(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City of Atlantic’s Parks and Recreation Board, Monday night, received a report from Cass County Wellness Coordinator Brigham Hoegh, with regard to work of the Quality of Life Committee, and based on a number of studies conducted last year, on what residents of the county and beyond, want to see in Cass County, to improve the quality of life here.

The “What people want and Need” study, she said covered several areas, including Physical and Outdoor Recreation. Hoegh said as far as she’s concerned, out of all the studies conducted last year, Mental Health stood out as the most important in the Cass County Community Health Needs Assessment.

She said the needs were ranked by 470 people from across the county, represented by town, income and race, and incorporated an outdoor recreation survey along with COVID-19 Mobile Food registration information. In order of Health Needs priority, was Mental Health. That includes the need to reduce stigma of those with mental health issues, access to care, and programs that address physical health, community building and the impact of isolation on mental health.

Next, was Quality, affordable Childcare, which was described as being a “Vicious cycle” that is not being adequately address, and includes low wage for childcare employees resulting in fewer employees and fewer kids served and no affordable care for low-income families and inconsistent drop-off and pick-up hours. It also suggested potential opportunities exist in school/city/business/employer partnerships.

On the Physical/Outdoor side of the survey, it was noted Cass County needs more and better ADA compliant sidewalks, trail connectivity (Including the connection of the T-Bone Trail to Atlantic), and more water trails instead of ATV Trails. Another area that stood out in the Quality of Life survey, was Substance Misuse and Addition, which is said to be widespread in Cass County, and the need for better nutrition through fresh fruits and vegetables from community gardens, and access to those types of foods.

(She suggested people rent one of the raised garden beds at Mollett Park and grow food for the those in the community who might not otherwise be able to afford it.)

As we mentioned following Monday night’s Park and Rec Board meeting, the Board approved a contribution of $4,000 toward the $12,000 cost of a study designed to move forward on getting a Splash Pad at the Sunnyside Pool and other renovations/remodeling at the pool. Those items were high on the Physical/Outdoor Recreation priority list. To that end, and in other recreation news, Atlantic Parks & Rec Director Bryant Rasmussen, Monday, said plans are in the works to bring sand volleyball to Atlantic.

An area just north of the Schildberg Rec Campground is being looked at as a possible location for those courts. Much needs to be done though before resources are committed to the project. Bryant says if the courts become a reality, there is the potential to bring in some high profile competitors from Omaha and Des Moines, as part of their traveling circuit.

Separately, there is the potential for expansion of the Little League/Soccer Comples across from the KJAN Studios.

(Radio Iowa) – The top Republican in the Iowa House says a new law on Covid vaccination exemptions for Iowa employees appears to be working — and House Speaker Pat Grassley says it’s not clear that legislators need to pass another bill on the topic. The law, passed in October, lets Iowa private sector workers claim religious or medical exemptions from any Covid vaccination requirement in their workplace and, if their exemption is denied and they’re fired, they may file for unemployment benefits.

In early January, both Grassley and Governor Kim Reynolds said lawmakers should wait for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a federal mandate that workers in large businesses get vaccinated or be tested weekly for Covid. A week ago, the court blocked the Biden Administration from implementing that mandate.

Other Republicans in the legislature have introduced bills addressing vaccine mandates, including one that would forbid Iowa cities and school districts from requiring students get Covid shots before returning to school. Another bill still in development would prohibit all types of vaccine mandates in Iowa businesses. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal government’s Covid vaccination requirement for the health care sector.

(Radio Iowa) – The number of Iowa hospital patients who’ve tested positive for Covid has dropped by about three percent since Wednesday. State data shows six out of 10 patients in an Iowa hospital today were admitted for treatment of Covid. And about 18-and-a-half percent of those Covid patients are in an intensive care unit.

The number of Iowa nursing homes with Covid outbreaks continues to rise — more than doubling in the past two weeks. Nursing home residents were at the head of the line when Covid vaccines became available a year ago. The A-A-R-P’s state director is calling on Iowa nursing homes to require booster shots for residents and staff.

The state’s coronavirus website shows 69 nursing homes have Covid outbreaks today. The state’s vaccination rate has inched up. One-point-eight MILLION Iowans are fully vaccinated. That’s just under 60 percent of the state’s population.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court has thrown out charges brought against a Polk County man following an online jail conversation with his former girlfriend. Kourtney Hall told former girlfriend Emily Bowers if she doesn’t go to church that doesn’t mean she will go to jail. That was a code telling her not to show for a deposition seeking information in a criminal case against Hall. She did show up and gave testimony, and Hall was then charged and convicted of suborning perjury and obstructing prosecution.

The Iowa Supreme Court overturned the perjury conviction — saying Hall did not offer any inducement that she testify falsely under oath or that she conceal material information. And the ruling says there is no crime of “attempted obstruction of prosecution,” it only prohibits actually causing a witness to fail to appear when subpoenaed.

(Des Moines, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) report the IEDA Board has approved awards for three companies, which will assist in the creation of 84 jobs and result in $96.3 million in new capital investment for the state. These projects are located in Dubuque and Knoxville. Innovation funding was approved in support of four startups located in Ames, Coralville and Des Moines.

The board also approved 15 Butchery Innovation and Revitalization program awards. Among them was three businesses in southwest/western Iowa:

• Atlantic Locker LC, in Atlantic, was awarded $39,750 (total project cost is $79,500)
• Corning Meat Processing Service Inc. in Corning was awarded $50,000 (total project cost is $100,500)
• and Country Meats Inc. in Arcadia was awarded $50,000 (total project cost is $100,000).

The Butchery Innovation and Revitalization Fund was designed to provide financial assistance in the form of grants to businesses for projects relating to small-scale meat processing, licensed custom lockers, and mobile slaughter units. The program was created during the 2021 Iowa legislative session and signed into law by Governor Kim Reynolds with a $750,000 allocation.

The maximum award amount is $50,000 and no more than 50% of the eligible project expenses may be paid with these grant funds. By administrative code, an application must score an average of 75 or more to be considered for funding. Fifty-four applications, requesting more than $2.4 million, received an average score of 75 or above. Based on available funding, the IEDA Board awarded 15 applications that received the highest average score. A list of the businesses that were awarded can be found here.

(Updated; Radio Iowa) -The Mount Ayr School Board has voted to cancel classes in the district Monday through Wednesday in the face of mounting student and staff sickness. Mount Ayr School Superintendent Jason Shaffer says the closings are due to mounting absences of students and instructors from a variety of illnesses–including COVID-19.

Shaffer says 20 high school students are out with COVID and 25 others with unspecified illnesses — for a 16 percent absentee rate. There are 15 elementary students out sick with COVID, eight with the flu, and another 25 with unspecified illnesses — for a total of 19 percent out. At the same time, he says Mount Ayr is experiencing the same shortage of substitute teachers as other area districts. Shaffer says the buildings will be cleaned during the three-day shutdown.

Shaffer says students and staff will be asked to wear masks for two weeks after returning from the break.

The three days missed next week will be made up at the end of the school year.

(Radio Iowa) – The former owner of a northeast Iowa trucking company has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for failing to pay more than one-point-four MILLION dollars in taxes over a seven year period. Court records indicate 57-year-old Mark Warm of Jesup was in charge of issuing paychecks to Warm Trucking employees. Federal income taxes and contributions for Social Security were subtracted from those paychecks –but the taxes weren’t paid to the I-R-S.

An I-R-S agent based in St. Louis says Warm made a conscious decision to cheat his employees. In his plea agreement, Warm admitted he also failed to pay other taxes that Warm Trucking owed.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill just starting to navigate its way through the Iowa legislature would provide 200-thousand dollars in state tax money to support the commissioning of a Navy submarine bearing the state “She will be powered by a S9G reactor, which is a life-of-the-ship powerplant,” James said, “so she will represent this great state for the next three decades.” Once the U-S-S Iowa is in service, it will spend most of its time three stories below the surface of the world’s oceans. “We will make our own water. We will make our own air. The only limiting factor for us will be our ability to load food, so at some point we’ll have to come up (for provisions),” James said. “But the crew is extremely excited about representing the state and feels kinship.”

Some of the 135 crew members assigned to the U-S-S Iowa started visiting the state in 2019 and a few spent this past Thanksgiving in Iowa with host families. State Representative Todd Prichard of Charles City is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, however his dad and two uncles served in the Navy and Prichard notes this will be the fourth U.S. Navy vessel to be christened the U.S.S. Iowa. “This is a proud tradition for our state,” Prichard says, “and this is just a new way for us to continue that tradition of quiet service.”

This is the SSN 774, the USS Virginia. It’s sister submarine, the Iowa, is under construction.

Prichard was a member of the House subcommittee that gave initial approval to spending 200-thousand dollars in state money on the U.S.S. Iowa. Private fundraising is underway as well to raise more than twice that much. The state and private funds will being used to outfit the U-S-S Iowa with some Iowa-themed furnishings and support the formal ceremonies surrounding its launch later this year.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Flood Center is unveiling a new tool to help Iowans living along the Missouri River prepare for flooding. Larry Weber, co-founder of the Iowa Flood Center, says the interactive map will give people who may be impacted by flooding the information they need in a times of crisis.  “If your home happens to be within the area that’s flooded, then with your mouse, you can just click by your house, and it’ll tell you the depth of water,” Weber says. “All of that is to help them to respond to floods to protect your property.”

The system is one part of a larger initiative to help impacted communities recover. Weber says the number one priority was making the technology accessible to everyone and the project took collaboration from the U-S Army Corps of Engineers, the National Weather Service and the University of Iowa-based Iowa Flood Center. “The Corps and the Weather Service and ourselves, we’re all flood experts, but but we can’t be there helping every individual homeowner and landowner, they need to help themselves,” Weber says, “but we can provide the tools to them that allow them to be able to do that.”

Weber says the flood prediction tool can also help them see how increasing the number of wetlands or watersheds in the area could stem flooding. The Iowa Flood Center started to develop the system after the damaging floods of 2019.

(Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

(Atlantic/Griswold, Iowa) – The Atlantic Chamber Ambassadors were hosted by Michelle & Randy Roy, owners of Randy’s Computer, on Thursday, January 20th, 2022. The Ambassadors joined the couple in celebrating the opening of their new location in Atlantic.

Randy Roy was living in Southern California when a friend asked him for help reassembling a desktop computer. It was then he realized his passion for customer service and computer repair. That was 25 years ago and since then, Randy & his wife, Michelle, have had many generous people offer them opportunities that they just couldn’t pass up. Fast forward to November 2021, they opened their doors to a second location in Atlantic. Randy and Michelle have been overwhelmed by the amount of support they have received in the past few months. The couple is grateful and excited to become a part of Atlantic’s tight knit community and look forward to continuing to support other small businesses.

Photo courtesy the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce

Randy’s Computer specializes in computer sales and repair, hardware and software updates, backup solutions, computer education and training and more. The Atlantic location is open 8:00AM-5:00PM, except on Thursdays and Sundays. The Griswold location is open 8:00AM-5:00PM, except Thursdays and weekends.

Randy’s Computer is located at 513 Chestnut Street in Atlantic and also located at 511 Main Street in Griswold. For more information about Randy’s Computer, call 712-590-0083 or visit their website, www.randyscomputer.com