The Iowa Transportation Commission today (Tuesday) approved $5.6 million for the fiscal year 2013 State Aviation Program, which includes $30,600 for the Atlantic Municipal Airport, to replace a manually sliding hangar door with a hydraulically operated door.  The total cost of the project is $36,600. The City of Atlantic will have to pay the remaining costs.

Other Airport Development Projects slated to receive funding in western Iowa through the DOT’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP) include: the Arthur N. Neu Municipal Airport in Carroll will receive $14,000 toward the $20,000 cost to upgrade the fuel system; The Creston Municipal Airport will receive $25,500 toward the $30,000 cost of improving fence access control; The Guthrie County Regional Airport is receiving $19,500 toward the estimated $39,000 cost of installing precision approach path indicator lights on a runway; The Harlan Municipal Airport will receive $25,500 for the $30,000 hangar renovation project; and, the Shenandoah Municipal Airport will receive $19,040 for the installation of partitions in the existing four-unit T-hangar. The project will cost $23,800 in total.

Altogether, the AIP will provide more than $3.2 million for aviation safety, planning and development. AIP programs are funded with revenue from aircraft registration fees and aviation fuel taxes.

And, the DOT’s Aviation vertical infrastructure programs will provide nearly $2.4 million for projects at all eight commercial service airports and seven general aviation airports throughout Iowa. Among them: The Red Oak Municipal Airport, which is receiving $150,000 to construct a six-unit T-hangar. The project is expected to cost $210,000 altogether. Vertical infrastructure programs are funded through the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund.

The Atlantic Police Department reports the arrest of 49-year-old Jesse Toombs of Atlantic on a Cass County Warrant for Failure to Appear for Child Support Contempt Hearing.  He was transported to Cass County Jail where he was booked and held.

Four Guthrie County residents have been appointed to the Extension Council Nominating Committee. The committee is charged with nominating candidates for the five vacancies on the council before August 6, 2012.

Committee members selected to nominate extension council candidates for the 2012 election are Mike Carey of Panora; Mike Christensen of Stuart; Carolyn Schwartz of Bayard; and Cindy Steensen of Guthrie Center.

By law the nominating committee must include two women and two men, and cannot include any current member of the council. The committee is required to take county geography into consideration when nominating candidates.

Candidates nominated by the committee must submit petitions containing the names of 25 qualified voters to the county election commissioner by 5 p.m. on Aug. 29. Additionally, individuals may petition to have their names placed on the ballot through a self-nominating process by submitting petitions with 25 names to the election commissioner. Petition forms are available from the election commissioner and at the county extension office.

Voters will cast ballots for the nominees in the Nov. 6 general election. Successful candidates will serve four-year terms beginning in January 2013.

–Information from press release by Guthrie County Extension and Outreach

About 2,000 inmates in Iowa prisons endured last week’s extreme heat without air conditioning. Iowa Department of Corrections spokesperson Lettie Prell says staff members are trained to administer first aid for heat exhaustion, but there have been no incidents reported. Most of the state’s nine prison facilities are air conditioned.

The exceptions are the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility and the housing units at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. There are also some housing units at Mitchellville and Clarinda that rely only on fans. Prell says she’s not aware of any discipline problems related to the recent heat wave.

“If you’re talking about fights, there are always other reasons why there may be some tensions within an institution and it’s hard to say how many are caused only by the heat or if it would not have happened if it hadn’t been summer,” Prell said. Newer buildings in the Iowa prison system are air conditioned because security doesn’t allow for open windows. Texas prisons face lawsuits over the lack of air conditioning, but Prell said she’s not worried about that happening here.

Three young teens in Guthrie Center face possible felony charges in connection with vandalism that caused about $10,000 of damage in the city in late June.

The Guthrie Center Times reports the vandalism occurred on June 27 or June 28 during the late night hours.  Several local businesses and pieces of equipment were spray painted, while several vehicles owned by Wetzel repair had windshield, headlight, and taillight damage.

Guthrie Center Police Chief Mike Herbert tells the Guthrie County Times that the teens could face class C felony criminal mischief charges because total damage from vandalism was about $10,000, which is the threshold for those felony charges.  He says two 15-year-old males and one 13-year-old male are suspected in the vandalism after a trail of evidence led back to them.

No other details about the case are available.

The Atlantic Police Department reports a local teen faces an OWI charge.   On June 28, 18-year-old Dillon Lee Foote of Griswold appeared at the Cass County Jail to be booked and released on a charge of OWI 1st offense.

w/ Brett Johnson

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ONAWA, Iowa (AP) – A Nebraska man has been given five years of probation for his role in a plot to shoot an Iowa man. 
 
The Sioux City Journal reports (http://bit.ly/Nd1MZe) that 20-year-old Joseph Roberts, of Omaha, had pleaded guilty. Roberts was given a suspended five-year prison term in addition to the probation sentence he received on Monday.
 
Authorities say 32-year-old Darren Hieber, of Mapleton, hired Roberts and 19-year-old Timothy Culley to shoot him on March 8 in Mapleton. Police say it was the second time Hieber hired someone to shoot him to gain sympathy from his ex-wife. 
 
Hieber also was shot on Feb. 5. Brady Chapman pleaded guilty in that case and was given two years of probation. 
 
Culley was given five years of probation. 
 
Hieber faces trial on July 31.

–AP

The Cass Board of Supervisors will hold a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday morning.

 On the agenda is a report from Cass County Attorney Dan Feistner regarding the assignment of county held tax sale certificates of purchase to the City of Cumberland.

Also on the agenda is a secondary roads update from the County Engineer.

The meeting of the Cass County Board of Supervisors will be on Wednesday at 9:00 AM at the Cass County Courthouse.

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