The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest on Wednesday of 45-year-old Jason Richard Berendes of Red Oak. He was arrested at approximately 1:17 p.m. during a traffic stop. Berendes was arrested on a warrant our of Union County for Failure to Appear to Serve Sentence. Berendes was taken and booked in to the Adams County Jail.

(Radio Iowa) – A state panel is predicting tax payments being made to the State of Iowa will grow slightly more than they’d predicted three months ago. The Revenue Estimating Conference cites the continuing increase in sales tax payments to the state, an indication of consumer confidence.

“The State of Iowa continues to be on very solid financial footing.” said Kraig Paulsen, the governor’s top budget advisor who is also director for the Iowa Department of Revenue,” and I see no reason to expect that to change for the foreseeable future.”

Paulsen and the other two members of the Revenue Estimating Conference now predict total tax collections for the current state fiscal year will be 4.2% higher than the previous year. David Underwood, a CPA from Clear Lake, said there’s been two years of wage growth, but that seems to be leveling off in Iowa — and the war in Ukraine has injected uncertainty in the economy. “I would suggest we not be too optimistic, given the current circumstances,” Underwood said.

Holly Lyons, director of the fiscal services division in the Legislative Services Agency, expressed a similar opinion. “As long as employment numbers continue to improve, tax revenue growth should remain positive,” Lyons said. “The headwinds facing the economy I mentioned at the December meeting still exist, it just seems a little more turbulent now.”

State tax collections over the past eight months are running 7,8% ahead of the same period in the previous fiscal year. The panel expects that pace to decline over the next few months, but remain in positive territory. Republican lawmakers and Governor Reynolds say the group’s analysis shows there’s room for the tax cuts they approved last week.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who want to donate to Ukrainian relief efforts need to make sure those donations are actually going to help people in need and not to a crook. A-A-R-P-Iowa state director Brad Anderson says when it comes to fraud, vigilance is our number-one weapon. First, Anderson says to be wary of how you’re being asked to donate.

“They will urge you to pay through a payment app, an online app, or even gift cards. That’s an immediate red flag,” Anderson says. “Anytime that you’re seeing an outside organization pressure you into contributing, that’s also a red flag.” Sending cash or a personal check in the mail is a potentially risky venture, but Anderson says using plastic can be iffy, too, so choose your payment option wisely.

“Use a credit card as opposed to a debit card,” Anderson says, “because if you do use a credit card and the organization or the person you’re trying to pay is identified as fraudulent, then you’ll get that money back, but if you use a debit card, that’s connected directly to your bank account and you won’t be able to get that money back.” Some charities might spend more money paying their executives than on the cause they claim to support. Anderson suggests plugging the charity’s name into one of two websites: Give-dot-org or Charity-Watch-dot-org.

“The websites that we’ve identified do allow contributors to know exactly where that money is going and insure that the money is going to the people who need it,” Anderson says, “and not towards exorbitant administrative costs or potentially other causes that aren’t the ones that they’re trying to support.” Bogus charities often use names similar to existing charities to legitimize themselves, so double-check before you double-click.

A Red Oak man was arrested Thursday morning on an assault charge. Red Oak Police report 20-year-old Dyllan Hunter Hansen was arrested at around 10-a.m., for Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense. Hansen was taken into custody in the 1200 block of E. Summit Street and transported to the Montgomery County  Jail, where he was being held without bond.

Dyllan Hansen

(Red Oak, Iowa) — Officials with the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital + Clinics (MCMH) have announced Tom Schmadeke, PA-C, is now working at the MCMH Internal Medicine Clinic (effective Thursday, March 10, 2022). Schmadeke says “In 2022, I decided to return home to the community that had welcomed me in 2009. MCMH CEO, Ron Kloewer, graciously accepted my application. I am looking forward to serving the community.” Officials say Schmadeke brings an extensive background in primary care, including sports medicine.

Schmadeke grew up on his family farm in rural Southwest Iowa. He attended Wayne State College obtaining a degree in Education and Athletic Training. After several years of teaching and athletic training, he returned to Omaha and attended University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and earned a Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) degree in 2002. Tom began his PA career in Madison, Minnesota, where he practiced until 2009. He then moved to Red Oak and practiced with the Methodist Physicians Clinic until 2013. Tom continued to practice and serve patients in Southwest Iowa, and has now chosen to join MCMH + Clinics.

To schedule an appointment with Tom Schmadeke, PA-C, please call MCMH Internal Medicine at 712-623-7280.

(Radio Iowa) – The Director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says it is going to take some time to clean up the damage to the Red Haw State Park near Chariton which was hit by a tornado Saturday. Directory Kayla Lyons updated the Natural Resources Commission today (Thursday). “The campground sustained some substantial damage — and unfortunately, there was one fatality there,” Lyons says.

Forty-year-old Jesse Fisher of Chariton was camping at the park and died in the tornado. Lyons says she visited the park as D-N-R employees were assessing the damage. “The park is going to be closed for quite some time. There was also significant damage to the beach, the dock, the bait house, the beach shelter, the storage building,” she says. She says they are not letting anyone in the park. “We ask that the public stay out of Red Haw right now — it is just not safe to be there. ?We’ve got a lot of people working to get it cleaned up as fast as possible,” according to Lyons.

Lyons says the tornado destroyed many trees — which were a key feature of the park. “Red Haws’s campground had a very mature tree canopy there. The foresters that were there marking trees said a lot of those trees that were in the campground were 100 to 125 years old. So, the park is certainly going to look different going forward,” Lyons says.

The tornado that hit the park was one of 13 the National Weather Service has confirmed from Saturday and Fisher was one of the seven people killed in those storms.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests occurred Wednesday. At around 1:30-p.m., 35-year-old Rick Allan Smith, of Elkhorn, NE., was arrested at the Page County Jail on a warrant for Failure to Appear on an original OWI/1st offense charge. Bond was set at $5,000. And, at around 8:30-p.m., 33-year-old Henry Louis Hargrove, Jr., of Columbus, MS., was arrested following a traffic stop on Highway 34 in Mills County. Hargrove was charged with OWI/1st offense. Bond was set at $1, 000.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa now ranks among the “top tier” states in a non-profit group’s annual study of preparedness to respond to a range of health emergencies, including disease outbreaks and natural disasters. Dara Lieberman, director of government relations at Trust for America’s Health, says the rankings are compiled based on ten key factors. “Generally, Iowa’s been in the middle for the last couple of years so they did move up this year,” Lieberman says. “We think that might be because Iowa increased its public health funding in the last year but that is after cuts the previous couple of years. It is important that state lawmakers invest in public health every year and not just during a pandemic.”

In addition to a boost in public health funding, the report notes Iowa had an increase in the percentage of workers who use paid time off.  “One area where the state needs to improve is a relatively low percentage of hospitals had a top patient safety grade,” Lieberman says. “That shows why private sector health care systems are such an important piece of our emergency preparedness. We also found, in one of our new indicators this year, only about 38% of Iowa residents were estimated to be protected by what’s considered a public health system.”

As America enters its third year of grappling with COVID-19, she says the pandemic continued to demonstrate the need for urgent investment to create a public health system to protect everyone. Iowa showed its ability to respond to natural disasters just this past week, after a storm system spun off multiple tornadoes in the state. “The public health preparedness funding that goes to Iowa, that comes from CDC, has helped them better prepare for disasters like tornadoes,” Lieberman says, “so they can better equip shelters, they can help inform the public about the health risks, and work with emergency management to protect people who are most vulnerable.”

Iowa is among 17 states in the top tier category, with 20 states in the middle, and 13 in the bottom tier. See the full “Ready or Not” report at: www.tfah.org

Sheriff’s officials in Page County report the arrest on Wednesday, of 47-year-old Jeremy Leslie Williams, of Clarinda. He was taken into custody at a residence in Clarinda, on a Page County Warrant for Violation of no contact / protective order – contempt. Williams was transported to the Page County Jail where he was being held without bond, by order of his arrest warrant.

Jeremy L. Williams

 DES MOINES – Iowa Democrat 3rd District Representative Cindy Axne’s office, today (Thursday), said nearly $10.2-million that will go toward nine community projects in Iowa’s Third District, was included in the government funding bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Congresswoman Axne submitted her request for funding for the community projects to the House Appropriations Committee in April of 2021 and joined a bipartisan majority of her colleagues in voting to fund the projects this week.

Axne said “There’s no better feeling than to be able to deliver the money that communities all across Iowa’s Third District specifically requested. This money is going to be used to rebuild bridges, to expand childcare centers and affordable housing projects, and so much more. I’m so glad to know that these projects, which will help the Third District tremendously, will finally come to fruition.”

Locally, among the nine projects that will receive funding is:

• Expansion of the Stanton Child Resource Center ($1-million)
• The expansion of affordable housing options in Council Bluffs, Iowa by supporting the construction of more than 75 affordable units at the South End Housing Development Program ($904, 336).
• Expanded programming and the adding of facility at the Ringgold Child Care Center, in Mt. Ayr. $725,336).
• and the repair and upgrade of components at the Creston Waterworks, in Creston ($600,000).

Under guidance issued by the Appropriations Committee, each Representative could request funding for up to 10 projects in their community for Fiscal Year 2022. Projects were restricted to a limited number of federal funding streams, and only state and local governments and eligible non-profit entities were permitted to receive funding. Last year, Rep. Axne solicited input from community members across central and southwest Iowa to identify funding opportunities that would qualify for inclusion in this year’s funding bills.