The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Thursday) approved a Resolution authorizing Board Chair Duane McFadden to sign of a letter of support naming two bridges in the County in honor of two State Troopers who were killed in the line of duty 23-years ago.

ISP Lt. Michael J. Miller (left) speaks to the Cass Co. Supervisors

to rename bridges in the State of Iowa, as Memorial Bridges for fallen Troopers. Miller said since the State Patrol was formed in 1935, 10 Troopers have lost their lives in the line of duty, with two having died in Cass County. Trooper Pilot Lance Dietsch and Trooper Stanley Gerling were killed in an airplane accident on June 30th, 1989, southwest of Atlantic. The pair had been searching for an elderly man who had wandered off, and were about to call off the search when they troopers located him in a soybean field. They began to circle the area when the plane made a sudden turn and crashed vertically into the ground. Troopers Dietsch and Gerling were the first aircraft fatalities since the addition of the Patrol Airwing in 1956.

Miller said his job was to try and locate a couple of bridges close to where the accident occurred, and suggest they be named in honor of Dietch and Gerling. The two bridges he chose are west and northeast of Lewis,  and were not already named in honor of a notable individual. They included the #432 bridge west of Lewis, which crosses Indian Creek, and the #464 bridge northeast of Lewis, over Turkey Creek. The Indian Creek bridge will be named in honor of Dietsch, while the Turkey Creek bridge will be named in honor of Gerling. 

Miller said the 6-foot by three-foot signs were created by the Iowa Dept. of Transportation and are ready to be installed by the State.

Officials in Shelby County say a Nebraska man was injured when the semi he was driving rolled into a ditch Wednesday evening. The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office says 69-year old Roger Cooley, of Valley, NE was traveling in a 2005 Freightliner eastbound on Highway 44 near Ironwood Road at around 6:15-p.m., when he lost control of the rig, which traveled into the south ditch and came to rest on its side. The semi was hauling a load of coal, which spilled into a waterway along with diesel fuel, which spilled from one of the crushed tanks on the semi’s tractor.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources was called to the scene and ordered a cleanup of the water way and soil. Highway 44 was closed while the clean-up efforts were underway, and traffic was re-routed. Cooley was transported to Myrtue Memorial Hospital for treatment, and later released. Both the tractor and trailer were estimated to be a total loss. The Harlan Fire Department assisted the Shelby County Sheriff’s at the accident scene.

A Stanton man, missing since late Saturday night and possiby suffering from a health condition, was found alive Wednesday afternoon near a ditch under a tree, after a landowner discovered the mans’ burned out pickup truck on his property southwest of Brooks. 71-year-old Dennis Goodrich was conscious and breathing when he was discovered by Prescott Fire Chief Chuck Truman. Goodrich was taken to the hospital in Corning for evaluation, but no other details have been released concerning his condition.

The man was located nearly nine-hours after property owner Dave Sproles notified authorities in Adams County about a suspicious looking, burned pickup truck he found on his land west of Filbert Avenue, near 255th Road. The pickup was later determined to be a Ford F-150, and a check of the VIN revealed it was the vehicle Goodrich drove, and had been reported missing.  Following an investigation into the fire, which officials believe was accidental, authorities thought Goodrich could still be in the area so a search was conducted.  He was located at around 4:14-p.m. Wednesday.

Several agencies and individuals participated in a search for the man, including: The Adam’s County Sheriff’s Office; a pilot with Iowa State Patrol;  the Department of Criminal Investigation; State Fire Marshal’s Office; Adams County Emergency Management; the Adams County-Prescott-and Lenox Volunteer Fire Departments; Adams County Rescue, and a Ringgold County k-9 unit.

w/ Ric Hanson

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An unidentified 40-year old man was taken into custody Wednesday, on suspicion of molesting a six-year old. According to the Onawa Police Department, the suspect was being held in the Monona County Jail on $25,000 bond, on a felony charge of 2nd degree sexual abuse. Officials say investigators believe the incident which resulted in the man’s arrest, occurred during the course of the past couple of weeks. Authorities did not release the gender of the alleged victim.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s Education Department director says the state will continue its effort to receive a waiver from the federal government’s No Child Left Behind Act.  U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday granted exemptions to eight more states, bringing the total to 19 that have been granted waivers.  Iowa Education Director Jason Glass told The Des Moines Register that state laws governing teacher evaluations likely kept Iowa from an exemption.  The federal waiver guidelines say states must adopt teacher evaluation systems that include student achievement data and say districts must rank educators’ performance levels.  Gov. Terry Branstad’s education reform bill included evaluation proposals that would have met the waiver application guidelines. But the Legislature didn’t adopt those proposals this year.

Sheriff’s Officials in Montgomery County said Wednesday, that a Red Oak manwas arrested that afternoon on a valid warrant out of Missouri. 51-year old James Edward Weise was wanted for resisting arrest, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident, 1st degree property damage, and for numerous traffic and drug violations. Weise was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $20,000 bond, pending extradition to Missouri.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

May has been dry, but not dry enough to set any statewide records. State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says an average of three inches of rain fell in the state this past month. “Basically you had a fairly wet first six days of the month and a few places since then have stayed a bit the wet side, mostly northwestern Iowa,” Hillaker says. “But certainly a lot of Iowa, especially the central and southern sections, have been very dry now for the last three, three-and-a-half weeks or so, but not one for the record books, even in those drier areas.” Temperatures in Iowa for May are about six degrees above normal.  “(That) probably would put us in the top 10 as far as warmest Mays, although we will be cooling things off here just a tiny bit here in the last couple of days of the month, so that might drop the ranking just a little bit,” Hillaker says. “It’s actually been a more unusually warm month than unusually dry at this point.” A large part of the state currently is classified as “abnormally dry” — the lowest level in a nationwide system that measures drought conditions. The west central and north central Iowa are “moderately dry”.

“Right now, nothing is in an especially bad category as far as drought conditions go, but we’re getting to that time of the year when things can change pretty rapidly if we get higher temperatures and higher evaporation rates because of that,” Hillaker says. “If we don’t get rain, you know, things can dry out very, very quickly at this time of the year.” The southern two-thirds of the state has “parched” topsoil that needs some rain, according to Hillaker, and recent windy conditions are exacerbating the problem.

(Radio Iowa)