After a rise in cases involving embezzlement from city coffers, the state auditor’s office has implemented a new audit schedule that aims to combat fraud in Iowa’s smallest towns. State lawmakers approved the new audit schedule, which went into effect earlier this year. State Auditor Mary Mosiman says as of July, cities with populations of fewer than two-thousand people will be audited on the basis of risk.

“So, if they have annual budgeted expenditures of one million (dollars) or more for two consecutive years, they are going to be subject to an annual examination,” Mosiman says. “If they do not have one-million or more for two consecutive years, they’ll have a periodic examination. That’s new this year.” Starting in July, towns with budgets of more than one-million dollars will get audited every year, and those with smaller budgets, at least every eight years. Mosiman says some towns never had anyone from the outside look at their books.

“Prior to July of this year, cities under the population of 700 never had to have an annual audit, and if there was a fraud in the government, it was typically one of those,” Mosiman says. “That’s something we hope helps with mismanagement and basically fraud in our smallest of cities.” The auditor’s office counted 32 cases of small town corruption in Iowa between 2005 and 2011. In the town of Halbur, population 246, for example, Mosiman says the city clerk leveraged her position as a bank employee to embezzle more than 290-thousand dollars. In another example, the city treasurer of McCausland wrote checks to herself and her husband to the tune of 187-thousand dollars, or about 650-dollars per resident.

(Radio Iowa)

The Atlantic Police Department is warning residents about another scam letter is being sent out to the public. Officials say the most recent one some residents are receiving is from an “Investment Company” out of the United Kingdom. The letter says that they have sent other notifications to you stating that you have been the prize winner. It also says if they do not hear from you within 3 weeks the case will be closed and you will no longer be eligible for your prize winnings.

The letter has names, phone numbers, the claim number and is very detailed with information, but authorities say it is a scam. If you have any questions about this, or other possible scams, contact the Atlantic Police Department at 712-243-3512.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Monday (today) released a report on recent arrests. On Nov. 18th, 37-year old Lisa Marie Ferguson, of Hamburg, was arrested for a probation violation and on a Page County warrant. On Nov. 17th, 30-year old Jarrod Monroe Crawley, of Shenandoah, was arrested for Burglary in the 3rd degree and Theft in the 3rd degree. And, on Nov. 15th, 20-year old Derrian Ryan Bredberg, of Tabor, was arrested for OWI/1st offense.

A wood burning stove was the cause of a fire that destroyed a barn in Shelby County Sunday. The Harlan Fire Department was called to the fire around 9:10am Sunday morning to the Finken Tree Farm at 1440 Highway 44. Harlan Fire Chief Roger Bissen says smoke was coming from all directions when they arrived on scene.

“The entire inside of the barn was engulfed in flames with smoke coming out the doors and windows. We went into defense attack mode and put three attack lines on the outside, set up a tanker shuttle, called in Kirkman and Kimballton and extinguished it from the outside. After we got it mostly extinguished we had to get an excavator to bring the remainder of the building down.”

The chief says there were also problems with the excavator. “The trouble we had with getting extinguished was the inside was full of sawed lumber and firewood. Then the whole barn was wrapped in tin so we had all that burning underneath the tin as the building was coming down. We had to get the excavator to tear things apart and continue to extinguish as he was tearing it apart.”

Bissen says Steve Finken, the land owner, lit the wood burning stove early in the morning but then left for church before being called to the home for the fire. Along with Kirkman and Kimballton, Defiance was called to the scene for their rehab trailer. The departments were on scene for over three hours working on the barn fire. However, the fire rekindled later in the evening.

“We got called out about 7 o’clock. Steve had called me at home and said the area of the barn that had the firewood was burning pretty good again. He was afraid to go to bed and leave it so we went out and extinguished that and put some foam on it.”

The Harlan Fire Department was out on the scene in the evening for an additional hour. Bissen says the barn and the contents were a total loss. “He had a lot of wood working equipment, saws and planers and everything. He would take rough cut wood and planning it down and selling it. So he had all the equipment to do that. Steve said he had over $20,000 of equipment in there so we are probably looking at a $25,000 loss.”

No injuries were reported.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)