Sheriff’s officials in Cass County say no injuries were reported after a semi rolled into the ditch off of Interstate 80 early this (Thursday) morning. The accident was called-in at around 2:04-a.m. Authorities say a 2014 Freightliner semi driven by 33-year old Yousef Mohamed Elghoul, of Dearborn, MI, was traveling west on I-80 and had attempted to pull onto the shoulder about two-miles east of the Wiota Exit, when he pulled over too far. The rig rolled over onto its side. Elghoul was cited for Failure to Maintain Control.

Officials with the Cass County Sheriff’s Department today (Thursday), released additional details about a chase and crash that took place early Tuesday morning. As we previously mentioned, just after 2-a.m. Tuesday, the Cass County Communications Center received a report of a white pickup truck stolen from 60379 Airport Road, in Atlantic. Several minutes later Deputy Ben Bartholomew observed the vehicle traveling southwest on White Pole Road between Atlantic and Lewis.

As the deputy initiated the stop, the driver of the vehicle (later identified as 53-year old Stefan Michael Greelis, of Council Bluffs) attempted to elude the deputy, by turning onto 585th Street northeast of Lewis. Greelis — who had been released from the Cass County Jail hours earlier — continued north at a high rate of speed and missed the curve that turns 585th Street into Main Street in Lewis.

The pickup hit a sign and rolled 1 ½ times before coming to rest in the field north of 582nd/Main Street. Greelis was extricated from the vehicle by mechanical means and transported to the Cass County Memorial Hospital by Medivac. He faces charges that include Theft 2nd Degree, Felony Eluding, Driving While Revoked, and Reckless Driving. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office was also assisted by the Atlantic Police Department, Lewis Fire Department, Lewis Rescue, and Griswold Rescue.

An Omaha firm has its eyes on Atlantic as the possible site for housing development projects, such as re-purposing older buildings and building low-to-moderate income apartments or duplexes, for senior citizens. City Administrator Doug Harris said Mike Fallesen, Vice President for Affordable Housing Development with the Seldin Company, in Omaha, toured some sites in Atlantic, this past Monday.

Some of the locations include the former Jackson School, property behind the Fareway Store, and other areas. Harris said Fallesen seemed interested in obtaining more information from the City, such as its Housing Study. Harris said Seldin tends to combine their projects with Community Development Block Grants, plus tax credits and other incentives, in order to make it more feasible to build or rehabilitate properties.

The Seldin Company website says the firm specializes in property management, leasing, and development with more than 12,000 apartments units and more than 3.3 million square feet of commercial retail and office space across the central United States. Through the years, Seldin Company has built single-family homes, subdivisions, apartments, hotels, shopping centers and other commercial developments.

(on the web at http://www.seldin.com/)

The Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, approved the awarding of a contract for City auditing services to Gronewold, Bell, Kyhnn & Co., P.C., of Atlantic. Their decision followed discussion, and a recommendation by the City’s Personnel and Finance Committee. City Administrator Doug Harris said there were three bids for the three-year service (Fiscal Year’s 2014, ’15 and ’16). The other bidders included the State of Iowa Auditor’s Office, and Faller, Kinchloe & Co., PLC, of Des Moines.

Harris said Gronewold, Bell & Kyhnn are well qualified for the job and handle a lot of other municipal accounting jobs. He says their cost was slightly higher for the single audit then the other two firms, but when the cost is average for the three year contract, the cost is actually lower, and, it appears the other firms underestimating how long it would take to complete an audit, and therefore billed for lesser hours in their bid.

G,B & K’s combined bid for three-years of single audits was $42,150, which was just slightly higher than Faller and Kinchloe’s bid, and more than $4,000 less than what the State of Iowa had bid. G B & K’s FY 2014 single audit price was $13,750, and would take 220-hours. As a point of reference, the City’s FY 2013 audit cost $15,480, and took 260 hours to complete, including 28 hours for the single audit at a cost of $1,600.

In other business, the Council approved a 3% increase in compensation for non-union City employees (excluding the Wastewater Superintendent, whose compensation adjustment has already been approved by the Council). Doug Harris explained the 3% increase is the same increase granted to the two unions, and the funding increase for the adjustment was included in the adopted FY 2015 Budget.

Authorities in Cass County have identified a man who died during a farming accident Wednesday afternoon, northeast of Massena. Sheriff’s officials say 40-year old Brian Larry Follmann, of Massena, died when he became caught in a hay baler.

The incident was reported at around 2:37-p.m. Follmann died at the scene of the accident, located off of 760th Street, about three-quarters of a mile north of Highway 92.