The search continues for an assistant to Atlantic City Administrator John Lund. Lund told the City Council, Wednesday, applications for the position closed last Friday. He says there were 23 applicants, but two applicants were submitted late, so only 21 candidates remain to be scored. Interviews are expected to be conducted next week.

Lund said also a rezoning application has been filed for the 3rd and Birch Street area. The request is for the area to be reclassified as Residential [R-3] instead of Light Industrial, so people can receive loans needed to improve their properties. The move would make the area contiguous with other R-3 zones in the area. The Planning and Zoning Commission is considering the request, as well as the vacating of a “phantom” alley in the same area. The Council will hear their recommendation and that of interim City Attorney Dave Wiederstein, during a future meeting.

In other business, Mayor Dave Jones said since the Highway 6/7th Street reconstruction project in Atlantic is falling behind due to the weather, and the road likely won’t be opened for another 3-to 4-weeks, motorists will need to exercise caution when dropping kids off at, and picking them up from, school. , and be especially careful in the area of 10th and Olive and 10th and Plum Streets, where traffic flow is normally the heaviest, when school is in session.

School begins Aug. 24th. Jones says while there haven’t been any major problems right now, when school begins, parents and students should expect to leave early, be patient, and watch out for kids crossing the street, especially in the area of 10th and Olive, near the Washington Elementary School.

Security is always an important issue at Iowa’s 99 county courthouses and one aging building in far southwest Iowa is battling a persistent invader — bats. The attic of the Fremont County Courthouse in Sidney had a few holes and that’s all it took for the flying rodents to gain access and spread throughout the building, according to county supervisor’s chairman Randy Hickey. “There were a few in some of the offices,” Hickey says, laughing. “That scares the heck out of people, when you see a bat flying around.”

Hickey says the bats likely migrated from the former Sidney United Methodist Church nearby. “What happened is they’re tearing that church down north of us,” Hickey says. “Some of them got in. There were going in there and the custodian was going in, plugging holes. So, we’re trying to get it plugged off. There might have been some that got in there and if he (the custodian) plugged it off, they were flying around in there.” Hickey says it’s easy for the pointy-eared mammals to slip through courthouse’s spaces and holes.

“A bat’s just like a little mouse,” he said. “It can go in a little hole anywhere. He was up there, plugging all the holes he could plug up in the attic, making sure they couldn’t get in.” It’s not the first time the creatures have invaded the courthouse. “We’ve had a little bit of a problem in the years past with bats in there,” he said. “Their migration time is right now. We’re just watching it. We haven’t had any in there for a while, so, the custodian is watching it and making sure.”

The Fremont County Courthouse was built in 1889 and was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

(Radio Iowa)

Police responding to an incident of assault Wednesday evening in Red Oak, arrested 46-year old Lynn Kenneth Houtchens, of Red Oak. Houtchens was taken into custody at around 5:40-p.m. in the 500 block of E. Market Street, and charged with Serious Domestic Abuse Assault. He was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail, pending an appearance before a magistrate.