The Atlantic Chamber Ambassadors were hosted by Interior Touch on Thursday March 11th, 2021 for a ribbon cutting ceremony to welcome the new owners Jared & Carrie Schmitt. The Ambassadors were introduced to Carrie & Jared Schmitt who took ownership of Interior Touch January 15th, 2021. Jared has made his career in painting, and has worked with Cathy Baragary, the previous owner of Interior Touch, for many years. Cathy approached Jared about purchasing the business and Carrie explained that “it just wasn’t a good time for us in our lives.”

“Thankfully, Cathy didn’t sell the business and when she approached us again, a few years later, the timing was right.” Cathy is staying on staff until March to help with the transition and help Jared learn about measuring window treatment and flooring. Carrie & Jared also have Danielle Steinhoff and Lori Rutherford helping customers with their home improvement needs.

Interior Touch specializes in carpet, flooring, paint, and window treatments, but have recently started carrying area rugs. The business not only sells flooring but works with a few sub-contractors to provide flooring instillation. The Schmitts have big dreams for the business and are grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the business community in Atlantic.

Authorities say a stuck accelerator was apparently the blame for an accident Thursday afternoon. Creston Police report a 2000 GMC Sierra pickup driven by 37-year-old Brandi Lynn Atkins, of Creston, was traveling in the Creston Wal-Mart parking lot at around 2-p.m., Thursday, and exited to the Maurice’s parking lot, when the gas pedal became stuck. The pickup accelerated and hit a stop sign and dumpster before coming to rest. There were no injuries, and no citations were issued.

Damage to the pickup owned by Lloyd Garner II, of Osceola,  was estimated at $1,500.

The Anita City Council appointed Councilman and Mayor Pro-Tem John Knutson as Mayor. Their action came during Wednesday’s City Council meeting. Knutson had served as Mayor Pro-Tem under Tom Harris, who died in December.

The City Council had the option to fill the position by a special election or by appointment. The latter means they’ll have to fill a council seat. In accordance with Iowa election laws, a notice pertaining to the open City Council seat will be published in the paper. Persons interested in filling the position are asked to contact the Anita City Clerk.

The Council also hired Eric Steffensen as the City’s new Public Works Director on Wednesday, and they authorized the Mayor to sign a new five-year 28E agreement with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office. The Anita City Council approved the use of Local Option Sales Tax money to outfit ten volunteer firefighters with new equipment, as well.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa has slipped in an annual state-by-state report that tracks the level of our public health emergency preparedness. The Hawkeye State achieved a score of just four out of a possible ten measures of preparedness for diseases, disasters and bioterrorism. Dara Lieberman, director of government relations at Trust for America’s Health, says Iowa now ranks with 14 other states in the middle tier. “The year before, Iowa was in the high tier,” Lieberman says. “We didn’t find specific backsliding by the state this year but we did find that other states gained more ground. One area where the state could certainly improve is that Iowa cut its public health budget for the last several years.”

Funding for public health was either stable or increased in 43 states, while the report says Iowa cut that funding by three-percent between fiscal years 2019 and 2020. “We think it’s an important measure because we can’t just be funding public health after an outbreak begins,” Lieberman says, “but we need to have the workforce, system and tools in place ahead of time so that we can make the population healthier as well as both the preparedness and emergency response systems that we need for an event like this.”

While all 50 states have made improvements in their emergency preparedness, she they all have room for further strengthening of their public health response programs. “The one area where Iowa is a bit of an outlier is the number of hospitals that are participating in health care coalitions, they could certainly improve that,” Lieberman says. “We also found that only 16% of acute care hospitals in the state were achieving the highest patient safety grades.” There are a couple of categories where Iowa continues to excel on the national report.

“We found that the percent of workers who used paid time off was above average in the state, and that’s an indication that workers can stay home when they’re sick, we know there’s wide variation in given industries of how acceptable that is,” Lieberman says. “And Iowa was also above average in its seasonal flu vaccination rates.” To see the full report, called “Ready or Not: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism,” visit the Trust for America’s Health website: www.tfah.org

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has voted to let dentists administer Covid vaccines AND give the shots their dental offices if they choose — but there is some push back from the medical community on that last part. Dennis Tibben, of the Iowa Medical Society, says the staff in dentists’ offices may not be properly trained to accurately and quickly record every shot that’s been given into the required database.

“We could set ourselves up for the potential here where we would have phantom doses that it shows on our federal reports, that we have more doses on the shelf than we actually do,” he says. “…That could impact the weekly supply of Covid-19 vaccines that we’re receiving from the federal government.” Dr. William McBride, a dentist from Dubuque, is chair of the state Dental Board. The board supports the entire bill — including the idea of letting dentists deliver Covid shots in their offices.

“I would note that this is voluntary. Certainly some dentists will opt not to participate, but I would also like to note that it could be an additional access point for patients, particularly in rural communities,” McBride says. “…The board believes that dentists are more than qualified to provide this service and that it would be good public health policy.” Sara Allen, a lobbyist for the Iowa Dental Association, which represents the state’s dentists, says with such a short supply of vaccine doses, now is not the time to distribute doses to dentist’s offices.

“Upsetting the apple cart right now is not really conducive to public health,” Allen says. “However I will say that we would love and would be great partners with the state if there were these vaccine clinics throughout the state where, you know, we could show up on a Saturday and help administer the vaccines.” Charlotte Eby, a lobbyist for the Association of Dental Support Organizations, says the group strongly supports giving dentists authority to give Covid shots in their offices if they wish.

“State officials are ramping up the effort to vaccinate as many Iowans as quickly and as safely as possible,” Eby says, “and as we deal with the challenges of the pandemic, Iowa dentists have a unique opportunity to lend their health care expertise and skills.” The bill passed the House last month on an 89-to-four vote. This week, the bill cleared a subcommittee in the SENATE, after one lawmaker described the disagreement among dentists as a “turf war.” At least 23 states have passed laws that give dentists authority to administer Covid vaccines and many also let dentists do so in their own offices.