The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs announced last week that it has approved the Iowa Great Places Citizen Advisory Board’s recommendation to award $65,000 to the Museum of Danish America Curatorial Center in Elk Horn, for their Green Roof, and Prairie Installation for landscape enhancements and fabrication, as well as the installation of nine interpretive signs at the new 8,000 square-foot Curatorial Center.

Terri Johnson, Administrative Manager, Museum of Danish America (formerly the Danish Immigrant Museum), says “Funding from the Iowa Great Places program has given the Museum…the opportunity to continue developing its 30-acre Jens Jensen Prairie Landscape Park.” Johnson says this year, they will install additional interpretive signs, plant trees as well as two rose meadows and install a green roof on a new 8,000 square-foot curatorial center. The green roof will serve as an elevated continuation of the Jens Jensen Prairie Landscape Park and will be unusual in that it will incorporate prairie grasses and flowers instead of sedums, which are most commonly used on green roofs.

The Danish Villages of Elk Horn and Kimballton received designation as an Iowa Great Place in 2010. Created in 2005, Iowa Great Places now includes 31 Iowa communities. For more information, including Iowa Great Places community profiles, visit www.iowagreatplaces.gov.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – Waterloo officials are considering limiting roadside memorials erected at the site of deadly car crashes.  The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports a majority of the City Council called last week for an ordinance that would set rules for the memorials, such as the allowable size and time they could remain.  Council member David Jones argued “at some point you have to draw the line somewhere.”

However, some council members say the rules would be difficult to enforce. And Mayor Buck Clark says drawing up an ordinance would “open up a can of worms.” Waterloo and most other cities already make it illegal to erect signs or displays in public right of ways, but officials usually allow memorials to crash victims.  Council member Steve Schmitt says guidelines would ensure consistent enforcement.

An Oakland man charged in the fatal shooting of a guest in his home appeared in court last week. Judge James Heckerman set an arraignment hearing date for 63-year old Robert Arthur Reynolds as May 12th, with trial set for July 1st. Reynolds faces a 1st degree murder charge in connection with a shooting during the early morning hours of April 8th, that took the life of 64-year old Patricia Kinkade-Dorsey, of rural Cass County.

Reynolds, who allegedly shot the Kinkade-Dorsey with a semi-automatic handgun, remains held in the Pottawattamie County Jail on $1-million bond.

AREA COUNTIES: SAC-CRAWFORD-CARROLL–
1021 AM CDT MON APR 21 2014

NORTHWEST WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE TO 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS OF 30 MPH DURING THE AFTERNOON. MEANWHILE…A DRIER AIRMASS IS EXPECTED TO MOVE INTO THE STATE WITH RELATIVE HUMIDITY VALUES DROPPING INTO THE UPPER 20S ACROSS AREAS OF NORTHERN AND WESTERN IOWA BY AFTERNOON. THIS WILL LEAD TO ELEVATED FIRE POTENTIAL DURING THE AFTERNOON UNTIL WINDS RELAX AND THE RELATIVE HUMIDITY CLIMBS BY THIS EVENING. ANY OUTDOOR FIRES ACROSS THIS AREA DURING THE AFTERNOON WILL HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO SPREAD RAPIDLY AND BURNING IS DISCOURAGED.

ALSO, A RED FLAG WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR MONONA COUNTY FROM 1-PM UNTIL 7-PM. CONDITIONS WILL BE FAVORABLE THIS AFTERNOON FOR FIRES TO START EASILY AND SPREAD QUICKLY. ALL OUTDOOR BURNING SHOULD BE AVOIDED.

Shelby County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Seivert says the Local Fire Danger signs will remain in the “Moderate” category, this week.  Seivert says sunshine and wind quickly dry the dead vegetation, and even with the rains we have had recently the speed with which the drying process occurs is something to be aware of.

Seivert also advises residents to be aware of the potential for severe weather this week. The National Weather Service’s Hazardous Weather Outlook calls for the possibility of strong to severe storms Wednesday night into early Thursday afternoon.

While Iowans are seeing the first ash trees cut down to slow the spread of the emerald ash borer, yet another invading insect is causing a stir as it could threaten our walnut trees. Robin Pruisner, an entomologist with the Iowa Department of Agriculture, says the pest called the walnut twig beetle is being found in nearby states, but it hasn’t been found in Iowa — yet. “Research is ongoing on how to protect walnut trees,” Pruisner says. “We just don’t have a lot of answers. This is even newer than the emerald ash borer at this point in time.” The walnut twig beetle carries what’s known as “thousand canker disease,” which is deadly to black walnut trees.

There’s been no way found to reverse the disease or to kill the beetle without also killing the trees.  “The geosmithia pathogen is actually very common in our environment and this is just kind of a new cousin of that,” Pruisner says. “The walnut twig beetle is native to the southwest United States and down into Mexico.” For many years, the beetle was only found in states like Arizona, California and New Mexico. Now, the rice grain-sized pest is being found well beyond the southwest, in states as far away as Virginia and Pennsylvania — and closer to home in Ohio, Colorado and Tennessee.

Pruisner suspects the insects are moving such great distances because people are enabling them to hitch long rides.  “Aunt Sally out in Colorado has a walnut tree that dies in her backyard but Cousin Ed here in Iowa would like to make a coffee table out of it,” Pruisner says. “This is the kind of thing that people throw in the back of their truck and they drive to Iowa and they could be inadvertently bringing along with it thousand canker of walnut.”

One way to stop the spread is to only use local firewood in campfires. Iowa ranks sixth in the nation for the production of black walnut, prized for its grain and color and it’s exported all over the world.

(Radio Iowa)

w/ Ric Hanson

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Authorities in Adams County report a Union County man was arrested early this (Monday) morning after he was seen pulling off into a field from a dirt road. The Sheriff’s Department says when officers approached 23-year old Nathan Vicker, of Creston shortly after midnight, he became combative and resisted the officers. He also refused to take any chemical tests for OWI.

Vicker faces charges that include Interference with Official Acts and Refusal to submit to chemical testing. Additional charges are still possible.

One of the governor’s top priorities — an anti-bullying bill — is in danger of failing to pass the 2016 Iowa legislature. Representative Cecil Dolecheck, a Republican from Mount Ayr, has been involved in one part of the debate — how much state money to spend to help train teachers and administrators to address bullying. “I’m not sure we’re going to be able to pass bullying legislation,” Dolecheck said. “That’s still up in the air.”

Senate Democrats have voted to spend three-quarters of a million dollars on bullying prevention training for educators, but House Republicans have sided with their Republican governor and opted instead to spend 25-thousand dollars to conduct webinars — online training sessions for educators. Governor Terry Branstad has been asking legislators to pass an anti-bullying bill in each of the past two years. The governor’s been asking legislators to pass a bill that would give school officials clear authority to address bullying that occurs outside of school, especially on-line, but some of Branstad’s fellow Republicans object.

Dolecheck says many of his Republican colleagues believe administrators already have the authority to step in when a student’s being bullied. “There’s nothing they can’t do within a local school district to combat bullying and prevent bullying and address bullying,” Dolecheck says. In addition, many Republicans say parents have the ultimate authority over their children and they’re concerned about school officials monitoring students’ activity outside of school hours. House Republicans have also pressed to have private and religious schools exempted from any anti-bullying bill and they want a religious conscience clause included.

Republican conservatives says without that protection, students could be accused of bullying if they are expressing their religious beliefs. Members of the Iowa House and Senate are scheduled to return to Des Moines this afternoon (Monday), to begin what could be the final week of the 2016 legislative session.

(Radio Iowa)