One of two plans chosen by the public for a recreational trail in Pottawattamie County will be unveiled during a special meeting Saturday morning, of the Pott County Board of Supervisors. According to the Omaha World-Herald, a committee of 55 members have been working on the plans, and have held meetings in four Pott. County communities to gather public input.

The paper says a majority of those who attended the meetings favored a trail which parallels Railroad Highway (Iowa Highway 191) on the eastern edge of Council Bluffs. The trail continues northward through Underwood and Neola, before turning east along Highway 83, and passing near Minden, Avoca and Walnut.

The system could eventually connect to the American Discoveries Trail, which is part of a coast-to-coast route across the country. The other plan which gained favor among the meeting attendees, hooks up with North Broadway in Council Bluffs, and meanders through Crescent and the Hitchcock Nature Center. It may eventually connect with the Lewis & Clark Trail.

Saturday’s route unveiling will take place beginning at 9-a.m., at Arrowhead park near Neola, following an event designed to raise funds for the Phoenix Theater, in Neola. Additional plans call for ways to find money for the project, and finding land for the trails. It will likely take a few years, before any major progress is made, however, on making the trails a reality.

A 46-year old Council Bluffs female suffered what were thought to be non-life threatening facial injuries Thursday morning, after becoming entangled in a wood chipper. Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker told KJAN News Angela Davis, an employee of Kathy’s Tree and Stump Removal Service in Council Bluffs, was trying to untangle a rope from a branch that got caught in the chipper, when she was pulled into the machine. The incident happened at around 10-a.m., at 21686 Greenview Road, in rural Council Bluffs. Danker says Davis suffered lacerations to her face and leg. She was transported to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, for treatment of her injuries.

The Iowa State Patrol reports an accident early this (Friday) morning in Montgomery County has claimed the life of a Red Oak man. 29-year old Ryan James Perdue died in the crash which happened at around 4-a.m., about 9-miles northeast of Red Oak. Officials say Perdue was traveling south on O Avenue about one-quarter of a mile north of 170th Street, when the 2003 Ford Explorer he was driving left the road to the right. Perdue overcorrected and lost control of the SUV, causing it to roll into the east ditch. The man was ejected as the vehicle rolled. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The Patrol says he was not wearing a seatbelt. The Explorer, registered to Rose Boseck, of Griswold, sustained about $10,000 damage, and was considered a total loss.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the accident scene by the Iowa State Patrol, along with personnel from the Stanton Fire and Rescue and Grant Rescue Departments.

The latest area News from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson…

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Official rainfall amounts (fromNWS spotters)…

24-hour rainfall (7am Thu. thru 7am Friday at the KJAN Studios in Atlantic, .45″.

At Harlan: 2.41″

At Red Oak: 1.10″

At Shenandoah: .35″

Unofficial rainfall totals thru 7-a.m. Friday….

At “The Valley” (Hwy 71/I-80 in Cass County), .25″‘ South of Avoca, anywhere from 1.7-to 1.9 inches; Emerson, 1.8″; Irwin 1.42″; Malvern, 2.00″; Audubon .46″.

More than 80 vintage vehicles are cruising around southwest Iowa, visiting the scenes of several famous crimes.

Motor Memories "Crime Scene Iowa" Tour 2012

This spring’s tour is dubbed C-S-I, for Crime Scene Iowa. There are vehicles on the tour this year from 50 communities in Iowa and from six states. The only requirements are that the cars are street-legal, licensed and at least 25 years old. “The majority of cars that participate are from the muscle car era, the late ’50s through the early ’70s,” Swanson says. “We’ll have a mix of Mustangs and Corvettes but ordinary cars, too. We’ll have a 1951 Kaiser, which is kind of unusual, more of a family-type sedan.”

The list of cars also includes a 1958 Rolls Royce, a Studebaker, several Packards and a ’78 V-W Microbus. Motor Memories holds two of these tours every year, with the next one headed for eastern Iowa in the fall.”In October, we’ll be over in the Quad Cities,” Swanson says. “We’re focusing on the history of John Deere and the Rock Island Arsenal. We’re already working on themes for next year and we’re thinking of doing one on Iowa’s military heroes.”

Learn more about the tours at: www.motormemories.com

(Radio Iowa)

A climatologist who studies drought conditions says a “bulls eye of dryness” is centered on the nation’s midsection. Mark Svoboda, of the National Drought Mitigation Center says part of the problem is the winds in Iowa are coming from the southwest — states like Arizona, New Mexico and Texas where it’s bone dry. “This is kind of what we call a drought feeding on itself and I think we have the potential to really escalate this drought in the summer if we don’t get the rainfall they’re calling for over the next five days,” Svoboda says. “So if there’s any silver lining in the cloud — or lack of clouds, if you will — this exact region — we need that heavy rainfall forecasted over the next five days for this very region, the bulls eye of this dryness, because right now it looks like July, early August out there.” Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois and Indiana have had a signficant “dry down” according to Svoboda, because there was little snow fall in the winter and a relatively dry spring.

“But the temperatures have been the real story,” Svoboda says, “so when we look at temperature departures over the last, say, three months, we’re seeing temperatures eight to 10 degrees or more above normal across eastern Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.” The most severe Midwest drought in recent memory happened in 1988 and ’89. Normal rainfall for this time of year is about an inch per week, according to Svoboda, and it would require significant rainfall this weekend to erase the moisture deficit in much of the Midwest.

“This rain this weekend, this next couple of days, is pretty darned critical to sort of tell us how we’re sitting in late June, early July,” Svoboda says. “…We have no soil moisture down to three feet virtually everywhere. When people are talking about digging posts and doing work out in their yards — and I’ve seen this myself personally, too — I’m mean, there’s virtually nothing down to three or four feet.” The National Drought Mitigation Center is based at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. The latest forecast for the state of Iowa suggests there will be “chances for showers and thunderstorms throughout the next several days.”

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

The Harlan Police Department reports a Woodbine man was injured during a two-vehicle accident Tuesday morning. 53-year old Danny Dickman, of Woodbine, was transported to Myrtue Medical Center, after he crashed the cycle he was riding when it was almost struck by an SUV. A report on his condition is not available.

Officials say 71-year old Edwin Monson, of Irwin, was traveling westbound on Chatburn Ave in a 2012 Chevrolet Equinox, when he attempted to turn into the Hy-Vee parking lot at around 8:45-a.m., Tuesday. While doing so, Monson allegedly failed to yield to Dickman’s 1987 Honda motorcycle. While trying to avoid the collision, Dickman laid his bike down on the highway.  Monson was uninjured in the accident, and there was no damage to his SUV. Dickman’s motorcycle however, sustained $500 damage.

Four people were taken into custody on drug charges earlier this week, in Shenandoah. According to Shenandoah Police. 23-year-old Sabrina Dawson, 25-year-old Nicholas Housh, 25-year-old Kevin Weil and 31-year-old Stefan Dority, were arrested Tuesday morning, on charges of gathering where a controlled substance was unlawfully used. The charges were the result of an investigation, and the execution of a search warrant at a residence in the 800 block of 9th Avenue ,in Shenandoah. 

Each of the individuals, with the exception of Weil, were cited into court and released. Weil, who also faces felony Possession with the Intent to Deliver and Failure to Affix a Drug Tax Stamp charges, along with an Aggravated Serious Misdemeanor charge of Child Endangerment without Injury, and a Serious Misdemeanor charge of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, was unable to post a $13,300 bond. He was being held in the Page County Jail. A preliminary hearing in his case was set for June 20^th.   

The suspects’ activities remain under investigation.