Atlantic, Iowa ─ Jack and Jill Preschool, located at the Nishna Valley Family YMCA, is accepting registrations for children aged 3-5 years old for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year. Jack and Jill Preschool offers a unique learning experience in a safe, fun, and loving environment. The classrooms boast many different learning stations to foster a varied learning experience where your child can learn fine motor skills in one station, and then discover science-based activities in the next. Jack and Jill Preschool offers field trips to introduce your child to activities and opportunities in the community, including dance, gymnastics, festival of trees, and more! With Jack and Jill’s proximity to the YMCA, your child will get the added bonus of using the gyms for activities and the pool for swim days.

Three-year-old classes:
• $50 registration fee due at time of enrollment
• Tuition fee of $90/month (grants available on first come, first serve basis for those who qualify)
• Meet Tuesday and Thursday each week
o 9:00 am to 11:30 am
o OR 12:30 pm to 3:00 pm

Four-year-old classes:
• FREE*
• Choose from two schedules:
o Monday, Wednesday, Friday
▪ 8:10 am to 11:30 am
▪ OR 12:10 to 3:30 pm
o Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
▪ 8:10 am to 11:30 am*Your child MUST be four years old by Sept. 15, 2022 to qualify for free tuition.

Children who attend the Ann Wickman Center will be bussed to and from preschool. For all others, transportation will be your responsibility, or SWITA is available for transportation. Please call 712-243-4196 to set up arrangements. To register, call the YMCA or stop by and speak with Mrs. Haynes to get paperwork and information on classes. Spots will fill as registrations come in, so if you wish to enroll your child in a certain time slot, please get your registration in as soon as possible.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans and two Democrats in the Iowa Senate have voted to end the senate’s confirmation process for the governor’s appointments to more than two dozen state boards and commissions. Under current law, the governor’s nominees for nearly 140 boards, commissions and councils in state government must be confirmed by a two-thirds vote in the senate to serve. Republican Senator Roby Smith of Davenport says if 26 senators sign a petition, any of the nominees to the boards on this new list would be subject to the confirmation process. “If someone feels that someone’s not qualified or should not be confirmed…that sends them through the process to be reconsidered,” Smith says, “and then they have to get 34 votes.”

Senator Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, says this gets rid of automatic checks and balances for important state boards. “We had somebody that was appointed to the Commission on the Status of Women not too long ago that was an absolute sexist pig,” Petersen says, “and we turned them down — all of us in here.” Members of the boards that oversee Iowa’s prison system and the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy are also among the groups that would no longer be automatically reviewed by senators and subject to a confirmation vote.

Senator Todd Taylor, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, says this is the worst possible time to end confirmation for members of those boards. “We need more oversight, not less. We need more accountability, not less. We need more citizens’ involvement, not less,” Taylor said. “We need checks and balances. Everybody understands that.” Senator Smith says Democrats are exaggerating. “To say that the governor has full control if this bill is passed is not accurate,” Smith said.

Members of more than one-hundred other state oversight boards still would still have to get 34 “yes” votes in the senate in order to serve. There are currently 32 Republicans in the state senate. That gives Democrats in the minority the power to block confirmations supported by the G-O-P majority. That was the case last year with a person the governor had nominated for the Iowa Public Information Board. It’s one of the boards whose members would no longer be automatically reviewed by senators if the bill becomes law.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Board of Supervisors, today (Wednesday), acknowledged receipt of a letter from a rural resident with regard to noise from wind turbines. Board Chair Matt Wedemeyer….

The Board also acknowledged the receipt of three MMP’s (Manure Management Plan) updates, and the Adair County storm disaster declaration. In other business, Adair County Auditor Mandy Berg requested the Board approve an agreement with Neapolitan Labs out of Des Moines, for website development.

In other business, the Adair County Supervisors set March 30th at 9:15-a.m., as the date and time for a Public Hearing on a proposition to issue not more than $5.5-million dollars in General Obligation Urban Renewal Bonds. The Board also approved Board Chair Wedemeyer’s signing of various contracts and performance bonds.

(Anita, Iowa) – Members of the CAM School Board met during a work session Monday evening, in Anita. No action was taken, but the Board did discuss matters pertaining to enrollment and the possible consolidation of grades. Shared CAM/Nodaway Valley School District Superintendent Paul Croghan explained the Board talked about General Fund expenditure savings.

Croghan says they knew after the enrollment count on October that they would be down 27 students, so they began to look at class sizes, including Kindergarten.

The Board talked about other scenarios and things they could do and the process in steps and reductions to align the budget with student enrollment.

Croghan said “We have three buildings and when you have 15 students, that’s [grade consolidation discussions] are all part of the process.”

(Harlan, Iowa) -Officials with the Harlan Police Department report the arrest on March 3rd, of 19-year-old Keagan Shawn Bates, from Harlan. Bates was transported to the Shelby County Jail and charged with Domestic Abuse Assault.

(Creston, Iowa) –  A distracted driver ended-up in an accident Tuesday morning, in Union County. The Sheriff’s Department reports a 2004 Chevy Impala driven 18-year-old Caleb Matthew Pearson, of Corning, and a 2015 Ford F-350 pickup pulling a trailer, were both traveling east on Highway 34 at around 8:25-a.m. The pickup was driven by 48-year-old Grant Lee Plowman, of Creston.

When the pickup/trailer signaled to turn and stopped for oncoming traffic, the trailer was struck from behind by the Chevy. Neither driver was injured. Damages amounted to $10,500. Pearson told deputies he was on his cell phone and had it sitting on his lap. When he looked down at the phone, and then looked up, he suddenly noticed the stopped pickup and trailer in front of him, but it was too late to avoid the collision.

The airbags on the Impala deployed during the impact. Authorities cited Pearson for Failure to Stop in an assured clear distance, and use of electronic communication device.

(Radio Iowa) – A new poll finds Iowa’s “Bottle Bill” remains popular with 84 percent of those surveyed. Sixty-one percent said they want more cans and bottles added to the nickle deposit list and more places to return empties. Cleaner Iowa, a non-profit that supports the Bottle Bill, financed the survey. R.G. Schwarm is the group’s executive director. “It reinforces what we believed what consumers and Iowans want,” he says, “and that’s convenience redemption.”

The poll was conducted by Selzer and Company, the firm that does The Des Moines Register Iowa Poll. Ann Selzer says after respondents heard a list of arguments for and against the law, the number who supported expanding it grew to 70 percent. “There aren’t that many issues that get that kind of support,” Selzer said, “so I think this really tells the story right there.”

Mick Barry, president of MidAmerica Recycling in Des Moines, is a member of the national recycling coalition board of directors. “Iowans are ready to see the system updated to help increase the convenience and to cover additional one-time-use containers,” he says.

A five-cent deposit is charged on bottles and cans of beer, carbonated beverages, wine and liquor. The poll found a narrow majority would support raising the deposit fee to 10 cents. A solid majority said retailers that sell beverages should take the empties and pay back deposits. State legislators are considering making changes to the Bottle Bill.