w/ News Director Ric Hanson

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Some levees protecting Iowa communities from the rising Missouri River are very fragile and people are being warned to stay away from them — or else. This unidentified man was ticketed for crossing a flood barrier in the Crescent area of Pottawattamie County, north of Council Bluffs.

“The ticket was for $195 and there was no talking about it,” he says. “There was no common sense. I think what they need to do is help people out on a case-by-case scenario. Find out what’s going on.” The man says he owns property in the Crescent area that had been evacuated. He says he wanted to take pictures to show other property owners how conditions had changed since they were forced to leave.

“I went back down there where the levee is to take a photograph to send it back to these guys saying, here’s the water level and I think we can get a canoe or kayak down there with permission from the city of Council Bluffs Fire Marshal to do more assessment,” he says. “Take photographs for insurance, of the propane tanks and a lot of things to eliminate a lot of stress.”

He says the rules change from day-to-day when it comes to the flood.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) – Missouri River floodwaters are now less than 2 miles away from the town of Hamburg. Officials have been working to improve a temporary levee around the town to hold back the water rushing out of a failed levee 5 miles south of Hamburg.

The floodwaters are expected to reach Hamburg sometime later today (Wednesday). The Army Corps of Engineers hopes the temporary levee built over the past two weeks will keep Hamburg dry. If the levee fails, officials predict parts of the town could be covered by as much as 10 feet of water for months.

The water reached the western edge of Interstate 29 this (Wednesday) morning, forcing the closure of the southbound on-ramp and covering several hundred feet of Iowa Highway 333 west of the interstate. The Iowa Department of Transportation is also reporting the closure of Interstate 29 at exit 10 (Iowa Highway 2), due to flooding.

The I-29 closure extends to the U.S. 136 interchange near Rock Port, Mo.Traffic is being detoured using U.S. 136 east to U.S. 71 in Iowa.

AMES, Iowa – June 15, 2011; 9 a.m. – The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) is reporting the closure of  Interstate 29 at exit 10 (Iowa 2) due to flooding. The I-29 closure extends to the U.S. 136 interchange near Rock Port, Mo.

Traffic is being detoured using U.S. 136 east to U.S. 71 in Iowa.
To reach destinations south of Council Bluffs, continue on U.S.71 north to Iowa 2 west to I-29 north. (I-29 north is closed north from exit 55 in Council Bluffs to exit 71 (U.S. 30 at Missouri Valley)
Persons traveling to Sioux City can continue on U.S. 71 north to U.S. 20 west to Sioux City.
Persons traveling to Council Bluffs/Omaha should stay on U.S. 71 north to I-80 west into Council Bluffs.
For southbound I-29 travelers the detour is in reverse order.
For northbound and southbound I-29 travelers intending to go through Iowa, the detour begins in Kansas City. Take I-35 north through Iowa to I-90 west in Minnesota to I-29 south.

For current updates on road conditions – 24 hours a day, visit www.511ia.org or call 511. 

(IA DOT press release)

w/ News Director Ric Hanson

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Two people were arrested early this (Wednesday) morning in Adams County, on Public Intoxication charges. The Adams County Sheriff’s Department reports 22-year old Shawn Crouch, of Atlantic, and 19-year old Bobby Farwell, of Essex, were taken into custody at around 2:20-a.m., following an argument with another man on Davis Street in Corning.

Crouch and Farwell were charged with Public Intoxication, second-offense.

A request by Atlantic English/English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher Jennifer Hartwig to the Board of Education to reconsider her move out of the English Department into a full-time ESL position seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Hartwig presented her case to the Board during their regular meeting, Tuesday night.

Hartwig, who built and designed the District’s English Language Learner (ELL) and ESL program, is the district’s only legally endorsed ESL core sheltered instruction teacher. She’s served a total of six and a-half years in the District and its ESL program. Hartwig says the ESL Department has always viewed her role as permanently part-time. She says when the department came to the board with a request for additional staff, she never thought she would be completely pulled from her High School English position to fill the gap.

She says that’s especially true since the move would effectively take the district “a step back,” by putting the number of ESL endorsed sheltered instruction teachers “back to zero.” She said their understanding was that when they needed more assistance to serve the ELL’s, additional staff would be added, not move her out of the classroom.

Hartwig says the need to add additional staff was to support the district’s ELL plan, which she says mandates sheltered instruction. That means the regular classroom teachers who instruct ELL’s are to be ESL endorsed, so they can provide language instruction that are in-line with current ESL methods. She says adding support staff is key to broadening the base of the program, making it strong and sustainable.

Hartwig presented several options to the board to strengthen the ESL program and ELL community, including the possible hiring of a Chuukese translator to fill the department’s current needs. Hartwig said a Chuukese translator option is $15,000 less expensive to the district, and any extra money could be used to assist sheltered instructors in becoming ESL endorsed and more compliant with the ELL plan.

Superintendent Mike Amstein said the move was an “administrative transfer,” and will not be reversed.

It appears the biggest hurdle to completing the work of the 2011 legislative session is a dramatic difference of opinion on how best to reduce commercial property taxes.

Republicans in the House favor a 25 percent reduction in commercial property tax rates, while Democrats in the Senate propose a tax credit that would be paid directly to the owners of commercial property. The two sides can’t even agree on what would happen if nothing’s done.

Republicans like Senator Jack Whitver of Ankeny make this assertion: “I’m concerned about the estimated $1.3 billion of property tax increase that will hit our citizens and job creators if we choose to do nothing about our current property tax system.”

Democrats like Senator Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City make this counter argument: “It’s your talking points on this. There’s no way local governments are going to be increasing our property taxes statewide by $1.3 billion.”

Legislative leaders met privately with the governor’s staff Tuesday. While differences over the spending plan for next year’s state budget have narrowed considerably, it’s still unclear how the two parties can reconcile their vastly different approaches to property tax reform.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) – A temporary earthen levee is now the only barrier standing between the small southwestern Iowa town of Hamburg and the floodwaters of the Missouri River. Officials are hoping efforts to beef it up will be enough to keep the small southwestern Iowa town from filling up like a bathtub.

Crews working for the Army Corps of Engineers hope to pile at least three feet of extra dirt atop the levee before this (Wednesday) evening. If the levee fails, parts of the town could be covered by as much as 10 feet of water within days. And,  high water could linger for months.

The earthen levee became Hamburg’s last line of defense after the river punched through another levee downstream in northwest Missouri that provided the town’s primary protection.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Outspoken congressman Steve King is facing a bigger challenge in 2012 than he has in the past, thanks to redistricting in Iowa and a potentially prominent opponent. Roughly half of King’s district will be new in 2012, with more Democrats and independents. And former Iowa first lady Christy Vilsack is his likely opponent.

In Iowa and other states where maps are being redrawn, such as Illinois and Texas, both national parties see opportunities and potential setbacks. Tweaks to districts can put seats that were once locked down for one party firmly in play. Or they can, as is the case of King in Iowa, push a conservative congressman to a territory where he’ll have to retest his message.