Griswold Head Girls Basketball Coach Jeff Koenck says more than 57-hundred dollars has been raised during last week’s Iowa Pride Challenge. The students this year worked to raise awareness and money for the Caps for Kids organization, as well as BrookeLynne Peterson. Caps for Kids is a non-profit organization that provides cancer patients with autographed caps from a celebrity and BrookeLynne is a 1st grader in the Griswold community who is battling kidney cancer.

Koenck says the money raised far exceeded expectations. Change Wars between all of the schools raised a little more than $3,560, and the girls’ basketball team hosted Fremont-Mills in a Junior Varsity-Varisty doubleheader on Friday, Nov. 22nd. Money was raised during the game, bringing the total amount raised to nearly $5,710.

Koenck said he is “So proud of the students, my players, the staff, and community members of Griswold. The amount of awareness and money raised for pediatric cancer is a testament to the character of our community.”

(12-p.m. News)

No injuries were reported following an accident early this (Wednesday) morning, in Atlantic. According to the Atlantic Police Department, a vehicle driven by Ashley Jensen, of Atlantic, was traveling east in the 500 block of East 8th Street at around 2-a.m., when it hit a parked trailer. The trailer, owned by George Wagner,  slid forward and hit a parked vehicle, registered to John Worth.

Atlantic Police Chief Steve Green reports a local man was arrested this (Wednesday) morning on felony drug charges. Green says a search warrant was executed at 607 West 6th Street as the result of an ongoing narcotics trafficking conspiracy. The conspiracy included the use of minors in the drug trade and the distribution of controlled substances to minors.

Taken into custody on felony charges of Distribution of a Controlled Substance to a person under the age of 18, and two-counts of sale and Possession of Marijuana, was 48-year old Richard Allen Wehrli, of Atlantic. Wehrli also faces two aggravated misdemeanor charges of Prohibited Acts, for keeping or maintaining a premises used for the distribution of controlled substances.

The investigation was a joint effort between the Atlantic Police Department and Cass County Sheriff’s Office.

Firefighters from several western Iowa departments remained on the scene of a grain bin fire east of Shelby until about 10-a.m. Wednesday, or more than 7-hours after it was first reported. Crews from Shelby, Avoca, Harlan, Minden and Defiance were called to the scene north of Interstate 80, at 33804 400th Street. Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker told the Omaha World-Herald the bin, which was worth about $30,000, contained about $60,000 in corn that was being dried. Officials say most of the corn was only damaged, and not destroyed. So it was still be used as cattle feed.

Avoca Assistant Fire Chief Keenan Martin says the blaze occurred sometime before 3-a.m., as his crew was dispatched at around 3:10-a.m.  Martin said Shelby Fire was already on the scene with pumper and tanker trucks when Avoca Fire arrived with their engine, tanker and support vehicle. He described what they saw: Heavy smoke and flames were emitting from the roof of the grain bin, and because and elevator link was hooked up, several bins around the main bin, were in danger of catching fire.

He said the situation was somewhat unusual, he said, with 20-foot high flames shooting from the roof of the bin, which held 8- to 12-thousand bushels of corn. He said it was a unique bin, in that  the dryer was on top. That allowed the fire to burn above about 75-percent of the corn being stored in the bin. The flames were coming from the top of the structure and over-shooting the roof when his crews arrived.

The structure was likely not salvageable, according to Martin. Avoca Fire was on the scene for about 6-hours. No injuries were reported. A cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

(Ric Hanson-KJAN/Joel McCall-KNOD)