Four Guthrie County residents have been appointed to the Extension Council Nominating Committee. The committee is charged with nominating candidates for the five vacancies on the council before August 6, 2012.

Committee members selected to nominate extension council candidates for the 2012 election are Mike Carey of Panora; Mike Christensen of Stuart; Carolyn Schwartz of Bayard; and Cindy Steensen of Guthrie Center.

By law the nominating committee must include two women and two men, and cannot include any current member of the council. The committee is required to take county geography into consideration when nominating candidates.

Candidates nominated by the committee must submit petitions containing the names of 25 qualified voters to the county election commissioner by 5 p.m. on Aug. 29. Additionally, individuals may petition to have their names placed on the ballot through a self-nominating process by submitting petitions with 25 names to the election commissioner. Petition forms are available from the election commissioner and at the county extension office.

Voters will cast ballots for the nominees in the Nov. 6 general election. Successful candidates will serve four-year terms beginning in January 2013.

–Information from press release by Guthrie County Extension and Outreach

About 2,000 inmates in Iowa prisons endured last week’s extreme heat without air conditioning. Iowa Department of Corrections spokesperson Lettie Prell says staff members are trained to administer first aid for heat exhaustion, but there have been no incidents reported. Most of the state’s nine prison facilities are air conditioned.

The exceptions are the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility and the housing units at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. There are also some housing units at Mitchellville and Clarinda that rely only on fans. Prell says she’s not aware of any discipline problems related to the recent heat wave.

“If you’re talking about fights, there are always other reasons why there may be some tensions within an institution and it’s hard to say how many are caused only by the heat or if it would not have happened if it hadn’t been summer,” Prell said. Newer buildings in the Iowa prison system are air conditioned because security doesn’t allow for open windows. Texas prisons face lawsuits over the lack of air conditioning, but Prell said she’s not worried about that happening here.

Three young teens in Guthrie Center face possible felony charges in connection with vandalism that caused about $10,000 of damage in the city in late June.

The Guthrie Center Times reports the vandalism occurred on June 27 or June 28 during the late night hours.  Several local businesses and pieces of equipment were spray painted, while several vehicles owned by Wetzel repair had windshield, headlight, and taillight damage.

Guthrie Center Police Chief Mike Herbert tells the Guthrie County Times that the teens could face class C felony criminal mischief charges because total damage from vandalism was about $10,000, which is the threshold for those felony charges.  He says two 15-year-old males and one 13-year-old male are suspected in the vandalism after a trail of evidence led back to them.

No other details about the case are available.

The Atlantic Police Department reports a local teen faces an OWI charge.   On June 28, 18-year-old Dillon Lee Foote of Griswold appeared at the Cass County Jail to be booked and released on a charge of OWI 1st offense.