w/ Ric Hanson
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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A friend says a prominent Des Moines developer found dead in Guthrie County days after leaving federal prison, had borrowed his car to check in with a parole officer and never returned. Neil Henderson of Waukee said Tuesday that his lifelong friend, Bob Knapp, stayed overnight at his house last week after being released from prison in Duluth, Minn.
Knapp was sentenced to 41 months behind bars after being convicted of violating the Clean Air Act for mishandling the disposal of asbestos from a landmark Des Moines building he renovated. Henderson says Knapp borrowed his Honda Accord to check in with his parole officer the next morning, and never returned.
A farmer found Knapp’s body in the backseat of the burned out vehicle in Guthrie County, on Sunday. Police are investigating the death.
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)
An agricultural economist says Iowa’s corn and soybean producers need to prepare for tougher economic times ahead. Mike Boehlje, at Purdue University, says he does not expect the setback to be as severe as it was during the Farm Crisis of the 1980s, but he assures, a fall is coming from the flush years farmers have been enjoying. “In contrast to the 1980s as well as the 1930s where we had busts after the booms, we think we’re going to have a soft landing off of this one,” Boehlje says. “It doesn’t mean that farmers aren’t going to have to adjust to a different kind of business climate. We’ve had record incomes set and now the USDA’s numbers are showing that we’re going to be down about 30% in terms of income.”
Boehlje says farmers tend to focus too much on the prices they get for their crops. “What I tell farmers is, the first and most important marketing decision you make is what you pay for your inputs, it’s not what you sell your product for,” Boehlje says. “You’ve got control over what you pay for your inputs. You don’t have nearly as much control of what you sell your products for. Farmers ought to spend a lot of time thinking now about negotiating the right prices for their inputs.” He says the toughest of those input prices to negotiate is likely the rental agreement.
Boehlje says farmers should begin the conversation now with landowners to adjust for lower rent for 2015. He describes the relationship between the farmer and his lender as “essential and critical.” “The conversation with the lender the last four or five years has been more, ‘How’s the family, how’s the kids, how ’bout that football game, and oh, yeah, you want money? Here, just sign the papers,'” Boehlje says. “It’s not going to be that way this next four or five years. There’s going to be tougher conversations asking for more documentation.” Boehlje says farmers can add to their bottom line by looking for ways to meet specific needs of some of the processors to whom they sell grain.
(Radio Iowa)
KELLERTON, Iowa (AP) – People are invited to Ringgold County on Saturday to watch prairie chickens dance about in a courtship ritual. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the Annual Prairie Chicken Festival will start before dawn Saturday at the Grand River Grassland Bird Conservation Area. A wildlife viewing platform is available at the site, just southwest of Kellerton.
The DNR will provide spotting scopes and binoculars as well as coffee for early risers who can watch the birds as they dance and make booming noises. The action will end around 9:30 a.m. Prairie chickens had been absent from the area since the 1950s but in recent years were reintroduced to the region.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Drake Relays director Brian Brown says Lolo Jones will run the shuttle hurdle relay rather than the 100-meter hurdles at her hometown meet later this month. Jones, a Des Moines native and a two-time Olympic hurdler, competed for the U.S. in the bobsled at the recent Sochi Olympics.
Jones has long been the face of the meet, which is set for April 23-27. Jones has failed to win the 100 hurdles at Drake in her last four tries, and she said after last year’s loss that the Drake Relays had become work than fun.
Meet officials are leaving the door open for Jones to run the 100 as well as shuttle relay.
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