WILTON, Iowa (AP) — Students and volunteers in a small eastern Iowa city are working together to construct a $90,000 observatory. The Muscatine Journal reports that volunteers in Wilton this week began assembling the observatory’s shell and installing instruments. The project is expected to be completed in May.

Resident Grant Harkness came up with the idea to build the observatory. He says his two young sons have always wanted to learn more about space. The community helped raise the funds for the project after the Wilton Community School District Board approved the plan.

Harkness says the observatory will be available for students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The space will include a command center where students will be able to control the telescope and gather data.

KNOXVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Since the Veterans Affairs moved out of a sprawling campus on the edge of the small Iowa city of Knoxville a decade ago, local leaders have become increasingly anxious about the ghost town that has become a drag on their community.

The VA left behind 39 buildings and Knoxville residents are desperate to work out a plan with state and federal officials for an area that once operated as a separate city. There’s a power plant, fire station, water tower, green houses, laundry and chapel.

Knoxville Mayor Brian Hatch says it once was a beautiful campus but “now the buildings are rotten.” City leaders hope to take control of the site but think up to $10 million could be needed to clear the buildings for future development of housing.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Nebraska resident accused of stabbing to death a woman in northwest Iowa has had her trial set for the fall. The trial of Melissa Camargo-Flores, of Dakota City, Nebraska, had been scheduled to begin Feb. 19, but a judge last month granted her attorneys’ request for a delay. The Sioux City Journal reports that on Friday, the judge set the new trial date for Oct. 22.

Camargo-Flores has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the April. 8 killing of 24-year-old Kenia Alvarez-Flores in Sioux City. Court documents say Camargo-Flores admitted stabbing Alvarez-Flores. Camargo-Flores told investigators she’d been involved in a relationship with the victim’s boyfriend.

Authorities say the two women were not related.

w/ Chris Parks

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.8MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Red Oak Police Department reports two arrests on Friday night.

At 5:41pm Officers arrested 32-year-old Cody Allen Tunnell of Red Oak in the 200 block of East Grimes Street in Red Oak. He was charged with Simple Assault, a simple misdemeanor. Tunnell was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $300 bond.

At 11:25pm Red Oak Police arrested 48-year-old Charles Edward Heim of Colorado Springs, CO at 106 East Valley Street in Red Oak. Heim was charged with Domestic Assault 1st Offense. He was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on no bond.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Utilities Board has extended the annual winter ban on shutting off utilities for those customers enrolled in the energy assistance program from Monday to May 13th due to the flooding in some counties. I-U-B spokesperson, Don Tormey, says the Low Income Home Energy Assistance, or LIHEAP program gives some help in dealing with the bigger bills during the cold winter months. “It is a benefit to them but it only pays for a portion of their service,” Tormey explained.

He says those enrolled should be paying what they can on their bill. “The Iowa Utilities board always encourages those customers and all customers to keep paying toward their energy bill even during the winter months — because even though the program guarantees no disconnection it’s not a free ride,” Tormey says. He says the utility companies are willing to work with you and won’t automatically cut off your service when the moratorium ends. But Tormey says you have to reach out to them.

“Those customers who are protected from utility disconnections — if they are protected under the LIHEAP program for energy assistance — they would need to contact both their local utility company to talk about payment arrangements and contact their local community action agency to seek financial assistance,” Tormey says.

Tormey says they utilities can begin disconnecting service when the moratorium ends if the customer has not made arrangements to pay outstanding balances on their utility bill.