A special investigation by the state auditor’s office concludes the former city clerk in a small northwest Iowa town made more than 36-thousand dollars worth of “improper and unsupported” transactions with city money. The City of Boyden has about 700 residents. The auditor’s review concludes former City Clerk Beth Sipma paid herself nearly 31-thousand dollars MORE than she should have during the 22 months she had the job.

Sipma also made more than three-thousand dollars worth of personal purchases with the city’s money. Auditors discovered she used the city’s credit card to buy United Airlines tickets to Scotland. Toward the end of her tenure, Sipma used a personal check to pay the monthly bill on the city’s credit card for those tickets. But she also appears to have gone on an overnight shopping trip to Minnesota at city expense — staying in a hotel, eating at a restaurant and buying items like a dresser, sheets and curtains at IKEA, all charged on the city’s credit card.

It was a banker who first noticed the unusual spending on Boyden’s city accounts and called the mayor. Sipma resigned shortly after city officials confronted her and the mayor says Sipma admitted she had done a “terrible thing.” The state auditor has forwarded the report on Sipma to state and county law enforcement.

(Radio Iowa)

Beginning Monday, May 23, 2016, and ending Sunday, June 5, 2016, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Atlantic Police Department and law enforcement agencies throughout Iowa, will be participating in a “Click it or Ticket” Special Traffic Enforcement Program, or, STEP. During the program, you’ll see an elevated presence of law enforcement officers on the road.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistics show that passenger vehicle occupants are buckling up more during the day but not enough at night.  The May 23 – June 6, 2016 Click It or Ticket mobilization focuses on seat belt violators 24/7, but a strong enforcement effort will be made between the nighttime hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., due to the significant number of violators and fatal crashes during that time.

Iowa’s seat belt compliance rate is at 93 percent, one of the best in the nation but, still, too many of the state’s traffic fatalities are unbelted. In 2014, nearly 9, 400 people nationwide lost their lives as a result of not buckling their seat belt. That same year in Iowa, 118 of the 322 crash fatalities were not buckled up.

As you travel near or far this Memorial Day, remember to buckle up in the back seat as well as in the front.  Rear seat passengers are three times more likely to die in a crash if they are unbuckled.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa utilities regulators have declined to act quickly on a request to allow a Texas company to begin construction on an oil pipeline across Iowa.
Dakota Access had asked the Iowa Utilities Board to start Tuesday on the 1,150-mile pipeline that will carry a half-million barrels of oil a day from northwest North Dakota across South Dakota, Iowa and into south-central Illinois.

Construction begins this week in the other states and the Dallas-based company says it must start in Iowa now or risk running into winter and another farm planting season. The board decided Tuesday to take time to consider comments from opponents, which indicate they want no construction in Iowa until all required federal permits are approved. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hasn’t issued permits for river crossings.

Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs Executive Director Colonel Robert King (Ret.) has announced that in a recently adopted administrative rules amendment, the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund Honor Guard Reimbursement is increased from $500 in a twelve month period to $1,000. The change became effective May 18th, 2016. The Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs manages The Iowa Veterans Trust Fund.

The Honor Guard Reimbursement was established to reimburse various veterans service organizations who provide military honors at funeral services for our states veterans when a military honor guard is unavailable.

Colonel King said “Several honor guards around the state are providing many more services than the $500.00 reimburses them for their support of our veterans and families. We want to insure that we are reimbursing these honor guards for their expenses in regards to the services they are providing.”

All other details of the administrative rules 14.4(11), ARC2491C remain the same. Only the dollar amount changes.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office said three people were transported to the hospital following a chain-reaction accident that began when a car hit a deer.  Vehicles driven by James Collins, of Red Oak, and Bobbi Dragon, of Hastings, were both eastbound on Highway 34 and passing Deacon Road, at around 7:10-p.m., Tuesday, when a vehicle in front of their vehicles struck a deer on the road.

Collins, who was driving a 2012 Toyota, tried to avoid the collision and pulled in front of a 2006 Dodge driven by Dragon, while slamming on his brakes. The Dodge hit the rear of the Toyota, disabling both vehicles. The vehicle that hit the deer continued on.

James Collins, his passenger, Diane Collins, and Bobbi Dragon, were all transported to Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs, by Glenwood Rescue.

The driver of a semi suffered possible/unknown injuries Tuesday, when he lost control of the truck and trailer, which partially rolled into a ditch. The Page County Sheriff’s Office say 47-year old Jason Robert Stanbrough, of rural Essex, was transported to Montgomery County Memorial Hospital by Essex Fire and Rescue.

Authorities were notified at around 2:45-p.m. about the accident, which took place on 170th Street near Dogwood Avenue, or about 2-miles south of Essex. An investigation determined Stanbrough was traveling westbound on 170th Street in a 2006 Peterbilt semi tractor that was hauling a 2010 Timpte grain trailer. When the tractor’s right front tire dropped off the edge of the roadway, Stanbrough was unable to bring the front tire back on the road, which did not have a shoulder. The semi then rolled over approximately three-quarters of a turn into the ditch, causing the trailer to spill the grain into a field / ditch on the north side of 170^th.

The tractor/trailer sustained over $20,000 damage. No citations were issued. The Page County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by Essex Fire and Rescue and the Shenandoah Police Department.