(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston say seven people were arrested over the past few days. Friday afternoon, 43-year-old Timothy Robert Hudek, of Creston, was arrested on a Union County Warrant for Probation Violation. Hudek was taken to the Union County Jail where he later bonded out on $2,000. Saturday evening, 34-year-old Alex Richard Cunningham, of Creston, was arrested for Harassment in the 1st Degree – 4th or Sub Offense. Cunningham was taken to the Union County Jail where he later posted at $2,000 bond. Friday night, Creston Police arrested 21-year-old Aaron James Cozad, of Creston, for Driving while Revoked and Without Interlock Device. Cozad was later released on a $1,000 bond.

Early Sunday morning, 26-year-old Lynn Marie Singer, of Creston, was arrested for OWI – 1st Offense. She was later released on $1,000 bond, 62-year-old Ronald Dale Brammer, of Creston, was arrested early Sunday morning, for Driving While Suspended. Brammer was later released on a $300 bond. Sunday afternoon, 39-year-old Fallon Danielle May, of Creston, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault/1st Offense – Intend to inflict Serious Injury. May was being held in the Union County Jail on $2,000 bond.  And, late Sunday night 54-year-old Anne Marie Chapman, of Creston, was arrested for OWI/ 1st Offense. Chapman later posted a $1,000 bond and was released from the Union County Jail.

Early Saturday morning, a Creston woman reported her house, located in the 500 block of N. Oak Street, was egged overnight. The damage estimated at $50.

LE MARS, Iowa — Officials with the Le Mars Police Department report a suspect in a deadly shooting that occurred on September 30^th is in custody. 21-year-old Omar Martinez Cruz is suspected in the death of 21-year-old Miguel Martinez. Le Mars Police officers were called to an apartment at 37 3rd Northwest for reports of “shots fired.” Officers arriving on the scene found 21-year-old Miguel Martinez with gunshot wounds. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Investigators determined Cruz was in Sioux Center on Friday, Oct. 4. A tip helped investigators determine he returned to Le Mars, at 8:30-p.m. that same day.

The incident remains under investigation.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Area fire departments held free-will donation breakfasts Sunday to kick-off Fire Prevention Week, which is now through Saturday, Oct. 12^th. In Atlantic, a breakfast served at the fire station included pancakes, sausage/bacon, scrambled eggs and coffee or juice. The donation breakfast helps with Fire Prevention and Education efforts at schools and elsewhere. The theme for this year’s Fire Prevention Week is “Smoke Alarms: Make them work for you.”

In Atlantic, the week concludes Saturday with the Annual Fireman’s Parade downtown at 6-p.m. The parade line-up begins at 4-p.m., at 3^rd & Olive Streets, and features the “Destruction Drill Team,” along with numerous participating area fire department trucks and personnel, EMS crews and their vehicles, and much more.

Oct. 12, 2024 Atlantic Fireman’s Parade route

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department reports there were no injuries following a collision Friday afternoon at Prairie and Spruce Streets. The accident happened at around 2:20-p.m., when two pickup trucks collided as a 2006 GMC Canyon traveling north on Spruce and driven by a 16-year-old male from Creston, stopped, and then slowly pulled into the intersection. The GMC was struck by a 2007 Chevy Tahoe, driven by 42-year-old Robert Quinn, of Creston, was traveling west on Prairie Street.

The teen driver’s vision of oncoming traffic, police said, was obstructed by numerous parked vehicles lined along Prairie Street, all the way up to the corner of Prairie and Spruce. The teen didn’t see the Chevy pickup until the collision occurred. There were no citations issued. Damage from the accident amounted to $6,000 altogether, according to the Creston Police report.

(Radio Iowa) – After several days of repairs in Ohio, a team of about 70 Iowa utility workers is now in western North Carolina, helping to restore power to tens of thousands of customers who were hit by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. Line mechanic and crew leader Lee Tyler, of Le Mars, has worked for MidAmerican Energy nearly 20 years. Tyler says there’s nothing he’s seen in the Asheville area so far that’s surprised him, not after all of the storms, tornadoes and derechos that have lashed Iowa. “No, it’s pretty typical of a major storm, a lot of trees and wires down, but nothing that I’ve seen so far is out of the ordinary,” Tyler says. “Lots of broken poles, lots of trees on lines, just the regular storm work that we’re all used to.”

The crews are working mostly 16-hour days, and come home understandably exhausted to catch a little shut-eye in tents, trailers and trucks. “As long as there’s sunlight, we’re out working,” Tyler says. “They’ve got breakfast for us back at the show-up area, and they do have trailers with bunks in it, but a lot of guys are just sleeping out in the trucks because the weather’s so nice out right now.” Aside from the paycheck, Tyler was asked what keeps him motivated on this type of mission, working long hours in challenging conditions far from home. “Just the fact that we’re getting power back on to all these people that have been without power for so long, and it disrupts their lives, not being able to have the power that they normally have during the day to do their daily activities,” Tyler says, “and everybody’s so thrilled and excited when everything comes back on.”

A simple thank you goes a long way, too. The Iowa utility crews were gratified to get up one morning to find someone had taped a hand-lettered thank you note to one of their bucket trucks, along with a heart and a smiley face. “That was actually my truck that it got taped to, and yeah, we’ve had nothing but positive from everybody,” Tyler says. “Everybody’s honking and waving and thanking us as they go by. And yeah, it’s been a pretty positive experience, so far, from everybody.” Tyler talked with Radio Iowa via satellite phone, as there are precious few cell towers still standing in the North Carolina mountains. He says they’re methodically restoring power to 200 customers at time, and sometimes just one or two houses. It’s anybody’s guess how long it’ll take to get this job done and come home, he says. There are conflicting rumors it may be a matter of days, weeks, or even a month.

“Some of the areas that they’re telling them that, the reason it’s going to take so long is when it flooded, it ruined some of the big substations,” he says, “and it’s going to take that long to get replacement parts to fix the substations back up.”

The destruction from the winds and flooding is extensive, he says. Helene is being called one of the deadliest and most expensive storms ever to hit the nation, with more than 200 dead, hundreds listed as missing, and damage some estimates peg at 34-billion dollars.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says his department is beginning work to restore seven abandoned mine sites in south-central and southeast Iowa. Coal was strip mined from the areas.”So in the 1800s and early 1900s in Iowa, and these were mined at a time where companies were not required to reclaim those sites,” Naig says. He says the soil and rocks were stripped back to get at the coal.

“What you’ve got is sort of the debris that’s left over, the rock, the rock piles and often times there’s a dangerous high wall, meaning that they’ve dug out an area the last place that they mined coal, there’s a large hole, often times a pond,” Naig says. He says the water in the pond is not not good quality, and often very acidic. Naig says this is NOT the same as cleaning up a superfund toxic waste site. “It’s not that we need to clean up any chemicals or those types of things. It’s got a lot to do with just moving dirt around, moving rock, restoring the landscape, and then we have a significant focus on, how do you restore the soil health,” he says. “Oftentimes, that ground is not able to be productive before reclamation. After reclamation, you’ve helped to restore the organic matter.”

Naig says you may not be able to grow crops on the ground, but it can grow grass and other vegetation after the process is done. Iowa is doing the cleanup in conjunction with the federal government in a program that was created in the 1970’s and 80’s. Naig says they’ve made progress in addressing the old mine sites here. “The state of Iowa has had roughly 300 of these abandoned mine sites. And to date, we’ve been able to restore 120 of those. Some have been restored outside of our work and we estimate that we’ve got about 140 yet to do,” Niag says. The program is spending 10 million dollars for these seven projects. Naig says it will take around one year to complete them.

Here are the projects:
Pella North and Pella South (Dutch Hollow), Marion County: 162 acres
Kuiper, Marion County: 81.2 acres
Bos, Wapello County: 34.6 Acres
Eden, Van Buren County:14 acres
Pedrick, Van Buren County: 14 Acres
Vanderzyl, Marion County: 57 Acres
Vanderzyl East, Marion County: 29.5 Acres

(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest on Sunday (Oct. 6th), of 45-year-old Joseph Earl Smith, from Red Oak. Smith was taken into custody at around 11:50-p.m., on a Felony charge of Possession of a Controlled Substance inside a Correctional Facility, and on a Taylor County warrant for Failure to Appear (a Serious Misdemeanor). He was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.