Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors have approved the appointment of Cameron Ward as Cass County Sheriff’s Deputy. He’s scheduled to start Wednesday, Feb. 9^th. The Board’s action came during their meeting this (Tuesday) morning, in Atlantic. Ward comes to the Sheriff’s Office from the Atlantic Police Department, where he was a Sergeant.

He was sworn-in as a Police Officer in January, 2017, and promoted to Sergeant in July, 2020. Ward comes from a family of law enforcement officers. His father was an Omaha Police Officer for 27 years, retired, then went back to law enforcement as a school resource officer.

Back row: Cass County Sheriff Darby McLaren introduces Cameron Ward as his choice for Sheriff’s Deputy.

In other business, the Cass County Supervisors set February 28^th as the date for a public hearing with regard to a “total maximum property tax dollars” resolution. In his report to the Board, County Engineer Trent Wolken said work continues on 700^th Street Bridge #280, a dirt road south of the pavement.

Wolken and the Board discussed and approved a project agreement with Adair County, with regard to the paving of about one-quarter of a mile of G-61/Victoria, two-miles west of N-51.

The agreement is along the same lines as the grading project the County’s accomplished last year.

Cass County’s share of the cost is roughly 10-percent of the total $2.3-million project, or about $210,000. The Board then moved to approve the project plans as presented. The Adair County Supervisors are expected to sign-off on the agreement during their meeting Wednesday morning, in Greenfield.

(Henderson, Iowa) – The Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency reports several area fire departments responded to a large machine shed fire involving multiple vehicles and equipment at 1031 A Avenue, in rural northwest Montgomery County, early this (Tuesday) morning. Officials say the fire occurred within the Henderson Fire District of Montgomery County. The structure is considered a total loss.

Pictures posted on the Montgomery County EMA Facebook page

Agencies on scene included:

(Atlantic, Iowa) – A regularly scheduled meeting of the Atlantic School Board will take place 5:30-p.m. Wednesday (Feb.9), in the Schuler Elementary School Media Center**. On the Board’s agenda is a Special Presentation with regard to the High School Speech Program, and regular reports from building administrators, including Assistant High School Principal/Activities Director Andrew Mitchell, who is expected to report the “Wall of Honor” TouchPro screen is about to be installed in the High School Commons area. You can go to atlantic.touchpros.com, or visit the HS Commons to check on project progress. The Wall of Honor is a “Living project,” with many updates throughout the years. Graphic Design students are helping to make the project come to life.

The Board will vote on approving the resignations and Contract Recommendations. The resignations include:

• Middle School Principal Josh Rasmussen, who has accepted the Superintendent’s position with the AC/GC School District.
• Preschool Bus Monitor Crystal Sunderman
• ELL Paraeducator Rebecca Garcia,
• and Preschool Paraeducator Haley Wright.

Contract Recommendations include:

• Sam Kennedy, School Bus Monitor
• Dennis Johnson, Substitute Car Driver
• Janet Adams, HS Food Service
• Misty Rhodes, HS Paraeducator
• Mika Freerksen, 1st Grade Teacher (2022-23)
• Cambry Miller, Kindergarten Teacher (2022-23), and
• Jenny Madsen, transfer to Washington Special Education Teacher (2022-23).

The Atlantic School Board will also consider Superintendent Steve Barber’s recommendation to provide all employees (Full- or part-time), a stipend based on continuous years of service at the conclusion of the 2021-22 school year. Years of service will be determined by the number of continuous years as a contracted employee (breaks in service or year[s] spend as a substitute employee will not be counted). Payment will be made to staff on Sept. 1, 2022. (See the stipend amounts below):

• 1- (partial included) to 4-years experience, $1000
• 5-to 9-years of experience, $1,250
• 10+ years of experience, $1,500.

Providing a retention stipend is an allowable use of the ESSER funds, and is a way to recognize staff for their continuing employment with the district, in light of a shortage of persons available to the various district positions. The Board will also act on approving the purchase of 50 MacBook Pros for High School teaching staff. Their current computers were purchased for the 2014-15 school year. And, the Board will act on a Resolution authorizing the Bid Letting and setting the date for a Public Hearing, with regard to the HS south parking lot improvement project, which is expected to cost $552,500. Funds for the project will come from the PPEL/SAVE accounts. The final drawings and design for the project will be sent out to prospective bidders on Feb. 9th, with a one-month deadline to submit bids.

**This board meeting will be streaming live on YouTube at the following link: https://youtu.be/i7DLZniuKOI

This year marks the 50th anniversary of an eastern Iowa camp that serves thousands of Iowans of all ages with special needs, Camp Courageous in Monticello. To benefit the non-profit camp, executive director Charlie Becker says he’s parting with one of his prized possessions: a bright red 1971 Volkswagen van. “In honor of Camp Courageous’ 50th anniversary, we donated that to the camp,” Becker says. “It’s a 50-year van given to a 50-year camp to be raffled off.”

The van has a long history and was recently trucked back to Iowa from California for a new paint job and a complete overhaul, inside and out. Becker says the V-W has 87-thousand original miles. “It’s in beautiful condition,” Becker says. “The person that had it before me used to drive it every day to work and it is in pretty close to mint condition.” The raffle will be held in December and tickets are 100-dollars each. Becker says when the camp first opened in 1972, it only was able to serve 211 Iowa campers. “Right before the pandemic, we were right up just short of 10,000 campers,” Becker says. “We were breaking all the records and then the pandemic hit so we were still serving campers, but in a whole different way.”

Last year, about 38-hundred Iowa campers were served in various ways, and last month, a group of them visited Walt Disney World in Florida. The V-W will be on display at the camp and at some events this summer. For details on the raffle, visit: www.campcourageous.org.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra says Congress needs to work towards a balanced budget to get the nation’s economy back on track, but the 4th district Republican says that is proving difficult: “You have to have what we have in Iowa — a 99 percent spending limit — and yet the Democrats, they want to add another three to five Trillion dollars to our debt, even adding more cash to the system,” Feenstra says. “And that’s what boggles my mind. Who are their economists? Who thinks this is right? Even the Federal Reserve…are saying this is not the right way to do this.”

Feenstra says the talk of the federal reserve raising interest rates won’t fix the problem. He says we have traditionally kicked up interest rates when there is inflation — but he says that also kicks up the interest rate on our Trillions of dollars in debt. “So all of a sudden you create a debt spiral — and that’s why we are in such a serious situation right now in our country,” he says. The Republican from Hull says there is no leadership being shown by President Biden or majority democrats to address the nation’s inflation: “Everybody is just asleep at the wheel right now when we’ve got these big issues. And we’ve got to have strong leadership — but that’s not what’s happening right now,” Feenstra says.

He says it’s frustrating being in the minority party in Congress where it’s tough to get any movement on possible solutions to the economic problems facing the country.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The latest data released by the Iowa Department of Public Health shows COVID-19 numbers are moving in the right direction. The IDPH website, Monday, reported 13,744 positive virus tests in the last 7 days, down from 16,643 on Friday. The state’s 14-day test positivity rate dropped from 18.9% to 17%.

The number of patients hospitalized with the virus continues to drop as well. There are currently 638 patients hospitalized with the virus, down from 741 on Friday. Of those hospitalized, 55% had a primary COVID-19 diagnosis, while the remaining 45% were hospitalized for another reason but tested positive for the virus.

State data shows 54.6% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, while 66.7% of those listed in critical condition with the virus are unvaccinated. Long-term care facility outbreaks have decreased for the first time in several weeks. There are currently 112 Iowa care facilities reporting an outbreak, down from 115 on Friday.