(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – Officials with the Council Bluffs Police Department reports a man experiencing what was described as a “mental health crisis,” walked into a church, armed with a long gun and a handgun this (Monday) afternoon. Officers responded to the scene at 300 S. 9th Street, a little after 12 Noon.   At the time of the incident there were no services going on and the few occupants who were in the church exited leaving the man in the building alone.

Arriving officers made contact with the subject and a negotiator established a line of communication with him.  A perimeter was established around the immediate area of the incident.  The roadways were shut down to all traffic and neighbors were advised to shelter in place.  After about one-hour of negotiation with the man, he surrendered to police.  The individual was detained and transported to the hospital for a mental evaluation.

There were no injuries.  At this time the name of the subject was being withheld by authorities due to this being a mental health issue.  He will be cited for discharge of a firearm in the city limits and disorderly conduct.

NO FURTHER INFORMATION IS BEING RELEASED AT THIS TIME

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic will meet 5:30-p.m. Wed., Sept. 4th, in their chambers at City Hall. On their agenda, is:

• An Order to approve an Engineering Agreement with Snyder and Associates, for the 2025 Street Improvements Project. City Administrator John Lund says the non-west 22nd St. projects for next Spring, Summer and Fall, are projected to cost more than $2.1-million. They include 66 street improvement projects, including overlays for the downtown area. 2025, Lund says, is the first year of the new cycle of street improvement projects in the City’s 10-year CIP (Capital Improvement Plan), and should be financed by the LOST (Local Option Sales Tax) Street revenues, which will not impact the Debt Service Levy, and not require property taxes service for the debt.
• The Council will act on passing the Second Reading of an ordinance “Vacating the 66′ wide Street Right-Of-Way (ROW), a parcel .7 of an acre. The First Reading was passed following a public hearing, on August 21st.
• The Atlantic City Council will act on approving a second pay application (for nearly $56,000) to Hydro-Klean, LLC, for the 2024 Sanitary Sewer Rehab project – Ultra Violet Cured In Place Pipe (CIIP) lining project. The total cost of the project was $91,500. The first payment of $30,975 was approved by the Council on August 21st.

The Council’s next meeting will take place on Monday, Sept 16th, instead of the regular Wednesday meeting on the 18th, due to the Annual Iowa League of Cities Conference.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa County Recorder’s Association plans to ask legislators to raise the fees they may charge for the documents they provide. Dickinson County Recorder Ann Ditsworth is the group’s vice president. “Since 1985, our fees have been the same,” Ditsworth says, “and so we have been studying the ways we could best advance that level.” Under current law, county recorders may charge seven dollars for the first page and five dollars for each additional page of a document. The association plans to ask legislators to raise the fee to 10 dollars per page.

“One of the things that we are most focused on for a fee increase is to be able to sustain the Iowa Land Record Repository, which we created in the early 2006 range and since then have continued to develop and maintain and add documents to,” she says. “…Every mortgage, every deed is going to this website that is one spot for all of the state of Iowa.” Ditsworth says the fees would be used to support the website and help county recorders update software.

“Since the time of computerization, naturally software has changed and so that is a part of how we preserve documents,” Ditsworth says. “Historic preservation is a large part of what we do because our documents are part of the American dream.”

County recorders also maintain copies of birth, death and marriage records and assists the state by registering boats and snowmobiles as well as all-terrain vehicles and off-road vehicles.

(Radio Iowa) – A University of Iowa clinic is offering free, short-term mental health counseling to rural Iowans who have limited or zero access to it, in addition to substance use prevention and treatment. U-I psychology professor Martin Kivlighan is co-director of the Telepsychology Training Clinic. He says they’re also providing a learning platform to teach the next generation of mental health professionals, who are in very short supply.

“It serves two purposes,” Kivlighan says. “It helps to train the future workforce within the state, while also providing really high quality services to folks who are in need of those.” Nearly 90-percent of Iowa counties are considered mental health care professional shortage areas by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which ranks Iowa 46th in the nation in the number of psychologists per capita.

Prof. Martin Kivlighan (UI photo)

“There’s a lot of different factors that are contributing to the workforce shortage,” Kivlighan says. “What we’re focusing on is training. That’s where we feel like we can make the biggest impact. So we’re just trying to increase access to training, increase the quality of training, and hopefully keep folks here in Iowa, where they’re coming from, to go back and serve their communities.” In a recent success story, Kivlighan says one of the clinic’s third-year doctoral students has announced she plans to return to her hometown in rural Kossuth County to open a counseling practice after graduating.

“She is just a wonderful advocate of rural mental health. As soon as she’s a licensed psychologist, she plans to go back there and take over the family farm as well as open up a practice to offer services to that community,” Kivlighan says. “So, it’s really rewarding, and it’s great to see this pipeline serving the purpose that we’re hoping that it continues to serve.” They’re encountering no one who’s averse to the technology, as he says the pandemic taught many of us how to use and be comfortable with video chats on our computers or phones.

“I think we all know we’re living in a really technological era right now, and 99% of folks own a smartphone, so it really is something that’s just become part of our everyday life,” Kivlighan says. “Where we do run into some issues is areas that might not have broadband internet.”

Rural Iowans who’d like to use the free service can find a contact phone number and email address at the website:
https://education.uiowa.edu/research/research-centers-and-research-initiatives/rural-psychology-collaborative