Former Iowa Democrat Senator Tom Harkin will be in Atlantic and Carroll, Saturday, stumping on behalf of Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton. Harkin will join “Hillary for Iowa” volunteers to kickoff “Weekend of Action” events across the state. During the planned events, community leaders, grassroots organizers and volunteers will canvass their neighborhoods to discuss the election and try and secure early votes. The event in Atlantic begins at Noon, Saturday, and takes place at the Cass County Iowa Together Officer (511 Chestnut St.).  The event in Carroll is at 3-p.m, and will be held at the Carroll Iowa Together Office (210 E. 5th St.).

SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa (AP) – A 320-foot-tall structure that shoots flames into the air has been put into service at an Iowa nitrogen fertilizer complex. The Sioux City Journal reports CF Industries announced Thursday that the flare stack has been placed into service during commissioning of its new ammonia and urea plants at Port Neal. The stack is designed to safely combust gases during certain times at the plant. Flames can extend as far as 200 feet beyond the tip of the stack, when it’s ignited.

Officials say the stack will be used intermittently, but will burn continuously for a couple of weeks as the new plants come online and production begins. The company is nearing completion of a $2 billion expansion.

Shelby County Conservation Board Director Nick Preston says trick or treating will take place this Saturday, Oct 15th at the Nishna Bend Recreation Area from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. All campsites are already reserved so no walk in campers will be allowed.

DUE TO THIS EVENT, NO HUNTING OF ANY KIND WILL BE ALLOWED UNTIL MONDAY OCTOBER 17th. Campsites will be decorated. The public is invited to bring their kids and go trick or treating at the campsites. The Board and staff will be serving hotdog, chips, lemonade, and s’mores in the shelter house for a free will donation. All proceeds will go to support environmental educational efforts. Over 40 prizes have been donated that will be handed out to kids with the best costumes. Rain date will be Sunday, October 16 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Cass County Conservation Department Director Micah Lee provided his quarterly report this (Friday) morning, to the Board of Supervisors. Lee said they spent a lot of time mowing this past quarter, but they were also able to complete a few projects, including the horseshoe pits and campground electrical site renovations at Cold Springs State Park.

All that remains he says, is grading for the camper pads for most of the sites. The park will be closing in a couple of weeks for the season, but everything looks ready to go for next spring. As for the Nodaway Recreation Area, Micah says the entrance road is in bad shape, and they’ve explored ways to fix it, but he questioned if it’s that important to do right now.

He says they don’t have the equipment to tear up the road and fix it. The best they can do is some occasional blade work. Most of the other sites across the county have seen general maintenance and ground work throughout the summer.

The new addition to the enclosed lodge at the Outdoor Classroom near Massena, according to Lee, has resulted in the building seeing a lot of use this fall.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say 45 pounds of marijuana has been seized and a minivan driver has been arrested along Interstate 80 in Omaha. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says a deputy saw the eastbound minivan drive onto the roadway shoulder without signaling around 2:15 a.m. today (Friday). The deputy later called for a department drug dog, which the Sheriff’s Office says eventually alerted deputies to the odor of drugs.

The Sheriff’s Office says the pot was found in 40 sealed bags placed inside two duffel bags. More than $3,600 in cash also was seized. The driver told deputies he was driving from Utah to Iowa.  He was arrested on suspicion of possession for sale and failure to affix a drug tax stamp.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Friday) approved bids for County-owned farm pasture ground and crop ground. Three bids were received for each property. The Board awarded a bid of $181 per acre for pastureland to TLC Cattle Company (The current tenant), and a bid of $26,700 for 115 acres of row ground (or, about $232/acre) to Ryan Hansen. The contracts for those properties are expected to be for three-years, with the right to terminate by either party given by no later than Sept. 1st of each year.

In other business, the Supervisors heard from County Engineer Charles Bechtold and Seneca Companies Consulting Manager for Environmental Services, Leslie Nagle,with regard to corrective action on cleaning up underground contamination from what is believed to be a leaking underground storage tank. The contamination is on County-owned property located along portions of Commerce and State Street, near the County garage and sheds.

(Nagle says two-years ago the site was cleaned-up to the point where “No action required,” meaning there’s no immediate risk to sanitary lines, water lines, drinking water wells or any human health risk.)

However, the State of Iowa and EPA has requirements that all of the “free product” plume remnants must be removed. Additional tests were conducted and monitoring wells were installed. Two areas, one slightly larger than the other, were determined to have the most amount of residual contamination. Nagel said that can best be removed by excavation, and then land-applied back into the soil on County-owned land for natural degradation and minimal effect. Clean soil will then be applied on top of a sand base.

Nagel said the holes will be deep, but will hopefully take care of the problem once and for all. It’ll cost $125,000, but the funds are paid by the State to the County which in-turn pays Seneca, so it costs the County nothing. The work should take about 5-to 10-days to compete.

Board of Supervisors Chair Gaylord Schelling said also, an “Active Shooter’ drill for County Employees will be held November 16th at the courthouse in Atlantic, from 8-until 11-a.m.  The courthouse will be closed to the public for the duration of the training.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports a man from Hancock was arrested Thursday on a warrant for Criminal Mischief in the 4th Degree. 40-year old Charles Raymond Bird was taken into custody at around 9:20-p.m. and booked into the Pott. County Jail, for allegedly causing damage to his place of residence  located in the 100 block of N. Scott Street, in Hancock.

And, a woman from Magnolia turned herself-in to the Pott. County Sheriff’s Office Thursday afternoon. 41-year old Virginia Renee Points was wanted on a Pott. County warrant for Harassment in the 3rd Degree. Points was turned over to Corrections officers without incident.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has found the source of runoff that caused the water in Bear Creek to turn red west of Larrabee in northern Cherokee County. The D-N-R’s Tom Roos says it was traced to a feedlot. “We found a field that had been recently applied with cattle manure from an earthen basin that had flowed off a field down a waterway and into Bear Creek,” Roos says. He says the cattle feedlot is owned by Nathan Tentinger of Tentinger Farms.

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s office reported the stream contamination Wednesday afternoon after it was noticed that the runoff turned the water red in Bear Creek as it ran down to Mill Creek. “I would say the plume was about a mile long of red water,” Roos says. He says the red plume is probably due to whatever was in the cattle lot basin. “Each cattle lot has a little bit of a different color to them…but it definitely matched the color of the water that was in the basin,” according to Roos. He says no dead fish were found and that could be because the Bear Creek ran into Mill Creek.

“Both streams are extremely high right now — so it definitely helped the dilution,” Roos says. Roos says this is an example of why producers need to be careful about spreading manure, especially when there are wet conditions in fields. “It’s important that those producers pay close attention to those pumps and irrigation at this time of year, because if you leave it unattended, things like this can happen,” Roos says. He says the D-N-R will consider any appropriate enforcement action once it wraps up its investigation.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) announced today that 63 Iowa communities (including Atlantic) have been honored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with a Water Fluoridation Quality Award. The number of communities receiving awards is up from 40 last year. Fluoridation is the adjustment of fluoride in drinking water to a level that is effective for preventing tooth decay. The award recognizes those communities that achieved excellence in community water fluoridation by maintaining a consistent level of fluoride in drinking water throughout 2015.

Among the area communities that have received the award is:

Atlantic Municipal Utilities; Breda Water Supply; Council Bluffs Water Works; Elk Horn Municipal Water Works; Glenwood Municipal Utilities; Guthrie Center Municipal Water Works; Harlan Municipal Utilities; Logan Water Plant; Minden Water Supply; Monona Municipal Water Department; Onawa Municipal Water Plant; Shelby Water Supply-Plant 1; Shelby Water Supply-Plant 4; Treynor Water Department; West Central Iowa Rural Water Association – Boyer; West Central Iowa Rural Water Association – Nishnabotna; and the Winterset Municipal Water Works.

DPH Water Fluoridation Coordinator Kelsey Feller says “Water fluoridation is one of the best investments that communities can make in maintaining the oral health of their citizens. It is equally as effective in preventing cavities in children and adults. Fluoridation is also highly cost effective; studies continue to show that for every $1 invested by communities in water fluoridation, $38 are saved in dental treatment costs.”

For more information on the water fluoridation in Iowa, visit https://idph.iowa.gov/ohds/oral-health-center/fluoride.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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