GRAND JUNCTION, Iowa (AP) – A 3-year-old Iowa boy who’d been enjoying a warm spring day at a lake with his mom and siblings has drowned.  Greene County authorities say Ransom Cummings was pulled from 5-foot-deep water just six feet from a dock at Spring Lake on Tuesday afternoon. Ransom had wandered away from his mom and two siblings on the beach at the Greene County lake.

Greene County Sheriff Steve Haupert says 911 was called about 1:15 p.m., and deputies, firefighters and medics were dispatched to Spring Lake State Park to join the search for the boy.  Haupert says Ransom had been missing for at least 40 minutes when a firefighter spotted the reflection from the boy’s sunglasses on the lake bed.  The boy was pronounced dead at Greene County Hospital in Jefferson.

The Atlantic City Council will discuss and act on the first reading of a 5.5-percent rate increase for sewer service during their meeting this evening, at City Hall. City Administrator Doug Harris says if approved on the third and final reading, the monthly base fee for usage up to 3,000 gallons will increase $1.50 per month, from $27.00 to $28.50. Additional usage above 3,000 gallons will increase 30-cents, from $5.50 to $5.80 per thousand gallons over 3,000.

Harris says the increase is needed to fund Debt Service and Operating costs of the new wastewater treatment plant. He says Fiscal Year 2014, which begins July 1st, 2013, will be the first full year of debt service payments and operating costs for the plant. The City’s debt service payments will increase by more than $76,961, which reflects the fact the City did not draw down all of its State Revolving Loan Funds (SRLF), or issue Revenue Bonds to finance the balance of the cost of the new plant until near the end of the current fiscal year. Another factor influencing the proposed rate increase, is an increase in the annual utility billings, which will jump from $3,370/year to $37,300/year.

In other business, the Council will hold a public hearing on the sale of a lot at 314 Walnut Street, followed by action on a resolution approving sale of the property for $30,000 to a local man, who wishes to build a restaurant/sports bar on the site, with future plans for office space and luxury condominiums on the upper floors.

And, the Council will act on resolutions approving the issuance of General Obligation Bonds for $2.7-million, along with a bond purchase agreement not to exceed $7.05-million, for Sewer Revenue Bonds. The Atlantic City Council meeting begins at 5:30-p.m.

Three people have been arrested on various charges, in Montgomery County. According to the Sheriff’s Department, 42-year old Keith Allan Currin, of Villisca, was arrested just after 1-a.m. today (Wednesday) in the 100 block of south 5th Street, on a Possession of drug paraphernalia charge. Currin was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $300 bond.

On Tuesday, deputies arrested 31-year old Bobbie Jo Kent, of Red Oak, on a warrant for theft in the 5th degree, and, 32-year old Cody Dean Franzen, of Stanton, was arrested on a warrant for Contempt of Court/Illegal Resistance to an Order or Process. Franzen was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond, while Kent’s bond was set at $300.

A judge in Pottawattamie County has given a suspended sentence to a woman who encouraged her son to fight another boy, and then hit the other child when her son was being hit. The incident appeared in a video on the internet. The Daily NonPareil says 31-year old Alisha Hazen, of Council Bluffs was arrested in December, on suspicion of felony child endangerment, serious assault and contributing to the delinquency of a minor for her alleged involvement in a fight that took place at Kreft Elementary School in November. She plead guilty on Tuesday, to simple assault and aggravated misdemeanor child endangerment.