DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A key Iowa lawmaker says there’s not enough support to advance a House measure that seeks to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa.

The Des Moines Register reports that Public Safety Committee Chairman Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, says there aren’t enough votes in the committee to advance the bill. The proposal would allow those convicted of first-degree murder to be executed by lethal injection. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965.

Baudler’s comments came after an emotional public hearing on the bill Thursday. More than a dozen people spoke, with most opposing the bill.

Baudler says he hopes a Senate version of the bill — which would apply the death penalty only to those convicted of kidnapping, sexually abusing and killing a minor — would find support in the House.

Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones, Thursday afternoon, reported a plaque with a gavel mounted will be turned over the family of a man who many years ago, served as Mayor of Atlantic.

Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones displays the plaque honoring Dan Merrick for his years of serving as Mayor, as City Administrator John Lund looks on.

The plaque was for Dan Merrick, who has since passed away. His wife Mona, used to work for the Atlantic Coca Cola Bottling Company, and his daughter works in Carroll. Jones expects to hand the plaque over to Merrick’s daughter next week, as a memento of the City’s 150th Anniversary Celebration.

In other news, City Clerk Barb Barrick said Mayor Jones has been asked to serve on the Board of Directors for the Iowa League of Cities. The annual meeting for the ILC is held this year in October, in Davenport.

A meeting was held Wednesday evening in Atlantic to discuss how to help offset future expenses that have outpaced the Cass County Landfill’s current revenue source: the tipping fees. Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones, City Administrator John Lund and City Clerk Barb Barrick sat down with members of the local media Thursday afternoon to discuss what transpired at the meeting Wednesday, which was attended by about 30 officials from around the County, the Atlantic City Council and Cass County Board of Supervisors and John Danos, the City’s Bond Attorney, who’s with the Dorsey and Whitney Law Firm in Des Moines.

Wednesday’s discussion, according to John Lund, was “To figure out how we were going to pay for the per capita fee the Landfill is levying against the municipalities and the County. Exploring what our options are.” He said at this time it appears the County will divert some of the Local Option Sales Tax or other sources of existing money to make payment for the rural residents. As far as the other incorporated cities, Lund said Lewis will use some of their franchise fee money from Mid-American Energy to pay for the city’s share. “Atlantic will just do a one-day debt service and levy that on property taxes.” Mayor Jones said “It’s going to be a tax on the citizens of Cass County, one way or another.”

The increase amounts to 38-cents per thousand dollars property valuation, since the Landfill calculated the fee for the 28-E constituent members, based on 12-dollars per household., or one-dollar per capita per month. Lund said people should notice the change on the property tax bill in January, 2019. Mayor Jones said the City of Atlantic will contribute about $85,000, rural county $42,000. Atlantic will receive its first bill and the end of the 1st Quarter, which is in Sept., 2018.

The new rate will not affect the $100 per ton tipping fee. The Landfill he says, started out being a tipping fee-based only, but it’s not enough to meet the costs of DNR requirements. Jones says Cass County has one of the highest landfill rates in the State.
The option of using the landfill as nothing more than a Transfer Station was also discussed Wednesday night. Jones said because the budget needs to be finalized by the end of March, but after that, the Landfill operators need to seriously look at making it a Transfer station, because “My gut feeling, says, in three or four-years, you’re going to come back for more money.” They have a 10-year pay-out, but they will eventually need more money. He said “It’s not a pretty situation out there, right now.”

Issues with the Cass County Landfill arose when Iowa DNR, on behalf of the EPA, ordered the Landfill to set up a “post closure” fund before the facility could close, if a leaking cell can’t be cleaned-up in a timely manner and another cell is built. That would cost at least $900,000, which is the landfill’s annual budget. They currently have only $300,000 in the bank.

With the adjusted fee structure, Jones said in 10-years they should have more than enough money to take care of the costs, but in an ideal situation, the County would take over the Landfill. That, he said, “Is not going to happen.”

A power outage affected a large area of Atlantic Municipal Utilities customers today (Thursday). Officials with AMU said the incident happened at around 11:58-a.m. and ended at around 12:25-p.m.  Atlantic Schools Superintendent Steve Barber said the District was without power this afternoon. The outage was said to have spread south for a few miles. Crews flipped a breaker switch and restored power to those affected. A cause of the outage was under investigation.

DYERSVILLE, Iowa (AP) — A 20-year-old man has told authorities that he drove onto and damaged the Iowa baseball field made famous by the 1989 “Field of Dreams” movie. Court records say Austin Pape, of Dyersville, is charged with felony criminal mischief in Dubuque County. His attorney, Todd Klapatauskas, said Thursday that Pape will plead not guilty but will work with prosecutors on resolution. He says Pape hasn’t expressed any particular grudge toward the field. It sits 2 miles outside of Dyersville.

The records say the deep gashes in the field and sprinkler damage that occurred Jan. 22 are expected to cost nearly $14,300 to repair. Thousands visit the eastern Iowa field, running around the bases and walking to the surrounding cornfields.

Red Oak Police report the arrest at around 10:16-a.m. today (Thursday), of 30-year old Charles Randall Brown, III (aka “Charlie Brown”), of Red Oak. Brown was taken into custody in the 1800 block of E. Summit Street, after Officers witnessed the man smoking marijuana in his parked vehicle, while the Officers were responding to another call. Brown was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 cash bond.