Griswold Head Girls Basketball Coach Jeff Koenck says more than 57-hundred dollars has been raised during last week’s Iowa Pride Challenge. The students this year worked to raise awareness and money for the Caps for Kids organization, as well as BrookeLynne Peterson. Caps for Kids is a non-profit organization that provides cancer patients with autographed caps from a celebrity and BrookeLynne is a 1st grader in the Griswold community who is battling kidney cancer.

Koenck says the money raised far exceeded expectations. Change Wars between all of the schools raised a little more than $3,560, and the girls’ basketball team hosted Fremont-Mills in a Junior Varsity-Varisty doubleheader on Friday, Nov. 22nd. Money was raised during the game, bringing the total amount raised to nearly $5,710.

Koenck said he is “So proud of the students, my players, the staff, and community members of Griswold. The amount of awareness and money raised for pediatric cancer is a testament to the character of our community.”

(12-p.m. News)

No injuries were reported following an accident early this (Wednesday) morning, in Atlantic. According to the Atlantic Police Department, a vehicle driven by Ashley Jensen, of Atlantic, was traveling east in the 500 block of East 8th Street at around 2-a.m., when it hit a parked trailer. The trailer, owned by George Wagner,  slid forward and hit a parked vehicle, registered to John Worth.

Atlantic Police Chief Steve Green reports a local man was arrested this (Wednesday) morning on felony drug charges. Green says a search warrant was executed at 607 West 6th Street as the result of an ongoing narcotics trafficking conspiracy. The conspiracy included the use of minors in the drug trade and the distribution of controlled substances to minors.

Taken into custody on felony charges of Distribution of a Controlled Substance to a person under the age of 18, and two-counts of sale and Possession of Marijuana, was 48-year old Richard Allen Wehrli, of Atlantic. Wehrli also faces two aggravated misdemeanor charges of Prohibited Acts, for keeping or maintaining a premises used for the distribution of controlled substances.

The investigation was a joint effort between the Atlantic Police Department and Cass County Sheriff’s Office.

Firefighters from several western Iowa departments remained on the scene of a grain bin fire east of Shelby until about 10-a.m. Wednesday, or more than 7-hours after it was first reported. Crews from Shelby, Avoca, Harlan, Minden and Defiance were called to the scene north of Interstate 80, at 33804 400th Street. Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker told the Omaha World-Herald the bin, which was worth about $30,000, contained about $60,000 in corn that was being dried. Officials say most of the corn was only damaged, and not destroyed. So it was still be used as cattle feed.

Avoca Assistant Fire Chief Keenan Martin says the blaze occurred sometime before 3-a.m., as his crew was dispatched at around 3:10-a.m.  Martin said Shelby Fire was already on the scene with pumper and tanker trucks when Avoca Fire arrived with their engine, tanker and support vehicle. He described what they saw: Heavy smoke and flames were emitting from the roof of the grain bin, and because and elevator link was hooked up, several bins around the main bin, were in danger of catching fire.

He said the situation was somewhat unusual, he said, with 20-foot high flames shooting from the roof of the bin, which held 8- to 12-thousand bushels of corn. He said it was a unique bin, in that  the dryer was on top. That allowed the fire to burn above about 75-percent of the corn being stored in the bin. The flames were coming from the top of the structure and over-shooting the roof when his crews arrived.

The structure was likely not salvageable, according to Martin. Avoca Fire was on the scene for about 6-hours. No injuries were reported. A cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

(Ric Hanson-KJAN/Joel McCall-KNOD)

The Harlan Municipal Utilities (HMU) approved a capacity agreement with the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA). In a regular meeting Tuesday, the HMU board agreed to the contract to help with peak electricity emergencies and as a back up in case an outage was to occur. Chief Executive Officer Darrell Wenzel explained to the board the contract costs $700 per month and is mainly for peak times during summer months. HMU would incur a fine in the sum of $93,000 if they did not have the agreement. The contract with WAPA will run from now until December 31st, 2015.

In other business, HMU agreed to a new nepotism policy. The policy is for conflicts of interest that could arise including when circumstances exist which would place relatives in a situation of actual or reasonably foreseeable conflict between HMU’s interest and their own. Wenzel stated HMU needed the policy in case two individuals such as family members or domestic partners, outside the work setting that could make it difficult for the individual with the decision-making responsibility to be objective or that for a reasonable person would create the appearance that such an individual may not be objective.

During the director’s report, recently hired office manager Krista Allen told the board a financial change has been made in the office. Previously, HMU had hired an outside identity to work on financials. However, Allen is taking on the responsibilities for all the financials to make things easier and get the financial information out quicker to the board members and officials with HMU.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Wednesday, took under advisement, a request from Elizabeth Tobak, who asked for $1,400 in funding for a continuation of her “I Care About Kids” PRICE Parenting classes. Tobak has presented the classes for several years, but none has been held for the past four-years, due to a lack of interest. Auditor Dale Sunderman says according to Tobak, interest has recently been renewed in the classes, which teach the basics of positive parenting to new parents. Sunderman says PRICE stands for Positivity, Responsibility, Influence, Consequences and Encouragement.

In a letter to the Board of Supervisors, Tobak says she would like to teach two, four-session PRICE Parenting Seminars and one, “1,2,3,4 Parents” class, beginning in January, 2014. In the past, the County has budgeted $1,200 for its contribution to the program.

In other business, the Cass County Board passed a motion to allow or disallow homestead credit and military service exemption claims for Fiscal Year 2013-2014 taxes collectible in FY 2014-2015, and a motion to exempt from taxation (for taxes collectible Fiscal Year 2015 – Jan. 1, 2013 values), all valuation on three parcels owned by the City of Atlantic, at the Municipal Airport.

In a letter to the Board from City Administrator Doug Harris, he said “The taxes on Atlantic’s Airport should be abated because it meets the exemptions under Section 427.1 of the Iowa Code as this property is devoted to public use and is not held for pecuniary profit.” The County has received a similar request for the past two-years. Sunderman said the reason the matter was brought before the board was because of a difference in opinion between the Assessor and Harris, on what “Pecuniary profit” is.

With State law having changed with regard to funding for the Mental Health and Disabilities Services in Iowa, Counties are forming Regions to respond to the changes. The Southwest Region includes nine counties (Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Monona, Montgomery, Page, Pottawatttamie and Shelby). Local advisory and Community input meetings have been scheduled to take place across the Southwest Region. The first was held Tuesday, in Shenandoah. Cass County Mental Health/General Relief Coordinator Teresa Kanning said the next meeting will be held in Pottawattamie County. She says the meeting takes place Dec. 19^th at the Oakland Community Center (614 Dr. Van Zee Road), in Oakland.

The meeting begins at 3-pm and runs until 5-p.m. In the event of a snowstorm, it will be held January 7^th at the same location. The public is invited to attend the session to provide input into the current mental health service system, including what you feel works and doesn’t work. It’s also designed to: develop ideas for future service needs, including Crisis Response in rural areas; Build relationships and interest in participating in Local Advisory Councils, and to provide an overview of the developing region’s progress, administrative structure, future board and advisory structure, and current service systems.

Anyone who is a consumer of mental health services, family members of those using mental health and disability services, community mental health/developmentally disabled service providers and those interested in being a part of forming the Southwest Iowa MH/DS Region, is urged to attend. The meeting is being facilitated by Beth Morrissette, Executive Director of the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Network.

If you miss the Dec. 19^th meeting in Oakland, there will be a final session in Harrison County, January 21^st,  at the Dunlap City Hall.