(Radio Iowa) – The Director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says it is going to take some time to clean up the damage to the Red Haw State Park near Chariton which was hit by a tornado Saturday. Directory Kayla Lyons updated the Natural Resources Commission today (Thursday). “The campground sustained some substantial damage — and unfortunately, there was one fatality there,” Lyons says.

Forty-year-old Jesse Fisher of Chariton was camping at the park and died in the tornado. Lyons says she visited the park as D-N-R employees were assessing the damage. “The park is going to be closed for quite some time. There was also significant damage to the beach, the dock, the bait house, the beach shelter, the storage building,” she says. She says they are not letting anyone in the park. “We ask that the public stay out of Red Haw right now — it is just not safe to be there. ?We’ve got a lot of people working to get it cleaned up as fast as possible,” according to Lyons.

Lyons says the tornado destroyed many trees — which were a key feature of the park. “Red Haws’s campground had a very mature tree canopy there. The foresters that were there marking trees said a lot of those trees that were in the campground were 100 to 125 years old. So, the park is certainly going to look different going forward,” Lyons says.

The tornado that hit the park was one of 13 the National Weather Service has confirmed from Saturday and Fisher was one of the seven people killed in those storms.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests occurred Wednesday. At around 1:30-p.m., 35-year-old Rick Allan Smith, of Elkhorn, NE., was arrested at the Page County Jail on a warrant for Failure to Appear on an original OWI/1st offense charge. Bond was set at $5,000. And, at around 8:30-p.m., 33-year-old Henry Louis Hargrove, Jr., of Columbus, MS., was arrested following a traffic stop on Highway 34 in Mills County. Hargrove was charged with OWI/1st offense. Bond was set at $1, 000.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa now ranks among the “top tier” states in a non-profit group’s annual study of preparedness to respond to a range of health emergencies, including disease outbreaks and natural disasters. Dara Lieberman, director of government relations at Trust for America’s Health, says the rankings are compiled based on ten key factors. “Generally, Iowa’s been in the middle for the last couple of years so they did move up this year,” Lieberman says. “We think that might be because Iowa increased its public health funding in the last year but that is after cuts the previous couple of years. It is important that state lawmakers invest in public health every year and not just during a pandemic.”

In addition to a boost in public health funding, the report notes Iowa had an increase in the percentage of workers who use paid time off.  “One area where the state needs to improve is a relatively low percentage of hospitals had a top patient safety grade,” Lieberman says. “That shows why private sector health care systems are such an important piece of our emergency preparedness. We also found, in one of our new indicators this year, only about 38% of Iowa residents were estimated to be protected by what’s considered a public health system.”

As America enters its third year of grappling with COVID-19, she says the pandemic continued to demonstrate the need for urgent investment to create a public health system to protect everyone. Iowa showed its ability to respond to natural disasters just this past week, after a storm system spun off multiple tornadoes in the state. “The public health preparedness funding that goes to Iowa, that comes from CDC, has helped them better prepare for disasters like tornadoes,” Lieberman says, “so they can better equip shelters, they can help inform the public about the health risks, and work with emergency management to protect people who are most vulnerable.”

Iowa is among 17 states in the top tier category, with 20 states in the middle, and 13 in the bottom tier. See the full “Ready or Not” report at: www.tfah.org

Sheriff’s officials in Page County report the arrest on Wednesday, of 47-year-old Jeremy Leslie Williams, of Clarinda. He was taken into custody at a residence in Clarinda, on a Page County Warrant for Violation of no contact / protective order – contempt. Williams was transported to the Page County Jail where he was being held without bond, by order of his arrest warrant.

Jeremy L. Williams

 DES MOINES – Iowa Democrat 3rd District Representative Cindy Axne’s office, today (Thursday), said nearly $10.2-million that will go toward nine community projects in Iowa’s Third District, was included in the government funding bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Congresswoman Axne submitted her request for funding for the community projects to the House Appropriations Committee in April of 2021 and joined a bipartisan majority of her colleagues in voting to fund the projects this week.

Axne said “There’s no better feeling than to be able to deliver the money that communities all across Iowa’s Third District specifically requested. This money is going to be used to rebuild bridges, to expand childcare centers and affordable housing projects, and so much more. I’m so glad to know that these projects, which will help the Third District tremendously, will finally come to fruition.”

Locally, among the nine projects that will receive funding is:

• Expansion of the Stanton Child Resource Center ($1-million)
• The expansion of affordable housing options in Council Bluffs, Iowa by supporting the construction of more than 75 affordable units at the South End Housing Development Program ($904, 336).
• Expanded programming and the adding of facility at the Ringgold Child Care Center, in Mt. Ayr. $725,336).
• and the repair and upgrade of components at the Creston Waterworks, in Creston ($600,000).

Under guidance issued by the Appropriations Committee, each Representative could request funding for up to 10 projects in their community for Fiscal Year 2022. Projects were restricted to a limited number of federal funding streams, and only state and local governments and eligible non-profit entities were permitted to receive funding. Last year, Rep. Axne solicited input from community members across central and southwest Iowa to identify funding opportunities that would qualify for inclusion in this year’s funding bills.

(Radio Iowa) – A central Iowa man faces life in prison for child sexual abuse. On Wednesday, 50-year-old Stephen Albert of Tama was convicted by a federal jury on one count of sexual abuse by threat and force and one count of sexual abuse of a minor. Evidence presented at the trial revealed that Albert sexually abused a child at multiple residences and at his place of employment on the Meskwaki settlement.

Court documents reveal the incidents occurred between the summer of 2012 and October of 2016. A sentencing date has not yet been set. Albert faces a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, and a lifetime of supervised release if he’s released from prison.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak are investigating a hit-and-run, property damage accident that took place at around 6:30-p.m., Wednesday. Authorities say a 2017 Chevy Traverse SUV owned by Patricia Turnbull, and legally parked at 1110 E. Corning Street, was struck behind the driver’s side front tire and driver’s side door, apparently by a vehicle traveling westbound. The collision resulted in a transfer of white paint from an unknown vehicle. There were no tire marks on the road to indicate someone tried to stop.

Damage to the SUV was estimated at $2,000.