(COUNCIL BLUFFS) — The Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Agency reports, earlier today (Wednesday), the Regional Water Rural Water Association had announced the lifting of boil orders in Shelby and Harrison Counties. Those areas also included some facilities in Pottawattamie County such as Tri-Center Schools; the Minden Casey’s General Store; and near Shelby, the Menards Distribution Center and Love’s Travel Center properties.

Around 3:00 p.m., with the return of passing water test results, other areas and residential properties that were affected are also starting to be released from boil orders that went into effect just over one month ago.

Regional Water customers in Pleasant Township (North of Rosewood Rd., South of York Rd/I-80, East of 360th St. and West of 420th St.) and Valley Township (North of G30, South of Rosewood Rd., East of 420th St., and West of Hwy 59) are now lifted from the boil advisory. If your account number starts with A15, C15, or C17, you can now use the water as normal.
Regional Water also informed those customers that for those who have an automatic ice maker, they recommend you flush it before consuming any ice.

If you do not have any other guidance from your manufacturer on how to do so, we recommend that you throw out all ice that was made during the boil advisory and let the ice maker run for a full twenty-four-hour cycle; throwing out any ice made during that time before using it normally. If your ice maker comes with different instructions on how to flush it, follow those instructions instead of their provided recommendation.

Updates will continue to be provided on the emergency management agency’s website at https://pcema-ia.org, twitter feed, and Facebook page. Regional Water system updates, alerts, and additional information can be obtained directly from Regional Water Rural Water Association’s website at https://www.rwrwa.org/.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University graduate whose company builds life-size sculptures out of LEGO bricks will create a tribute to one of the Ames institution’s most famous graduates during the Iowa State Fair. Chris Ihle, who runs We Build U, was hired by his alma mater to create a LEGO George Washington Carver, but the innovative inventor won’t be depicted just standing there.

“We definitely didn’t want to build him as a Civil War statue because he’s a person,” Ihle says. “We found a black-and-white photograph that shows him in a lab coat, working with the beakers. It really captures the science of what Washington Carver did.” Ihle and three other team members will spend an estimated 300 hours during the fair making the sculpture — which will use about 44-thousand LEGO bricks. We Build U just marked its third anniversary and Ihle has a client list that ranges from rappers to pets to presidents.

“I surely didn’t invent LEGOs and I surely didn’t invent self portraits, so I just combined the two,” Ihle says. “Nobody ever wakes up and says, ‘Today, I’m going to go buy a life-size LEGO statue of myself or a loved one,’ and we’re the only place in the world that offers that.” Ihle has created LEGO sculptures for musicians, reality TV shows, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the Ultimate Fighting Championship — and even Iowa native opera singer Simon Estes.

“If you’re awesome, we can build you and if you’re not awesome, go do something awesome and then we’ll build you,” Ihle says. “If you can’t do anything awesome, go ask your mother because I’m sure she thinks you’re awesome and in that case, we’ll build your mother in LEGOs. And I guarantee you, she’s going to cry when she sees it because everybody loves themselves and everybody loves LEGOs.” Carver was Iowa State’s first black student and faculty member.

This year marks the 125th anniversary of Carver receiving his master’s degree at I-S-U. His research resulted in the creation of more than 300 products from peanuts, more than 100 products from sweet potatoes, and hundreds more from a dozen other plants native to the South. Fairgoers will be able to see the statue as it’s being built in the fair’s Varied Industries Building and once the fair is over, the LEGO Carver will go on display on Iowa State’s campus in a location to be determined.

The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office reports a young adult from Panora was injured during a rollover accident late Monday morning. Authorities say 18-year-old Paul Richard Hansen was driving a 2001 Buick Century Custom west on 120th Street – a gravel road – at around 11:30-a.m., when the car went out of control. The vehicle entered the eastbound ditch before it entered the westbound ditch and struck a large rock.

The car rolled over and came to rest in a cornfield. Hansen was wearing a seat belt. He complained of pain and possible injury before being transported by his parents. No citations were issued. The vehicle sustained $1,500 damage and was declared a total loss.

(Radio Iowa) – A Fort Dodge man facing a bank robbery charge in a Greene County had pleaded guilty. Twenty-seven-year-old Zachary Michael Wailes has admitted to entering a bank in Scranton while armed with a pistol in Late February. Twenty-six-year-old Tyler Mattingly of Carroll, entered a guilty plea to first-degree theft, as part of plea deal for his role in the robbery. Court documents show that Mattingly admitted to calling in a false report of a car accident on the other side of Greene County, to draw law enforcement away from Scranton during the robbery.

A sentencing date for both Wailes and Mattingly is still pending.

An attempted traffic stop Tuesday afternoon in Montgomery County resulted in a multi-agency effort to find a man from Bedford. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says the suspect, 29-year-old James Robert Castillo got away from law enforcement, and may be in the Stanton area, or somewhere in Page County. The incident began at around 3:04-p.m., when a Montgomery County Deputy attempted to stop a vehicle in the area of M Avenue and Highway 34. The 2012 VW Jetta owned by an individual from Blanchard, fled from the Deputy for about 10-miles, heading south and east, with speeds reaching nearly 80 miles per hour.

The chase ended in a corn field south of 260th Street, and on the west side of Q Avenue, just south of the Viking Lake Area. Several area law enforcement officers, Montgomery and Mills County Sheriff K-9’s as well as the EMA drone, searched the area for Castillo. Due to the heat in the corn fields and the known identity of the suspect, the search was called-off after about three-hours. Castillo is described as being 5-feet 6-inches tall, with brown hair. Anyone with information on his location is urged to call the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, or your local law enforcement agency.

Assisting the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in the pursuit and search for the suspect, were deputies with the Adams and Page County Sheriff’s Offices, Montgomery County EMA, an off-duty Red Oak Police Officer, the Iowa State Patrol, Iowa Motor Vehicle Enforcement (MVE) Officer, and Mills County K-9 Unit.

(Radio Iowa) – Some of Iowa’s largest school districts are discussing how to guard against the spread of Covid when school starts this month. Tanya Keith, a parent in Des Moines, says she’s concerned about the risk the highly-contagious delta variant poses to younger kids. “I don’t want my vaccinated son to bring home a breakthrough case that infects our unvaccinated first-grader,” she said.

Parents in Des Moines, Johnston and Ames are asking districts to set up classrooms where all students voluntarily commit to wear masks. Des Moines superintendent Thomas Ahart says it would be unenforceable and it would disrupt class size arrangements. The Des Moines School Board has approved a half million dollar contract with a private firm that will provide an online option for elementary students for the fall semester. “We do need to be cognizant that there are certainly some state level restrictions that prevent us from doing what we know to be best practice,” Ahart said.

The Iowa City School Board has voted to extend the deadline for enrolling in online classes to August 9th. Governor Kim Reynolds approved a law in May that forbids schools from requiring students or staff to wear face coverings on school property. Arkansas passed a similar law this spring and that state’s Republican governor is now asking the Arkansas legislature to repeal it and let schools make decisions as cases increase in their areas.

The Adair County Board of Supervisors met this (Wednesday) morning, and approved three re-appointments to the Compensation Board. That includes Jane Lents (representing the Auditor’s Office), Lyle Wittrock (representing the Sheriff’s Office), and Todd Olsen (representing the Supervisors). Lori Nelson, who had also represented the Supervisors, declined re-appointment. The search for her replacement continues.

The Board approved the hiring of Stacey Huff as Clerk for the Adair County Treasurer’s Office, and U-S Cellular as a backup internet connection provider. They also approved a private fireworks permit application for Dennis Dukes’ annual show on Aug. 7th.

In other business, they approved Board Chair Steve Shelley’s signing of pay vouchers for two county Secondary Roads projects, including a Hot Melt Asphalt (HMA)/resurfacing project for County Road G-27, and the W-35 Jefferson Bridge Project. Adair County Engineer Nick Kauffman said also, there will be a pre-construction meeting Thursday (Aug. 5^th) for the G-51/County line road project, which he says should begin soon with work on a box culvert. And, a pre-construction meeting will be held next week on another project.

Shoulder work on Delta Road, he said, should be finished this week in preparation for a final road rock application. Similar work on 190^th will continue for another week or two.

(Radio Iowa) – Two Davenport police officers are recovering from injuries after their squad car collided with a suspect’s vehicle during a chase on Tuesday afternoon. A vehicle was reported stolen during a burglary in Bettendorf. Minutes later, a 911 caller reported seeing occupants in that stolen car waving guns in Davenport. Police responded and found the car, which refused to pull over. The chase only lasted a few blocks, ending with the suspects ramming a police car.

Four juveniles jumped out and fled on foot. All four were captured and two 14-year-olds, both from Davenport, were charged based on outstanding warrants. More charges are pending. The two officers who were hurt were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

(Manning, Iowa) – The IKM-Manning School District Board of Education has posted additional details about a bond vote that will take place Tuesday, September 14, 2021. If approved, the bond would enable the district to move forward with a series of projects to address facilities needs in both Irwin and Manning. School Officials say the bond would have a tax rate impact of an additional $9.88 per month ($0.33/day) on a home with a $100,000 assessed value. For agricultural properties, the impact would be between $2.63 and $3.16 per acre annually, depending on the location of the property.

While there would be an increase, officials stress IKM-Manning’s tax rate would remain one of the lowest in the area if the bond is approved. To illustrate this, a fact sheet compares the district tax rate to those of neighboring school districts was created.

District patrons can also use the fact sheet to calculate your own tax impact based on the value of your home, property, or agricultural land. Additionally, the fact sheet details the recent history of tax rates in IKM-Manning.

In the coming weeks, public meetings will be held to allow community members to learn more about the proposed solution and offer feedback on priorities. For more information on the district’s facility needs and the bond question, please visit www.ikmmanningbond.org.

The broadcast News at 8:06-a.m. from Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS