Despite one area residents’ concerns the City of Atlantic’s well water might be contaminated with oil, the Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday) approved the rezoning of a small section of  land just outside of the Atlantic City limits, from General Agricultural, to light industrial. John Dvorak made the request to the County’s Zoning Commission last month, in order to expand his tire repair and automotive service business. The Commission approved the request at its February 9th meeting, and forwarded its recommendation to the Board for final approval.  During a public hearing this morning, Zoning Commissioner Rich Hansen explained where land was located. Hansen says the 4.5-acres of land is near the intersection of Olive Street and Great River Road, near the KJAN studios.

Hansen says Dvorak does not need a DNR permit for waste oil disposal, because there would need to be over 1,300 gallons of it on site in order for a permit to be necessary. Dvorak said during the meeting there wouldn’t be anymore than 160-gallons on-hand at any given time. The oil will not be stored underground. Instead it will be stored in approved plastic “totes.” Used oil and Tires at the facility will be properly disposed of using local sources, so there won’t be the “eyesore” of tires piled-up around the business or on the property. Paul Lundquist said while the business serves a need in the area, and he “salutes” Dvorak’s idea to expand his business, he was concerned about the possible effects of well water contamination. He says the business, while located on high ground, will be located over the only source of water for the City of Atlantic. He wanted the Supervisors to get more data on how any potential pollution created by the business could affect the water.

Hansen said because the property is located south and west of the wells, any drainage would flow to the southwest, away from the wells, which are about 1,000-feet away. Hansen said Cass-Adair-Audubon and Guthrie County Sanitarian Steve Patterson has conducted extensive surveys of the land and the possible effect on the wells, and determined there’s no problem with the drainage, or concerns over contamination. Supervisor Chuck Rieken said that’s good enough for him, because Patterson is well qualified to make that determination. He said Patterson is very strict, and “By the Book,” when it comes to environmental safety, and he would never have  recommended approval to the Zoning Board, the plans if they threatened the water.

The Board then voted 4-to-nothing, with Supervisor Frank Waters absent, to approve the zoning change. Afterward, Lundquist said the Board “Made a mistake,” but thanked them for looking into it.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday), unanimously agreed to pass a Resolution abating property taxes erroneously levied on patrons of the CAM Community School District. Cass County Attorney Dan Feistner and Auditor Dale Sunderman explained the abatement would be for a period of one-year only, due to a line-item error on the 2011-2012 budget. Sunderman says rather than writing a refund check to every person affected, which would be impractical,  they would rebate the amounts paid through the tax process. Sunderman says the State Auditor’s Office approved of the plan as long as the County Attorney agreed, which he did.

w/ Ric Hanson

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A Red Oak man was arrested Tuesday following an alleged assault in Coburg. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 29-year-old Bill Joe Gillespie faces Aggravated Misdemeanor charges of Domestic Abuse/Assault and Carrying Weapons, and a Simple Misdemeanor charge of Trespassing. Officials say Gillespie allegedly became combative and tried to flee, when deputies tried to take him into custody. The Sheriff’s Office says when deputies caught up with Gillespie, he became even more combative. He was finally brought under control when deputies deployed a Taser. Gillespie was being held in the Montgomery County Jail, on $2,000 bond.

Voters in Red Oak  have filled an At-Large vacancy seat on their City Council. The Special election was held Tuesday, after the Council had earlier voted against filling the seat created through the resignation of Mark Gregg. According to the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office, a total of 467 votes were cast. Unofficial  election results show Fred Pilecki was the winner of the election, with 260 votes. Other candidates receiving votes include: Roger Waggener, 105 votes; John Haidsiak, 71 votes; and Russell Williams, with 31 votes.

The Iowa Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday evening in Governor Terry Branstad’s appeal of a district court ruling that overturned his item veto of part of a bill that appropriated over eight million dollars to keep 36 Iowa Workforce Development offices open. Richard Sapp presented the governor’s case and told the justices that the veto was legal because the governor created an alternative to the “brick and mortar” field offices. He says the definition of what constituted a field office was not clearly laid out by the legislature, and that has been the test since the first challenge of the item veto. “Since 1971 the legislature has been on notice of what it must write if it intends to make something a condition,” Sapp said. “There are numerous examples in this court’s jurisprudence since that first case that do the same thing, and the question is: Why didn’t they do that here? Why is there no conditioning language as to the field office section since they were clearly on notice? Could they not get enough votes in the legislature to make it an explicit condition? We don’t know.” Mark Hedberg represented the group that challenged the governor’s veto. He said the issue was clearly defined.

“If we look at the definition section it says ‘for purposes of this section field offices and satellite offices it shall’…it’s not aspirational, it’s not may or whatever,” Hedberg said. “It says we have a product, this is what it shall consist of, this is how many we are going to make and here’s the money for it. When you take that out, and you’ve got virtual offices, you’ve distorted the whole section and what it was all about to begin with. Justice Thomas Waterman asked Hedberg about the purpose of the item veto. “The intent of the framers of the item veto amendment was to give the governor more control over the budget than he’d have without it?,” Waterman asked Hedberg, who replied yes. “And wouldn’t you undermined that if you construed the item veto power so narrowly that he couldn’t strike out a policy provision that would tie his hands on ways to save money, ” Waterman asked. Hedberg replied.

He said, “The item veto as I understand it was to prevent pork barrel politics is that fair enough? But I think in this case the governor vetoed the barrel and kept the pork for himself, that’s the problem. And I think that’s why you have got to veto the money. Because now you can take that eight-point-six-million dollars and use it, distort it.” Hedberg said in his summary that they are not trying to handcuff the governor’s use of the line item veto. “We’re not asking the governor to go through every line of a budget, we’re only asking to take a look at the ones you’re going to veto and when you veto it, you’d better make sure that it’s not a condition on an appropriation, which we believe this was, either a condition or restriction on that appropriation…and I think that’s all that’s required by our court system, not magic words not red lights, Hedberg said. Sapp concluded his arguments by asking the justices to think about what their ruling would do to the item veto cases.

“I keep thinking, haven’t we decided all the issues of the item veto amendment by now. Apparently not, and what the plaintiff’s proposing are going to take us backwards years and years because they have no good alternative test to give to a governor or to give to a court as to how you determine whether something is or is not a condition,” Sapp said. The arguments were streamed lived on the court system website and there will be an archive of the arguments posted there too at: www.iowacourts.gov.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Board of Supervisors will meet this morning in Atlantic. During their 9-a.m. session at the courthouse, the Board will hold a public hearing on a request for a zoning change with regard to a 4.59-acre parcel of land in the southwest 1 southwest 1/4 of section 33 of Pymosa Township, from General Ag to Light Industrial. Following the hearing, the Board will act on approving the zoning change. John Dvorak requested the Zoning Commission rezone a part of his property on the outskirts of Atlantic, located off Olive Street, across from the Little League Diamonds. Dvorak wants to rezone the area so he can have a tire repair and car service business.

In other business, the Cass County Supervisors will act on extending a Homeland Security Grant Program application and a related SWIPCO administrative contract. The Board will also hear from a representative with Wellmark, with regard to a Group Medical Insurance review and renewal, and, act on approving the appointment of a full-time jailer.

The Atlantic City Council will hold a Special meeting this evening at City Hall. During the 5:30-p.m. session, the Council will act on approving the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2013 Municipal Budget. A Public hearing on the Municipal Budget is scheduled for March 7th. After the Council adopts the proposed budget, with or without modifications, it can be lowered, but not increased.

The Council will also act on approving change orders related to improvements at the Atlantic wastewater treatment plant. The change orders pertain to the installation of a water-tight access manway, along with the replacement of equipment designed to protect against corrosion of tank walls, and, modifications to a damaged, existing sludge loadout station. The changes amount to slightly more than $13,000 in an additional costs.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

Western Iowa residents forced out of their homes by Missouri River flooding may have another option for temporary housing. Iowa Finance Authority spokeswoman, Ashley Jared, says flood victims can apply for a waiver to live in housing usually restricted by the federal government to low-income families.  “They don’t have to worry about their income to seek some housing assistance in those properties. We just ask that they go to our website and fill out a form and kind of search to see if there’s a vacancy at an affordable housing property. We have all of the contact information at Iowa Finance Authority dot-gov (www.iowafinanceauthority.gov) for them,” Jared says. The waiver applies to flood victims in Monona, Harrison, Pottawattamie, Mills, and Fremont counties.

“They just have to verify that they did indeed live in one of those five counties in Iowa during the period of May 25th to August first 2011, and that their property was indeed damaged or destroyed by the flooding. And we will go ahead and see what we can do to get them in to an affordable rental project,” Jared says. The Finance Authority says over 12-hundred Iowans have filed for assistance from FEMA following last year’s flooding.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)