(Atlantic, Iowa) – Members of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education will meet 9-a.m. Wednesday. Their expected brief session takes place in the Central Office at the Achievement Center. On the agenda for action is a Tech Department, Dark Fiber Lease and Services Agreement with United Private Network, LLC.

Immediately following the special session, the board will enter into a closed session “to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance or discharge is being considered when necessary, to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual’s reputation, and that individual requests a closed session” under Iowa Code.

(Creston, Iowa) – The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports one-person was injured in a single-vehicle rollover accident, a little before 9-p.m., Monday. 31-year-old Brandon David Frey, of Shannon City, suffered suspected minor/non-incapacitating injuries, when the 2005 Ford F-350 pickup he was driving south on Pole Road, went into the northbound lane and continued into the east ditch. The pickup went airborne over a fence and into a field before rolling over and coming to rest on its wheels. Frey was partially trapped in the vehicle and was unable to get out on his own.

He was transported by ambulance to the Greater Regional Medical Center in Creston, for treatment of head injuries. Frey was charged with OWI/1st offense, Failure to provide proof of insurance, Failure to Maintain Control, and Driving while license suspended. His pickup was totaled, with the damage estimated at $15,000. The fence, owned by a person from Creston, sustained $100 damage during the crash.

In a separate incident, no injuries were reported following a collision a little after 10-a.m., Monday, at Ohio Avenue and 5th Street, in Union County. The Sheriff’s Office says a 2008 Mercury Mariner SUV driven by 53-year-old Melanie Wolf, of Creston, was turning left from Ohio Avenue and stopped at the stop sign before proceeding forward. She didn’t see a 2022 Peterbilt tractor trailer approaching from the east on 5th Street, and driven by 56-year-old Dennis Headings, of Lorimor. Wolf panicked and stopped in the middle of the road and then attempted to move forward.

She didn’t advance soon enough, and was struck by the truck n the rear driver’s side. The impact caused both curtain airbags to deploy. The SUV spun around and ended-up in the north ditch. Authorities say Headings tried to stop but was unsuccessful. Damage from the collision amounted to $3,500. No citations were issued.

Des Moines, Iowa – Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has selected Brig. Gen. William F. McClintock as the Deputy Adjutant General of the Iowa National Guard. The Governor says “General McClintock’s extensive experience and proven leadership, alongside General Osborn, will ensure that the Iowa National Guard is ‘Always Ready’. With his nearly four decades of service, including his roles as Assistant Adjutant General and Army Chief of Staff, I know General McClintock can help Iowa navigate this increasingly unpredictable world, no matter what comes our way.”

McClintock previously served as Assistant Adjutant General and as the full-time Army Chief of Staff. McClintock graduated and received commission from the Officer Candidate School Program, Iowa Military Academy, at Camp Dodge.  His military assignments include: Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, Company Commander, Battalion Operations Officer, Battalion Commander and Troop Commander.  He was the Director of Human Resources for Iowa of both the Army and Air National Guard. He is a Joint Qualified Officer who served three years in an Operational Assignment at U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado. McClintock holds both a bachelor’s degree in public administration and a master’s degree in business administration from Upper Iowa University. He also holds a second master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

Brig. Gen. William F. McClintock

The adjutant general is the second highest-ranking position in the Iowa National Guard. McClintock will assist in managing more than 7,000 part-time Soldiers. Brig.  General McClintock will replace Brig. Gen. Stephen E. Osborn, who is the newly appointed Adjutant General of the Iowa National Guard.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Parks & Recreation Board, Monday, set the 2023 Sunnyside Pool Season membership fees. Parks and Rec Director Wyatt Adderton proposed the daily rate remain unchanged at $5 per day, but an increase in the Seasonal rate.

Board member Shirley Jensen asked if there will be funding available for kids whose families cannot afford the passes. Jeremy Butler said his church has donated $1,000 for however the parks board sees fit, with regard to the pool fees, with the hopes of sparking additional philanthropic donations. Shirley Jensen agreed.

In other business, the Atlantic Parks and Rec Board voted to allow Wyatt Adderton to purchase Pool-Pass software, that will help the department handle member registration, pool entry, point of sale and re-sale inventory. Parks Chair Jolene Smith said the software would be especially beneficial where the concession stand is concerned. Wyatt Adderton…

He said the program is very easy to use as far as accessibility is concerned, and pool staff should have no problem with maneuvering through the site and software. The person paying for the membership would have their profile and membership status on the system, including their photo. Hard cards are available for an extra fee. Sunnyside Pool will accept cash, and the E-Pass can also be used for concessions. Jolene Smith and Barb Barrick agreed, last year’s membership and daily fee system was a “fiasco,” and this new system should be a great leap forward.

The Board approved painting of the Sunnyside Pool buildings, including the bathhouse and pump station at 10th and Sunnyside. Adderton said they are currently getting some bids from artists to possibly put a mural on the building. The Board also approved the purchase of a new water slide at Sunnyside Pool, as long as the slide and mural costs stay within the City Administrator’s determined budget.

The Park’s Board granted James McEntaffer permission to install 1/2-mile mile markers around the Schildberg Recreation Area walking path, as part of an Eagle Scout project. They gave Frank Saddlemire permission to plant trees in Sunnyside Park. And, they approved a request for the installation of memorial benches at the Schildberg Recreation Area.

(Radio Iowa) – House Democrats are planning to push to make contraceptives, like the pill, available without a prescription. Representative Lindsay James, a Democrat from Dubuque, says pharmacists in 20 states are able to provide birth control without a doctor’s prescription. “Pharmacists especially in rural Iowa are an important resource and an important part of this equation,” James says. “They are an access point for care and can help eliminate barriers and expand access to contraception.”

In 2019, Republican Governor Kim Reynolds proposed making the pill available without a prescription, but the bill stalled in the House. This year, G-O-P lawmakers in the House and Senate are considering proposals that would still require prescriptions, but the required appointments with the prescribing doctor would be less frequent. House Democrats are also proposing an amendment to guarantee abortion rights in the Iowa Constitution along with other legislation related to reproductive health care. House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights…

“We campaigned on reproductive freedom,” Konfrst says. “It is still a crisis in this state and it’s critically important we address it.” During House debate of a wide ranging bill Republicans are considering, Democratic Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell of Ames intends to ask that Medicaid patients get one year of health coverage after childbirth rather than just 60 days. “What has been discovered is that a lot of women have problems after that 60 day time period,” Wessel-Kroeschell says, “and we have seen some maternal deaths after that time period, which is just simply tragic.”

She’ll also call for restoring Medicaid coverage for family planning and sexually transmitted disease testing at Planned Parenthood. Republican lawmakers ended state and federal funding for those services at Planned Parenthood in 2017. Key Republicans say they stand by the decision to “defund” Planned Parenthood and have no intention of reversing it.

(Radio Iowa) – A man and woman living in Wapello County have been sentenced to two years in federal prison for coercing two men from Micronesia to work in an Ottumwa meatpacking plant. A federal judge has ordered the couple to pay nearly $70,000 in restitution to the victims. According to the U.S. Justice Department, the couple are citizens of Micronesia and U.S. residents who recruited two young men from Micronesia to come to Ottumwa to work, telling them they could send money back to their families in Micronesia.

The couple pleaded guilty to withholding the workers’ passports and confiscating most of their wages. A deputy in the U.S. Justice Department says the defendants callously exploited the victims and used their power over them to profit from their hard work at the Ottumwa plant.

ANAMOSA– Due to the ongoing investigation, Anamosa State Penitentiary has been placed on restricted movement for the foreseeable future. This will limit inmate movement throughout the facility and give DOC staff the ability to conduct a large-scale search of the prison for illicit contraband. Visitation will not occur during the restricted movement period.

Two other inmates were found unresponsive in their cells and were administered Narcan on Sunday, March 19. Neither inmate required outside medical attention and both tested negative for illegal substances. Responding staff did not become ill following their encounters with these inmates. DOC has determined these cases are unrelated to the original incident that occurred on Saturday, March 18.

The original incident remains under investigation and DOC will continue to work in conjunction with the DPS Narcotics Division.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The normally non-confrontational Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department Board of Director’s meeting was just the opposite for more than 30-minutes, Monday evening. Heads began to butt as Ali Pieken with the Splash Pad Financing Committee spoke about getting a letter of support for submitting a grant application for project funding, using Shift ATL as a grant writing agency. Councilman Gerald Brink asked why the grant application wasn’t going through Parks and Rec Director Wyatt Adderton.

Pieken said going through the process of applying for a grant is a tremendous undertaking for one person.

She said a community member brought to her attention that someone on the Atlantic City Council was not behind the Splash Pad Project. She asked the Board & Mayor Grace Garrett, “Is this project a go?” Parks & Rec Board member Jeremy Butler, who is a Co-Chair on the fundraising committee, said the Committee is ready to go, but things aren’t moving forward.

Mayor Garrett said she was at a recent meeting with Butler, and didn’t understand what he meant by a “No go.”

Garrett said “The idea of having SHIFT involved to begin with was an idea and a suggestion, but I don’t think in that regard there was ever a go, because we were waiting” [on a legal clarification] to see if that would be possible. City Clerk Barb Barrick commented on what transpired during the meeting Butler referred to…

Butler said the City has three choices.

Butler at one-point stood-up and was about to leave, but then eventually sat back down.

Jeremy Butler (Standing) speaks with Mayor Garrett as he prepared to leave.

Mayor Garrett reminded Butler that she was “All about a Splash Pad”…and that “Our Council has never said they weren’t for a Splash Pad.” Ali Pieken said she has always felt support for the Parks and Rec Board for what she’s trying to accomplish, but she has not felt support from the City Council. Wyatt Adderton offered to be the Chairperson of the Fundraising Committee and an intermediary to foster communication between the Committee and City Hall. Because the Splash Pad was on the agenda for discussion only, no action was taken during the meeting.

While the City awaits a legal decision on SHIFT ATL being a funnel for grant funds, donations for the Splash Pad can be made through City Hall. We’ll have more from Monday’s Parks & Rec Board meeting later this week.

(Radio Iowa) – A study commissioned by the renewable fuels industry suggests corn prices in Iowa would drop significantly if carbon capture pipelines are not built in Iowa. “It’s like asking a farmer, a corn farmer on the corn side of their equation to take an 85% pay cut,” Shaw said during an online news conference this morning.

New federal tax credits are available for proposed pipelines that would capture carbon from Midwest ethanol plants and ship the carbon to underground storage in North Dakota and Illinois. “We are now looking at Iowa being the only…state on the map where there is still an active effort to derail these projects,” Shaw said.

A bill in the Iowa House would establish new steps pipeline developers would have to clear. Most notable is a requirement that property owners along 90% of a pipeline’s route voluntarily let developers have access to their land. The study found the price for corn could plummet by as much as 80 cents per bushel if carbon capture pipelines are connected to ethanol plants elsewhere, but not in Iowa. The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association is asking its members to lobby House members to vote against the bill.

Tim Recker, a corn farmer from Arlington, spoke during today’s news conference. He called carbon pipelines the next step for the ethanol industry. “If we don’t find favor in getting CO2 transported, I’m going to be shipping corn to my neighboring states or I’m going to be putting a lot more corn on the river system — an 80 year old lock and dam system, our rail sytem or trucking it a lot farther than I do today,” he said “and to me, that’s going backwards in our industry, not forward.”

Shaw cited part of the study which found just 6% of Iowa field corn currently leaves the state without having value added either by being used to make ethanol, fed to livestock or converted to industrial use. “If we don’t align ourselves to be profitable under the current policy and market conditions and we let the ethanol production migrate out to those areas that do, the study found…44% of our corn would leave this state without having any value added to it,” Shaw said.

Key Republican lawmakers who have proposed new regulations for the pipelines say they’re defending the rights of landowners who don’t want their land seized through the government’s eminent domain process. Other pipeline opponents question the safety of the pipelines and whether capturing carbon from ethanol plants is among the best ways to reduce greenhouse gases.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Jeffrey Kiley, Co-Founder and COO of Advantage Archives, will be at the Atlantic Public Library on Thursday, March 23 beginning at 1 pm. Kiley will demonstrate how to access and use Advantage. Jeff has a passion for history contained in the pages of old newspapers.

Advantage Archives is a business located in Cedar Rapids which serves communities across the nation. Their purpose is to digitize newspapers and other historical documents to make them accessible free online to anyone, anytime, from anywhere. Services are used by interested individuals, State & Local Governments, Libraries & Historical Societies, Newspaper Publishers, Educational Institutions, State Historical Societies, Manufacturers, Legal Professionals, and many more.

An interest in history, genealogy, past community events can be extended through Advantage. It might even settle a family disagreement about a date or event. It could be entertaining to read newspapers from the past as writing styles have changed a great deal.

Most libraries offer a link to this or similar service. Check their websites. The Atlantic Public Library offers it under Genealogy. Find information in the earliest newspaper such as Atlantic News Telegraph, 1870 to 1879.

This presentation is sponsored by Cass County Genealogical Society. There is no fee and everyone is welcome. Bring your laptop or phone to follow along.