(Radio Iowa) — The U-S Fish and Wildlife Service is entering the final phase in approving a plan for MidAmerican Energy to help prevent the number of bats and eagles killed by its current and future wind farms. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Kraig McPeek says the final plan is now available for public comment following an earlier public hearing. “We’ve taken those comments that we received form that public commenting period last spring — incorporated changes edits and updates into the document — and now it’s going back out for a final 30-day review for the public,” McPeek says.

McPeeks says there were around 100 comments in the spring. He says they could be grouped into categories that included overall displeasure with a permit that allows for the taking of bats and bald eagles, another category that was appreciative of the data-driven approach, and then comments on ways to improve the permitting process in the future. The plan would issue a permit to allow for a limited number of deaths for four bat species and 10 turbine-related incidental bald eagle deaths each year. Bats covered by the permit include the federally endangered Indiana bat, the federally threatened northern long-eared bat, the non-endangered little brown bat and tri-colored bat. McPeek says MidAmerican has agreed to take some measures that would cut down on the number of deaths of each species.

“They’re going to feather their blades below their cut-in speeds where they being to produce electricity — that’s been proven to reduce impacts to bats,”McPeek says. “Working with land owners and county road commissions to be sure that road kill deer are not left — carcasses are not left where roadkill deer would bring them into contact with turbines.” McPeek says the company has a set number of eagles and bats that can be killed and they will pay for habitat improvements designed to replace those animals. “They will mitigate to basically create areas for bats to breed and create more bats, and to protect and breed more bald eagles in the wild,” according to McPeek.

McPeek says there are still some things that are not known about the impact of wind turbines, but MidAmerican has taken a lot of time to analyze the information available to come up with the best plan. “They’ve spent almost five years now collecting information on their existing wind farms to inform this plan,” he says, “and we’ve combined that information with information from across the great Midwest. So, we do have nearly a decade of information to help us make these decisions.” And he says if they find out that what they are doing is leading to more deaths then expected — they have to take more action.”There’s what we call an adaptive management strategy. And so the company will be monitoring annually to determine if the number of animals killed is was we had expected or if it was greater or lesser,” McPeek says. “And then we have adaptive management triggers in the plan if they do begin to exceed what the expected number of fatalities were — then they do need to take measures to bring that back down.”

McPeek says this is a little bit like the process when electric lines started going up and changes were made to keep animals from getting killed on them. He says the work continues on solutions. “This company and many other companies are working to keep bats away from insulation on power lines to keep bald eagles from being electrocuted. There’s some things that can be done to scare them away from wind farms,” McPeek says. You can view a copy of the plan online. Paper copies will be available at 22 county libraries in Iowa. A final order on the plan will be issued after the 30-day comment period.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a man has been killed while working on a dump truck south of Dubuque. The Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office says deputies and medics sent to a rural property around 7 p.m. Wednesday found the 61-year-old man pinned between the truck’s dump box and the truck body. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His name hasn’t been released. Authorities say it appears he’d been cutting metal on the truck frame when the dump box came down on him.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports one person was arrested at around 7:30-p.m., Wednesday, in connection with an assault that took place Wednesday morning, in Villisca. 44-year old Marshall Larry Adams, of Stanton, was taken into custody and brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where his bond was set at $1,000.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence says he is working with the White House counsel’s office to release transcripts of his own calls with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He says the phone conversations help exonerate President Donald Trump of any wrongdoing. Pence was asked about releasing his transcripts and told reporters, “I’d have no objection to that.” He spoke Wednesday after an event in Waukee, Iowa, where he addressed supporters about the president’s trade policy.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police are investigating the discovery of human remains in a homeless camp near downtown Des Moines as a homicide. Television station KCCI reports that the police received a tip Tuesday that led investigators to a wooded area behind an abandoned manufacturing plant. Police Sgt. Paul Parizek says the case is being treated as a homicide, noting that the body had been “cleverly concealed” and that the person did not appear to die of natural causes.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A top aide to Gov. Kim Reynolds is working as an expert witness in a private property lawsuit, backing a family that is seeking millions of dollars from neighbors in a zoning dispute. The outside work by Department of Administrative Services Director Jim Kurtenbach is unusual for an agency leader. His testimony supporting a family seeking to develop an Ames campground over the objections of neighbors could give the appearance that the executive branch is taking sides in a local dispute.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Court of Appeals says the Sioux City Human Rights Commission may sue the owners of rental properties for housing discrimination for rejecting renters with disabilities who asked to keep companion animals in their homes. A panel of three judges has concluded the city and its civil rights commission have standing to sue the James W. Boyd Revocable Trust and its trustees for violations of the law under the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

Atlantic School District Superintendent Steve Barber said Wednesday, that because the Department of Education agreed with another company to handle the Certified Enrollment Data each school in the State is responsible for completing and that drives the funding mechanism, the District had not received the file from the State to certify the enrollment.

Barber said the results are therefore unofficial until the certification process can be completed. As it stands, Certified enrollment this year is nearly the same as last year, if not flat. The latest data show an enrollment of 1329.7 this year, versus 1328.8 in 2018 (or, +.9 students). Open enrolled-in numbers are down 2.5 students from 2018, and Open enrolled-in versus Out, is up 3.4 students.

In other news, Barber said the Washington Parking Lot project was nominated for an award by the Statewide Concrete Organization. Their members visited Atlantic Wednesday and are comparing the project to others nominated within the State, to determine the award winners. He said also, there have been few if any complaints about the new drop-off and pickup locations.

Superintendent Barber said also, some members of the Atlantic media are sponsoring a School Board Candidate Forum. The event will be held 7-p.m. Monday, Oct. 28th, in the Atlantic Middle School Auditorium.  In the Atlantic School District, five people are running for one, At Large seat on the School Board: Mark C. Foegen; Nicholas Hunt; Laura McLean; Incumbent Jenny Williams; and Benjamin Winford.