The Atlantic City Council voted 5-to-2 Wednesday evening, against passing a “Resolution of Objection” to the POET, LLC ethanol transfer, or trans-loading station, in the northern downtown area. Councilpersons Steve Livengood and Linda Hartkopf voted in favor of the Resolution, while Councilpersons Jimerson, Somers, Halder, Hayes and Shouse, voted against it.

The Resolution essentially objected to the location of the trans-loading station, but not the project itself. The concerns centered around the facility being located within 100-feet of the downtown fire district. The Resolution, which Livengood said would merely be for the record and “last longer” than a notation in the minutes, does not absolve the City from any legal action in the event of an explosion, a point Councilman Shawn Shouse said essentially renders the Resolution a moot point.

Shouse said he personally, thought the whole matter could have been handled better. He said POET had no legal responsibility to talk to the City Council before construction of the facility, which has since been completed, but he says “It would seem to have been prudent to do so.” Shouse said the Resolution, if approved, could be detrimental to the future of the City bringing in new business. He said people more familiar with business than himself, tell him this could be viewed as “Obstruction to business…being an unfriendly place to do business.”

Shouse said there is the potential for the City’s reputation to be harmed by passing the Resolution. Councilperson Kathy Somers said the Resolution does nothing to address and/or fix the safety concerns mentioned by the Mayor and others. Shouse agreed. He said the Resolution is “Retaliatory verbage,” against POET for not having informed the City of the company’s plans, and therefore there is no benefit to it. Some people were concerned that passing the Resolution would have caused POET to bring an ethanol plant to Atlantic, but Mayor Dave Jones said the company is not even considering the community in its future plans.

Councilman Livengood said while the Resolution has no legal teeth, it puts POET on notice that the City is “Watching them,” but Somers said it’s not the City’s job to “Watch them,” since they have the necessary permits from the Federal government.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Technology snags that kept people from successfully buying insurance in the new exchanges set up by the federal government are continuing into a second day. Some consumers have turned to insurance companies offering polices for information.

West Des Moines-based CoOportunity Health, which sells policies in Iowa and Nebraska, says it hit a daily high for website hits Tuesday with more than 500 people logging in to get quotes and about 100 people calling the company’s toll-free call center. Cliff Gold, the company’s chief operating officer, says people likely turned to insurer websites when they couldn’t access the federal government’s site.

He says he’s been telling people to wait a week or two. Consumers who want coverage starting Jan. 1 have until Dec. 15 to enroll.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A health system that operates multiple hospitals and clinics in Iowa says someone had unauthorized access to the personal records of about 1,800 patients.  UnityPoint Health said in a news release Wednesday that the unidentified individual may have viewed names, insurance account numbers, as well as Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.

Letters have been sent to affected patients about the security breach, which occurred between February and August. They will be offered a credit-monitoring service, and law enforcement is investigating the incident.

UnityPoint said the person who viewed the records was employed through a third-party and used other people’s passwords to get into the electronic medical record system. UnityPoint, previously called Iowa Health System, operates in both Iowa and Illinois.

A dog running out of  a ditch in Page County Tuesday morning caused an accident that sent one person to the hospital. Page County Sheriff Lyle Palmer reports a 1994 Ford Mustang driven by 18-year old Brandon Meyers, of Clarinda, was traveling west on 230th Street at around 8:20-a.m., when Meyers swerved to avoid a dog that came onto the road.

The car went out of control and entered the south ditch before it came to rest after hitting a tree. Meyers was transported to the Clarinda Hospital for treatment of non-incapacitating injuries. Damage to the car was estimated at $5,000. No citations were issued.

Harlan City Administrator Terry Cox says the City has Harlan received an anonymous donation of American flags for the downtown square flag replacement project. Cox reported the news to the City Council, on Tuesday. The Shelby County Supervisors, City of Harlan and Harlan Municipal Utilities will work on replacing flags around the square and will ask businesses to help with the upkeep of the flags.

Cox also said next Monday or Tuesday, the new Harlan Police Department building project will get started, weather permitting. The project was to start this past week, however work was held off until after the Harlan Community School District Parade which will be held on Friday.

Cox also reported the Iowa Department of Transportation has grant money available to change the street lights on Highway 44 to LED lights. He said HMU will do the work once the approval of the grant has gone through from the DOT. Cox said he is hoping the work can begin later this fall.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)