UPDATE 7/10/22: Both bridges/roads are now open.

Travel in the Atlantic area will be a little easier starting today. Iowa DOT District Planner Scott Suhr says the two bridge repair projects on Highway 83 and Highway 6 in Cass County are set to open back up today, weather permitting. He said they are working on painting markings on both roadways and if the weather cooperates long enough the plan is to open both roadways back up later today.

The Highway 6 bridge over Indian Creek near Lewis has been closed since March 14th and residents have been using Lewis Road as a detour around the closure.

The bridge over the East Nishnabotna River on Highway 83 (2nd Street), northwest of Atlantic has been closed since March 28th. That detour has sent residents around past the Elite Octane ethanol plant.

Both bridges were closed for overlay replacements and some minor repairs.

(Radio Iowa) The U-S Department of Transportation has announced five Iowa airports are splitting 27 million dollars in grants to improve passenger terminals. The Eastern Iowa Airport is getting nearly 20-and-a-half million to expand its passenger terminal. The funding will complete the project to modernize parts of the Cedar Rapids airport that serve commercial passengers.

The Des Moines Airport is getting five million dollars toward construction of a new passenger terminal. The Des Moines Airport Authority began making plans for a new terminal as annual passenger traffic crossed the three million mark and a lack of gates for passenger boarding limits new flight options.

The Dubuque Regional Airport is getting one-point-three million dollars and that will help pay for improvements to its terminal for passengers.

The Washington Municipal Airport is getting nearly 130-thousand dollars for work on its general aviation terminal, which sees an average of about 12-thousand flights a year.

The Council Bluffs Municipal Airport, which opened in 1967, is getting 112-thousand-500 dollars to improve accessibility at the airport.

The money comes from the bipartisan infrastructure bill Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley supported. Congresswoman Axne, a Democrat from West Des Moines, says this investment in Iowa’s airports will help ensure safety and efficiency for pilots, passengers, and cargo and bring more good paying jobs to Iowa. Republican Senator Grassley says it’s critical that airport infrastructure be kept up to date to maintain a resilient supply chain and a healthy economy. The other Republicans in Iowa’s congressional delegation — Joni Ernst, Randy Feenstra, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson — opposed the infrastcture package.

(Radio Iowa) Iowa State University Extension is hosting a series of seminars across the state about renting or owning farmland. The first two will be held in Mitchell and Mahaska Counties on July 26th. Gary Wright is a farm management specialist with I-S-U Extension who’s based in Spirit Lake.

More than half of Iowa cropland is rented. Under state law, September 1st is the date by which a tenant or landlord has to notify the other party if they want to terminate a lease or rental agreement. Wright says at each seminar I-S-U Extension staff review market prices and the factors influencing 2023 cash rental rates for farmland.

Many farmland rental agreements have a flat, per acre rate. Flexible leases calculate the rental rate based on the costs of inputs like seeds, diesel and fertilizer as well as yields and the actual price for the crop once it’s sold.

Find a link at www.radioiowa.com for the seminar in your county. Registration is required. A survey of farmers, landowners, realtors, bankers and professional farm managers found cash RENT for high quality corn and soybean ground in Iowa averaged in the range of 250 dollars per acre for the CURRENT growing season. An average acre of Iowa farmland was valued at about 98-hundred dollars last fall. In May, a farm in Plymouth County sold for 25-thousand dollars an acre.

(Radio Iowa) The Iowa Lottery is looking for the holders of two Powerball tickets worth a combined 100-thousand dollars which will expire soon. Spokesperson Mary Neubauer says the tickets were purchased at a Casey’s in Council Bluffs and a Kum & Go in Stuart.

The Council Bluffs ticket was purchased for the drawing on July 21st, 2021.

The person who bought the winning ticket in Stuart has more time to claim the prize.

Neubauer says it is a little unusual to have two prizes of this size go unclaimed.

Neubauer says they’ve done some analysis on the amount of time it takes for someone to bring in a winning ticket.

You have one year from the drawing to collect any prizes from Iowa Lottery tickets. The prizes that expire without being claimed go back into the prize pools for future games and promotions.

(Radio Iowa) From Iowa’s biggest cities to the smallest towns, the recently-red hot housing market is cooling off considerably as the heat of summer arrives. Julie Hurt, a realtor with Century 21 Pro Link in Le Mars, says that community of ten-thousand residents has remarkably few homes for sale.

Hurt says there’s been a dip in home sales in the Le Mars area and she points to the short inventory list of available homes, plus, a longer list of buyers.

Hurt says homes aren’t on the market very long, just two weeks on average. While home prices are rising, she says buyers are still motivated, but they are more selective.

The Atlantic Chamber Ambassadors met with staff from the Cass County Extension office on Thursday, July 7th, 2022, to meet new staff and learn more about the services Extension provides.

Kate Olson, Director of Cass Extension, shared they have welcomed two interns for the summer as well as a new Youth Coordinator. Caroline Pellett has been interning since May and is helping with all youth programming in the county. Courtney Hering has also been interning since May and has been involved with Cass County Fair preparations and office work.

Katie Bateman, Youth Coordinator, is from Atlantic and has been involved with 4-H her entire life. Bateman attended UNI and worked in Story and Linn County before moving back to Atlantic. Bateman has been involved with Cass County 4-H programs as a participant and volunteer and has always enjoyed all the opportunities 4-H provides youth. Bateman is excited to continue her passion for 4-H in her hometown county.

Olson shared some upcoming programs Extension has coming up in the next few weeks. They will be hosting a Beef Forage and Grazing Field Day, in partnership with the Wallace Foundation, at the Armstrong Research Farm, located on the edge of Lewis. A Food Preservation 101 Workshop will be hosted next week. Pre-fair judging will also begin next week including King & Queen Contest interviews, Clothing Selection/Fashion Review and Table Setting. Olson mentioned one thing she loves about Extension being a statewide coalition, is you don’t have to leave home to have access to programs.

Olson shared outside of 4-H and youth programming, Extension also provides research-based information and programming to communities they serve related to: Economic & Community Development, Ag & Natural Resources, Horticulture and Human Sciences. One of their major Horticulture programs is Master Gardeners. Olson is excited to share they will be hosting a Master Gardeners course in the fall with the popular hybrid model making its return. Participants will take their courses online with four to six hands on sessions available in Cass County. Participants must also complete 40 hours of community service before becoming fully certified as a Master Gardener.

Olson thanked her staff, which is made up of three full-time employees and two part-time employees, for all they do to keep their programs organized, but heightened the importance of their large volunteer base that helps keep all their programming manageable.

For more information on Extension programming or Cass County Fair updates, visit their website at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/cass or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CassCoIAExt.

The Cass County Extension office is located at 805 W. 10th St., Atlantic and is open Monday – Friday, 8 AM – 4:30 PM.

Adair County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections, Mandy Berg, announces that pursuant to a Federal Court Order, the filing period for candidates for Nonparty political organization (NPPO) and Non-Affiliated persons for the upcoming General Election, held on November 8, 2022, has changed.

Anyone interested in running as an NPPO or Non-Affiliated candidate in the General Election may pick up Nomination Papers and Affidavits of Candidacy in the Auditor’s Office, located at 400 Public Sq, Ste 5, in Greenfield, from 8:00 a.m. till 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday or at https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/electioninfo/general/index.html

The first day for Non-Party candidates and Township Trustees to file for the General Election is Monday, August 8th, with a filing deadline of 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 31st.  As a reminder, the last day to file for Soil & Water Commissioners and Ag-Extension is 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 31st.  If you have already filed papers to be on the General Election ballot, you do not need to refile.

County positions open are: Supervisor-Districts #2NE and District #4SE, Treasurer, Recorder, County Attorney, Township Trustees & Clerks (Richland & Washington Townships), Soil & Water Commissioners, and Ag-Extension candidates.

For more information and for the number of signatures required for each office, please contact the Auditor’s office at 641-743-2546.

The Creston Police Department reports the arrest of 39-year-old Jason Leroy Arends of Creston at 6:10 p.m. on Thursday at the intersection of Elm and Irving Streets in Creston. Arends was charged with Interference with Official Acts Bodily Injury, Driving While Barred, Domestic Abuse Assault, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Obstruction of Emergency Communication, and two warrants from outside agencies. Arends was booked into the Union County Jail and held on no bond until seen by a judge.

(Des Moines, IA) Effective immediately, the beach at Lake of Three Fires in Taylor County will be closed temporarily for swimming. The closure is a precautionary response to a confirmed infection of Naegleria fowleri in a Missouri resident with recent potential exposure while swimming at the beach at Lake of Three Fires State Park.

Testing to confirm the presence of Naegleria fowleri in Lake of Three Fires is being conducted in conjunction with the CDC and could take several days to complete. The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services is working closely with the Department of Natural Resources to share information about this rare infection and will provide additional updates as test results become available.

Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic single-celled free-living ameba that can cause a rare life-threatening infection of the brain called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). The ameba is commonly found in warm freshwater such as lakes, rivers, and ponds; however, PAM is extremely rare. Since 1962, only 154 known cases have been identified in the United States. No additional suspected cases of PAM are currently being investigated in Missouri or Iowa.

While Naegleria fowleri can be present in any body of warm freshwater across the United States, infections as a result remain rare. Infection by Naegleria fowleri can occur if water containing the ameba enters the body through the nose. The Naegleria fowleri ameba then travels up the nose to the brain where it destroys the brain tissue. This infection cannot be spread from one person to another, and it cannot be contracted by swallowing contaminated water.

People can take actions to reduce the risk of infection by limiting the amount of water going up the nose. These actions could include:

• Hold your nose shut, use nose clips, or keep your head above water when taking part in water-related activities in bodies of warm freshwater.
• Avoid water-related activities in warm freshwater during periods of high-water temperature.
• Avoid digging in, or stirring up, the sediment while taking part in water-related activities in shallow, warm freshwater areas.

(These recommendations are best practices but not based on scientific testing since the low numbers of infections make it difficult to show effectiveness.)

The Iowa State Patrol responded to a 2-vehicle accident at the 52 mile-marker of Interstate 80 in Cass County on Thursday morning. An Acura sedan and a Chevy pickup both ended up clear down in the southbound ditch following the accident. Both drivers were taken to Cass Health by Cass EMS. No further details are known at this time.

Marne Fire responded to assist at the scene as well.

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