(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic, Wednesday evening, passed an Order temporarily restricting parking on Palm Street, from 7th to 11th, and 10th Street, 150-feet west of the intersection with Palm. The restrictions are with regard to the Cass County Fair, and will be in effect from 6-a.m. July 27th, to 6-a.m. July 28th.

They also approved Temporary Road Closures and No Parking restrictions on select streets during the requested dates and times for the 2024 RAGBRAI ® event that takes place July 22nd & 23rd. The City expects at least 25,000 people coming to town on their bicycles, as well as support vehicles, event vendors and more. On a related note, Atlantic Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bailey Smith reported all those who were looking to find temporary housing for the large bicycling event, have found a place to stay. “We placed everybody,” she said.  A map of the route into and out of town can be found at https://atlanticragbrai.com/maps/

Bailey reports they have 211 volunteers to help make the event as smooth as possible for locals and those coming into town, but they could still use another 20-to 50 or so more, people to help. That includes traffic control, trash clean-up during and after the event. Volunteers will receive a free, orange shirt identifying them as being associated with the event..

Atlantic City Hall building

In other business, the Atlantic City Council received a report from the City’s Planning and Zoning Commission, which met Tuesday evening. City Administrator John Lund said the Commission had received some concerns with regard to the impact of storm-water run-off to the Camblin Hills housing and childcare development project, and the surrounding properties. City Engineer Dave Sturm addressed those concerns. Sturm said “There’s no doubt this development will increase the run-off from this parcel, however about 75-percent of this site [has] a ridgeline that runs from Lot 1 to Lot 48…that drains into the existing detention basin that comes off of Loma Circle.” That basin, he said, was designed and installed about 25-to 30-years ago to control the run-off to Bull Creek, and to have the capacity for the development of the land to be developed.

Sturm said “When this project is complete, we will clean-out that basin,” to remove some of the silt that’s been deposited over the years , but it is still adequate to handle the increased run-off from the development project. And, the Childcare Center will have its own detention basin. Another detention basin will be added on the southwest side of the housing development. Following the P&Z and Engineer Sturms reports, the Atlantic City Council approved the preliminary plat for the Camblin Hills Project, and the 1st Reading of an ordinance changing the Zoning Classification from R-2 (Low Density-Single Family) residential to R-4 (Multi-family) residential, and amending the Zoning Map to reflect the change.

(Radio Iowa) – Five Iowa breweries brought home awards from the 2024 U-S Open Beer Championships in Oxford,Ohio. Noreen Otto is the executive director of the Iowa Brewers Guild. “Iowa craft breweries broght home 13 medals at that national competition. It’s a really diverse competition with thousands and thousands of entries. So we’re really excited to see the Iowa brewing recognized for the quality craft that that’s coming out of the state,” she says.

There were more than nine-thousand beers representing over 170 different styles. Otto says the Iowa brewies won in several categories. “From Sioux City and Council Bluffs over to Decorah and then in the Des Moines area, it was really exciting to see you know some big names but also some emerging exciting breweries doing incredible things,” she says.

The following Iowa craft breweries received medal recognition:
Toppling Goliath Brewing, Decorah; Full Fledged Brewing Company, Council Bluffs;
Marto Brewing Company, Sioux City; Exile Brewing Company, Des Moines; Barn Town Brewing, Des Moines.

(Harlan, Iowa) – In an update to our previous post, Shelby County Emergency Management Coordinator Alex Londo says that at around 1:45-p.m. Tuesday, July 9^th, 2024, an employee called Emergency Management personnel stating that the elevator at the Farm Service Cooperative in Harlan, had broken and there were two employees stuck at the top of the grain elevator.

Shelby County 911 was notified and they dispatched Shelby County Sheriffs Office, Shelby County Ambulance, Emergency Management, and Harlan Fire to the scene. A high angle rope rescue was conducted, and the employees were able to climb down the ladder on the side of the grain elevator without incident.

All agencies left the scene around 3:00PM.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa Hunger Coalition analysis has found there are 21 more sites for Iowa kids who qualify for free or reduced priced meals at school to pick up free meals this summer. Governor Reynolds used 900-thousand dollars in federal pandemic relief money for grants that opened 61 summer meal sites, but 40 of those have replaced locations that had closed. Iowa Hunger Coalition chair Luke Elzinga says if Reynolds had accepted 29 million dollars in federal funds for the “Summer E-B-T” program, 245-thousand Iowa children would have been guaranteed better meals at home.

“Summer EBT is the first new, permanent federal childhood nutrition program we’ve had in two decades,” Elzinga says. “…This is such an impactful program to address childhood food insecurity during the summer in a really effective, efficient way.” The program provides an extra 120 dollars in June, July and August for each child in a low income household. Reynolds turned down the 29 million dollars for the program in December, citing the administrative cost of nine-dollars per eligible child — and Reynolds said the program also failed to address the obesity epidemic among children. Elzinga says pilot programs tested the Summer E-B-T concept for a decade before all states were allowed to participate.

“We know from the data that Summer EBT leads to increased consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and dairy,” Elzinga says. “It does not increase consumption of sugar sweetened beverages.” The Iowa Hunger Coalition has started a petition drive to encourage Reynolds to sign Iowa kids up for the Summer E-B-T program next year. Elzinga says Iowa food pantries have been seeing an increase in usage during summer months. On July 2nd, the 14 food pantries Elzinga oversees for the Des Moines Area Religious Council set a single day usage record, assisting well over 21-hundred individuals.

The council has operated a food pantry network in the Des Moines metro for 50 years.