(Atlantic, Iowa) – Work on rehabilitating the West 6^th Street Bridge in Atlantic, is finished. The Bridge, located over the East Nishnabotna River, is officially open. Work on bringing the bridge back to it’s legal load rating of 80,000 pounds began last year, when the City of Atlantic and Cass County entered into a 28-E (cost sharing) agreement.

The repair process primarily included work on the bridge abutments and replacing the steel beams.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Board of Supervisors, Wednesday (today), held a public hearing on the First Reading of a Proposed Ordinance regulating the placement of hazardous liquid pipelines on property located in the unincorporated areas of Adair County. The question was raised during the hearing, if having an Ordinance would prevent pipelines, especially the proposed Carbon Dioxide transport pipeline, from happening in Adair County. Board Chair Matt Wedemeyer said the Board can’t prevent it, especially if officials with Navigator CO2 Ventures, which has proposed the project, decides to execute the process of Eminent Domain.

Board member Jodie Hoadley said having an Ordinance regulating where the pipeline is allowed to go, is the best protection the County has right now.

Craig Schoenfeld of CR3 Connect, a Clive-based lobby firm that represents Navigator, says there’s been no discussion about running a pipeline through Adair County, and if that were to be the case, they want it to be a collaborative effort.

He said if the project does go forward, they are years away from any sort of development with regard to construction. A map provided to the Des Moines Register, however, indicated the pipeline would be fully operational by 2025, and shows the route would traverse Adair County. Schoenfeld said that’s only a prospective route, not a precise route. Supervisor John Twombly preferred to move forward with the Ordinance.

The Board approved a motion to waive the second and third readings, and passed Resolution #39 approved on the final reading. Board Chair Matt Wedemeyer.

In September, the Adair County Board of Supervisors sent the Iowa Utilities Board a letter, saying the board is not opposed to the purpose or construction of the pipeline, but is opposed to eminent domain being used “as a way of achieving it.” As mentioned, none of the three proposed pipeline routes run through Adair County, but there are nearby ethanol plants in Menlo and Corning. If those facilities are connected to a carbon capture pipeline in the future, the route would likely pass through Adair County. Navigator’s petition, filed with the Iowa Utilities Board, calls for a $3.2 billion underground hazardous liquid pipeline across 33 counties in Iowa, including Story and Polk, to capture carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol and other industrial agriculture plants in Iowa.

In other business, the Board received an update from Adair County Auditor Mandy Berg, with regard to TIF Values.

Berg informed the Board also, that they have not yet received a quote on the Eagle Migration Software, but they hope to have all the related information for the Board’s meeting, next week.

(OMAHA, Neb.) — Federal prosecutors in Nebraska, say a man from Pottawattamie County (IA) was sentenced to prison in connection with the placing of explosives outside an Omaha, NE., home. 61-year-old Ricky A. Wynn, of Council Bluffs, was given 24 months in prison for transporting explosive devices with the intent to injure. Once his term of imprisonment is complete, Wynn will begin a three-year term of supervised release.

According to court documents, on Jan. 30, 2022,  Omaha police and fire fighters responded to a residence near 39th and Y Streets, on a report of multiple suspicious packages. An investigation revealed there were 13 explosive devices, 12 of which were Molotov cocktails that were found around a vehicle and detached garage at the residence. The last device contained an energetic powder, nails and screws and it appeared the wick to the device had been lit but failed to detonate.

Federal prosecutors said the people living there previously had a protection order against Wynn.

Des Moines, Iowa – State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald is reminding Iowans about College Savings Iowa’s Year-End Giveaway. “This holiday season, unwrap your child’s future by entering to win a $5,290 College Savings Iowa contribution,” said Fitzgerald. “Visit Iowa529Contest.com by the end of the year to register.” Any Iowan over the age of 18 can register for a child in their life.

“Saving for the child in your life is one of the most important things you can do,” commented Fitzgerald. “Having a dedicated education savings account lets your children know you believe in their dreams. It’s a gift you can’t unwrap, but it might just be the most valuable gift of all.” To date, College Savings Iowa participants have withdrawn more than $4.5 billion to pay for qualified education expenses.

College Savings Iowa is the state’s direct-sold 529 plan and helps families save for the rising costs of higher education on a tax-advantaged basis. Funds in an account can be used for tuition, room and board, books, computers, supplies and other qualified education-related expenses. The student you’re saving for can attend any eligible education institution, including two- and four-year colleges, apprenticeship programs and trade schools. Additionally, Iowa taxpayers can deduct up to $3,522 of their contributions from their state income taxes in 2022.

For details about the Plan, visit CollegeSavingsIowa.com to read the Program Description

(Creston, Iowa) – Officials with the Creston Police Department say no injuries were reported following a collision Tuesday evening at S. Sumner Avenue and Adams Street. Authorities say a 2019 Chrysler Pacifica mini-van driven by 40-year-old Joshua E. Smith, of Creston, was stopped at the controlled intersection facing northbound on S. Sumner, at around 5:52-p.m., when his vehicle was struck from behind by a 2002 Buick Century. The driver of the Buick, 21-year-old Deren M. Fry, of Greenfield, told Police that he dropped his cell phone, and when he reached down to retrieve it, he didn’t have enough time to stop.

Fry was cited for Failure to Provide Proof of Insurance. Damage from the collision amounted to $5,000 altogether.

(Radio Iowa) – A movie based on the World War Two German POW camp near Algona will premiere Friday in Algona and Forest City. The movie “Silent Night in Algona” focuses on the prisoners in Algona from September through December of 1944. Forest City’s Jim Brockhohn appears in the movie as Uncle Joe. “These three producers from Wisconsin they’ve had to threaten for several years where I’d take it and so they finally got produced. They did film for days here in Forest City and Heritage Park and Heritage Park was gracious enough to donate some uniforms and let let them use the buildings and then we found majority of it in Algona and Whitmer and so is a three week shooting every day except they’re off on Sunday. So we actually started the end of October and then we finished up into towards the end of November”

Brockhohn helped director director Tony Hornus cast the parts for the movie– leading to many locals in the cast. “So what I do is I call that person up, see if you’d be interested in doing the film and then I got that actor in contact with Tony and they went from there then,” he says. “They then auditioned for Tony and Tony would select them and the people I did send to him, he did select them all and put them in the movie.” He says they also asked him to bring some extras and he did that, so there are some of them from Forest City in the movie. Much of the movie was filmed in Heritage Park in Forest City and the original barracks were also in the movie.

“The barracks they use have been at Heritage Park for all these years and so — or for many years I’m not sure when they got them — but Heritage Park acquired them, so they took the barracks from here and took them Algona and built the barracks house there and use the original barracks,” Brockhohn says. Brockhohn says there was a tremendous amount of work put into the attention to detail from uniforms to cars. He says Forest City residents didn’t fill all the spots in the movie. “Even though we had some from Forest City they’ve recruited people from Texas from L.A. from New York and all the states around, and even Wisconsin. And so they had professional actors from all over, it is wonderful,” he says.

The Algona camped housed around 17-hundred prisoners. A nativity scene created by some of the prisoners while in captivity in Algona in 1945 has drawn visitors to the community for many years.