Officials with the Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company announced today (Wednesday) that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with The Coca-Cola Company for expanded territory rights. The bottler will assume territories in the area which surrounds the distribution centers located in Mason City, Ames, Spirit Lake, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Ottumwa, in Iowa, and the Quad Cities, in Illinois. Expected transition dates are subject to the parties reaching Definitive Agreements. Financial terms were not disclosed.

In a statement, Kirk Tyler, President, Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company, said “We are proud to expand our relationship with The Coca-Cola Company to provide services to an even greater area in Iowa and parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri. Our employees take a great deal of pride in serving our customers, and we look forward to implementing this new operating model to further meet the needs of our consumers and business partners.”

Sandy Douglas, President of Coca-Cola North America, said “The progress announced today continues our efforts to balance national scale and local capability, and will help us increase our leadership and competitive advantage in the U.S. business.”

The Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company has produced and delivered Coca-Cola brands to Central and Southwest Iowa, for over 100 years.  The company, with more than 180 employees, is owned and operated by the Tyler family, headquartered in Atlantic, with a distribution center in Waukee.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports a Malvern man was arrested Monday. 42-year old Jerry Lee Dawson was arrested on a warrant for Failure To Appear on an original Driving While Barred, charge. Dawson’s bond was set at $5,000.

Teenage drivers may have more things to distract them when they’re behind the wheel than ever before. Mick Mulhern, with the Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, says parents play a critical role in educating their kids about the many dangers of driving long before their kids are old enough to get a license. “I try to encourage (parents) to drive with their seat belt on and don’t use a cell phone, set a positive example, because that is where these kids are learning to drive initially,” Mulhern said.

This is National Teen Driver Safety Week. Although it can be difficult for police to enforce, it is illegal in Iowa for people under 18 to use a cell phone while driving. Mulhern says while cell phone use is a factor in a lot of crashes involving teens, that may not be the biggest problem. “Multiple passengers in the car with teen (drivers) is creating probably the biggest distraction because, inevitably, nobody is really watching the road,” Mulhern said.

Mulhern travels the state to talk to young people about the key components of driving. He notes simply lecturing or showing “shock and awe” type videos or photos of crashes don’t seem to work with today’s generation of kids. “I use an interactive computer desk-top driving simulator to engage them. You have to respect that they’re smart and studious,” Mulhern said. “Lecturing and things of that nature don’t seem to work with teens. They’ve got to be involved and they’ve got to be able to see the common sense factor.”

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 14-18 year olds in the U.S. and in Iowa.

(Radio Iowa)

Morningside College in Sioux City and Martin’s Airfield in South Sioux City are partnering on a new program to train commercial drone operators. The Federal Aviation Administration is requiring anyone who wants to be paid to fly a drone to obtain a commercial rating. Tom Fredricksen is an F-A-A certified ground instructor for the program. “Our program is designed to not only get them to flying drones, but to understand air spaces, understand communications between towers and airplanes. And to get them at least three hours of flying in an airplane, along with the drone courses Morningside has mapped out.

The course is for commercial operators –not for the hobby type of drones you can buy at the store. “The hobby drone operator is limited to visual site and 400 feet above ground level,” Fredericksen says. “However, there are more sophisticated drones out there that’ll fly 16-thousand feet and fly at 120 miles-an-hour. And they can carry about 55 pounds of cargo and can stay up in the air for 55 minutes.”

The federal government announced plans Monday to require recreational drone users to register their vehicles as there have been more and more reports of drones flying too close to airports. Fredricksen says the rule should help. He says the regulation will be good as their job is to make sure there aren’t any collisions and everyone understands what is going on in the air.

Fredericksen says he’s seen ads offering an annual salary of 135-thousand dollars for F-A-A certified commercial drone operators.

(Radio Iowa)

The company known for being an internet search engine jumped into a new arena in central Iowa Tuesday, with the expansion of Google Express. The service started in eastern Iowa last month and now extends to Des Moines, Ames, Osceola, Mason City and dozens of other communities as far west as Atlantic and Carroll.

Google spokeswoman Rebecca Rutkoff says it’s an overnight delivery service “with lots of great national merchants to help people shop on their favorite stores online in a single place and get their goods overnight, the next day.” The list of stores includes: Walgreens, Barnes & Noble, Toys”R”Us, Whole Foods, Staples and a dozen more. Rutkoff thinks the service will be popular with Iowans.

“People love having their favorite products from their favorite stores delivered the very next day and merchants love finding new customers and extending their reach beyond their typical geographic reach,” Rutkoff says. “People use it for a variety of things. If you’re a busy mom who has to suddenly get snacks for the soccer game, you can go online and get that from CostCo and have it delivered the very next day.”

The company is banking on people being willing to pay a little more for the immediacy of having next-day delivery. “You can sign up for an unlimited delivery membership for $95 a year or you can do an a la carte delivery for $4.99 per store,” Rutkoff says. “There’s also some three-month trials available for new members. Go to Google Express and find out all the information about all the different options.”

Rutkoff says they hope to go statewide with the service soon. While there were rumors months ago that drones might eventually be employed to fly packages to our front doors, Rutkoff assures, this service will be exclusively humans driving and delivering via traditional motor vehicles.

(Radio Iowa)