(Radio Iowa) – An after-school program in the Cedar Valley plans to help the rural workforce by remodeling an old elementary school. The former Elk Run Preschool is a 10-to-20-minute drive from Waterloo and Cedar Falls. Bailey Moore, director of operations for the Boys and Girls Club, says they need the space in order to best serve families that work in the city and those who live farther out. “We talked to Tyson Foods about having us out here and trying to help support their workers more, same with John Deere,” Moore says. “Really, the support has been unanimous that yes, it would be very beneficial to have out here.”

The club has been using parts of the school for some time but has recently reached an agreement with the Waterloo Board of Education to acquire the building for one dollar. The club won the building over bids for a housing development and Tyson Foods.  “Between having some community impact programs versus tearing the building down, it’s always going to be better to have things that are positive impacts for the community,” Moore says. “That’s really what I think the consensus of the Elk Run community was, let’s keep this building and let’s see some good things happen out of it.”

Moore says the five-to-ten-year plan will be a near-total overhaul of the old school, starting with a 200-thousand dollar furnace project.

(Grant Winterer, Iowa Public Radio)

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Auditor of State Rob Sand today (Wednesday) released a report on a special investigation of the City of Hazleton Fire Department (Department) for the period July 1, 2017 through March 31, 2022. The special investigation was requested by City officials as a result of concerns regarding how the Department’s financial transactions were handled. In addition, City officials were concerned with how the Hazleton Fire Department nonprofit corporation (Corporation) was operating as the Corporation had been dissolved on July 1, 1997.

Sand reported because the Corporation had been dissolved the financial records and bank account should have been administered by the City of Hazleton in accordance with Chapter 384.220(2) of the Code of Iowa. Because of the dissolution, the financial transactions of the Association would have to comply with the same standards as all other City disbursements.
Auditor Sand reported, the Corporation disbursed $274,973.82 during the period of the investigation. Of the $274,832.82, $11,868.71 of the disbursements lacked supporting documentation, and $1,600.00 in CRP Burns had been billed to individuals but the payment had not been received or deposited with the Corporation or the City. Had the disbursements been processed by the City, which has a higher threshold to demonstrate disbursements are in the best interest of the public, $1,634.25 of disbursements from the Corporation bank account would have been considered improper disbursements.

In addition, Sand reported it was not possible to determine if any additional improper disbursements or if all collections were properly deposited during the period of the investigation because adequate records were not available.

The report includes recommendations for the new Association established in March 2022, to strengthen internal controls, such as improvements to segregation of duties, improving the determination and documentation of the public purpose of transaction, maintaining supporting documentation for all expenditures, improving controls over amounts billed but not collected.
Copies of the report have been filed with the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office, the Division of Criminal Investigation, the Buchanan County Attorney’s Office, and the Attorney General’s Office. A copy of the report is available for review on the Auditor of State’s website at Special Interest Reports.

(Radio Iowa) – A Democrat from Cedar Falls has launched a campaign in Iowa’s second congressional district for the chance to challenge Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson in 2024.
Sarah Corkery is a small business owner and two-time breast cancer survivor. In a statement provided to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Corkery said she looks forward to holding Hinson accountable for her partisan voting record. Corkery cited Hinson’s support of abortion restrictions as well as Hinson’s no vote on the first bipartisan infrastructure bill in decades. Hinson’s campaign manager says Corkery would be a rubber stamp for President Biden’s radical agenda.

(Audubon, Iowa) – Shared Audubon and Coon Rapids-Bayard Community School District Superintendent Eric Trager has announced that after nearly four decades in education – most of which was in the Audubon School District, he will be retiring at the end of the current school year. His decision was announced during Monday’s regular meeting of the Audubon School Board.

Eric Trager has been involved in education for 38-year, with 36 of those years serving the Audubon School District.

He says he’s looking forward to “Whatever comes next.”

Eric Trager

In other business the Audubon School Board, Monday, passed the first reading of a Discipline Policy for students who make threats of violence or cause incidents of violence.

He said “At the end of the day, it’s pretty redundant policy [the policy coming down from the legislature]. Everything that’s in there we already had in our policy. We’ve dealt with these situations.”

The Audubon School Board approved the district’s Early Retirement plan during their meeting, Monday night.

And, Superintendent Trager updated the Board on the District’s Certified Enrollment numbers.

He said also, they’re wrapping things-up in terms of the building project. They’re just down to waiting for the arrival of flooring and ceiling materials, and there’s still quite a bit of work to do on the auditorium, but it’s moving along.

Then they’ll start with the project “punch list,” which at last check was 55-pages long. The goal is to have an open house sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so district patrons can come in and see what their tax dollars have paid for.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Police Chief Devin Hogue reports seven arrests took place between Oct. 9th and the 17th.

On Oct. 9th, 35-year-old April Medina, of Atlantic, was arrested on a Cass County warrant for Child Endangerment.

On the 11th, 34-year-old Tyler Crawley, of Atlantic, was arrested for Burglary in the 2nd Degree, and Harassment in the 3rd Degree. And, 34-year-old Junior Michael, of Atlantic, was arrested for Disorderly Conduct, Public Intoxication, and Criminal Mischief in the 5th Degree.

On Oct. 14th, Atlantic Police arrested 43-year-old Shaela Caballero, of Atlantic, for OWI/1st offense.

On the 16th, 41-year-old Jennifer Claussen, of Atlantic, was arrested for Driving While Barred.

And, on Oct. 17th, 25-year-old Sanjay Paul, of Atlantic, was arrested for Disorderly Conduct. 28-year-old Taify Amumu, of Atlantic, was arrested for Public Intoxication.

All of those individuals were booked into the Cass County Jail. As of today (Oct. 18th), Tyler Crawley, Sanjay Paul and Taify Amumu remained in custody.