(Radio Iowa) – Home sales in Iowa held steady last month, while national data shows there was a decline of two-point-seven percent in sales of existing U.S. homes. Robin Anderson is the chief economist for the State of Iowa. “So in some ways we’re maybe doing a little bit better in terms of sales.” But Anderson says the lack of supply is a big constraint on the housing market. “Very low inventories and those are pretty comparable nationally and in Iowa,” Anderson says. According to the Iowa Association of Realtors, there were nearly 14-and-a-half percent fewer Iowa homes for sale in March compared to the same month last year. The median price for an Iowa home sold last month was over 203-thousand dollars. That compares to 180-thousand in March of last year.

“Home prices are up and they’re up pretty dramatically,” Anderson says, “but there are other pockets of the nation that have very high home prices,” Anderson points to hot spots like Austin, Texas, where appraisals are up 56 percent since last year. The Iowa Association of Realtors reports Iowa homes are selling 20 percent faster this spring, averaging about 43 days on the market. Anderson says the rate on a 30-year mortgage is about five percent now and as rates rise, that may lead to a decline in home sales. “But I do think the really constraining supply is going to basically constrain how far home prices go down,” Anderson says. “I would not expect a sharp downturn in prices because we really don’t have a lot of supply on the market.”

About 85-hundred single family homes were sold in Iowa during the first three months of this year. That’s a nearly three-and-a-half percent decline from the first quarter of 2021, partially driven by the historically low number of home listings in January. Iowa home sales in the month of March alone were up just under one percent compared to March of last year.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund has donated $500 to the Kiwanis bike helmet project.  Fund spokesperson Melanie Petty said “We have teamed up with the Kiwanis on this project for years because it holds a special place in our hearts”. Trevor was one of the first recipients of a bike helmet when they started this program.  Petty says “What an amazing gift they have provided 3rd graders over the years!”

All of the money raised during the fund’s annual TFred Golf Tournament, are returned back to the community that Trevor loved for the things that were important to him.  This year’s 14th Annual TFred Memorial Golf Tournament is just two short months away.  It will be held Saturday, June 18th at the Atlantic Golf and Country Club.

The Frederickson Fund’s Grant Petty and Deb Schuler w/the Kiwanis.

Although the tournament is full, Petty says they are still taking donations for our silent auction.  Food will be served throughout the day so stop by to bid on the large array of auction items, have some lunch.

The Glenwood Police Department reports 23-year-old Jordan Salmons, of Glenwood, was arrested Tuesday. Salmons was arrested on a Mills County warrant for numerous charges. He was being held in the Mills County Jail without bond until seen by a magistrate judge.

(Radio Iowa) – A Dubuque veterinarian is waiting for her sentencing after pleading guilty to writing fake prescriptions to obtain drugs at local pharmacies. Forty-two-year-old Kristi Schreiber admitted to writing prescriptions for fake dogs to obtain Tramadol. It is a medication that veterinarians commonly prescribe to manage pain in dogs, and it is one of the few human painkillers that is safe to administer to dogs.

Court information says Schreiber first said the prescriptions were for animals of friends — but later admitted she took all the Tramadol herself. The investigation revealed she wrote 266 prescriptions for animals in a two-year period and 186 were for Tramadol.

(Radio Iowa) – The state has received its annual tobacco settlement payment. The state is getting around 53 million dollars as part of the 1998 settlement with tobacco companies. Around 12 million dollars of that payment will go into the state’s account. The state sold bonds as a sort of loan against the settlement — and the rest of the money will go to pay off bondholders. The Attorney General says the state has received one-point-four BILLION dollars since the settlement was reached. The A-G says national smoking rates have been cut roughly in half since the settlement was reached and the money was put toward efforts to help people stop smoking.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Board of Supervisors, this (Wednesday) morning, met during a regular weekly session, and approved various administrative matters, including the receipt of two Manure Management Plans (MMP’s) from Prestige Farms and another producer. The Board heard from Adair County Weed Commissioner Nathan Jensen, with regard to the publishing Commissioner’s Official Notice about noxious weed control. The Board approved publishing of the notice as written.

Adair County Engineer Nick Kauffman presented his report, which included Right-Of-Way contracts for Board Chair Matt Wedemeyer to sign with regard to the N5 Richland Road bridge project. He also reported on Secondary Roads Dept. maintenance and activities, that includes the last deliveries of road salt. He said also the Orient and Nichols concrete box culvert projects are done, with just some back-filling to take place. The Orient road should be open later this week.

The Orient Box Culvert project as it appeared 4-14-22 (Adair County Engineer’s Facebook page)

Kauffman said he has 14 bridges to inspect in the County next month. Kauffman also submitted a budget amendment in the amount of $310,000, for several reasons, including the increasing costs of road rock, mechanical issues with various pieces of county equipment that needed to be repaired, and an increase in other expenditures.

The Board’s final order of business was a Public Hearing on vacating a portion of 140th Street in Adair County, located about 3.5-miles south/southwest of Stuart and about a mile west of the Stuart Road (P-28). Kauffman explained to a concerned couple who lived in the area, where exactly the vacated portion was located.

The couple, Bev and John Johnson, wanted to make sure the primary access to their driveway wasn’t being obstructed. Since they come in off of Sheldon Avenue further to the west, they had no issue with the plan to vacate, which was approved by the Adair County Board of Supervisors.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest at around 6:10-a.m. Tuesday, of 27-year-old Darisha Cheryl Ann Meudt, of Columbia, MO. She was arrested at the Sheriff’s Office on a warrant for Failure to Appear on a Criminal Mischief in the 5th Degree charge. Her bond was set at $300. And, at around 5:34-a.m. Sunday, 21-year-old Kylar Stephan Brink-Hubert, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for OWI/1st offense following a traffic stop on 190th Street, in Mills County. Bond was set at $1,000.

Sheriff’s officials said also there have been two separate accidents so far this week:

• A 2007 Pontiac driven by 68-year-old Willard Dale Cook was traveling southwest on Levi Road at around 8:25-a.m. Monday, when, for reasons unknown, the vehicle went off the traveled portion of the road as it was negotiating a curve. The car went airborne and rolled off of an embankment before coming to rest at the lower level of the hill. Cook was transported by Glenwood Rescue to the hospital, for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. The vehicle was a total loss.
• And, at around 11:37-a.m. Tuesday, a 2014 Nissan driven by 56-year-old David Brown, of Omaha, was traveling south on 221st Street near Barrus Road in Mills County, when a deer ran out of a ditch and onto the road. The vehicle struck the deer and then rolled onto its top into the ditch.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa legislature has unanimously voted for a bill to make more photos available for public alerts about Missing Persons. Representative Tom Jeneary of Le Mars guided the bill through the House. “Under current law, the DOT cannot release a driver’s license photo or a non-driver’s ID photo except to law enforcement in limited situations. Law enforcement cannot share this image with the general public,” Jeneary says. “This bill allows law enforcement to share the picture when a person is missing or the person is suspected of taking a minor in an Amber Alert.”

Senator Jeff Reichman of Montrose says minutes count in missing persons cases, especially when it involves a child. “There’s usually a 72 hour window, and then the statistic starts dropping off, so this should help law enforcement,” Reichman says.

The bill goes into effect as soon as the governor signs it into law. The D-O-T will be able to release photos that will be posted next to names on the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Missing Persons Clearinghouse. The list includes Iowans missing under suspicious circumstances as well as runaways and Iowans with physical or mental disabilities who are unable to take care of themselves on their own.

Atlantic high school Spanish students are gearing up for a trip to Costa Rica

Atlantic Spanish III student Jackson McLaren

this summer. They have started a canned food drive effort to help raise funds to defray the cost of the trip.

The food drive is a two-pronged effort with all K-12 classes collecting food through this Friday and the Spanish students going out in the community this Saturday to collect donations door-to-door. Junior Spanish III student Jackson McLaren talked about how the food drive works.

McLaren said the trip is a great opportunity for students to get to experience a Spanish speaking nation.

He said if you want to donate be on the look out for students going door-to-door Saturday or you could leave items outside your door if you would like.

The classroom effort has an incentive reward as well.

McLaren said around 30 students are trying to attend the trip and they appreciate the help they are getting from the community and their sponsors.

(Radio Iowa) – A reminder:  Iowa law enforcement officers are being particularly watchful for impaired drivers as today’s (Wednesday) date of April 20th or Four-Twenty is considered in some circles as a “marijuana holiday.” Sergeant Paul Gardner, with the Iowa State Patrol in Fort Dodge, says make no mistake, marijuana is a dangerous drug. “Marijuana is still illegal in Iowa, so 4-20 is going to focus on drugged driving,” Gardner says. “Many people think that drugged driving is okay, which it’s not. We find that it is still the same as drunk driving, so alcohol and drugs, especially marijuana, have their own impacts on certain drivers.”

Gardner says he’s seeing an upturn in motorists being arrested in Iowa due to being impaired by marijuana, alcohol or both. “Marijuana will slow somebody’s reaction time and judgment down, along with other things that it will cause in their behavior, and it is still illegal to drive while under the influence of marijuana,” Gardner says. “So if somebody is caught with marijuana in their system, they could face an OWI.”

The special traffic enforcement operation through the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau will run through Friday.