An Atlantic man was arrested Thursday afternoon, on a theft charge. The Atlantic Police Department reports 24-year old Joseph Fredericksen was arrested for 5th degree theft in connection with an alleged incident at Wal-Mart. Fredericksen was booked into the Cass County Jail and held pending an appearance before the magistrate.

The Walnut City Council spent a good deal of time Thursday evening discussing ways to keep the community a viable tourist attraction, by means of the Streetscape Program. City Clerk Terry Abell, says the goal is to have an attractive downtown for visitors and residents alike. She says they’re talking about having the merchants get together with the City to determine what is best for the future of the downtown area, which she says “Is a positive thing.”

Terry says there a “Lots of ideas,” and that’s it will be something that’s “A work in progress for a while.” She says “Everybody wants to maintain the antique ambiance of the community, and not jeopardize the integrity of what they’ve worked so hard to accomplish. The goal of course, is to have “A nice looking downtown.” Walnut bills itself as “Iowa’s Antique City.”

In other business, the Walnut City Council approved the Fire Department’s recommendation to reappoint Justen Tooley as Fire Chief, for a third, consecutive two-year term. Following a public hearing, the Council also adopted a resolution approving a loan agreement and bond purchase for $1.06-million in General Obligation Refunding Bonds, Series 2013, and authorized early redemption of outstanding bonds. Along with that, Terry Abell says they approved a motion to amend the Fiscal Year 2012-2013 budget by $217,000.

She says most of that had to do with the refunding of the State Revolving Fund – SRF – loan, that has to be paid-off, but was not in the original budget. She says they weren’t extending the budget in any specific area to compensate for the refunding of the loan.

The annual report from the state Ombudsman shows the office received almost 45-hundred complaints in 2012, around the same amount as 2011. Ombudsman, Ruth Cooperider, found that just over three-thousand of the complaints fell under the jurisdiction of her office.
She says “Probably about a third of those would dealing with matters concerning the correctional system, whether it’s prisons or jails or community-based facilities. Because we do have jurisdiction to investigate complaints regarding those facilities, so we do get contacts from offenders or inmates.”

Second on the list for common complaints are human services concerns. “The wide range of issues dealing with child support, public assistance programs, Medicaid, just anything dealing with human services programs,” Cooperider says. Cooperider says complaints about local and county governments rounds out the top three when it comes to the type of complaints they receive. About half of the complaints don’t move ahead to be investigated. “It’s not necessarily that we don’t think they have merit, but under our statute we do have the ability to refer people maybe to an existing process,” Cooperider says. “For instance, if an inmate has a grieveable issue and they have not filed a grievance on that issue, we typically will refer them to that grievance process to try and seek a remedy there first. And if they are still not satisfied, they can come back to us.”

Cooperider says her annual report includes eight steps for people to resolve their own complaints before calling her office. She says that’s sometimes called “coaching” in the ombudsman community, where they give tips and information on where to go and how to present the issue. “And I think in some ways we are doing a services to them in how to negotiate government, not only on that issue, but in the future,” according to Cooperider.

You can see the Ombudsman’s 2012 Annual Report online at: www.legis.iowa.gov/Ombudsman. You can call the Ombudsman’s office with a compliant at:1-888-426-6283.

(Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic says the facility’s west entrance and parking lot (along 10^th Street) will be closing Monday, April 8th, as demolition begins on the old patient wings.  Patients and visitors are asked to use the north atrium or east parking lots and entrances. CCMH CEO Pat Markham says “We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but it is important we take every precaution to keep our patients, visitors and staff safe during the demolition.” The area is expected to be closed for about four to six weeks.

(8-a.m. News)