(Harlan, Iowa) – Officials with SWITA (the Southwest Iowa Transit Agency) in Harlan, report in their driver profile, Dwayne Hemminger has Driven for SWITA for the Past 18 Years. He provides taxi rides in Harlan two days per week and provides an average of 40-50 rides per day. He also provides shuttle rides to get disabled individuals from Harlan to Denison for work two days per week. Drivers like Dwayne are vital to rural communities, as they allow people to get around when they otherwise would have no access to transportation on their own.

SWITA serves eight counties in southwest Iowa and has 100 vehicles and 72 drivers. SWITA has special routes for disabled individuals who need to attend day habilitation services or work. The agency has work routes that transport workers to employers such as OSI and Monogram Foods. It also offers medical transportation, student transportation, has a summer fun bus, and provides a range of other transportation services. SWITA buses are ADA accessible, and service is open to everyone.

Dwayne has been proudly driving for SWITA for the past 18 years. He was born and raised in the Harlan area, and he owned a video rental store in town for 25 years with his late wife until online video services phased out his business. “I sort of took this job to supplement my income and it was a blessing in disguise,” Dwayne said. “I really like working for SWITA and it feels good to help people out who couldn’t get where they need to go without this service.”

Dwayne has two daughters who now live in Wayne, Nebraska and Springfield, Missouri, and he enjoys visiting them when he can and spending time with his two grandsons. He also enjoys spending time his free time working on his hobby of restoring old vehicles. He is an avid car collector and takes his 1957 Chevy pickup, which he restored on his own, to car shows for fun. “I think the best part about this job for me, is the people who ride on my bus,” Dwayne said. “I have had people tell me that they are so thankful for the rides I provide. I am 70 years old, and I could retire if I wanted, but I am not ready to stop driving for SWITA yet.”

SWITA operates vehicles early and late, pending vehicle and driver availability. If you find yourself in need of transportation for any reason, you can contact SWITA by calling 712-243-2518 or 1-800-842-8065 or get more information at www.swita.com.

(Radio Iowa) – The Des Moines School Board has chosen a new leader for Iowa’s largest school district. Ian Roberts will take over as superintendent of Des Moines public schools on July 1st. The 52-year-old educator has been superintendent of Millcreek Township schools in Erie, Pennsylvania since 2020. He also has experience leading public schools in St. Louis and Baltimore and charter schools in California and Tennessee. Roberts told reporters his focus will be on the district’s goal to improve outcomes for students. “Every single child who knocks on our doors, families rest assured they will receive a quality education that changes their trajectory for success,” Roberts said.

Roberts is the first black superintendent in Des Moines. About 30 percent of the 30-thousand students in Des Moines schools are Latino and 20 percent are black. Eight of Iowa’s 10 largest school districts have hired new superintendents in the past two years. This past January, the acting superintendent of Sioux City schools was selected for the job permanently and the superintendent for Cedar Rapids, the state’s second largest school district, starts her job July 1st as well. The superintendents of Dubuque, Waterloo and West Des Moines schools started their jobs nearly a year ago.

Davenport, Iowa City and Ankeny hired new superintendents in 2021.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in Adair County, Wednesday morning (May 17, 2023), approved a few matters on their agenda before receiving a Quarterly Environmental Health update from Jotham Arber, Cass/Adair/Guthrie County Director. The Board approved a liquor license renewal for the Wallace Center of Iowa, a Child Abuse Prevention Grant drawdown, and the appointment of Skylar Rawlings, from Greenfield, as Grand River Township Trustee. They also acknowledged receipt of an Engineer New Field Entrance letter, with regard to a rural driveway in Harrison Township 27.

In his report to the Adair County Supervisors, Jotham Arber said Perc (Percolation) Tests resumed last month. A percolation test is a soil test designed to evaluate the soil’s capacity to accept a subsurface sewage disposal system (septic system). The test has two parts, the soil evaluation and the site evaluation.

The tests take about six-hours to complete. He said also they developed a “Well Book,” for homeowners guide to taking care of their well, for current and new owners, who have wells on their property.

The books will be available free of charge at the Auditor’s Office, well drillers and eventually, realtor’s offices. Jotham Arber said there are 29 well water tests scheduled for this month, in Adair County. The free tests are for arsenic, lead and five other, possible contaminant levels.

And, Jotham said also, there are a lot of septic systems that are coming to the end of their lives in Adair and the three counties covered by the Environmental Health Department. Many systems, he said, are 40-or 50-years old, well past their expected performance use.

And, Adair County Engineer Nick Kauffman presented for Board Chair Jerry Walker’s signature, following Board approval, Right-of-Way Contracts for the following culvert projects:

• N29 in Prussia Township
• W14 in Jefferson Township
• and W11 in Union Township

Kauffman then went on to provide the Board with his weekly report on Adair County Secondary Roads Department Maintenance and Activities. He mentioned they received a letter from a rural resident complimenting road crews on their ditch cleaning efforts. And, he said they received bids for road salt, which were down from last year’s prices, which Kauffman said is unusual.

In construction news, Nick Kauffman reported work on a bridge is expected to begin, Thursday.

The next Adair County Board of Supervisor’s is on Tuesday, May 23^rd at 9-a.m.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who happened to be up for sunrise today (Wednesday) got a rare treat. Smoke from wildfires in Alberta, Canada, is filtering high over Iowa and it’s making the sun appear as a golden-reddish-orange ball. Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff, at the National Weather Service, says the phenomenon should be visible at sunset tonight, too, and for that matter, the sun and sky may look unusual all day, perhaps longer. “It’s really making kind of that reddish look to the sky. It’s gonna look pretty hazy most of the day,” Hagenhoff says. “Right now, it looks like that hazy sky’s going to hang on at least through tomorrow. We do have a cold front coming through on Thursday with some thunderstorms that may help to push some of it out as we get into the end of the week.”

Iowans who have certain health issues and difficulty breathing should -not- feel any ill affects from the smoke, as it’s far up in the atmosphere, perhaps 20-thousand feet up. Plus, she says, it doesn’t even smell like smoke outside. “In the afternoon, sometimes this time of year, whenever it’s warm, you can get some deeper mixing as the ground kind of warms up. That could start to pull some of it down, but again, just how much is kind of an unknown,” Hagenhoff says. “So just something to use caution. Of course, there are air quality products out there so anyone with concerns would want to check to see what those levels may be.”

Image from NASA Earth Observatory

There are at least 90 wildfires now burning in Canada with more than 20 of them out of control. More than 20-thousand Canadians have been evacuated from their homes because of the fires, and cities like Calgary are under alerts due to poor air quality. Hagenhoff doesn’t anticipate anything similar here and the smoke is so high aloft, it doesn’t even appear on radar over Iowa. The odd-looking sky could persist, though. “Because it’s such a small-scale thing with the fires in Canada, and how that’s going to interact with our systems, and how it gets drug down,” she says, “it’s a little tough to kind of figure out exactly where we’ll be with any kind of length into the future past a couple days.”

The federal government runs a website called simply, AirNow, and it’s focused on fires and smoke. The site includes a color-coded map through which you can zoom in on individual Iowa counties to check on air quality.

More at https://fire.airnow.gov/

(Elk Horn, Iowa) – A public hearing on a proposed 2022-23 Budget Amendment for the Exira-EHK School District took place during the Board of Education meeting, Tuesday night. Superintendent Trevor

Miller said his philosophy is to “Not build-in a lot of fluff” when it comes to the budget.

In other business, the Exira-EHK Board approved an amended agreement with the Green Hills AEA for a School-Based Interventionist.

The Board also approved a District Career and Academic Planning (DCAP) Plan, as well as an English Language Arts (Reading) Curriculum, through Amplify.

(Iowa DNR News, 5/17/23) – Despite a rainy cold closing weekend across much of state, Iowa’s wild turkey hunters reported harvesting more than 14,800 birds through the mandatory registration system, an increase of nearly 3,000 versus the 2022 harvest. Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources report Iowa’s spring turkey seasons began April 7 with the youth season and ended on May 14. Hunters purchased nearly 54,500 spring turkey tags, an increase of 2,000 licenses from 2022.

Turkey production has been good across most of the state the past two years and these two-year-old birds were likely a good portion of the harvest, said Jim Coffey, forest wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “The two-year-old birds are the most likely to gobble and the most likely to move,” he said. “When we combine birds willing to move, pretty good weather during the season and the great passion our turkey hunters have for the resource, we get a harvest for the record books.”

While the hunting season may be done for 2023, Iowans can help the DNR with its annual turkey production estimates by reporting all the turkeys seen during the months of July and August.  This annual survey is designed to predict the overall production of wild turkeys that will be available for the 2024 season. The DNR will have a link to the survey on its website before it begins on July 1, where Iowans seeing wild turkeys are asked to provide the date and county in which the turkey(s) was seen, if it was an adult female or adult male (males have beards on their breast), and whether there are young poults (baby turkeys) present.

Photo courtesy of the Iowa DNR.

Annual production surveys conducted by the DNR are an important component of the species management plans, which includes providing hunting opportunities.  Anyone seeing turkeys is encouraged to participate in this online survey.

(Carroll, Iowa/KCCI) — Recently released dashcam and body camera video from Carroll Police officers show a traffic stop in 2021 escalated to the point where an officer pointed as gun at the driver while standing on the hood of the vehcle that was pulled over, but then started to take off.

The incident happened during a normal traffic stop on March 5, 2021. KCCI reports a records check determined Dennis Guider, JR., was wanted on an arrest warrant out of Illinois. He was asked to step out of the vehicle during the traffic stop, but the man apparently panicked and began to pull-away from Carroll Police Officer Patrick McCarty, who was standing in front of the car, jumped onto the hood when he realized Guider wasn’t going to stop.

The vehicle sped away from police with the officer clinging to the car’s roof as speeds picked-up. Audio from the incident revealed McCarty, kneeling on the hood of the car with his gun drawn, yelled at Guider to “Stop the car, man. Stop the car.”

Other squad cars went after Guider while McCarty hung on to the roof. The chase only lasted for about a minute as Guider turned into a gravel lot and drove through a ditch where McCarty lost his grip, fell to the ground, and broke his back.

Guider pleaded guilty in March 2023, two years after the initial chase. During sentencing, Guider’s attorney asked the judge for leniency, arguing McCarty was never trained to step in front of a moving car.

(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Conservation Dept. is hosting its first kayak fishing session in a little over three-weeks. The event takes place Saturday, June 3rd from 8 AM to 10 AM, at Prairie Rose State Park. The group will meet on the east side of County Road M47. Women and families are highly encouraged to participate! This session will be limited to 15 people and there is a $5 fee. Pre-registration is required, please sign-up here: https://conta.cc/3ob9RYO

Kayaks and fishing poles will be provided, but feel free to bring your own equipment. If you are signed up for the hook and paddle program through the DNR, you will get extra points for attending this event. This is a free fishing weekend, so fishing licenses are encouraged, but not required.

(Radio Iowa) – Workers in Davenport have been removing the sand-filled HESCO barriers this week that kept back a surge of water on the Mississippi River. The river is receding fast after nearing record flood stage from snowmelt that came down from Minnesota. Tim Baldwin was around in 2019 when the flood waters inundated his building in downtown Davenport — but he says was feeling pretty confident in the work the city had done to keep his block safe this time.  “We had no worries at all that that wall was going to fail,” Baldwin says.

The city doubled the size and height of the wall after the water breached the wall in 2019. It held through the crest of 21-and-a-half feet. “We saw it creep up to one of its highest points we’ve ever seen it creep up on that wall before. There was a lot of wall left to go we could have handled a lot more water I think and again no concerns whatsoever,” according to Baldwin. Pete Stopulos owns several buildings that were damaged by the downtown flooding in 2019 — but didn’t see a repeat this year. ” Really, I think the major take away was the plan worked. In 2019, we all hoped the city would build the wall they did this time. Obliviously, the blueprint was there and they executed it and it worked quite well,” he says.

Davenport flooding, 4-30-23

Baldwin says they did lose some business at his Front Street Brewery and Tap Room as traffic was limited by road closures to the downtown. He’s counting on the Bix 7 Road Race and the 50th RAGBRAI to recoup some of that lost revenue.

(reporting by Zachary Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Two people were arrested on separate charges, Tuesday night, in Red Oak. Police say 40-year-old Elysia Tylene White, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 9-p.m. in the 600 block of N. 5th Street, in Red Oak. White was charged with Theft in the 5th Degree. Her bond at the Montgomery County Jail was set at $300. And, at around 8:30-p.m., 56-year-old John Philip Gekas, of Omaha, was arrested in Red Oak, following a traffic stop near Joy Street and Miller Avenue. Gekas was taken into custody on an active Ida County warrant for Contempt of Court. His bond was also set at $300.