The Cass County Board of Supervisors held their regular meeting on Wednesday in the board room at the Cass County Courthouse. Among the items the board discussed was contract bids for the gray water transmission project for the Elite Octane Ethanol Plant site. Dave Sturm of Snyder and Associates informed the board that out of six bids taken on the project the low bid came from Crow River Construction out of New London, MN. Their bid came in at $884,020 which was under engineers’ estimates of $900,000.  Board member Mark Wedemeyer questioned if they would be able to go with the next bid because it came from a company in Iowa and was just $6,000 more. Sturm stated didn’t see any reason to not go with the low bid.

He said they haven’t worked with Crow River before but his discussions with other communities brought nothing but positive comments on them. The board eventually all agreed and later unanimously approved a resolution awarding the contract to Crow River Construction. A timeline for the project will be determined soon.

The board also approved changes to the Glacier Road paving project that is currently underway. Sturm stated that the road culverts that they were intending to salvage or extend are not in proper condition to be saved. During work it was discovered that a number of them were cracked and don’t match up properly with the intended extensions. The board unanimously agreed to approve the changes to order new culverts for the project which will increase the cost by $20,188.

In other business the board agreed to change the speed limit on the county’s portion of Troy Road and Cass Street south of Griswold city limits to 25mph. The City of Griswold already approved the change on their portion of the road and the board had agreed to follow suit with their decision on their portion.

The board also approved plans for a bridge replacement for bridge #433 on north Olive Street over a tributary to Buck Creek, about a mile south of I-80. The project hasn’t been put on the DOT’s short list for bid letting but Cass County Engineer Technician Dennis Vogl said the county wants to have the plans shelf ready for whenever that happens.  He said they hope to have the project completed before they do an overlay project.

w/ Chris Parks

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A Red Oak woman was arrested Tuesday night on a Page County warrant. At 7:18pm Red Oak Police arrested 38-year-old Becky Jo Hegarty in the 200 block of East Nuckolls Street. Hegarty was arrested on a valid Page County warrant for Violation of Probation. She was taken to the Page County Jail and held on $5,000 bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge has sentenced a lottery computer programmer to up to 25 years in prison for rigging a computer program to enable him to pick winning numbers in several lottery games over six years. Eddie Tipton pleaded guilty earlier this summer to ongoing criminal conduct, and on Tuesday he received the prison sentence. Judge Brad McCall also ordered Tipton to repay more than $2 million that the scheme paid Tipton and others.

Tipton’s brother, Tommy Tipton, is serving a 75-day jail sentence on a theft charge. A friend of Eddie Tipton’s, Robert Rhodes, of Sugar Land, Texas, will be sentenced Aug. 25 on a computer crime charge.

Tipton worked for the Multi-State Lottery Association in Iowa. He fixed lottery games in Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa and Oklahoma between 2005 and 2011.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A state official says Iowa’s individual health insurance market under the Affordable Care Act will collapse if the federal government doesn’t approve a short-term proposal aimed at stabilizing premium costs.

Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen told reporters Tuesday the state has communicated with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to finalize a proposed stopgap measure. The state submitted its final proposal on the measure Monday.

About 72,000 Iowans have individual ACA-compliant health plans. Ommen estimates up to 22,000 of them will drop coverage in 2018 if no action is taken to offset growing premium costs. The last insurance carrier to offer individual plans expects additional premium increases.

The stopgap measure reallocates federal money to help individuals priced out of subsidies that currently help pay for coverage.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former Des Moines police officer who quit last year after being accused of planting drug evidence has been has been criminally charged in the case. The Des Moines Register reported Tuesday that 30-year-old Tyson Teut has been charged with felonious misconduct in office and perjury.

Teut resigned in December amid the allegations. Polk County Attorney John Sarcone says Teut turned himself in and was booked into Polk County Jail on Tuesday morning. Teut and another officer resigned in December, accused of planting evidence on New Year’s Day 2015 to implicate a then-21-year-old man in a drug case. The man was charged and convicted of possessing methamphetamine, but was later exonerated.

Authorities have not said how they learned that case was tainted.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two recent arrests and an accident.

On Monday, August 21st Deputies arrested 45-year-old Bret Phillip Samuelson of Randolph, IA for Driving While Barred. Samuelson was arrested at 10:20pm on 189th Street. He was taken to the Mills County Jail and held on $2,000 bond.

On Tuesday, August 22nd Mills County Deputies arrested 28-year-old Jonanthan Lee Million of Emerson on a warrant for Burglary 2nd Degree and Theft 2nd Degree. He was arrested at the Page County Jail at 10:50am and held on $5,000 bond.

Mills County Sheriff’s Officials also report an accident took place on Friday, August 18th at 3:24pm at the intersection of 221st Street and Barrus Road. A 2015 Dodge drive by 37-year-old Beth Shain of Glenwood was traveling northbound on 221st Street near Barrus Road and was hit broadside by a 2001 Dodge driven by 25-year-old Fredy Rodriguez-Soriano of Omaha.  Rodriguez-Soriano failed to stop at a posted stop sign while traveling westbound on Barrus Road, causing the accident.  Two juvenile passengers were injured in the accident and were transported to UNMC by Silver City Rescue.

Rodriguez-Soriano was cited after the accident for No Valid Driver’s License, Failure to Provide Proof of Financial Liability, and Failure to Obey a Stop Sign.

No further details on the accident are known at this time.

Senator Chuck Grassley says Americans with mild to moderate hearing loss should be able to buy reliable, over-the-counter hearing aids. Grassley was the lead Republican co-sponsor of a bill President Trump has signed that will establish federal standards for hearing aids sold in retail stores. “About 48 million American experience age-related hearing loss, yet only a small share of them have the benefit of hearing aids,” Grassley says. “That’s mostly because hearing aids are very, very expensive.”

Medicare and private insurance plans rarely cover the cost of hearing aids. The new law requires the Food and Drug Administration to establish safety standards for amplification devices. Grassley says it means consumers will be able to buy hearing aids without a prescription and without a medical exam. “Consumers are interested in new hearing aid products to improve their quality of life at an affordable price,” Grassley says. “The more products available, the more consumers will be able to find something they can afford.” Grassley says fewer than one in six Americans who NEED hearing aids buy them, because they’re too expensive.

“The measure will help fill a very pressing need,” he says. “Consumer Reports” recently surveyed its readers and found those who needed hearing aids put off buying them for a couple of years because of the cost. Those who did buy hearing aids spent an average of 27-hundred dollars on the devices. However, 16 percent of the magazine’s readers said they spent more than five-thousand dollars on prescription hearing aids. Grassley says with more competition from over-the-counter sales, hearing aid costs will hopefully go down.

(Radio Iowa)

LaSalle, Ill. (AP) — A quarter century since Iowa college student Tammy Zywicki was abducted in Illinois and found slain in Missouri, authorities again are asking for the public’s help in trying to finally solve the case.

Illinois State Police and the FBI issued the appeal Tuesday, a day before the 25th anniversary of 21-year-old Zywicki’s disappearance. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to any suspects.

Tammy Zywicki

Authorities say Zywicki was driving from her New Jersey home to Iowa’s Grinnell College for her senior year when she was last seen alive near her disabled 1985 Pontiac T1000 along Interstate 80 near LaSalle in central Illinois. Her stabbed body was found more than a week later wrapped in a blanket in southwestern Missouri east of Joplin.

ROCKWELL CITY, Iowa (AP) — The wife of an Iowa police officer killed during a 2013 standoff is calling for changes to local and state laws to ensure children can continue receiving health insurance after a parent dies. The Messenger reports that Amanda Buenting recently discovered that her husband Jamie Buenting’s insurance through the city will no longer cover her family.

Jamie Buenting died from a gunshot wound while serving as an officer with the Rockwell City Police Department. The Buentings have two children, ages 11 and 13. Mayor Phil Heinlen says Blue Cross/Blue Shield will provide coverage for the dependents of a city worker killed on duty for three years.

Amanda Buenting says she plans to take the issue to the state to get coverage until her children are age 26.