(Atlantic, Iowa) – A public hearing on the adoption of the FINAL Fiscal Year 2025 City of Atlantic Budget will be held Wednesday evening. The hearing takes place as part of a regularly scheduled meeting of the Atlantic City Council.During their session, Mayor Grace Garrett will administer the Oath of Office to Atlantic Police Officer Kelby Smith. Afterward, the Council will hear a presentation from local Trees Forever representative Dolly Bergman, with regard to a recent award. The Mayor is then expected to sign an Arbor Day Proclamation.

In other business, the Council will act on:

• A resolution “fixing the date of meeting for a public hearing on the receipt and approval of proposals for the disposal and development of certain City-owned Real Property in the Southeast Urban Renewal District.”
• The first reading of an Ordinance pertaining to RAGBRAI commercial and non-profit vendor booth permits, clean-up deposits, electrical service and the use of motorized vehicles in event venue areas. The Ordinance, when passed, would be in effect until 5-p.m. July 23rd, 2024. The event will take place in Atlantic July 22nd and 23rd.
• A Resolution “Setting the date for a public hearing on a proposed Ordinance, vacating the street located between 3009 Palm Street and 3101 Palm Street.
• A Resolution “Adopting the wages for Seasonal/Part-Time Parks & Recreation and Airport Employees”
• and a Resolution “Setting Salaries for Appointed Officers and Employees of the City of Atlantic,” for the Fiscal Year that runs from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.

The Council is also expected to act on approving Orders pertaining to a Grant Management Services Agreements and a Development Agreement – with SWIPCO – for an Upper Story Rehab Grant for 300 Chestnut Street, and a Community Catalyst Grant for 207 Chestnut Street. They are also expected to hold the first reading of an Ordinance Amending the City’s Ordinances, with regard to the “Abatement of Nuisance[s] by Written Notice of Collection Costs,” followed by a waiving of the second reading, and a holding of the third and final reading.

They will also review, and then likely act on approving, the contract and bonds for the Sunnyside Park Splash Pad Project.

A PDF of the Council’s meeting packet is available here: City Council Agenda Packet Attachments 04-17-2024-min

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two men from Nebraska were arrested on separate charges over the past few days. On Sunday (April 14), 29-year-old Mauricio Davila, of Bellevue, NE, was arrested in Mills County for Public Intoxication. Davila was arrested at around 7:08-a.m. in the area of 221st St. and Barrus Road. His bond was set at $300.

And, at around 11:25-p.m. Friday, Mills County Deputies arrested 58-year-old Jerry Lee Combs, Sr., of Omaha, NE, following a traffic stop on 180th Street. Combs was taken into custody for OWI/1st offense, and Reckless Driving. His bond was set at $1,300.

ELDORA, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) reports that at around 5:27-p.m., Sunday, Police in Eldora and Hardin County Sheriff’s Deputies, responded to a 911 call from the 800 block 12th Street in Eldora. The caller reported someone had been shot. Upon arrival, officers placed a 12-year-old male into custody. A 13-year-old female was found deceased at the residence.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation was called to assist and the investigation remains ongoing. Upon completion of the investigation, all information will be forwarded to the Hardin County Attorney’s Office for review.

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department says there were two arrests over the weekend, and one reported theft. Saturday evening, 30-year-old James Dean Michelson, of Woden, Iowa, was arrested at Creston Union County LEC. Michelson was charged on a Polk County Warrant with Escape from Fort Des Moines, a Department of Corrections Warrant for Escape Fort Des Moines, and two counts Possession of Controlled Substance-Methamphetamine 3rd Offense. He was being held in the Union County Jail, awaiting extradition to Polk County.

A little after 2-a.m., Sunday, 25-year-old Emanuel Artistides Cisneros, of Texas, was arrested at 303 W. Adams, in Creston. Cisneros was charged with OWI 1st Offense. He was later released on a $1,000 cash or surety bond.

Sunday, night, a woman from Creston reported to police that someone entered her unlocked vehicle while parked behind her residence in the 800 block of W. Mills Street. Her purse, with $100 cash was stolen, as well as two debit cards, her car keys, and a cellular device. The loss was estimated at $300.

(Waterloo, Iowa) – Officials with the Iowa Department of Corrections, Sunday, said 20-year-old Daeonnis Gates, who was convicted of Intimidation with a Dangerous Weapon and Willful Injury in Black Hawk County, failed to report back to the Waterloo Residential Correctional Facility as required, Saturday. Gates stands six-feet tall and weighs 188-pounds. He was admitted to the work release facility on March 12th, 2024.

Persons with information on Gates’s whereabouts should contact local police.

Daeonnis Javir Gates (I-DOC photo)

For more information on the state’s work release program, please see Iowa Code 904.901-904.910

(Elk Horn, Iowa) – The Danish Windmill is continuing its It Takes A Village fundraiser. All tour admissions generated on Sundays in April will be donated to local daycare facility, Kids in the Village. General admission is $5.00 per person for those ages 13 and up, and free for kids age 12 and under. Tour the windmill for a good cause. View ther new exhibits and see the windmill in action. If there is enough wind, we will even be grinding.

The Windmill has partnered with local businesses to ensure food options for each Sunday. On April 21, Master Griller’s food truck will be down at the windmill from 11 – 2 selling brisket and pulled pork sandwiches with cheesy potatoes and baked beans. On April 28, Spartan Pizza’s food truck will be at the windmill from 11 – 5 serving their signature wood-fire pizzas and their limited special, the Viking! Enjoy a great meal outside with the windmill turning in the breeze.

In addition to tours of the windmill, there will also be some Vikings giving tours and demonstrations in the Vikinghjem. Axe throwing kits will be out there, too. All that and more, on Sunday April 21 and April 28. Come tour the windmill and help raise funds for “Kids in the Village,” a vital organization in the Danish Villages.

(Radio Iowa) – Supply chain experts say the bridge collapse that closed the Port of Baltimore last month likely will -not- have a major impact on Midwestern manufacturers, even though it could be the end of May before the port reopens. Frank Montabon, a professor of supply chain management at Iowa State University, says farmers buying equipment could see cost increases related to the collapse, but the average consumer likely won’t, as firms adjust their supply chains. “That gets to the idea of resiliency. Can you deal with some sort of shock?” Montabon says. “Some companies are great at it and have figured that out very well. Some companies, for whatever reasons, they don’t want to take the time and energy to be ready for that.”

Henrik Sternberg, also an I-S-U professor of supply chain management, says domestic impact from the collapse will be small, but overseas may be a different story.  “What this means is that the lead time to the overseas customers will get roughly three times longer,” Sternberg says, “and with a longer lead time, then for some time, the products will be less competitive.”

The Maryland port moved nearly 81-billion-dollars in foreign-bound cargo last year, part of which came from major ag equipment manufacturers like C-N-H Industrial and John Deere. Replacing the bridge may cost 400-million dollars and take several years.

(Radio Iowa) – Advocates who help refugees resettle in the state of Iowa say there’s a critical need for health care providers. Nick Wuertz is the Director of Immigrant & Refugee Community Services for Lutheran Services in Iowa and says eleven agencies are helping resettle 25-hundred people across the state, which is more than last year.“We do see additional challenges for newcomers, who don’t speak the language and are learning how to navigate insurance and all of these things,” Wuertz says. He says most refugees are coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, and Burma. Wuertz says there is a shortage of physicians, dentists, and especially mental health workers who can treat refugees.

Fatiya Adam is a native of Ethiopia who came to the United States 20 years after spending a decade in a refugee camp in Kenya. She now is a case worker and knows the challenges first-hand. “It changed my life because I put myself in their shoes. Coming from a different country and then now help those people. I understand what they are going through because we all go through a different trauma,” she says. Adam says there are a couple of issue that seem to be the same for all refugees. “Language and than culture shock, just because we look different, and people just don’t understand. Everybody who comes has a different experience,” Adam says.

Adams and several dozen others attended a conference at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City Friday on how to help achieve cultural awareness in health care.