Officials estimate the cremated remains of as many as 80 deceased veterans are stored in Iowa funeral homes. A bill signed into law by the governor would let a veterans’ organization claim the cremated remains of confirmed veterans who were indigent of homeless when they died. Those veterans will be buried at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery with full military honors.

Iowa Funeral Directors Association president Marty Rieken says he does not have veterans remains in his Oakland funeral home. “But I do know some funeral directors who do and this will give them a chance to give those people a proper burial and everybody deserves a proper burial,” Rieken says.

Giving a veteran full military honors at the burial site is a moving tribute, according to Rieken. “And anybody that’s served our country sure deserves our respect,” Rieken says. “And we should be able to give them a proper burial.”

Under current law, cremated remains may only be claimed by a family members. The new law that goes into effect July 1st lets Iowa funeral directors with unclaimed cremated remains contact the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs six months after they’ve filed the death certificate, to find out if the deceased was a veteran. If he or she was a veteran, the funeral director will keep the cremated remains for another six months, just in case a family member comes forward.

After that, the cremated remains will be released to a veterans organization for transport to the Iowa Veterans Cemetery. Iowa’s new law is similar to laws in other states. In 2007, a national group began an effort to find indigent veterans who had been cremated, but not yet buried. According to the organization’s website, the Missing in America Project has identified the cremated remains of more than three-thousand veterans and interred more than 27-hundred of them.

(Radio Iowa)

A traffic stop on Interstate 80 this (Thursday) morning in Cass County resulted in a Pottawattamie County woman’s arrest on numerous felony drug and other charges. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports 29-year old Melaney Lynn White, of Council Bluffs, was arrested on a charge of OWI 1st Offense in conjunction with Iowa Department of Motor Vehicle Enforcement felony charges filed against White for: Possession with Intent to Deliver/Meth; Possession with Intent to Deliver/ Hydrocodone; Possession with Intent to Deliver/Hydromorphone; and three charges of Failure to Affix Drug Tax Stamp.

White faces additional charges that include: Possession of Controlled Substance 2nd Offense/Psilocybin Mushrooms; Possession of Controlled Substance 2nd Offense/ Lorazepam; and Possession of Controlled Substance 2nd Offense/Clonazepam.

The woman was brought to the Cass County Jail where she remains held on $32,000 bond.

The ballot is set for the June 7^th Primary in Shelby County. Running for seats on the Shelby County Board of Supervisors are incumbents Steve Kenkel and Charlie Parkhurst. Loren Christensen of Elk Horn is also in the running for a seat on the Board. All the Supervisor candidates are Republicans.

Others running for election June 7^th include Republican Neal Gross, for Sheriff, and incumbent Democrat Auditor Marsha Carter. Mark Maxwell, a Republican, is also running for Auditor, in Shelby County.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Thursday) approved a revised request for the commitment of $25,000 from the Local Option Sales Tax in support of an Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department’s application to Vision Iowa for a Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grant. The Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department had originally sought $40,000 to help secure a $360,000 grant for proposed improvements and further development of the campground at the Schildberg Recreation Area, and the Pellet Wildlife Refuge Park, but Parks and Rec Director Roger Herring removed $15,000 from the request after the decision was made to eliminate the Pellet Park from the plan.

Herring said he might have pushed too hard to have the Pellet Wildlife Refuge included in the plan, when it was obvious not all the parties involved felt it was necessary at this time. Last week, the Board asked Herring to come up with some figures with regard to how proposed improvements to the campground at the Schildberg Recreation Area, would benefit the county as a whole, and not just Atlantic.

He came up with some numbers that the Board liked, including estimates that the proposed campsite improvements at the Schildberg Rec Area would increase the Local Option Sales Tax revenues by a conservative one-percent, or $6,300 per year, based on a six-month, May through October season. He said 20 camping pads fully used at $15 per night, would generate $300 per day over 180 potential days in the season. Overall, if there were overall 90 days with 50-percent usage, that $300 would turn into $27,000 of gross income.

Herring said based on national statistics, where visitors spend $289 per day for food, entertainment, gasoline and so on, while camping, at least $180,000 would be injected into the local economy. The International Convention and Visitor’s Bureau projects that money will roll over in the local economy, 3 ½ times, or $630,000.

During discussion, Supervisors Frank Waters and Mark Wedemeyer, who were previously opposed to committing $40,000 toward securing the CAT Grant, said the new data swayed them enough to allow a $10,000 commitment, but in the end, a motion for $25,000 was approved by a vote of 3-to-2, with Schelling, McFadden and Rieken in favor, Wedemeyer and Waters opposed. Both men said they were NOT opposed to the project, just the amount of financial commitment from the County, in light of a desire to reduce the debt and focus on bridges and roads.

In other business, the Cass County Board of Supervisors set $9.00 per hour as the rate of compensation for precinct election officials. Previously those persons had been paid the ongoing minimum wage of $7.25/hour. Precinct officials typically put in 15-to 18-hour days during the day of elections.

Two women were transported to the hospital following an accident Wednesday night, in Crston. Authorities say vehicles driven by 59-year old Lavon Schlapia and 18-year old Bailey Rowan, both of Creston, collided at the intersection of Taylor and Maple Streets at around 9:25-p.m. The women suffered unknown/possible injuries and were transported by ambulance to the Greater Regional Medical Center, in Creston.

Officials say Schlapia was traveling east on Taylor Street and making a left turn onto northbound Maple, but didn’t see the car driven by Rowan that was traveling westbound on Taylor. Damage from the collision amounted to $4,500. Schlapia was cited for Failure to Yield upon left turn.