Holliman said.

About 60 miles upriver, Kelli Shaner said the river has crept closer and closer to her farmhouse near Fort Calhoun, Neb. She’s sure the house and much of their property will flood.

Her family spent the past week moving farm equipment to fields the family rents farther from the river, emptying their grain bin and finding temporary homes for their four horses, cow, chickens, dog and cat. She told her three sons, ages 5, 7 and 10, to pack up their favorite toys and be prepared to stay with relatives until the fall.

“At first we thought maybe a month, but as reports come out, it sounds like maybe November,” said Shaner, whose family grows corn and soybeans. She said they’ll be able to farm some of their fields this year but others will be underwater.

The family’s losses depend on how high the water rises and how long it remains. They haven’t yet laid off any of their four employees but fear having to do so.

“Our concern is keeping our employees employed,” she said.

Stephanie Smith found herself packing up her house in McCook Lake, S.D., only days before she expected to give birth to her first child. Her doctor said she could help move from her home just upstream from Sioux City, Iowa, but only if she didn’t lift anything heavier than 10 pounds.

“I’m a little stressed out, a little overwhelmed,” Smith said.

They expect the river to fill their basement rise 3 feet high on their first floor.

The basement is wood and, Smith said, “our fear is, if it floods for any length of time, it will rot everything out and our house will fall in.”

She and her baby will move in with her parents in Omaha, Neb. But her husband, Lance, will have to stay nearly two hours away with his parents in Sioux City so he can continue working at a Delta Airlines reservation center.

“I wish we weren’t dealing with this now, but we’re just going to have to take one day at a time.”

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad is heading back to western Iowa for another look at flood-threatened communities along the Missouri River.

Branstad’s office says the governor on Friday will fly the length of the river in Iowa from Sioux City to Hamburg. He’ll be joined by Derek Hill, the administrator of Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Afterward they’ll be in Council Bluffs, where they’ll meet with local officials and workers at staging areas for sandbags, followed by a news conference.

The Missouri River is expected to crest 5 to 7 feet above flood stage in Iowa and Nebraska next week. It could be late summer before hundreds of people leaving their homes can return.

Kyle Campbell - If you see him, call your local law enforcement authorities

Page County Sheriff Lyle Palmer says two Shenandoah residents were arrested on Methamphetamine-related charges Sunday night, while a warrant was issued for another person. According to the Sheriff’s report, 24-year old Jana Lynn Gray faces charges of Careless Driving, Failure to Provide proof of insurance , Driving while under suspension, and Possession of drug precursors. And, 23-year old James Tyler Shackelford was charged with Interference with Official Acts, along with Possession of Precursors.

The pair was taken into custody following a brief high speed chase at around 10:22-p.m. Sunday. They were being held in the Page County Jail on $5,000 bond each. The incident which led to their arrest began when a Page County Deputy attempted to stop a vehicle that was sitting with its lights off, on the wrong side of 150^th Street, just west of Avenue A.

The Sheriff says when the deputy’s cruiser approached with his emergency lights activated, the car, driver by Gray, took off westbound at a high rate of speed. When Gray lost control of the vehicle, it entered a ditch and came to rest. As she attempted to free the car from the ditch, two men in the vehicle took off on foot. One of the men, identified as Shackelford, was apprehended in tall grass, next to a fence. The other, Kyle Campbell, of Shenandoah, managed to elude Deputies and a Sheriff’s K-9 unit. Poor weather hampered their search abilities.

During their investigation, authorities located in the vehicle, products used in the manufacture of Methamphetamine.

A warrant has been issued for Campbell, charging him with Interference with Official Acts and Possession of Precursors. Anyone with information on his location is asked to contact their local law enforcement agency.

The Cass County Sheriff’s office reports an Atlantic man was arrested Wednesday on a Simple Assault charge. 19-year old Mackenzie Jacob Belnap, was taken into custody on an Atlantic Police Department warrant. Belnap was brought to the Cass County Jail, pled guilty to the offense, and was released that same day.

On Tuesday, Sheriff’s deputies in Cass County, arrested 41-year old Todd James Hutchinson, of Des Moines, on an Atlantic Police Department warrant for Theft in the 2nd Degree, and Ongoing Criminal Conduct.

Hutchinson was brought to the Cass County Jail where he was sentenced, and is awaiting transport to Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Department reports one-person was injured during a rollover accident Wednesday afternoon, about a mile east of Audubon. 73-year old Richard Brooks Gleason, of Audubon, was traveling downhill, east on 200^th Street at around 3-p.m., when a trailer full of large hay bales his pickup was pulling began to sway.

The swaying action caused the pickup to go out of control before it went into the south ditch. In the ditch, the trailer jackknifed and broke free of its hitch. The pickup then rolled over, trapping Gleason inside.

The man was transported by Audubon Rescue to the Audubon County Memorial Hospital for treatment of his injuries. Damage to Gleason’s 2011 Chevy pickup was estimated at $35,000.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Department has released additional information about a single-vehicle accident on Interstate 80 early this (Thursday) morning. As we told you during our earlier reports, the crash happened at around 2:50-a.m. on I-80, at the 72-mile marker, or about two-miles east of the Anita Exit.

Officials say a 1992 Buick Century owned and driven by 25-year old Dirk Mathias Reynolds, of Des Moines, was westbound on I-80 when he lost control of the car, and ran into a directional traffic device.

Mathias, and a passenger in his vehicle were transported to the Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic by Anita Rescue. Damage to the vehicle is estimated at $4,500, while the traffic control device sustained $5,000 damage.

The accident remains under investigation.