COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – A school for the deaf in Council Bluffs has held its 20th memorial service for deceased students and staff buried on its campus. The Daily Nonpareil reports that Shirley Hicks held a memorial service for the former Iowa School for the Deaf members Tuesday as she told stories about each of the 10 people who were buried on campus between 1879 and 1900. Hicks is a former student and teacher at the school, and she now works as a volunteer to preserve the institution’s history.

The graves were moved in the 1950s to accommodate the widening of a nearby highway. Today, the remains have been relocated to a common casket on the school grounds and marked with a monument. Nine of the headstones are preserved in the school’s museum.

Members of the Cass County Board of Review appeared before the Cass County Board of Supervisors this (Wednesday) morning, to address any concerns they may have, and those of the public, with regard to property assessments in the County. Review Board Chair Melissa Ihnen, said they welcome the opportunity to talk with any taxpayer who has issues with their assessments.

She said “There’s a certain time when a protest can be filed, and we want to make sure that the process continues to be open, or that people can do it [protest], because that’s why that process is there. In the past, we’ve lowered peoples’ assessments, we’ve kept them the same, and in some instances if there’s been major changes to a property we go look at, unfortunately sometimes it does have to be raised to make it like everyone else’s. That’s our goal, is keep all the assessments so we’re doing the same thing to everyone who has a similar type of property. And then we look at the sales.”

She says there are misconceptions out there, about what the Board of Review can do, and how they react to complaints. Ihnen says a taxpayer told them they were told by someone on the Board of Supervisors, that the Board of Review would “Run all over them, if they came and talked to us.” Ihnen says that’s not true, that they are more than happy to help people understand the process and take care of their concerns.

She said the current inventory of homes in Cass County is “Extremely low, lower than it’s been for many, many years, so prices are high. They’re going up, even in two years, we’ve seen big increases in sales prices. Ihnen said the State looks at those prices, and the Assessor’s Office is required to be within a certain percentage of those sales.

She asked the Supervisors to direct persons with complaints or concerns to anyone on the Board of Review. She said they won’t be adversarial and raise your taxes just because you come before them to protest your assessments.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports a man found hiding in the basement of his residence was arrested Tuesday night on a Federal warrant. 46-year old Steven William Wells, of College Springs, was taken into custody for Probation Violation.  Wells was transported to the Page County Jail where he is being held without bond while awaiting transportation by the U.S. Marshall’s service for further court proceedings in Federal court.

Steven Wells