Police in Red Oak report the arrest on Sunday night, of 28-year-old Dex Logan Jensen, from Red Oak. Jensen was taken into custody for OWI/1st offense. He was arrested in the 1200 block of Senate Avenue in Red Oak at around 8:46-p.m. and was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

(Elk Horn, Iowa) – The Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton School Board will meet in a Special Session 5:30-p.m. Wednesday (April 27th), in the Conference Room at the Elk Horn Building. On their agenda, is a Public Hearing on the 2022-2023 School Year Budget (which takes place at 6-p.m.), followed by approval of the Budget as stated. The Board will hold their regular, monthly meeting on May 16th, beginning at 6-p.m., in the same location as their Special Session/Public Hearing.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Board of Education for the Atlantic Community School District is set to hold a Special Session in person and via YouTube, 5:30-p.m. Wednesday (April 27), in the Schuler Elementary School Media Center. The Board is expected to receive an update on, and then discuss the iJAG (Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates) Program. They are also expecting to receive an update on School Social Work/Therapy and discuss the same.

Action items on their agenda include:

• Resignations:
  • Brandon Baggett, and Robert Astuni, HS English Teachers
  • Rhonda Hawkins, HS Business Teacher/Multi-Occupations Coordinator
  • Laura Vogel, HS Math Teacher
  • Pattiey Koontz, 3rd Grade Teacher
  • Jeff Hetrick, Preschool Route Driver.
• And, Contract Recommendations for:
  • Scott Dickerson, Transfer from HS Night Custodian to MS Day Custodian
  • Allison Widrowicz, MS Special Education
  • Nathan Berg, Volunteer Girls Golf Coach
  • Anna Pauley, HS Chemistry/Physics Teacher **added**

The Board will also act on approving the High School Gymnasium Sound System improvements.

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department says there were three separate arrests Monday, and one arrest on Saturday. Among those arrested Monday, was:

• 36-year-old Tashina Lee Martwick, of Creston, who was arrested at around 11:37-p.m., near the intersection of Elm and Adams with the assist from Creston K9 Baxo. Martwick was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance 3^rd Offense Methamphetamine and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Martwick was later released on a $5,300 cash or surety bond.
• 27-year-old Marston Shane Randolph, of Alabama, was arrested a little after 6-p.m., Monday, at 1700 W Townline Road. He was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault and Public Intox., and was being held in the Union County Jail without bond, till seen by the magistrate. And,
• 65-year-old Gregory Lee Kaufman, of Creston, was arrested at around 2:15-p.m., Monday, at the Creston Fareway Parking Lot. Kaufman was charged with Public Intox-1^st Offense. He was being held on a $300 cash or surety bond.

And, arrested at around 5:37-p.m. Saturday, in Creston, was 23-year-old Gordon McKenzie Carroll, Jr., of Osceola, who was taken into custody with assistance from the Creston K9 “Baxo.” Carroll was charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, cited, and released from the scene at Taylor and Wyoming Streets.

(Radio Iowa) – Sioux City high school and college students got hands-on experience Monday in grain bin rescue techniques and first aid training at the Sioux City Fire Rescue Training Center. Sergeant Bluff fire chief Anthony Gaul was one of the instructors. “So we’re gonna be able to get to a lot of kids in our community that are around farming around ag and teaches them a little bit of safety that hopefully, they’ll get here and never have to experience for real,” Gaul says. Instructors from the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety brought a trailer with a grain bin simulator that a student volunteer became “trapped” in. Gaul says other students in turnout gear then had to rescue their classmate using a grain auger and other tools.

“I’ve been on three of these for real and we’ve been successful with two of them. And it’s a frightening situation for anyone to be in — the person that’s in the bin, the family,” Gaul says. “The state has done a good job of helping provide training. There have been grants for equipment to bring us to where we need to be.” Keyshawn Canady is one of the high school students who volunteered to be the victim in the training exercise.

Student grain bin rescue training (KSCJ photo)

“For a second, I’m not gonna lie to you it was a little terrifying but then after a while, it was nothing. Yeah, in real life I maybe would have been absolutely shocked. But no, not now. No, I’ve never been in like a simulation with that no,” Canaday says. Canady says the experience and class training he is taking has sparked his interest in becoming a firefighter.

“I really didn’t know too much about firefighting but I’m actually going to continue it and go to WIT (Western Iowa Tech) for two years for fire science,” he says. The students also received training in “stop the bleed” activities with staff from local hospitals.

(Radio Iowa) – The climate-driving weather system known as La Nina may be sticking around still longer, impacting how Iowa’s weather evolves well past summer. Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, says the experts had expected La Nina to fade this spring. “We’ve gone through two years of La Nina, that’s not uncommon,” Todey says. “The initial thoughts were that La Nina was going to weaken this spring and dissipate. It has weakened but it really hasn’t dissipated. It actually has strengthened in certain ways. So, La Nina is still very present and impacting our background issues with the outlooks.”

Todey says the forecasting models for the next several months show a tendency toward above-normal temperatures and a lack of rain. “We did have this area of maybe not being warm in the north central U.S, and in June, July, August, that goes away,” Todey says. “So, much of the western U.S. leans towards above (-normal temperatures) and decreased chances for precipitation — sorry about that — throughout the Plains and even extending into Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri.”

Todey says there is the potential for more heat and expanding drought areas into summer, both in Iowa and across the region. “There were hints this could happen,” he says. “It’s not a guarantee. The probabilities still are not high but it’s definitely something we have to keep an eye on as we go ahead here.” A La Nina event occurs when Pacific Ocean surface temperatures cool, and it influences weather across North America.

(Radio Iowa) – The governor’s Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard that won House approval in early February has cleared a committee in the senate — but with an addition that could let nearly a third of the state’s gas stations opt out of the requirement to sell E-15. Molly Severn is the governor’s legislative liaison.

“This bill is the result of significant compromise from everyone along the fuel supply chain,” Severn says, “from farmers to fuel retailers.” The House voted to grant waivers from the E-15 mandate to stations with equipment that’s not certified to handle fuel with higher blends of ethanol. The Senate Ways and Means Committee has voted to let stations get a waiver from the E-15 mandate if they sell less than 300-thousand gallons of gasoline each year.

Supporters of the plan estimate about 30 percent of small gas stations could opt out — leaving about 70 percent of Iowa fuel retailers subject to the requirement to sell E-15. Severn says with uncertainty over federal ethanol rules, Governor Reynolds believes this is an important step for Iowa to take.

“Over 55% of the corn grown in Iowa is processed for the first time at an Iowa ethanol plant,” Severn says. “If we lose the liquid fuel market, that would devastate the Iowa economy, farmers and fuel retailers.” The ethanol mandate does have detractors. Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, says a mandate that gas stations sell corn-based ethanol is ironic since farmers oppose regulating fertilizer application on corn fields to improve water quality.

“The idea that we’d ever regulate or have a mandate for something like a 20 foot buffer strip along a river or creek — we’ll be 100 years from now without that,” Bolkcom said, “because of the opposition to mandates.” The Senate Ways and Means Committee has also voted to reduce the amount of matching funds small gas stations have to raise to secure state grants for installing tanks and pumps that can dispense gasoline with a higher blend of ethanol. Republican Senator Dan Dawson of Council Bluffs is chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

“We’re really trying to help out these small retailers in the state, knowing that they support a lot of our rural communities,” Dawson says. “There’s a difference between a high volume station that has the capital to make an investment in something like that versus a small station that might not have as much capital.”

It’s likely the bill will be debated in the Senate today (Tuesday).

(Radio Iowa) – Grass and field fires remained a big problem this past weekend in western Iowa and bordering states where things remain very dry. Sergeant Bluff fire chief, Anthony Gaul says his firefighters worked several hours responding to calls Saturday, and every area department was busy:

“There were so many fires going on that departments had to travel 20 and 25 miles to help manage incidents because there was nobody else available,” he says. Gaul says the local area damage total from the weekend fires will be more than seven figures as the burn ban in Woodbury County remains in place.

“One community wants to opt-out of it but the amount of dollars that were lost in Woodbury and Plymouth and then across the river and those counties if you add it up is over one million dollars. I know Plymouth County had a piece of apparatus burn up,” Gaul says. Chief Gaul says the strong winds of up to 60 miles an hour at times contributed to the fires.

“One of the fires in Woodbury County was caused by a downed power line which we can’t control that. But others have mentioned hey, we’ve had some rain and yes, we have had some rain but with that wind, it has dried everything out and there is so much out there that’s just ready and able to burn that. We can’t ask enough to stop, not do it,” Gaul says. He says you need to think twice before starting any kind of fire outdoors when conditions are as windy and dry as they have been. Even if you are using a burn barrel.

“We’ve had quite a few incidents caused by burn barrels which can be legal throughout the burn ban but there are requirements that you can’t have more than a one inch opening with a grating,” according to Gaul. He says there are code requirements for burn barrels on the State Fire Marshal’s website.

There are ten active burn bans in the state as of Monday — with all of them along the western edge of the state.

(Milo, Iowa) – The Iowa State Patrol reports a second fatality accident has occurred in central Iowa’s Warren County, in less than 24-hours. On Monday (April 25th), at around 12:30-p.m., a 2008 Chevy Silverado pickup driven by 79-year-old John Lester Dittmer, of Milo, was traveling south on Highway S-31 northeast of Milo, when the vehicle left the road and entered the east ditch. The pickup crossed a field and Nevada Street, before coming to rest in a field just south of Nevada Street. Dittmer died at the scene.

The other accident took place at around 3:50-p.m. Sunday, near Pleasantville. The crash between a pickup and a car resulted in the death of 82-year-old Glenna Clarke, from Knoxville. A crash report indicates she was crossing Highway 5 from Highway 316 between Hartford and Pleasantville when a pickup slammed into the driver’s side of her car.

The crash report says the driver and passenger in the truck were not injured. The crash remains under investigation.

(Oakland, Iowa) – A Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Deputy on patrol at around 8:20-p.m., Sunday, saw a car traveling west on Linden Avenue out of Oakland, and noticed the vehicle’s taillights weren’t illuminated. When he attempted a traffic stop, the 2008 Honda Accord took off and led the Deputy on a pursuit. Stop sticks were deployed, causing the vehicle’s tires to deflate and making the car undrivable. The car eventually stopped, and the driver, 35-year-old Joshua Lloyd Long, of Council Bluffs, was taken into custody without further incident. He faces charges that include: Reckless Driving; 2 counts of Driving While License denied/suspended or revoked; Possession of Marijuana/1st offense; Eluding; Possession of Burglary tools; 2 counts Violation of Probation; Criminal Mischief in the 2nd Degree, and for being a person ineligible to carry dangerous weapons. His cash/surety bond was set at $6,000.

A Council Bluffs man turned himself-in to the Pott. County Sheriff’s Office, Sunday night. 23-year-old Miguel Martinez-Andrade was taken into custody on warrants for Violation of a No Contact/Protective Order, and Criminal Trespass/1st offense.

Just before 5-a.m., Sunday, a traffic stop in Council Bluffs resulted in the arrest on of the registered vehicle owner, a warrant for OWI/1st offense. 20-year-old Vince Edward Bertlett was later released from custody. And, at around 12:20-a.m. Sunday, 21-year-old Santino Gabriel Ortega was pulled over on Highway 92 in Pott. County, for speeding 73 mph in a 55 zone. He was subsequently charged with OWI/1st offense.