Home sales and prices increased in Iowa again last month. Dale Gross, of Atlantic, is president of the Iowa Association of Realtors (IAR). “We’ve had a tremendous 13 months in a row where everything continues to go a little bit up or a lot up,” Gross says. Home sales have increased in Iowa for 13 consecutive months. A new report from the I-A-R shows 3,367 homes were sold last month, compared to 3,274 homes sold in July 2011. The median sale price of a home in Iowa last month was $134,900, up from $130,000 in July 2011. Gross says the inventory of homes available for purchase has dropped 13-percent over the past year.

“We’re down from nearly 25,000 houses to 21,600 houses available for buyers to look at,” Gross said. “That, along with the low interest rates – which we’re seeing the 30 year (interest rate) at just under 4% and the 15 year under 3% – means there are still people out there buying or involved in the home buying process.” Gross said he’s concerned about the impact the drought will have on home sales in rural Iowa communities.

“And yet, the statistics don’t show that anybody is backing away here in the summer months,” Gross said. “I guess maybe the farmers have the right amount of crop insurance or something like that and everybody is talking like, ‘well, we’ll get by.'” The new I-A-R report shows pending home sales were up 4.2 percent in July compared to the previous year. The average number of days on the market in July was 96 days, down from 106 days in July 2011.

(Radio Iowa)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – The founding president of Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs has died.  Robert Looft was 87.  Bill Cutler, of the Cutler-O’Neill mortuary in Council Bluffs, said Wednesday that Looft died Monday at a nursing home in Council Bluffs.  Looft’s daughter Diane Machmuller said that her father had been ill for a couple of years.

Looft began his work at the college in 1966, after he’d been awarded a doctorate from Iowa State University. He pushed hard for Iowa Western’s development at a hillside location on the east side of Council Bluffs. The school continued to grow after he left in 1987. Carl Heinrich, who succeeded Looft, says Looft possessed intelligence, vision and creativity. Heinrich says it was an honor to have known Looft.

Students enrolled in the first-ever Iowa Legislature approved pilot online learning academy for K-through 12^th grades, will begin classes Thursday, just as their counterparts head-off to the classroom learning environment in a traditional brick-and-mortar type building. The CAM School Board in January approved the entering into of an agreement with Iowa Connections Academy, for the 2012-2013 school year. IACA Principal James Brauer said the response they’ve received since enrollments started to be accepted after the open enrollment deadline of March 1^st, has been phenomenal. Brauer said as of this (Wedneday) morning, 217 students had enrolled full-time in the online program, and it is possible they could have 225 students by the time the “virtual bell” rings Thursday morning.   Students enrolled in the online academy – which will have a building located in Anita – receive their education from fully-licensed, totally-endorsed teachers in their respective contact areas, on a daily basis.

Brauer says students will communicate with their instructors through a variety of electronic media. In addition, different field trips and club activities will be planned throughout the year, where students can get together with others, in order so they may socialize. And, while some people may be skeptical of students “sloughing-off” by not attending an actual classroom setting, Brauer says the power of being able to guide your own learning and have it facilitated by a teacher, provides students with a sense of “autonomy.” He says adults in the family will have to provide proof the student has spent a certain number of hours each day in the online classroom, just as traditional schools have to certify attendance figures.

But there is no online tracking of the students per se. Brauer says however, that some of the high school courses are set up so that students will be required to attend a webinar-type setting, and interact with other students as well as the teacher. He says one of the reasons online courses are becoming more and more popular, is the issue of bullying in the traditional school setting. He says while he has no hard numbers, the parents he’s heard from cited that problem as one reason for keeping their students home. Brauer says in the more than 125 phones calls he’s made to families enrolled in the Connections Academy, more than three-quarters of them indicated some form of bullying or harassment lead to their decision to enroll their child in the online program.

Brauer says as a virtual public school they still have to the various accreditation guidelines and all the State laws and regulations. Since they work with the CAM District, the requirements are tied to what the CAM School Board has approved, and the graduates receive their diploma from CAM. Connections will coordinate and host the graduation ceremonies. Currently around a half-dozen students will graduate next Spring from the Academy, if they successfully complete the program.

Authorities in Mills County say no injuries were reported following two separate accidents Tuesday. An accident that took place at around 10:40-a.m., occurred when 18-year old Phillip Reinsch, of Glenwood, was driving a 1990 BMW north on Levi Road, about three-miles southeast of Glenwood. Sheriff’s officials say Reinsch was attempting to light a cigarette, when the vehicle left the road to the right and passed through a barbed wire fence before coming to rest in a pasture.

The second accident happened when a 2012 Subaru driven by 55-year old Deborah Howard, of Sacremento, CA, rear-ended a 2008 Hyundai, driven by 57-year old Kathy Anderson, of Glenwood. The mishap occurred on the Highway 34 southbound exit ramp to Interstate 29. Only minor damage was reported to Anderson’s car.

The Sheriff’s Department reports also, 27-year old Brandon Matthew Swanson, of Glenwood, was arrested Tuesday for violating a No Contact Order. His bond was set at $300. And, 42-year old Lori Sue Tompkins, of Moss Point, MS, was arrested Tuesday night on a charge of OWI 1st offense. Her bond was set at $1,000.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday), approved a $10 hourly rate of pay for township trustees serving in an official capacity as “Fence Viewers.” Victoria Township officials had asked the Board to consider establishing a fee for the service, which covers those rare occasions when fence maintenance and/or construction issues are in question. Prior to their decision, the hourly rate for “fence viewing” was $7.50, and attendance for scheduled meeting of trustees was at flat rate of $35.

Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman said ISU staff Attorney Erin Herbold noted with regard to written fence agreements, for an agreement that details the allocation of fence maintenance and/or construction, two options exist. One is  for adjacent owners to enter into a written agreement, or Two, those same owners can request an order from the fence viewers (township trustees), allocating responsibility between the parties.

Iowa Code, according to Sunderman, says the County shall pay except when the trustee is acting as a fence viewer in a case where a provision is made for payment from a source other than the General Fund of the County. The Code does not address the issue of fees, except to say township trustees while engaged in official business shall be compensated at an hourly rate by the Board of Supervisors. The Board may elect also to establish a minimum daily pay rate for time spent by a trustee attending a scheduled meeting of the township.

In other business, County Engineer Charles Marker updated the Board on current road maintenance activities. Marker said two bids were received Tuesday for maintenance projects. One is the German Lutheran Church road, which will be ground up, compacted and reshaped. There were two bids. One from Sta-bilt Construction in Harlan, which bid $29,140. The other was from Blacktop Service Company, out of Corning, which bid $98, 425. Marker says they will accept the bid from Sta-bilt.

The other maintenance project is for a seal coat on 745^th Street, which goes north out of Anita two-miles, then east to Highway 48. The project was bid on square yardage. Sta-bilt bid $1.88 per square yard for the work, which covers 30,333 square yards, or about $57,026. Blacktop Service bid $1.95 per square yard, of about $59,149. Marker says once again they chose Stabilt to handle work on the project. The project has a completion date of October 1^st. Marker said also, work is underway on bridge #166 two-miles east of Cumberland.