(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday morning, received a presentation on ISICS (The Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System). During a nearly 2-hour Q&A session, ISICS Interoperability Coordinator Chris Maiers explained the difference between a VHF “legacy” system and a “trunked” radio communications system like ISICS. The latter utilizes the 700 megahertz, digital frequency, while the old system is analog.

VHF, he says, may have channels that are idle 90-percent of the time, while the trunked radio system can be configured to support the entire county. The problem is the County has signal “drop-out” zones, or “dead spots.” Cass County has bent over backwards over the years to prepare for communication upgrades, including purchasing a new console for the Cass County Communications Center, along with mobile radios, to name a few of the improvements. But the dead spots in signal reception remain, due to the county’s topography. Supervisor Steve Green said Cass and other Counties were caught between a rock and a hard space when ISICS came out.

Green said the County has been negotiating with Motorola for a tower and related enhancements for a tower site, to complete ISICS connectivity.

The latest proposal calls for the construction of a communications tower to handle ISICS. It’s estimated the cost will be approximately $3-million. Installing a pad for the tower, erecting the tower and other facets of the it, could take anywhere from nine-to 18-months.

Steve Green said before the County takes any action, he wants to see the City Council’s for each city in the county, to discuss with their citizens the advantages of the system, how much it would cost, and if bonding for the project is a viable option.

In other news, the Supervisors, Tuesday, approved a request for grant matching funds from the Cass County Fire Association which received a Department of Homeland Security grant for the purchase of mobile radios. The 5-percent local match totals $17,699.62. The Supervisors also approved the fiscal year 2020-2021 Urban Renewal Report.

(Radio Iowa) – Record numbers of Iowa families relied on food pantries during the pandemic, but with increased federal benefits through the SNAP program, some pantries are finally seeing a bit less traffic. Luke Elzinga, spokesman for the Des Moines Area Religious Council, says many people are getting a lot more money for food through pandemic emergency increases to SNAP. “When people have the money to spend at the grocery store on their food, they’re less likely to come to a food pantry,” Elzinga says.

Those emergency benefits are temporary, but starting in October, SNAP will see a historic, permanent increase to the amount of money a person gets each month. Even with the higher base-level benefits, Elzinga expects people will go back to the pantries once the pandemic allotment runs out. “They’re going to be needing to fill that gap somehow,” he says, “and a lot of them were previously using food pantries to do so and so we expect that they will return.”

Once the emergency assistance stops, he says people will get different amounts of money, sometimes less, despite the permanent increase to SNAP.

(By Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Tuesday, said an Essex man, 38-year-old Blake Sandahl, was arrested at around 4:30-p.m. Thursday (Aug. 26), for Driving While Barred. Sandahl was transported to Montgomery County Corrections and held on a $2,000 cash bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy is sending 120 workers to southern Louisiana to help with recovery from Hurricane Ida. MidAmerican Energy spokesperson Tina Potthoff isn’t sure how long the crews will be in the impacted area. She says that still hasn’t been determined, but they plan to leave Wednesday (Today) and arrive in the area on Thursday to get to work. Iowa saw crews from all over come in and help following last year’s derecho. Potthoff says it’s something that is common in the industry.

“We all can relate to the devastation of these storms and we really do stand together and do everything we can do to help each other out when one area is impacted over another,” Potthoff says. She says MidAmerican’s customers have benefited from having crews from around the country coming to help and she says they always feel like it is important to help neighbors in need. The hurricane left hundreds of thousands of people without power and it is not known how long it will take to restore the power lines and poles.

Locally, Jacob Matthews from FS in Audubon, was set to leave this (Wednesday) morning, to take fuel to victims of the hurricane.

(Radio Iowa) – Senator Joni Ernst says this weekend she confirmed that the few dozen Iowans who were in Afghanistan — and who had contacted her office for assistance — were evacuated. “Some of them may not have been back in the United States at that point, but they were out of Afghanistan, so we knew they were safe,” Ernst says. Ernst and her staff are still working on behalf of other Afghans who’ve received or applied for Special Immigrant Visas because they or a family member worked with the U.S. military or the U.S. government.

“Unfortunately, all of the additional SIVs, we were able to get a number of the interpreters’ families out. Those were always great when we received news about that, but we were not able to get all of them out,” Ernst says. People inside Afghanistan still trying to make their way to the U.S. must now clear their paperwork with a consulate in Doha (DOH-ha), which is about 24-hundred miles away.

“I think all of this is going to be exceptionally more difficult because we don’t have a presence in Afghanistan any longer,” Ernst says. “…Doha — it’s wonderful. I am glad that we are able to locate there right now, but unfortunately when you have people in Afghanistan, they may be impeded by the Taliban or other violent, extremist organizations. We really needed consular activities in Afghanistan and that collapsed.”