(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic is expected to act Wednesday evening, on at least two important matters. First, the Council is being asked to approve a letter of support for Vision Atlantic. The Council’s meeting starts at 5:30-p.m. in their chambers at City Hall.

Officials with the non-profit Vision Atlantic say they are asking for the letter “to support and strengthen some of [their] federal funding and various grant application [they] have submitted to date.”  In addition, the organization says “As our donations and pledges continue to raise, we are getting close to the threshold where [the] grant committee can start to apply for some other key grants (some have a minimum percentage of the project needed to be secured before applications can be submitted).

In other business, the Atlantic City Council will act on an Order to have City Administrator John Lund execute a purchase order for an ambulance from Braun Northwest. Cass EMS, the City’s ambulance service exists as a 28E Agreement with costs being split evenly between the City of Atlantic, Cass Health, and Cass County. According to John Lund, “We are in a financially unsustainable commitment with Cass EMS. Over a period of five years, expenditures have increased 1,197%. This increase has occurred even with the generous contribution of a brand-new ambulance for Cass Health.”

Atlantic City Hall building

EMS Subsidy
Expenditures
FY 2016 50,400
FY 2017 55,200
FY 2018 55,200
FY 2019 55,200
FY 2020 55,200
FY 2021 192,874
FY 2022 255,119
FY 2023 340,164
FY 2024 390,000
FY 2025 718,808
FY 2026 736,778
FY 2027 755,197
FY 2028 774,077
FY 2029 793,429
FY 2030 813,265
FY 2031 833,596
FY 2032 854,436
FY 2033 875,797
FY 2034 897,692
FY 2035 920,134

Lunds says “To control costs for our pending negotiations for our expiring contract with our private sector provider, the City must now step up and contribute towards some means of controlling the subsidy required to keep this service running. The City is purchasing an ambulance to compliment the one purchased by the County. The Personnel & Finance has reviewed this issue on two occasions. During their meeting on October 9th, 2024, the Committee has unanimously endorsed the purchase of an ambulance as the City’s Contribution to Cass EMS.”

The Council’s final order of business is to hold the second reading of an Ordinance pertaining to “Prohibited Trees.” The list of trees prohibited from being planted comes from recommendations by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Trees Forever, as is due to their lack of disease infestation resistance and likely damage to infrastructure and property during severe storms.  “Prohibited Trees” include the following varities: Freeman/Hybrid Maple (Acer x freemanii Autumn Blaze, Armstrong, Marmo, and Sienna Glen are frequently seen cultivars), Amur Maple, Norway Maple, Ash, Blue Spruce, Callery/Ornamental Pear, Ornamental Cherry, Mulberry, Golden Raintree, Tree of Heaven, Black Locust, White Poplar, Siberian Elm, Russian Olive & Salt Cedar.’”

(Radio Iowa) – The new Broadway musical version of the biggest film of 1985 makes its Iowa debut this week, with a former Iowan in one of the lead roles. In “Back to the Future: The Musical,” Don Stephenson plays Doc Brown, the inventor who creates a time machine out of a DeLorean sports car. Stephenson argues it’s the greatest time travel story ever told and says if you loved the movie from almost 40 ago, you’ll equally love this updated version for today’s stage. “You’re going to recognize all of it, but with new stuff, because obviously, this is a musical, but I would always say that the original movie was leaning towards being a musical anyway,” Stephenson says. “Because it had the Huey Lewis songs, it had ‘Johnny B. Goode,’ of course, and the dance at the end, so all of that is there.”

Practically everyone who was going to movies in 1985 saw the original, but even in this age of instant streaming, Stephenson says there’s a whole generation who’s never heard of Marty McFly. “People who have never seen the movie come and see the musical, and they’re sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to see what’s going to happen next, and that always amazes me,” he says. “I’ll see people after the show, and I’ll say, ‘Are you a Back to the Future fan?’ and they’ll say, ‘I’ve never seen it before. This was the first time,’ and I always love that.”

Stephenson says he adores it when he can spot devoted fans in the audience who dress as their favorite characters from the film; sometimes it’ll be a dad in a Doc wig beside his young son as Marty. The original film had a certain chemistry that just worked, Stephenson says, as a combination science fiction, action, romance — that was also about family and friendship. Even if you’ve seen the movie a dozen times, he says the musical offers something new along with the familiar. “To see something happening in front of you, you really do see it fresh from a new perspective, even if you know the story so well, because that’s what theater can do, that’s what live theater does,” Stephenson says. “And so you’re going to see it from a different angle, even if you know it very, very well by seeing it on stage.”

Stephenson has called New York City home the past few decades, but grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where his parents still live. When asked by Radio Iowa if this would be his first time in Iowa, he paused, then laughed: “When I was a baby, my father got a job in Iowa, and we moved there, I think when I was six months old, and stayed for maybe slightly less than a year, and then moved back to Tennessee because my parents didn’t like the cold.”

He remembers nothing of the experience, not even what town they were in, only that it was near a river. Stephenson acknowledges he’s technically a former Iowan, and he’s hoping for a much warmer reception this time around.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Speech and Debate team is starting a new fundraiser. Coach Tricia Koenig says from October 15th, until November 15th (2024), the team will be selling coupon cards for the Atlantic Hy-Vee. The coupon cards will save each purchaser $135 on Hy-Vee purchases, and the cards are only $25 each! Just using a few coupons more than pays for itself, and it is valid for an entire year.

Proceeds from each card goes to support the Atlantic High School Speech and Debate team in the form of: registration for tournaments, transportation, purchasing scripts, and more.

The National Speech & Debate Tournament is held in Iowa in June 2025, and this will help our performers compete. If you are interested in purchasing a coupon card, please contact:

• Members of the Atlantic High School Speech and Debate team
• Trisha Koenig at tniceswanger@atlanticiaschools.org or
• The Atlantic High School office at (712) 243-5358

Representatives of the Atlantic High School Speech and Debate team also plan to attend upcoming football and volleyball games where these coupon cards will be sold, so look for our table there! Thank you for all your support!

(Coupon card sample shown below)

(Radio Iowa) – The years-long effort to restore a historic building in downtown Webster City is nearing completion. The Elks Building, which opened in 1906, has been under renovation since 2019. Darcy Swon of LIFE W-C says they’re hoping to complete fundraising for the project soon.

“We’re about $500,000 from our finish line, which when you think of it being a $2.8 million project, that’s really not much,” Swon says. “We’re applying for some grants and are still accepting charitable donations.” A fundraiser was held over the weekend in Webster City. Work on the building’s main floor is nearing completion.

“Elevators should be done in 2025 spring and then the ballroom will be our next focus,” Swon says. “And we have a lot of work already done in the ballroom, so it shouldn’t take much longer.” The building’s first occupant will begin setting up shop next year. “We’ll be welcoming Wildcat Distilling Company. They will be the tenant for the main floor,” Swon says. “We are so excited because their business aligns very much with what LIFT is about — social connection, community betterment and many things, so it’s going to be a great partnership.”

The Wildcat Distilling Company makes whiskey from Iowa-grown corn and fruits and has operated a tasting room in Webster City less than half a mile from the Elks Building. Once the ballroom on the top floor of the Elks Building has been restored, it will host music concerts and be available for other gatherings.

(Radio Iowa) – The South Korean author who won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature spent time in Iowa in 1998. Han Kang was a writer in residence at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Christopher Merrill, program’s director, says Kang started out as a poet and six of her published novels have been translated into English. “These novels are the novels of a poet,” Merrill says, “someone with that musical understanding of what a sentence can do for a story.”

Merrill says Kang’s prose is very precise. “It’s a kind of chiseled prose,” Merrill says, “and she’s the sort of writer who pays close attention to sometimes just the most seemingly insignificant details.”

Kang is the third alum of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

(Radio Iowa) – The 2024 General Election ballots in several Iowa counties will let voters decide whether to raise local taxes to support ambulance services. Emergency Medical Services are generally staffed by volunteers in rural areas and response times vary widely. In 2021 the Iowa legislators passed a law allowing county-wide votes on proposed property tax levies that support emergency medical crews and equipment.

Atlantic Mayor Grace Garrett says if Cass County voters approve their local referendum, the county’s board of supervisors would come up with a plan on how the money would be spent.  “We are wanting to pass this in November to make it an essential service,” she said, “which will allow us to take funds and specifically allocate them to EMS.”

In the past three years, about a dozen counties have approved raising local taxes for ambulance services. The most recent was last month in a special election in Henry County, as 92 percent of voters approved the move to raise property taxes to fund Emergency Medical Services.