AMES, Iowa – July 12, 2011 – The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) is reporting that work will be starting Wednesday, July 13, on a flood-mitigation project located south of Blencoe on Interstate 29.
 
The southbound lanes of I-29 will be closed because the roadway is being elevated approximately 1 foot to prevent flood waters from inundating the highway.
 
I-29 southbound will be closed between exit 95 (Harrison County Road F-20) and exit 105 (Monona County Road E-60). The I-29 southbound ramp at the Blencoe interchange will also be closed.
 
The project is expected to be completed by July 22.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it will reduce water releases from Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota, a sign that major Missouri River flooding could be nearing an end. The corps’ Omaha District construction chief, Robert Michaels, says the corps will decrease the water volume gradually from its current 160,000 cubic feet per second.

The corps plans to drop the flow to 155,000 cubic feet per second on July 31 and cut it to 150,000 cubic feet per second on Aug. 1st. Michaels said Tuesday that the corps will trim the releases slowly to keep the water flow stable and prevent further erosion of flooded farmland and roadways.

Missouri-based flood expert David Rogers says lowering the levels gradually is crucial to lessening the risk of levee failure.

A pavement blow-up on the runway at the Corning Airport has forced the closure of the facility to air traffic until further notice. According to reports, Corning Mayor Guy Brace told the Corning City Council Monday, that hot temperatures caused the pavement blow-up, similar to what motorists may encounter on the highways during the summer months.

Brace says an engineer will inspect the damage tomorrow (Wednesday). No timetable was set on repairing the runway.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors are scheduled to meet Wednesday morning, here in Atlantic. On the agenda is: approving the employment of a jailer and establishing the amount of loan and/or bonds for the northwest sewer and water line extension project.

The meeting begins at 9-a.m.

In Greenfield, the Adair County Board of Supervisors will hear a semi-annual report from County Treasurer Brenda Wallace, and annual report from Veteran’s Affairs Administrator Donna Bittner. They’ll also discuss with Sheriff Brad Newton a Personnel Policy, and, a construction permit application by Deb Bauer and Larry Victora.

The session will conclude with discussion pertaining to a construction permit for a large hog confinement operation, matrix scoring for the application, and a recommendation to the DNR on whether the permit should be approved.

Their meeting begins at 9-a.m.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has handed control of a Hamburg levee over to local officials in the southwest Iowa town. Robert Michaels, the Omaha district chief of construction, said in an interview Tuesday that the Corps will still offer help if the hastily built levee shows any trouble signs. But Michaels said he was confident the 9,000-foot-long earthen flood barrier will hold until the Missouri River flood subsides.

Southern Hamburg had faced a significant flood threat when a levee along the Missouri River ruptured in June. Federal and local officials scrambled to build a new levee along the town’s western edge, working around the clock as the flood water neared. Water is still pressing against the 18-foot-tall levee, but has caused only minor seepage problems so far.

Officials with the Iowa Dept. of Transportation say they DOT’s temporary flood-releated road information call center is slated to be deactivated at 1-p.m. today. Iowa travelers can still continue to call 511 for automated road closure information, and out-of-state callers can find out which roads are impacted by flooding by calling 1-800-288-1047.  You can also surf to www.iowadot.gov and click on the “Flooding Ahead” sign.

Information on flooded roadways is neighboring states is available on the web.  For Missouri road conditions, surf to www.modot.org.  Information on Nebraska roads is at www.511nebraska.org.  For info. on South Dakota roads, go to www.safetravelusa.org, and for road conditions in Kansas, www.511ksdot.org.

The Iowa DOT says closures continue on sections of I-29 and I-680 (in Council Bluffs), Iowa 333 in Hamburg, Iowa Hwy 2, from I-29 west to Nebraska City, NE, and the Iowa Hwy 175 bridge between Onawa, IA and Decatur, NE.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A big jump in whooping cough cases is cited in a state of Iowa report on diseases. The Iowa Department of Public Health says its 2010 Iowa Surveillance of Notifiable and Other Diseases Report covers the more than 60,000 reports of infectious disease that were submitted to state disease surveillance programs.

The state says the number of vaccine-preventable diseases dropped compared to a three-year average. But the state says mumps and pertussis cases increased: 73 percent for mumps and 229 percent for whooping cough. The health department director, Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, says there were 705 reported cases of whooping cough reported last year.

She says most adults haven’t had a vaccination since childhood, so they probably have little or no immunity left to whooping cough, which also is called pertussis.

A crowd of a little more than 40 people attended Monday night’s public hearing in Greenfield pertaining to the construction of a large hog confinement operation in Adair County. Auditor Mindy Schaefer says the meeting went “very well.”She says 15 people signed-up prior to the hearing to speak, and each said they were opposed to the factory farm.

Eric Taylor has applied for a permit to construct a 2,480 head hog confinement feeding facility in Adair County’s Richland Township. Past history has shown emotions can run high in opposition to factory farms, but Schaefer said those who spoke stuck to the time limit, and were very respectful of the rules.

She says they were given three-minutes to speak. Most took less than the allotted time, but those who took the full three-minutes were very respectful, and stopped when their time expired.

The Adair County Board of Supervisors are slated to discuss the permit application and, based upon the Master Matrix Scoring and written public comments, forward their recommendation to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. That portion of their meeting takes place at 10:15-a.m., Wednesday.