The trial date for a former Anita Community School District teacher facing a single felony charge of Sexual Exploitation by a School Employee, and, 49 Aggravated Misdemeanor counts of Sexual Exploitation by a School Employee-Arousal, has been set for July 10^th in Cass County District Court. 65-year old William Glenn Foulkes, of Anita plead not guilty to the charges last month. His arraignment hearing will be held April 30^th, with a pre-trial conference scheduled to take place May 29^th. If convicted on all of the charges, Foulkes could face a maximum time of 103 years in prison and fines of more than $300,000.

Foulkes allegedly exploited a minor female over a period of 13-months, from August 2009 to November 2010, while teaching the student in a math program. A former long-time Math teacher at the Anita High School and Anita Elementary School, Foulkes resigned from his teaching position in November 2010. He was arrested March 15th, 2012, and remains free on bond. He’s been ordered not to have any contact with the alleged victim.

An Atlantic man was arrested Monday on a Cass County Sheriff’s warrant. 33-year old James Wolff was taken into custody on a warrant for Failure to Appear. Wolff was being held in the Cass County Jail.

(9-a.m. News)

The Chair of the Cass County Community Foundation has announced $95,900 was awarded recently to several non-profit groups and organizations within the County. Nicholas Hunt says the grant checks were presented to those non-profit organizations which had submitted applications to the CCCF by the February 1st deadline.

CCCF grant recipients display their checks on the steps of the Cass Co. Courthouse

Grant funds amounting to $8,000 were awarded to: the Ann W. Wickman Child Development Center in Atlantic, for increased classroom play space, and to the Hitchcock House Advisory Board, for the addition of a registration/gift shop/restroom building. Awards of $7,000 were given to the Cass County Mormon Trail Association, for the restoration of the Nishnabotna Ferry House, in Lewis, and, to the Nishna Valley Family YMCA in Atlantic, for their Water Spash Program.

A grant amounting to $6,400 was made available to the Cass County Memorial Hospital, for their Healing Garden project. Grant awards of $6,000 each were presented to the City of Wiota’s Fire Dept., for new turnout gear, and to the Lewis 1st Responders and Firefighters Assoc., for the purchase of Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBS) for two firefighters.

In addition, four organizations received $5,000 grants, including: the Atlantic Parks and Rec Dept., for the purchase of a kit for use in Summer program activities….the Cass County Conservation Board, for the purchase of a new equipment trailer….the City of Griswold, for an upgrade to the Cocklin Fish Farm to an attractive park for community use…and the City of Marne, for lights, bleachers and a sound system for the City Park Ball Field.

The Cass County Historical Museum also received a $4,000 grant for continued renovations on the upper floor of the Museum. The Griswold Fire Dept. received a $3,500 grant to equip a fire truck with updated safety and rescue equipment, and the Lewis Public Library received $3,500 for six new computer stations at the Library/Heritage Center. Eight other organizations within Cass County received grants ranging from $1,500 to $2,500.

All grantees met the criteria as Cass County nonprofit agencies or organizations, with charitable missions in the areas of civic, cultural, health, education and social services. For more information about the Cass County Community Foundation, contact any CCCF Board member, or Dennis Nissen, Iowa Program Officer for the Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa, at 1-800-794-3458.

(9-a.m. News)

The Griswold Community School District’s Board of Education Monday night, approved a settlement with the district’s certified staff. Superintendent Dana Kunze said the total package agreement was for 4.0% of the base salary. The package includes an insurance increase, and increases to FICA and IPERS. Kunze says the agreement puts the district in-line with what other districts in southwest Iowa are averaging. The Board also held a hearing at 5:30-p.m. with regard to School Board Director Redistricting, District Maps and the method of electing school board members. He says a district patron asked some questions about the process, and the board later voted to approve redistricting, unanimously. That means there will still be seven directors, but four geographical districts instead of seven, with three members elected At Large.

The process of determining Director Redistricting began following the results of the 2010 census. In other business, the Griswold School Board set May 1^st at 1-p.m. as the date and time for the sale of just under $3-million in bonds for various current and future projects. The move followed the approval Monday evening of a service agreement with the District’s bonding agent, Piper Jaffrey.  And, the board approved a contract with Bishop Engineering of Des Moines, for the parking lot project.

(9-a.m. News)

w/ Ric Hanson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

THURMAN, Iowa (AP) – Hundreds of volunteers have put their lives on hold so they can help people in a tiny western Iowa town recover from a mammoth tornado. The tornado ripped through the town of Thurman on Saturday, damaging most of the town’s homes but causing only a few minor injuries.  The 900 volunteers who showed up Sunday to help the town’s 229 residents were followed by an estimated 270 on Monday. Mayor Rod Humphreys Jr. told The Des Moines Register people will be cleaning up for a week, and “we should be 90 percent done by Wednesday.” Many of the volunteers are people whose homes or businesses were flooded by the Missouri River last summer. More volunteers are expected today (Tuesday), from as far away as Wisconsin and Montana.

w/ Ric Hanson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

In a follow-up to a story we first brought in early February, officials with the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) , on Friday, announced that a community tool kit is now available for use by community groups interested in speaking to their members, about a study being conducted by the DOT, on bringing high speed passenger rail service from Chicago, IL., to Omaha, NE. The study is being conducted in cooperation with the  Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Illinois Department of Transportation. The DOT is studying the feasibility of expanding existing passenger rail service and developing a new regional passenger rail service from Chicago to Omaha, Neb., and the purpose of this study is to: Evaluate potential route alternatives; Evaluate levels of service and ridership; Analyze environmental impacts; and, determine a preferred Chicago to Omaha passenger rail route alternative for regional intercity passenger rail service. Officials say the study will be a major step in assessing the viability of a regional intercity passenger rail system serving Iowa and the Midwest through the corridor and public input is a major component of the study.

The FRA and the Iowa and Illinois DOTs have made the community tool kit available online at http://www.iowadot.gov/chicagotoomaha/ under the “resources” tab. Community leaders and others interested in the information can download the following electronic materials related to the study.

• PowerPoint ^® presentation
• Pocket card with a brief description of the study goals
• Fact sheet with more in-depth study information
• Social media Facebook banner for timeline format
• Social media image that can be used as profile picture on Facebook or Twitter
• 11-by-17 poster
• Survey that will also be used at in-person public meetings in early May 2012.

Public comments provide valuable input and contribute to the development of a complete environmental analysis. The Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and planning effort will take approximately 18 months to complete. Comments will be collected throughout the EIS development phase. All comments received will be reviewed and considered. For more information, visit www.iowadot.gov/chicagotoomaha/ or call 800-488-7119.

Forecasters used some unusually strong words and phrases to warn Iowans and others in the Midwest about the potential for severe weather this past weekend. National Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Johnson says the Storm Prediction Center, two days prior to storm, stated there was a “high risk” for damaging storms.
“In my career, that’s pretty unprecedented to go with a day two ‘high risk,’ which is a significant outlook,” Johnson said. A warning that a “tornado outbreak” was “likely” was issued on Friday. On Saturday, at least five tornadoes touched down in Iowa – including a couple of EF2 twisters that caused extensive damage in Creston and Thurman in the southwest section of the state. Smaller tornadoes were reported close to Council Bluffs, near the Oskaloosa airport and near New Virginia in south-central Iowa. Johnson said forecasters are trying to encourage people to take weather warnings seriously.

“We’ve had, unfortunately, a lot of bad tornadoes across the United States in the last two years. Some of the findings from our assessments after these storms has been that people are often too optimistic if they’re in the path of the serious storm – thinking the storm is going to hit somebody else,” Johnson said. “Our purpose with all of this is to try to get people to heed the warnings and take cover.” Despite the warnings, many residents of Creston were surprised by the severity of the storm that swept through their town. The twister dropped down so fast that it went undetected on radar and officials were not able to sound tornado sirens. Johnson said the “rain-wrapped” tornado wasn’t spotted until his office started hearing damage reports.

“We had an amateur radio spotter in that area who reported hail at about the time of the tornado. They didn’t mention the tornado because they couldn’t see it,” Johnson said. “Coupled with that, the evidence of (a tornado) on radar was equally weak. It’s one of those cases where it was unfortunate, but that does happen occasionally in this type of an event.” Six people were injured in the Creston tornado, one of them critically. There were no serious injuries in the tiny town of Thurman, although that EF2 twister destroyed at least 14 homes while causing serious damage to 28 other homes.

(Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County say a Red Oak woman was arrested Monday afternoon, on a theft charge. 34-year old Julie Crystal Fisher was taken into custody at around 3:45-p.m., on a charge of 4th degree theft. Fisher was booked into the Montgomery County Jail and held on $1,000 cash bond.