(Atlantic, Iowa) – During a City Council meeting last month, City Administrator John Lund announced a new, “Welcome to Atlantic” sign was finished and was ready to be installed on the City’s east side. All they were waiting for was warmer weather. Mother Nature cooperated, and on Wednesday afternoon (April 24th), the sign was set in-place by staff from JJ Design.

(Photo by Jennifer Nichols- courtesy of the Atlantic News Telegraph)

During the Council’s meeting, Lund had shown photos of the sign and the pedestal that it would be placed on. He said at the time, the photos doesn’t show how “massive” the sign is.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – The Community Foundation for Western Iowa and SHARE Iowa, today (Thursday), announced Ruth Kreger, volunteer with “Share My Smile,” as the second annual Do-Gooder of the Year award winner.  Do Good Days Is April 24 – April 27^th. During Do Good Days, SHARE Iowa and the Community Foundation for Western Iowa encourage community members and nonprofit organizations to honor what doing good means to them.

Falling on National Volunteer Week, a major focus for Do Good Days this year is volunteerism. SHARE Iowa, an initiative of the Community Foundation for Western Iowa, provided online educational opportunities for nonprofits and presented the second annual “Do-Gooder of the Year” award. All nonprofit organizations participating on the SHARE Iowa platform were encouraged to nominate their volunteers or “Do-Gooders” of the year. Share My Smile nominated Ruth Kreger for the award.

According to the nomination, Ruth has been volunteering since the inception of Share My Smile and is the coordinator of the Project Birthday Joy program since 2017. Every month, Ruth single-handedly prepares birthday boxes for all the foster and guardianship children enrolled in Share My Smile who will be celebrating an upcoming birthday. She shops for the items included in the boxes so that the children can have an actual birthday party, such as cake mixes, cans of frosting, fun birthday plates and napkins, plus small gift items like playing cards and the like. (Photos courtesy Catrina Trabal,Community Partnerships Manager)

Community Foundation CEO Donna Dostal presents award to Do-Gooder of the Year Ruth Kreger

From Left to Right: Share My Smile Executive Director Michelle Irions, Community Foundation for Western Iowa CEO Donna Dostal, Do-Gooder of the Year Ruth Kreger, Share My Smile Founder Chelsea Best, Share My Smile Program Specialist Michaela Harrington, Community Foundation for Western Iowa Community Partnerships Manager Catrina Trabal

Ruth Kreger, Do-Gooder of the Year

She also orders Walmart gift cards for each child. Ruth personally packs each box, addresses them, and brings them to the post office. Additionally, she also signs and addresses birthday cards for all the adopted and biological children in our program and adds a gift card to their envelope. The impact that Project Birthday Joy has on the lives of these foster children is immeasurable. Often, these children have never had a birthday party before so it’s due to Ruth’s volunteer efforts that these children are made to feel special.

Chelsea Best, founder and President of Share My Smile, says “Ruth is one of my most favorite people. She is such a dedicated and reliable volunteer – the things you just can’t teach, she has it. Ruth has the biggest heart and is one of the sweetest human beings ever.”

SHARE Iowa is a dynamic online resource for our nonprofit partners that helps them to better reach and engage with people who want to have an impact into their community by donating dollars, shopping from nonprofit wish lists, attending events, or discovering volunteer opportunities. Donna Dostal, CEO of the Community Foundation for Western Iowa, states “We created the Do-Gooder award to honor and recognize the amazing individuals like Ruth who give of their time and talents to make a difference in other people’s lives and our community. Ruth epitomizes a ‘Do-Gooder’ and is making a lasting impact in the lives of the children Share My Smile serves. We are honored to recognize her efforts.”

Go to www.sharegoodiowa.org to learn more and support nonprofit organizations making an impact in western Iowa.

SAC COUNTY, Iowa – The Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner conducted a forensic autopsy on the body discovered in Sac County on April 24, 2024. The body has been positively identified through dental records as that of 53-year-old David Schultz of Wall Lake, Iowa.

Schultz was located in a farm field in the 1900 block of Union Ave. in Sac County. Preliminary autopsy results show no signs of trauma or serious injury. Further autopsy test results are pending. Authorities do not suspect foul play in the death of Schultz, who was first reported missing by his wife on Nov. 21, 2023.

Schultz left his Wall Lake home around 7 p.m. on Nov. 20. He went to pick up a load of pigs from a hog confinement in the Eagle Grove area. He left around 10:5o p.m. Video footage shows Shultz at a truck stop around 11:15 p.m. on Nov. 20. After leaving the truck stop, his semi-truck was seen heading west on Iowa Department of Transportation cameras.

Cell phone data shows Schultz’s phone traveling to the location where the semi-truck was found — the intersection of D-15 and N-14. Data suggests the semi-truck may have been there since 12:40 a.m. on Nov. 21. The morning of Nov. 21, Schultz didn’t drop off his load of pigs at the Wieckman hog buying station in Sac City. Sarah Schultz, David Schultz’s wife, reported him missing that afternoon after learning he did not show up to Wieckman’s.

A Sac County Secondary Road employee reported that a semi-truck had been at the intersection of D-15 and N-14 since early morning. Responding deputies determined the semi-truck to be Schultz’s. His phone and wallet were found inside. His semi-truck, with a load of pigs, was found at an intersection near Sac City with his wallet and cell phone inside.

The United Cajun Navy, a search and rescue group based in Louisiana, organized a volunteer search. Almost 200 volunteers participated in the initial search that covered more than 100,000 acres.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Association of Realtors report for March shows buyers had more homes to choose from. The Association’s statewide housing analyst, Les Sulgrove, says that’s important. “Listing inventory is up about 25 percent over the same time a year ago in fact you know the first of April we’ve got over 62-hundred homes on the market across the state,” Sulgrove says. “So that’s really good news for home buyers, because in the past they’ve all been fighting for the same house.”

The number of homes sold in March was down by just under two percent. Sulgrove says that’s an indicator that the market is back to pre-covid conditions. “Sales are slightly down compared to the last couple of years but I think that’s the key right there is that you know we’re no longer in really that COVID market where everything is selling extremely fast,” he says.
Sulgrove says getting back to more of a normal pattern is good for everyone.

“It gives homebuyers that chance to think about our decision besides instead of just making one on the spot, it also encourages homeowners that are sitting on the sidelines waiting to either jump into market as a seller themselves, they have that confidence knowing that you know they’re not going to maybe be out of a home if they sell their so quickly,” Sulgrove says. Interest rates are higher than they were a few years ago, but he says right now the key is those rates have been stable.

“A lot of homebuyers you know don’t want to make a decision when rates are either going up or going down, but as long as they’re kind of in that same stability that gives them the confidence to know what their payments going to be without the fear of you know moving target,” he says. Sulgrove says “As soon as school gets out homeowners have a chance to really focus on selling their home and like you said making that move between now and the beginning of school,” Sulgrove says. “So this is our busiest time of the year and I don’t expect any difference in that moving forward.”

He says there is more optimism now in the housing market then there has been as they move forward this spring.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is firing new criticism at the Pentagon after an audit found tens of thousands of incidents where government workers inappropriately used federal pandemic dollars for personal expenses. Grassley, a Republican, says it’s a “slap in the face to the taxpayer” that millions of dollars in military spending is being so blatantly misspent.

“The Defense Department is the only agency, let me emphasize, the only agency of the gigantic federal bureaucracy that when they get an audit, they never get their audit certified,” Grassley says. “I’ve written so many times that they don’t have a financial control system.”

Grassley is demanding accountability from the Pentagon after an Inspector General’s report found DOD employees used government purchase cards to make more than 110,000 purchases, while more than 43,000 of those were “inappropriately justified as pandemic-related expenses.” Grassley says more than 57,000 of the orders lacked proper documentation, “raising the risk of additional unsupported purchases.” The report stretched from March of 2020 to January of 2022.

“The financial control system didn’t check on pandemic money that was supposed to be used for the pandemic and it ended up being used for personal use,” Grassley says. The senator says the questionable purchases and “irresponsible accounting” featured a range of items, including musical equipment, dental supplies, plumbing services, vehicle repair and even Nordic skiing machines. Grassley says the Pentagon has a long history of misspending.

“Something came up yesterday at one of my county meetings here,” Grassley says. “Somebody said, ‘Do you remember the $2,000 toilet seat?’ Well, it was really a $700 toilet seat, but that’s been 30 years ago.”

Grassley says when it comes to catching fraud, “the DOD’s internal controls are a complete failure.”