The Cass County Sheriff’s Office late Friday afternoon reported four arrests this past week. Two people were taken into custody Thursday (May 10th): 27-year old William C. Kautter, of Omaha, was arrested on an Atlantic Police Department warrant for Threat of Terrorism and False Report to Law Enforcement. Kautter was booked into the Cass County Jail where he was being held on $25,500.00 cash bond. And, 28-year old William Daniel Mendez, of Grant, was arrested on a District Court Warrant for Probation Violation. Mendez was taken to the Cass County Jail where he was being held on $5,000.00 bond.

On Wednesday, Cass County Sheriff’s deputies arrested: 59-year old Deborah Ann Thomas, of Atlantic, on a charge of Public Intoxication. Thomas was booked into the Cass County Jail where she pled guilty before the magistrate the following day. And, 25-year old Michael John Carroll, Jr.,  of Avoca,  turned himself in at the Cass County Jail on a District Court warrant for Failure to Appear to Serve Time. Carroll was booked into the Cass County Jail. He will be released upon completion of his sentenced time served.

The Griswold School District’s Board of Education received some welcomed news during a special meeting held Friday evening: the bid for the High School/Middle School re-roofing project came in roughly half of what the early estimates indicated. Prior to accepting the bid, a public hearing was held concerning the project, during which Superintendent Dana Kunze read a letter from officials with Estes Construction and FRK Architects with regard to their recommendations.

The firms, after having received a number of bids and completing a pre-contract award interview with the apparent low bidder for the project, recommended accepting a bid from the R.L. Craft Roofing Company, in Denison. Board President Steve Baier said he was very pleased with Craft’s bid of $669, 024, which was much less than the $1.2-million dollar anticipated cost of the project. The Board voted unanimously to accept the bid.

In other business, the Board approved the resignations of: Chris Elwood, from his teaching and coaching positions; Erin Amelien, from her teaching and coaching positions, and Gena Rush from her Para-professional position. And, after reviewing three parking lot redesign proposals from Bishop Engineering’s Joel Jackson, narrowed the design down to one, but made several changes and/or additions to the plan.

A final draft of the plan, included the changes, will be presented to the Board during a special “Electronic” meeting (conducted via conference call and e-mail), next Wednesday evening. Regardless of the final plan design, everyone on the Board and Jackson agreed, there will be a “six-week” learning curve, for everyone to get used to the new layout, once construction is complete.

Members of the Harlan Municipal Utilities Board of Trustees reached an agreement Thursday night on how to increase HMU’s water utility revenue. In a tough but necessary decision, the board had to decide on how to increase the water utility revenue by 27 percent or $379,317 annually. Chief Executive Officer Tom Gaffigan says the increase is all for the state revolving fund for the Water Treatment Plant. He says the difficult part was figuring out how to fairly distribute the cost. Gaffigan presented the board with 8 options. After much discussion from all the board members, the board voted on Option #6, which was to assign 50 percent of the required revenue adjustment to the service charge or separate bill line item special charge and the remaining 50 percent of the required revenue adjustment to the commodity charge. Essentially, Gaffigan says this will evenly divide the needed $379,317.

He says half that amount, $189,658.50 will be obtained by increasing everybody’s water rates.  It won’t be a service charge though. It will simply be a line item on the bill. The separate bill line item charge will be a monthly charge of $6.55 per customer. The charge will be introduced to customers on July 1^st, 2012. The other half of the money will come from the Commodity charge. Whereas the line item of $6.55 per month will go directly to the new wastewater treatment plant, the Commodity charge is what residents and businesses pay per gallon of water. The costs will be spread over all customer classifications. It reflects what others use in water, so it becomes clear everyone is paying their fair share. 

The Harlan Municipal Utilities Board also adopted resolution number 60. The resolution was to approve the new service rules of the municipal gas utility. Gaffigan explained in the meeting the service rules are rules and regulations to meet existing federal guidelines and not a rate or cost increase. After a few quick updates on the Water Treatment Plant and the Operations Center, the Board then went into a closed meeting to discuss the new CEO candidate. Once the closed session was over, the HMU board approved Darrell Wenzel as the new Chief Executive Officer for Harlan Municipal Utilities. Wenzel will take over for the retiring Gaffigan, who says his replacement is well qualified for the job. Wenzel begins in his new position on Monday, May 21^st.

(courtesy Joel McCall/KNOD)

A pit bull that was attacking another dog last week was shot to death by the victim dogs’ owner. According to the Guthrie Center Times, the incident occurred at around 8:30-a.m. Thursday, May 3^rd, at a trailer court on Ashton Street, in Guthrie Center. Guthrie Center Police Chief Mike Herbert told the paper a pit bull owned by Melissa Brooks, was loose and got into the yard of her neighbor Steven Leivas, where the animal attacked his dog. Herbert said it was not the first time the pit bull attacked Levias’ dog.

Despite attempts by several individuals to stop the dogs’ attack, the pit bull refused to release its bite on Levias’ dog. Herbert says that’s when Leivas enetered his home, came back out with a shotgun, and killed the pit bull. Herbert said Leivas cooperated with authorities following the incident. He was subsequently charged with discharging a firearm inside city limits. Brooks was not cited in connection with the incident.

An Atlantic man was arrested early this (Friday) morning on an OWI charge, in Audubon County. The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reports 52-year old William Gregory Welter was taken into custody at around 2:30-a.m., following a traffic stop on Highway 71, near 345^th Street. Welter was brought to the Audubon County Jail and later released, after appearing before the magistrate.

The Atlantic Police Department reports the arrest Thursday of four individuals. 23-year old Damion Selders, of Carson, turned himself-in to authorities.  Selders had been wanted on a Cass County warrant for Criminal Mischief in the 3rd Degree. He was booked into the Cass County Jail, posted bond, and was released.

And, taken into custody Thursday on charges of Public Intoxication, were: 18-year old’s Tyler Doll and Joseph Riesberg, along with 20-year old Michael McConnell. All three are from Atlantic. Each was booked into the Cass County Jail and held pending an appearance before the magistrate.