(Creston, Iowa) – Officials with the Creston Police Department report a man from Cass County was arrested Monday morning on a Union County warrant. 33-year-old Steven Matthew Behlers, of Atlantic, was taken into custody at the Union County Law Enforcement Center in Creston, on a Probation Violation warrant for an original charge of Domestic Abuse Assault. Behlers was being held in the Union County Jail on a $2,000 cash or surety bond.

And, a Creston resident reported Monday afternoon, that someone had entered their unlocked storage unit and taken all of the person’s property that was being stored there. The loss was estimated at $700.

(Radio Iowa) – Rural fire departments have been kept busy responding to field fires the past couple of days — especially in northwest Iowa where six of the ten active burn bans are in place. That includes Woodbury County where a burn ban was enacted on February 20th. County emergency services director, Andrew Donawa, says some people have apparently forgotten about it. He says they’ve had a little snow and rain and people must think they are okay to burn brush. “That’s not the case, we’re still fighting this drought from all this dry weather.”

Donawa says they’ve had more than one dozen fire calls in Woodbury County alone the past two days. Other northwest Iowa counties with burn bans are Plymouth, Cherokee, Ida, Monona, and Crawford counties. Donawa says farmers need to be patient before burning away brush piles. “Just wait, we’ll let you know when the ban is lifted. And if you feel like you need to burn, you should probably call your local fire chief and double-check that the ban has been life. And if it is not lifted — make sure you’re not burning,” Donawa says.

Counties marked in a red flame have an active burn ban in-place; Counties with a blue “I” are where burn bans were recently lifted.

He says if you ignore the ban, you are putting your property and nearby property at risk as well as violating the law. “The sheriff’s office will come out and most likely talk with you and they could possibly give you a ticket for burning under the burn ban,” Donawa says. “The burn bans come from the fire marshal’s office at the state and then the sheriff has the authority to enforce that as a ticket or a citation or a fine.”

Any violation of the burn ban declared by the state fire marshal is a simple misdemeanor with the violator subject to a fine and court costs. The State Fire Marshal’s website lists other burn bans in Mills, Webster, Warren, and Calhoun County.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says Deputies called at around 3:45-p.m. Monday to a residence in the 400 block of 5th Street, in Villisca, arrested a man on an assault charge. Authorities say 20-year-old Matthew Thomasen was arrested for Domestic Abuse/1st offense. He was transported to the Montgomery County Jail.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has passed a bill that would open many of the videos, tapes and other materials in the Iowa P-B-S archives for public use. Representative Megan Jones of Sioux Rapids says the bill is necessary because of a contract dispute between Iowa P-B-S management and former Iowa State wrestling coach Jim Gibbons over footage of a 1986 match. “Had adults come to the table, this wouldn’t have been brought forward by an Iowan who just wanted to share the story of Iowa,” Jones says. “…Had this all been worked out, I don’t think we would have seen this bill, but at the same time, I don’t think we wouldn’t have reached the potential of what Iowa PBS can offer Iowans.” The bill essentially designates Iowa P-B-S material that’s at least 10 years old as a public record that could be used for educational, historical or cultural purposes — and Jones says the videos couldn’t be used to make a profit.

“While they might just be videos of sporting events, they shouldn’t be treated any differently than any other record,” Jones says. “They shouldn’t be treated any different than any other record and the public deserves to show and to share those videos.” House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights worked at Iowa P-B-S for 14 years. “This is a sledgehammer when we needed a flyswatter,” Konfrst says. “If folks had come to the table and had a conversation, we wouldn’t be here today. This is too broad and it is too risky.” Konfrst says the bill will endanger future broadcasts of events like the All-State Music Festival because of copyright concerns, Konfrst and others also said it would open the state up to lawsuits. Jones says she doesn’t expect a flood of requests for Iowa P-B-S videos, but if that happens — that’s an important signal.

“In that we are spending so much time through Iowa Public Television fighting and bickering and negotiating out contracts and withholding these archives from people, we are spinning our wheels,” Jones says. The bill passed the House on a 54 to 39 vote. Senators have been developing a similar proposal.

(Radio Iowa) – The experts are still studying the series of ten tornadoes that touched down in Iowa on March 5th, claiming seven lives and damaging or destroying dozens of houses. Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, says the strength of the tornadoes was very unusual, as they included a pair of E-F-2s, an E-F-3 and an E-F-4.

Todey says, “Small tornadoes in March is not a surprise, too much, but something of this nature and several of them, the total is up to ten now that the Weather Service has confirmed related to this, is really more than we want to see at this point.” Forecasters are trying to determine if this is a sign of more frequent early-season severe weather. “I don’t know that we can take it as a signal for anything larger just yet,” Todey says, “but it is also an example of a typical spring kind of thing where you get some severe weather ahead of a big system and then cold air and snow behind it.”

Temperatures in parts of Iowa that day were in the 60s and 70s, then the late afternoon storm brought tornadoes and hail, followed the next day by highs only in the 20s and 30s and several inches of snow. That clash of large masses of warm and cold air, Todey says, is textbook for tornadoes.

“The jet stream itself is starting to work its way back northward from being in the southern U.S. during the winter,” Todey says, “so that boundary between the warm air and cold air is more in the middle of the country now and we’re able to get more warm air and moisture further northward more readily.” That can be a recipe for severe weather. Iowa also saw a massive outbreak of tornadoes during the derecho in mid-December, which was very rare.

(Radio Iowa) – A compromise plan to let all-terrain vehicles travel on more county and state highways has cleared the Iowa House. Representative Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton says new safety measures are incorporated in his original plan. “At the end of the day, it comes down to personal responsibility and there’s only so much the government can do for you as far as babysitting,” Kaufmann says.

If the bill becomes law, A-T-Vs driving on local highways would have to be equipped with headlights, tail lights, turn signals and mirrors, plus the drivers would have to be at least 18 and have liability insurance. City officials would be able to prohibit A-T-Vs from driving within city limits. Representative Christina Bohannan of Iowa City says the bill also sets a 35 mile an hour speed limit for A-T-Vs driving on county or state highways.

“I think there are a lot of things in here that do improve safety, including for the counties that currently allow this,” Bohannan says. “I’m not saying it’s perfect, but I do think it makes some improvement.” Existing county ordinances designating where A-T-Vs may travel on local highways would remain in effect, but county boards of supervisors would have to get a local A-T-V club’s sign off if any changes are made in the future. Representative Dennis Cohoon of Burlington says that’s a loss of local control.

“Over two-thirds of the counties already have an ordinance,” Cohoon says. “…If that’s up to negotiation with any group, I’m sure they would feel like that they’re losing their control over being able to determine which roads are best, which roads are safest in their given areas.” Cohoon says A-T-Vs aren’t meant to be driven on highways and he was one of 29 House members to vote against the bill. There were 64 yes votes, though, sending the bill to the Senate for review.

(Radio Iowa) – A plan to revamp Iowa’s “Bottle Bill” has cleared its first hurdle in the Iowa Senate and key lawmakers vow this is the year they’ll approve changes in the system for redeeming the nickel deposits on cans and bottles. Senator Ken Rozenboom, a Republican from Oskaloosa, said there’s “a growing pool” of deposits that are never paid back. “I’ve been here 10 years. The concept has been around for well over 40 years. Every year we have seen proposals, we’ve seen bills to fix the problem,” Rozenboom said. “In my view, those attempts never got to the heart of the problem and this bill is an attempt to do that.”

Rozenboom cites one estimate indicating the wholesale distributors of beer and pop keep as much as $48 million annually from unredeemed deposits. His bill would have that money routed to the state instead and deposited in the Taxpayer Relief Fund. “Getting rid of the private innovation and expanding government we don’t believe is the solution,” said David Adelman, a lobbyist for the Iowa Wholesale Beer Distributors Association.

Jon Murphy is a lobbyist for the Iowa Beverage Association which represents the distributors of non-alcoholic drinks. The group is instead proposing creation of a non-profit outside of state government that would manage the redemption system — and start charging the nickel deposit on bottles and cans of water, tea and sports drinks. “It’s important to our industry that we get the plastics back that we use for our bottles,” Murphy said. “…We believe that every bottle out there should come back and become another bottle.”

Rozenboom’s bill would let grocers opt out of accepting empty bottles and cans and paying the deposits. Former Senator Bill Dix is now a lobbyist for Fareway, which has objected to having customers bring dirty empties back inside grocery stores. “We also support the fact that it brings administration of the program into a state agency,” Dix said.

R.G. Schwarm is a lobbyist for Cleaner Iowa, a group that backs the Bottle Bill. The group opposes letting more than two-thousand grocery stores and convenience stores opt out of accepting empty cans and bottles and paying back the deposits. “There are approximately 60 redemption centers,” Schwarm said. “…We’re going to be removing 90% of the infrastructure and redemption opportunities for consumers.”

Rozenboom’s bill also raises the per container fee redemption centers get from one cent to two cents. Sheri Cunningham owns the redemption center in Pella and she told lawmakers she’s struggling to keep the business open. “If I close, 21 million containers are going to be out there and somebody else is going to have to find a way to redeem them,” she said.

Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, said tens of millions of dollars in deposit money isn’t being redeemed and it needs to be accounted for and perhaps used to open more redemption centers. “Iowans love the Bottle Bill,” Bolkcom said. “If we don’t get something done, it is going to fall apart. It is on life support here.”

Republican Senator Jason Schultz of Schleswig said negotiations among the grocers, retailers and wholesalers have failed to produce an agreement and it’s time for legislators to force the issue. “This is the best game in town we have right now,” Schultz said. Schultz helped guide the bill out of a subcommittee and all but guaranteed the bill would clear the full Senate Ways and Means Committee soon.

Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County, Monday afternoon, report a man was arrested Sunday, following a car fire in the 230 block of R Avenue.  Upon further investigation, 63-year-old Keith Dana Hansen, of Villisca, was charged with Public Intoxication.

Deputies also arrested 30-year-old Jesse Allen Luft, Sunday. He was taken into custody in Elliott, for Violation of a Protective Order.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Legislative Services Agency, in conjunction with the Cass County Auditor’s Office and the Secretary of State’s office, have finalized the redistricting for Cass County.  These changes are to take effect as of today (Monday).  The Board of Supervisors will officially adopt them during their March 22^nd board meeting.

The City of Atlantic will also have to officially adopt the new wards.  Polling places will be announced at the next Supervisors Meeting and voter cards will be sent to all voters in Cass County stating where they will be voting and what districts they are in. The PDF maps of the newly redrawn districts through the links below:

Atlantic Wards 2022

Atlantic Supervisor Districts 2022

Cass County Precincts 2022

Supervisor Districts 2022

Voters with questions may feel free to reach out to the Cass County Auditor’s Office.