(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Chamber Ambassadors were hosted by Southwest Iowa Planning Council (SWIPCO) on Thursday, October 13th, 2022, to welcome new staff. The Ambassadors were introduced to three new staff members who have joined SWIPCO in recent months. Ashley Hayes is serving as a Community Development Specialist, helping communities improve through economic development activities and planning. Mindy Jensen joined SWIPCO in September and has been increasing awareness of public transit services as the Communications Coordinator. Aaron Koontz recently came on board as a Grant Specialist helping agencies and communities navigate applications and procedures for various housing programs.

Southwest Iowa Planning Council serves all of Cass County, along with Fremont, Harrison, Montgomery, Mills, Page, Pottawattamie, and Shelby County. SWIPCO promotes regional cooperation in Southwest Iowa by improving community assets and infrastructure, promoting and enhancing economic and business development, and maintaining and improving the quality of life for all residents.

Front Row: Pictured left to right: Leslie Wright, Ashley Hayes, John McCurdy, Mindy Jensen, Aaron Kootz, Tori Gibson, Dee Holtz, Kelsey Beschorner,
Back Row: Pictured left to right: Elaine Otte, Jennifer McEntaffer, Dolly Bergmann, Kathie Hockenberry, Jim Kickland, Julie Waters, Lana Westphalen, Alex McAfee, Abby Becker, Adriana Mendez, Steve Tjepkes, Graydon Schmidt, Dr. Keith Leonard, Krysta Hanson, Tim Marcsisak, Leah Muhlbaur, Bill Saluk, and Darrell Hockenberry (Photo/story submitted by Kelsey Beschorner)

For more information about Southwest Iowa Planning Council, contact 712-243-4196 or visit https://www.swipco.org/. SWIPCO is located at 1501 SW 7th Street, Atlantic.

Atlantic, IA — Officials at Cass Health, today (Friday), announced that the emergency driveway is now open to all traffic. The drive had been closed for several months as crews worked to completely replace the drive.

The Emergency Department entrance remains closed due to ongoing construction; all emergency patients should continue to use the Rehabilitation Services entrance. The entrance is expected to reopen later this year.

AMC Rapid Care is still temporarily located in Atlantic Medical Center also due to construction. All AMC Rapid Care patients should park in Lot A and use the Main Entrance. The completed AMC Rapid Care clinic is expected to open in early 2023.

(Radio Iowa) – D-N-R Conservation and Recreation Division Administrator, Pete Hildreth, gave the Natural Resources Commission an update on recent mountain lion sightings during their meeting Thursday. He told the N-R-C members the advent of trail and other cameras has led to more videos showing the animals. “The department continues to receive reports of large canines, such as mountain lions, and therefore you may have heard about, heard in the news, about a recent video and report down by Warren Madison County border,” Hildreth says. He says the number of mountain lions in the state is still very small.

“Based on reports, we estimate that there are five to seven mountain lions in Iowa at this time. Between 1995 and 2021, there have been 34 mountain lion sightings in Iowa,” he says. Hildreth says the animals are capable of moving long distances across the state. “No documented self-sustaining populations of mountain lions live in Iowa. Most mountain lions who wander into Iowa can be traced back to South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska,” according to Hildreth. He says the D-N-R’s goals are to notify the public in a timely manner of sightings, and provide technical assistance to individuals and communities regarding the best available scientific information. Hildreth says are some key things they always point out.

“Mountain lions generally avoid humans, and sightings of them are rare. There have been no fatal mountain lion attacks in Iowa in the last 110 years,” Hildreth says. He says one thing he hears is that people are more apt to be killed by a dog or struck by lightning than being attacked by a mountain lion. Hildreth said he wanted to update the commission after all the news and social media reports of the recent camera footage of the mountain lions in Madison County.

(Stuart, Iowa) – The Stuart Police Department’s Community Programs (SPDCP) division will host its 1st Annual “Shop with a Cop” program, on Saturday, December 10th. “Shop with a Cop” is an event that allows children to have a positive interaction with law enforcement while also allowing officers to assist children and their families in having a fun holiday season.

As part of the Shop with the Cop program, the Stuart Police Department Community Programs will sponsor local children in the WCV district and take them holiday shopping in the metro for themselves and their immediate household members. We will also be taking the children out to lunch afterwards and then returning to Stuart to wrap their presents and enjoy some sweet treats.

The Stuart Police Department Community Programs is a nonprofit 501(c)3 and relies on donations, fundraisers and grants to provide programs like this to the community.
Any business, organization or individual can donate by dropping off or mailing a donation (to the following address).

Checks can be made out to Stuart Police Department Community Programs or SPDCP.
Stuart Police Department
121 E Front Street
PO Box 370
Stuart, IA 50250

Please contact Sergeant Katie Guisinger with any questions.
kguisinger@stuart911.com

(Radio Iowa) – A man who authorities say is a member of a Waterloo gang has been sentenced to over three years in federal prison on a gun charge. Twenty-seven year old Sir Frank Nelson the third of Waterloo was arrested after a traffic stop in mid-2020. According to court records, police found marijuana and a stolen semi-automatic pistol in the vehicle. Nelson pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in May.

Prosecutors in northern Iowa have also announced a 29-year-old man from Hawarden has pleaded guilty to two federal drug charges after he was caught in a group selling meth in the Sioux City area. A news release from the U-S Attorney’s Office indicates an undercover buyer paid five-thousand dollars for the meth. Court records indicate Jose Duenas-Topete admits he received pounds of meth for distribution in Woodbury and Plymouth Counties. He’ll be sentenced later.

(Atlantic, Iowa) -You may not realize it, but Atlantic is home to a squadron of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP). In fact, there are nine CAP units in Iowa. The Southwest Iowa Composite Squadron is headquartered in the American Legion Building (The Armory), at 201 Poplar Street. You can meet some of the leaders, both adult and youth on Sunday, October 16, beginning at 2-p.m. Learn about services citizens in the county receive from the national and local, CAP. Stacy Condie, 1st Lieutenant Unit Commander, other adults and Cadets will present the program sponsored by ARISE, and you’re invited to meet these present and future leaders.

The Civil Air Patrol is a congressionally chartered organization related to the United States Air Force. It was organized in 1941 just before WWII and served many purposes during the War. CAP remains active carrying out three mandated program areas: aerospace education, cadet programs and emergency services.

The program this Sunday, is sponsored by ARISE, and supported by the Atlantic Community Promotion Commission. Everyone is welcome to the handicapped accessible American Legion Memorial Building. There is no fee to attend.

(Western Iowa) – Crews in western and southwest Iowa kept busy Thursday afternoon, battling the wind and flames that spurred two separate large field fires. The fires occurred within a couple of hours of one another. One of the incidents involved a soybean field in northwestern Audubon County. Firefighters from Manning, Manilla, Irwin, Defiance, Kirkman, and Audubon responded to the scene. Shelby County Emergency Management noted on their social media page, that “It was fast moving,” and that crews “did a GREAT job stopping it from getting to the next field of standing corn!!!!”

Click on the images to enlarge

Photos via Shelby County EMA Facebook page

Henderson, Emerson, Hastings, Stanton firefighters were paged out Thursday, to the area of Highway 34 and A Avenue in Montgomery County, where a large corn field fire was occurring. Some equipment was burning in that incident as well. Crews battled the flames for at least three hours before they were brought under control. 

No injuries were reported from either incident.

(Radio Iowa) – New bird flu cases have been reported this fall in Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska. The virus hasn’t resurfaced in Iowa since May, but experts are cautioning it could come back as wild birds migrate.  “We can expect that as birds, you know, pass through Iowa and head south, that they may still be harboring the virus.” That’s State wildlife veterinarian Rachel Ruden. She says while bird flu hadn’t been making wild bird sick, a more severe form of the virus has been circulating and that strain has hung around. Iowa State University Extension wildlife specialist Adam Janke says another reason for heightened risk is that birds migrate a lot slower this time of year.

“They’re just trying to survive through the fall and winter,” he says, “and then come spring, they start to focus narrowly on reproduction and that means they need to get north really fast.”Janke says November is the peak time for water fowl, like ducks and geese, to migrate through Iowa. State and federal officials have been surveying healthy birds being harvested by hunters. In September, the bird flu virus was detected in three small ducks that were shot in western Iowa.

The hunting season for blue-wing, green-wing and cinnamon-wing teal ducks was in the first half of September.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katie Peikes)

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The latest U-S Drought Monitor report shows conditions worsening across Iowa. The report, issued Thursday, said 100% of Iowa is experiencing abnormally dry conditions, marking the first time since August 2013 that all of the state has had some sort of drought designation. 57% of Iowa is experiencing moderate drought, an increase from 52% just a week ago, while 27% of Iowa is dealing with severe drought. 7% of Iowa has extreme drought. Plymouth, Cherokee, Buena Vista and Pocahontas Counties, along with parts of seven other counties in northwest Iowa, are included in the Extreme Drought conditions.

Cass and Adair Counties are in a moderate drought, as is much of Madison County and most of Pottawattamie County. Half of the counties to our south are Moderately or Abnormally Dry. Most of the counties adjacent to Cass and to the north of I-80 are also Abnormally Dry.  There were two separate, large field fires Thursday afternoon in southwest/western Iowa.