DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Authorities are launching an effort to reduce fatal crashes on Iowa’s secondary rural roads.  The Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau announced the effort, which began Tuesday and continues through Sept. 30th, 2015.  The program will focus on rural secondary roads in Fremont, Allamakee, Marion, Webster and Palo Alto counties. Those counties agreed to participate after an analysis of 10 years of crash data and seat belt compliance rates.

Participating counties will take a three-tier approach including enforcement of traffic laws, especially the seat belt law, education about traffic laws and low-cost safety improvements in the participating counties.  The safety bureau says 72 percent of fatal crashes in 2012 were on secondary rural roads. Those roads make up 79 percent of Iowa’s total roadways.

Iowa had 317 traffic fatalities in 2013.

A truck driver from Des Moines was injured when the semi he was driving rolled over off of Interstate 80 in Adair County, Tuesday afternoon. The Iowa State Patrol says 47-year old Martin Spooner, who was wearing his seat belt,  was transported to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines by Stuart Rescue. A report on his condition was not released.

The accident happened when the 2013 Volvo semi Spooner was driving left eastbound I-80 at around 2:20-p.m.  The semi, registered to Decker Trucking out of Ft. Dodge,  entered the south ditch and rolled over, coming to rest on its top.

The accident remains under investigation.

A public hearing will be held this evening in Atlantic, with regard to the amending of the Fiscal Year 2014 City Budget. The hearing will take place as part of a regular meeting of the Atlantic City Council that begins at 5:30-p.m. in the Senior Citizen’s Center, next door to the City Hall/Police Department building. City Administrator Doug Harris says the total amendment amounts to $6-million 177-thousand 990-dollars.

Harris says the “Lion’s share of the amendment is due to the multi-year nature of the numerous bond-funded capital improvement projects” the City has undertaken over the past few years. The Amendments include: $134,500 for Public Safety; $6,000 for Public Works; $8,000 for Culture and Recreation; $9,750 for Community and Economic Development; $15,650 for General Government; $3, 937,000 for Capital Projects; $287,000 for Business Type/Enterprise (Storm Water/Wastewater-related); and $1,780,000 for Transfer Outs, which involve the movement of bond funds into the appropriate Capital Improvement Fund.

In other business, the Council will act on approving a Change Order amounting to $48,241, for a contract between Precision Concrete Services (PCS) and the City of Atlantic. The change order adds the reconstruction of 17th Street west of Redwood Drive, and replacement of a sanitary sewer on Maple Street between 9th and 10th Streets. The Council will also act on authorizing the City Administrator and/or Mayor to request bids for Improvements to the Storm Drainage System in the Alley between Linn and Oak Streets, by 3rd Street.

It’s hoped that modifications to the intake and flow of the storm drains in that area will reduce the risk of flooding to the area near the Akin Building Center and Nishna Valley Credit Union on 2nd Street.

A whirlpool forms following heavy rain on April 14th, 2012, near the NVCU on 2nd Street. (Ric Hanson archive photo)

The Council will also hear a report on a proposed Commercial and Residential Tax Exemption Program.

A report on gasoline prices shows the national average has increased 49 of the past 52 days and it’s been almost that severe in Iowa. Triple-A spokeswoman Gail Weinholzer says pump prices in Iowa and Nebraska have been climbing steadily for several weeks, but they should be topping off fairly soon. “They have been going up in both states although both are still significantly below where they were at this time last year,” Weinholzer says. “In fact, we’re paying the lowest amount (for this date) since 2010.”

The statewide average price in Iowa is three-55 a gallon, the same as the national average. Sioux City has Iowa’s cheapest gas, averaging three-46 a gallon, while it’s most expensive in Waterloo at three-60. Prices have bounded since the start of March. Wienholzer says, “We have seen about a 30-cent increase or so over the last month but we do expect prices to peak out rather shortly and decline as we head into the rest of spring, assuming spring does get here.”

Three key factors are to blame for the price hikes, she says: the switch from winter to summer blends of fuel, refineries shutting down for spring maintenance and rising demand with the warmer weather.

(Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Board of Supervisors, this week, adopted an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2014 County Budget, including the Secondary Roads Iowa DOT Budget. The move followed a public hearing held on the matter, Monday morning, during which there were no objections.  County Auditor Dale Sunderman noted that appropriations of the amended expenditure amounts (Changes in Budget Authority) was required. They included:

General Basic: increase Sheriff by $6,600 (wages & telephone); increase Medical Examiner by $6,000 (autopsies, etc.); increase Local Health by $51,500 (FY13 assessment paid in FY14); increase non-departmental by $4,000,000 (CDB grant flow-through).

Rural Services: increase Sheriff by $96,055 (added deputy and equipment);

Secondary Roads: increase Roads by $1,085,000 (local projects) & decrease Capitol Projects by $570,000.

Attorney Seized Monies: increase by $23,950 (funds moved to Sheriff Seized Monies).

Capital Projects: increase by $286,810 (707 Poplar St project).

General Basic: increase operating transfer out by $350,000 (to Capital Projects).

Local Option Sales Tax: increase operating transfer out by $25,000 (to Rural Services).

In other business, the Supervisors in Cass County adopted a Resolution to Vacate a County Road. Their action pertained to Road #1 in Benton Township Section 2 and 3. The 40-foot wide road was originally established in 1898. Since it has not been traveled for several years, no public hearing was required.  And, the Board approved the appointment of Joy R. Scanlon to fill a vacancy on the Massena Township Board of Trustees, with her term ending Dec. 31^st, 2016.

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa said Tuesday a southwest Iowa man was sentenced March 25th to spend more than 17-years in prison for sex crimes involving minors. U-S District Judge John Jarvey also ordered 46-year old Tony Lee Stogdill, of Imogene, to serve 10-years of supervised release following his 210 month prison term. Stogdill, who was convicted on a charge of Interstate Transportation of a person under the age of 18 for the purpose of engaging in criminal sexual activity, must also register on the Sex Offender Registry, pay restitution (in an amount yet to be determined) and pay a $100 special assessment to the Crime Victim Fund. Stogdill remains in the custody of the United States Marshal pending his designation to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility.

Stogdill’s wife, Jennifer, in an agreement with the United States Attorney’s Office, pled guilty in the Iowa District Court for Fremont County to compounding a felony regarding her “cover-up” of Tony Stogdill’s sexual abuse of a minor child in late 2009. Jennifer Stogdill was sentenced by the state court to a term of probation.

Tony Stogdill had been convicted of sex related crimes twice, prior to the instant offense. Stogdill was convicted on March 13, 1989, in Fremont County, Iowa, of false imprisonment and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. Stogdill was also convicted in Fremont County, Iowa, on October 21, 1991, of third degree sexual abuse.

The criminal investigation was carried out by the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, the Fremont County Attorney’s Office, the South West Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, the Council Bluffs, Iowa, Police Department, the Omaha, Nebraska, Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.