Officials with the Marne Elk Horn Telephone Company (METC) said Wednesday, the business ended 2019 the best way it knew how: contributing funds to help the many communities they serve. A total of $24,750 was donated to 5 area public libraries and 15 area fire or fire & rescue departments. Donations ranged from $750 to $2,000.

Janell Hansen, CEO and General Manager at Marne Elk Horn, said “The board and our staff value what our libraries and fire & rescue departments do for our communities. They educate us, help us and keep us safe. This is one small way we can say thank you.”

Hansen says Marne Elk Horn strives to give back to the people and organizations that work to keep Avoca, Brayton, Elk Horn, Exira, Kimballton, Marne, McClelland, Minden, Neola, Persia, Shelby, Underwood, and Walnut vibrant and strong.

According to Hansen, Marne Elk Horn has been making these year-end donations for
many years. City budgets are often tight, so organizations normally have immediate plans for the funds. As such, the contributions are met with excitement about what will be possible. Hansen concluded, “Together we serve the needs of our residents in all our
communities. Working together we can make a difference.”

You may see pictures and all award amounts at www.metc.net/2020donations

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) – A 20-year-old man has been sentenced to 55 years in prison for his role in the violent robbery and assault of an elderly central Iowa woman. The Des Moines Register reports that Manuel Eduardo Balderas was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in November to robbery, burglary and willful injury counts.

Balderas was one of three men accused of breaking into a then-82-year-old woman’s Kelley home in August 2018, temporarily blinding the grandmother before beating and robbing her. Investigators say she was also sexually assaulted. Balderas had been charged with first-degree sexual abuse, but prosecutors dropped that charge and three others in exchange for his guilty pleas.

Lewis First Responders, Medivac Ambulance, Atlantic Rescue and the Cass County Sheriff’s Office responding to a single-vehicle accident, Wednesday evening. The incident happened at around 4:12-p.m. on the A-T&T curve. The male driver of the vehicle was complaining of pain when emergency crews arrived on the scene.

Additional information was not immediately available.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa’s two congresswomen are responding to residents in mobile home communities in Iowa and other states who are facing steep rent hikes. Congressman Cindy Axne, a Democrat from West Des Moines, says a Utah company bought mobile home parks in Waukee and North Liberty — and dramatically raised rates.  “We’ve recently seen private equity firms come in across the country, start buying up these communities and then jacking up the rents as high as 70 percent,” Axne says.

Residents of manufactured or “mobile” homes typically can buy the home, but cannot buy the land on which it sits if it’s part of a “park” or community, so they pay rent to the property owner. The bill Axne’s co-sponsoring would establish new federal grants for residents of mobile home parks to try to buy the land themselves. “Non-profits could do that as well. The state could help with that,” Axne says. “And it also ensures with this grant process that Housing and Urban Development would make sure that grant recipients are subject to rent restrictions, you know, that there’s requirements of things that have to be managed, so there’s HUD oversight to make sure that things are done right for people.”

Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer, a Democrat from Dubuque, yesterday (Monday) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, asking its chairman to investigate what Finkenauer called the “predatory” practices of the new owners of the Table Mound Mobile Home Park. Some residents of the Dubuque park say their rent has gone up more than 60 percent in the past two years. Congresswoman Axne has met with residents of Midwest Country Estates in Waukee who say the park’s new owners are raising their rent by 69 percent.  “We’ve got a lot of people who live in these communities on fixed incomes,” Axne says. “They in no way, shape or form can afford somebody coming in and saying: ‘You’re going to start paying us 70% more…You’re living on Social Security. We know you have no money, but we really don’t care.'”

Havenpark, the new owner of the Waukee mobile home park, spent 47 million dollars buying the property, which has about 300 lots for mobile homes. The company has said the rent increases make monthly rent comparable to rates in other Des Moines area mobile home communities.

COLO, Iowa (AP) – Officers are investigating the deaths of two people in what Story County officials say was a murder-suicide. A relative called 911 after discovering the bodies around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at a residence in Colo. The Story County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately release the names of the two, nor provide information about the causes of their deaths. State officials have joined the investigation.

OMAHA,Neb. (AP) –  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t expect to eliminate from its reservoir system all the leftover water from last year’s near record runoff that led to massive flooding along the Missouri River. Officials are raising the current releases in expectation of high spring runoff again this year. The Corps’ John Remus told the Omaha World-Herald the system needs to make as much space as possible in light of forecasts for warmer than normal weather and higher than normal runoff. He says the Corps normally doesn’t release more during the winter because of the potential for ice jams and dams upriver.

SAINT LUCAS, Iowa (AP) – It seems residents of Saint Lucas are doing their part to boost the tiny northeastern Iowa town’s population. Television station KCRG reported that the town of about 150 is experiencing a baby boom. Resident Courtney Schott said 19 babies were born to town residents from August 2018 to October 2019, and several families have announced that they’re expecting again. The boom follows about 10 years of more young families settling in the Fayette County community. Resident Eric Dietzenbach says the town has “completely changed from, you know, a bunch of retired people a bunch of young families.”

(Radio Iowa) — With recreational marijuana now legal just over the Mississippi River in Illinois, Iowa officials are warning residents to comply with state law. Iowans can now buy pot in Illinois but it’s still illegal to transport the drug across state lines or to drive under the influence. Sergeant Alex Dinkla, with the Iowa State Patrol, says troopers may be more vigilant, especially in eastern Iowa. “They’re going to be probably a little extra awareness on that side of the state as they are working,” Dinkla says. “But as the state as a whole, we take a very strong stance against it, that, if you have any marijuana in your vehicle, on your person, you will be charged with that.”

The long list of Illinois dispensaries includes facilities in Rockford, Fulton and in the Quad Cities area. Dubuque County Sheriff Joe Kennedy echoes the warning from the state patrol. Kennedy says, “We just want people to understand, when they go over to Illinois and they buy it, even if they may buy it legally over there, as soon as they cross the state line it is no longer legal and we are going to enforce it as such.”

When it comes to driving under the influence of marijuana, it’s notoriously difficult to test for impairment caused by the drug. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there’s no national standard for drugged driving.

(Reporting by Kate Payne, Iowa Public Radio)

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports 45-year old Bobby Jo Haley, of Creston, was arrested Tuesday night at the Union County Law Enforcement Center. Haley was taken into custody on a Union County warrant for OWI/1st offense. Haley was later released from the Union County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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