(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with SWIPCO (the Southwest Iowa Planning Council), based in Atlantic, says the City of Atlantic has been working hard to meet goals set forth through their comprehensive plan and a great deal of progress has been made in the past five years. The city is currently working on their next comp plan, making it a great time to reflect and evaluate.  One major area of focus has been downtown revitalization and historic preservation. The city was fortunate – SWIPCO says – to obtain a Community Development Block Grant for Downtown Revitalization in 2019 that updated 7 building facades on Chestnut Street. This work also sparked other downtown buildings to make improvements. In addition to building facades, four upper-story housing projects have also been tackled. This investment has breathed new life into downtown buildings and provided housing opportunities in the heart of Atlantic, including some units designated for low to moderate income individuals and families.

Multiple buildings have been revitalized through grants and other funding throughout downtown. A major project was the renovation of The Whitney at 222 Chestnut Street in downtown Atlantic. Mark Smith purchased and speared the renovation of the historic building that originally dates to 1883. The building includes office space, a community room, and 16 one and two-bedroom apartments. The Downtowner Restaurant, Rush CPA & Associates, and Eastside Salon all call the updated building home.

Another transformation took place at the Telegraph building at 14 E 4th Street. This building was the former home of The Downtowner Restaurant and was purchased and renovated by the non-profit group Shift ATL. The lower portion of the building was renovated into a commercial business space and the upper story was converted into an apartment that Shift ATL offers as an AirBnB.

First Whitney Bank spearheaded the redevelopment of the building at 300 Chestnut Street. The upper-story of the building was transformed into two two-bedroom apartments and two one-bedroom apartments. The ground floor has been updated into a retail space and a storage area that will both be rented out. Other updates have taken place at 6th and Chestnut buildings, the former Coke Museum building and more in progress. Another area of focus for the City of Atlantic has been to bolster the city’s neighborhoods and business climate through design practices. New murals have been created in several places around the community including Sunnyside Pool and the Telegraph building.

New community entrance signs were also installed or updated at the major thoroughfares into Atlantic. A large sign was installed at the intersection of Highways 6 and 71 and that design theme was carried over into updated signs on Olive Street and Highway 6 on the south side of town. New colorful banners were installed through town on 7th Street and Iowa State University students have conducted a beautification study to help identify and guide further updates.

Another way to improve quality of life is to enhance recreation opportunities and Atlantic Parks and Recreation has made big strides. Some of the major projects that have been completed are a brand-new playground on an innovative surface at Harl-Holt Park, community garden beds and paved trail erected at Mollett Park, two new playgrounds and pavilions at Schildberg Recreation Area, an expanded campground at Schildberg Recreation Area, and camera installation in city parks.

A major project that was completed is a community splash pad next to Sunnyside Pool. The assembled amenities were tested Monday (Nov. 4th), and are now being prepped for the winter months. The project was a major fundraising undertaking, and several community members stepped up to make it a reality. SWIPCO says it will be exciting to have youngsters enjoy the new space in 2025.

The process of creating the next five-year comprehensive plan asks for participation from residents. A survey will be sent out in mid-November, followed by a public meeting set for December 18th to begin turning the wheels on a new plan with new goals to strive toward. The plan primarily deals with land use planning and sets the basis for zoning. SWIPCO encourages all Atlantic citizens to participate in the process.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic will meet in a regularly scheduled session 6-p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6th, in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall. On their agenda is recognition of Assistant Police Chief Paul Wood, who has served as a member of the Atlantic Police Department for 20-years. Chief Devin Hogue says Wood joined the Department in Nov. 2004, after having previously worked for the Pella P-D. He is a graduate of the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy and has earned a degree in Police Science from Western Iowa Tech Community College. In 2011, Wood was promoted to Sergeant; Lieutenant in 2016, and Assistant Police Chief in 2022. Paul Wood is also a member of the Atlantic Volunteer Fire Department and was named Firefighter of the Year in February of this year.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council will act on a Resolution setting Dec. 4, 2024, as the date for a Public Hearing on an Urban Renewal Plan Amendment, with regard to the Southeast Urban Renewal District. If approved the Council would adopt a development agreement for the use of TIF (Tax Increment Financing) for the Vision Atlantic housing development project, which City Administrator John Lund says is the largest such project in Atlantic since the Nishna Hills Final Plat was adopted in 1978.

The Council will also act on a Resolution authorizing City Administrator Lund to sign and execute a Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) SWAP Program and other Iowa DOT documents, as required by the Iowa Department Of Transportation, which will allow the City to use over $1.056-million in the City’s accrued and borrowing from, future TIP (Transportation Improvement Plan) funds to fund the estimated $1.320-million in costs, for the reconstruction of West 22nd Street. That work is expected to begin next Spring and Summer (2025).

Another Resolution the Atlantic City Council will act on, Wednesday, is with regard to the City’s responsibility for Community Sidewalks, and the Development of a Comprehensive Sidewalk Improvement Plan to maintain sidewalks in a safe, and hazard-free condition. John Lund says the Resolution leaves the City as the owner of sidewalks, and liable for damages resulting from failure to maintain them. Lund says the City can transfer liability, but each time it does so, a property owner must receive notice by certified mail requiring the owner to “repair, replace or reconstruct sidewalks within a reasonable time.”

The final item of business for the Council, is to act on passing the third and final reading of an Ordinance pertaining to “Prohibited Trees.”

City Council Agenda Packet 11-06-2024-min

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa-based convenience store chain is announcing the closing of a major business deal, its biggest ever. Casey’s General Stores says its buyout of the Fikes Wholesale chain is complete. Fikes was the owner of some 200 CEFCO convenience stores, with most of them in Texas and several dozen across Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.

A news release from Casey’s calls the acquisition a “highly strategic market” for the chain, which takes Casey’s total store count to around 29-hundred.

Founded more than five decades ago, the Ankeny-based Casey’s is the nation’s third-largest convenience store retailer and the fifth-largest pizza chain.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston report 30-year-old Brandon Joseph Stone, of Creston,was arrested Monday afternoon, on an outside agency warrant and for two-counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance/3rd offense. He was being held without bond in the Union County Jail. And, 19-year-old Caidan Kirk Morgan, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested early today (Tuesday) at McKinley Lake, in Creston. Morgan was taken into custody at around 12:40-a.m., on an outside agency warrant. He was also being held without bond in the Union County Jail.

(Radio Iowa) – The University of Iowa’s Scanlan Center for School Mental Health is expanding its services to offer psychiatric care to students ages ten and up anywhere in Iowa. U-I professor and psychiatrist Dr. Amanda Elliott will lead the new initiative, for which she says there’s great need. Elliott says a federal study found nearly 90-percent of Iowa counties are considered mental health care professional shortage areas. “They consider a ‘sufficient’ amount of child psychiatrists to be 47 per 100,000 kids,” Elliott says. “On average for the entire state of Iowa right now, there’s eight per 100,000 kids, so much of the state is very much under-served.”

Most of rural Iowa is a mental health care desert, as Elliott says is evidenced in a 2022 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “There were only 62 child psychiatrists in the entire state. So with 99 counties, that’s not even one child psychiatrist per county in the state,” Elliott says, “and of those, the psychiatrists are kind of centrally located, so there’s 14 counties out of the 99 that currently have a child psychiatrist that lived in that county.”

The services will start, Elliott says, with an interview-based assessment of a student’s symptoms, past histories and past treatments, and determining if there are any medication options. She says school districts would set up a tele-health visit on-site along with a primary care provider who’s involved with the student. “Rather than starting with a child psychiatrist and continuing to follow long-term,” Elliott says, “our goal is to get students started on medication, if they’re indicated, stabilized, and then transition them back to their pediatrician or family physician to continue ongoing management.”

Studies find one in six American kids between the ages of six and 17 experience a mental health disorder each year, while suicide is the 2nd-leading cause of death for teens and young adults. Elliott says the Iowa City-based clinic is offering psychotherapy services to students — and to teachers. The model is designed to improve access to mental health professionals for kids as young as ten and up through high school graduation. “Things like ADHD, depression and anxiety certainly start in the elementary school age population,” Elliott says. “When students have an opportunity to engage in treatment earlier, it improves their academic function, it improves their social function, and sets them up for a greater pathway to success throughout their entire lifetime.”

The U-I’s Scanlan Center is already a state leader in student mental health. In the past year, it provided nearly 13-hundred clinical service appointments and more than one-thousand counseling appointments for students in 72 school districts across 60 Iowa counties. Elliott says a majority of Scanlan’s clients are from rural communities. Referrals come through school mental health professionals or A-E-As.

For more information, contact the center via email at: scsmh-clinic@uiowa.edu.

On the web at https://scsmh.education.uiowa.edu/

(Iowa Capital Dispatch) –  Though many Americans are eagerly awaiting an end to the 2024 election season today (Tuesday), national and state officials say to be prepared to not get final results tonight. In Iowa, voters have been participating through early and absentee voting since Oct. 16 — and many more will go to polling places to vote in person today. Voters have an 8 p.m. deadline — with precinct locations open until 8 p.m. and absentee ballots due to local county auditor’s offices by 8 p.m. to be counted.

Though there will be unofficial results available tonight, Election Day is just the beginning of the process for counting and confirming votes in the path that leads to elected officials taking their positions in January. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said in a statement Monday that Iowans should remember election night results are unofficial — results are only official and final after being certified by the county and state boards of canvass on Dec. 2.

That does not mean Iowans will not know the outcomes of many races tonight. Once polls close, unofficial results are submitted by local county auditors, Pate said, adding that “county commissioners are to remain on duty until all election results have been reported from all of their precincts, including absentee ballots.” Election results, and breakdowns by precinct and county, will be available on the Secretary of State’s website. Races will also be called by the Associated Press tonight as unofficial results are posted.

However, if margins are extremely tight in specific elections, a winner may not be called in some races. A recent example in Iowa is U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ first election to Congress in 2020, winning the 2nd Congressional District race against Democrat Rita Hart. The race was considered too close to call on election night, Nov. 3, 2020. Through the recount and eventual certification process by the state Board of Canvass, Miller-Meeks’ victory came down to six votes.

Even after Miller-Meeks was declared the winner following recounting and canvassing, the Republican was seated provisionally in Congress due to a legal challenge posed by Hart. The challenge was not withdrawn until March 2021.

Miller-Meeks was not the only race being contested long after Election Day in 2020. Results in the race between former President Donald Trump, who is again the Republican presidential nominee in 2024, and President Joe Biden also took time to be finalized in states like Nevada and Georgia. In the months and years following, Trump has falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him. These claims, in part, led to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and heightened distrust of U.S. elections, as well as an increase to threats to election officials and poll workers.

Election officials said in interviews with States Newsroom to expect similar challenges and disinformation about results to come in the 2024 general election, where Trump faces former Vice President Kamala Harris. Already, there have been hundreds of lawsuits filed before the election, mainly by Republicans, challenging election integrity in various states as well as alleging non-citizens are illegally voting in federal elections. These challenges could cause delays to final election results.

Voting at the Polk County Auditor’s Office. (Photo by Clark Kauffman/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Iowa has also seen concerns about non-citizen voting in recent weeks. Pate issued guidance to county auditors throughout the state to challenge the voting credentials of people identified by the state as potentially non-citizens. While many of these individuals are understood to be naturalized citizens who have the legal right to participate in elections, a federal judge ruled Sunday in favor of letting the guidance stand, as at least a portion of the individuals listed currently do not have citizenship status.

As concerns about election integrity mount, the National Association of State Election Directors and the National Association of Secretaries of State issued a joint statement Monday assuring voters that there are countless safeguards in place, and warning people to be aware that problems may still occur.

“As with any Election Day, it is important to note operational issues may arise: for example, voting locations could open late, there could be lines during busy periods, or an area could lose power,” the organizations said in the statement. “These are inevitable challenges that will arise on Election Day, but election officials have contingency plans for these and other scenarios. Americans can have confidence the election is secure, and the results will be counted accurately.”

After voting concludes in Iowa, there will be automatic post-election audits in all 99 of the state’s counties to ensure votes have been counted accurately. Additionally, candidates have the ability to request recounts in their races — Iowa law allows candidates to request a recount by 5 p.m. on the third day after a county’s canvass of the election. Pate asked for Iowans’ patience while awaiting election results.

“We understand that Iowans are excited to see the results, and local election officials do their best to report results quickly and accurately,” Pate said. “Our goal is to get the correct results, and while we aim to do it as quickly as possible, we prioritize accuracy over speed.”