The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says an Atlantic man was arrested Wednesday, on drug charges. 22-year old Jeremy Michael Petersen was taken into custody for Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of Marijuana, Prohibited Acts, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Petersen was brought to the Cass County Jail and subsequently released $7,500 bond.

Access to a popular Cass County recreation area has been improved, thanks to work by crews with the County Conservation Department. The “Rock Cuts” at Cold Springs State Park near Lewis is over three-quarters of a mile from the nearest access road, which makes entry to the area by emergency responders, problematic.

That fact was made evident on July 4^th of this year, when a 31-year old Lewis woman drowned in the waters of the Nishnabotna River. The turbulent river winds its way through the Rock Cuts. It was the second time a person had drowned in the area since July 2005.

Cass County Conservation Department Director Micah Lee says after the most recent drowning, they found out access to the area by emergency responders was extremely difficult, so the access road was cleared and widened for vehicles and personnel. He said there shouldn’t be an issue with access, for the foreseeable future. Lee said they will be able to keep the road clear, thanks to the recent acquisition of a new machine capable of clearing brush.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday), through County Attorney Dan Feistner, presented in an open session, the County’s initial bargaining proposal to the Public, Professional and Maintenance Employee’s Union (PPME), for Fiscal Year 2014-through 2016. The Union represents the County’s Secondary Roads Department.

Last week, the Supervisors received the Union’s initial bargaining proposal, which the County rejected. The next step, according to Cass County Engineer Charles Marker, is for the Union to review the County’s proposal. He says from here, negotiated will be conducted in closed session. If an agreement cannot be reached, the matter will be handled through a mediator.

Contract proposals of the type presented by both entities are typically not approved at first glance, and counter-proposals are not unusual. Union representative Craig Meyer quipped afterward that the County’s proposal “Looks Good.” Meyer said he’d go for it, but he doesn’t think the rest of them (Union members) will. That drew laughs from the Supervisors, who will continue working with the Union on a collective bargaining agreement.

The members of four of six state task forces studying how to improve education have released their final reports. The task force looking at the school calendar is recommending that local school districts should set the length of the school day while encouraging after school programs for students. They also said state law should be changed to require one-thousand-80 hours instead of 180 days, and said the current law on the start of the school year needs clarifying. The task forces looking at teacher and administration evaluation both recommend new systems to conduct those evaluations. A task force that looked at how much teachers should be paid released its recommendation last week. Education Department director, Jason Glass, said at that time that the recommendations of all six task forces will play a role in improving the quality of education.

“We need to hold people accountable, we need to be defining what an effective teacher is, determining what that looks like, and if it is not happening, we need to have systems and plans in place to ensure that, because were are talking about our children here, and they deserve the best educator that our system can put in place,” Glass says. The director was asked at the time about the link between the evaluation and the increase in compensation for teachers.

“I don’t think at least any member of the task force that released this report today, nor my administration at the Department of Education believes that we are going to use evaluation by itself as a way to dramatically improve the teaching profession,” he says, “or dramatically improve the performance of our system. We really need the right balance of pressure and support.” Two other state task forces are continuing to work on their recommendations. A final report from the task force on Early Childhood Assessment is due November 15th, while the Competency-Based Instruction Task Force’s preliminary report is due January 15th.

(Radio Iowa)

The number of homes sold in Iowa dropped last month while prices rose. A total of 2,671 homes were sold in the state in September, according to the Iowa Association of Realtors. That’s down from 3,007 homes sold over the same month last year. Iowa Association of Realtors president Dale Gross, of Atlantic, notes sales had been increasing for many months in a row and overall 2012 year-to-date sales are still up by 11.6% compared to last year. The median price for a home sold in Iowa last month was $127,000. That’s up 5.8% from the $120,000 median sale price in September 2011. Gross said there just under 21,000 homes on the market across the state at the end of last month. That compares to nearly 24,500 homes on the market at end of September last year.

(Radio Iowa)