(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council will begin their regular session at 4-p.m. Wednesday (90 minutes earlier than normal) Jan. 18th, due to what City Administrator John Lund says is a “Presentation-heavy meeting themed around economic development.” The meeting takes place in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall.

The only action item on the action is an Order to reappoint Lloyd Munson to the Board of Adjustment. The meeting includes a Public Hearing on the status of funded activities for the City of Atlantic CDBG CV Project (Community Development Block Grant Corona Virus eligible project[s]).

Presentations are expected from:

• Retail Coach Austin Farmer, with regard to retail recruitment activity.
• Chamber Executive Director Bailey Smith, on 2022 Chamber Accomplishments and 2023 Goal.
• CADCO (Cass-Atlantic Development Corporation) Executive Director Jen McEntaffer will present a similar report to Smith’s.
• and, Jessie Shiels and Alexsis Fleener will discuss the DiscoverAtlanticIowa.com Project.

In his report to the Council, Atlantic Police Chief Devin Hogue will discuss Dec. 13, 2022 through Jan. 11, 2023 Police Department date, that includes:

• 427 Calls for Service
• 60 Traffic stops
• 34 Citations issued.
• 22 Written Warnings issued
• 26 Arrests were conducted
• 40 Charges were filed
• 20 Incident reports were completed, and
• 12 accidents were covered.

Following the regular session, the Atlantic City Council will adjourn and open a Work Session/Budget Workshop, which includes discussion on: Emergency Management Preparedness Planning; FY 2024 Budget Issues and Beyond, and a Budget Schedule for Jan. 19 through Feb. 15, 2023.

(Radio Iowa) – An Elma man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a New Hampton man. The Howard County Sheriff’s Office says 26-year-old Sayvonne Jordan is accused of killing Jonathan Esparza on October 20th in Elma. Authorities executed a search warrant at Jordan’s home on November 30th and human remains were found.

The sheriff’s office says Esparza was listed as a missing person and his car was located on November 11th. Jordan is being held in the Howard County Jail on one million dollars bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Recent data published by the Centers for Disease Control show the most recent bivalent COVID-19 booster is very effective in preventing hospitalizations of older Iowans. Some of the state data came from the University of Iowa and it shows that people over 65 who got the bivalent booster were 73 percent less likely to be hospitalized with COVID than those who have just received doses of a monovalent vaccine. U-I emergency medicine professor, Nick Mohr, says the elderly aren’t the only ones who can benefit from the bivalent booster. “Being vaccinated is important not only for those people, but for the people who are in their families and their loved ones and friends to protect the people who are most likely to have bad outcomes from COVID 19 infection,” Mohr says.

He says the bivalent booster is also effective against the new highly transmittable XBB.1.5 subvariant. “The vaccine is still especially effective at preventing hospitalization and death and COVID-19. And even with the new variant, it looks like the bivalent vaccine is still an effective tool in the toolbox,” he says.

Information from the C-D-C shows just more than half of Iowa seniors who are 65 and older have received the bivalent booster.

(reporting by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg says the State of Iowa will be testing a smart phone app that could improve emergency response times in rural Iowa.) “Last year on a trade mission to Israel I learned about the United Hatzalah model for EMS. Hatzalah is the Hebrew word for rescue,” Gregg said. “Think of it as Uber, but for EMS, allowing us to crowd source emergency responders. When an emergency occurs and 911 is called nearby trained volunteers are alerted through an app on their phone, allowing them to respond quickly and stabilize the patient until an ambulance arrives.”

Gregg says the system could be adapted to address the lack of ambulance services in rural Iowa. “As it stands today, too many rural Iowans have limited access to timely, lifesaving intervention in an emergency,” Gregg says. In Jerusalem, the Hatzalah E-M-S app is used by 62-hundred trained volunteer medics who respond on specially equipped motorcycle ambulances.

“This Israel model has driven down response times in Jerusalem to 90 seconds on average,” Gregg says. “We believe this concept can be adapted to help address our EMS challenges in rural Iowa and we’ll be funding a pilot program to do just that.” The Hatzalah model is being used in some areas of the United States, but mostly in urban areas.