(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic met this (Wednesday) evening during a regularly scheduled session, during which they passed the following resolutions:

• “Setting the date for a Public Hearing and Additional Action on Proposals to Enter into General Obligation Loan Agreements and to Borrow Money Thereunder.” City Administrator John Lund explained…

• A resolution “Obligating Funds from the Southeast Urban Renewal Area Revenue Fund for Appropriation to the Payment of Annual Appropriation Tax Increment Financed [TIF] Obligations, which shall come due in the next succeeding Fiscal Year.” John Lund spoke with regard to that resolution, as well…

The Council also passed an “Order to Approve [the] Annual Urban Renewal Report.” And an “Order to approve the 2024 Road Use Tax Report.”

(Atlantic, IA) – An attorney for former director Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce Director Bailey Smith, today (Wednesday), entered a written plea of Not Guilty on her behalf to multiple felony charges associated with her arrest that took place on October 8th, after she turned herself-in on a warrant. Smith also waived a speedy trial. As previously mentioned, Smith is set to be arraigned on December 8th. Trial in her case was set for January 12th in Cass County District Court.

The 33-year-old Smith faces a Class-B  Felony charge of Ongoing criminal conduct – unlawful activity, and Class-C Felony charges that include: Theft in the 1st Degree; Fraudulent Practice in the 1st Degree, and Unauthorized use of a Credit Card (for a loss of more than $10,000). Smith remains free on bond pending her court proceedings, which includes a Pre-trial conference on January 12th.

Bailey Smith booking photo, 10/8/25

Previously reported:

• Court documents state that between January 2020 and August 2025, while serving as the Executive Director of the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce, Smith made approximately 761 personal transactions with chamber funds. These transactions reportedly totaled $26,913 of losses to the chamber. Smith allegedly admitted to $6,632 of theft to the chamber board in a letter, court records show.
• Between the dates of November 2022 and August 2025, Smith began knowingly making entries into the record of the chamber that she knew were false to make the chamber general account appear solvent and to pay bills that should have been paid with funds that were misappropriated, to allegedly cover her theft of chamber funds, court documents state.
• According to court records during this time period Bailey made approximately 47 bank transfers between the chamber’s four bank accounts which totaled approximately $76,215.
• Smith reportedly admitted in a letter to the chamber board that she had transferred money from the chamber RAGBRAI account and that it had not been “moved back to where it belonged” and that the money “should have never been moved in the first place,” court documents state.

The Atlantic Chamber of Commerce said Smith had been placed on unpaid administrative leave August 29, 2025, due to concerns over financial matters. An internal review that was conducted resulted in her termination, and subsequent charges.

(Radio Iowa) – The holiday shopping season ahead will be expensive for consumers and lackluster for retailers, according to a professor in the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business who spent more than 20 years in brand management and market research. Professor Peggy Stover, director of the U-I’s Marketing Institute, says there are so many factors weighing down the economy as we head into December, there’s little optimism for the crucial economic month ahead.

“Last year, there was about a four-percent increase as a result of the holiday spending,” Stover says. “This year, because of all these factors, inflation, the tariffs, the government shutdown, mass layoffs in the private and the government sector, the industry as a whole, I’m predicting about a two-percent increase.” While some might view any increase in sales over last year as a plus, Stover says merchants should brace for essentially a stagnant season.

“It’s a significant decline to what the economy enjoyed last year,” Stover says. “A lot of it is going to be because consumers are going to be pulling back on their expenses because of the uncertainty that, right now, everybody’s facing.” A national survey estimates the average consumer plans to spend just under 16-hundred dollars on gifts during the holidays, that’s a ten-percent drop from last year. Stover says there’s just too much uncertainty, including over whether the federal government will be shutting down again in a matter of weeks.

Many merchants may struggle to get by for the first 11 months of the year, Stover says, then they’ll make up for it with the busy December. “With retailers, the end of the year, Black Friday and then all the other things that are going on in the marketplace,” Stover says, “this is the time of the year where a lot of retailers are making that big push to be able to make their sales.”

It’s been a difficult year for a lot of families in Iowa and nationwide, Stover says, noting about one-point-one million private sector workers lost their jobs between January and October, while DOGE eliminated perhaps as many as 300-thousand federal positions.

(Radio Iowa) – Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer, the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. House, has endorsed two Iowa congressional candidates.

Emmer is backing Chris McGowan, one of five Republicans running in the fourth district, where Congressman Randy Feenstra is not seeking reelection. Emmer has also endorsed Joe Mitchell of Clear Lake, one of the Republicans running in the second district, currently represented by Ashley Hinson, who’s running for the U.S. Senate.

Last month, Emmer campaigned in Coralville for first district Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks. “You win elections with the right candidate with the right message and, for our House seats, that message is different depending on the district,” Emmer said. “Remember, we’ve got 435 pieces of geography across the country. Each one has its own set of demographics.”

U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) (official photo)

Emmer has cautioned Iowa Republicans not to rest on their laurels and he points to the 2018 election, which resulted in a Iowa congressional delegation evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

Emmer, whose title is House Majority Whip, issued a written statement yesterday calling McGowan a “veteran, business leader, and devoted family man” who “embodies the values…that define Iowa’s 4th District.”

In a statement released today on the Iowa’s second district primary, Emmer said “if House Republicans are going to stay in the majority,” they need “bold conservative candidates like Joe Mitchell…who will fight for America First policies.”

(Radio Iowa) – Republican Mike Bousselot of Ankeny, a former aide to Governors Branstad and Reynolds who formed a committee this spring to explore a campaign for governor, has announced he’ll seek reelection to the state senate in 2026.

Bousselot said “after prayer and reflection with his family,” he’s determined “now is not the right time to run for governor.” Bousselot won a special election in September of 2021 for a seat in the Iowa House. He was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2022 by a 560 vote margin.

State Senator Mike Bousselot (R-Ankeny) (campaign photo)

Bousselot plans to seek reelection to the senate in a neighboring district that has far more Republican voters. Former Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, who’s currently representing that district, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2024 and is not seeking re-election. Whitver has endorsed Bousselot’s 2026 campaign for the seat.

Bousselot is a lawyer and a real estate developer. He served as Governor Reynolds’ top budget advisor before resigning as director of the Iowa Department of Management to run for the legislature in 2021.

(Radio Iowa) – An analyst with the Iowa Utilities Commission says they are still waiting to find out when they will get 2026 funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Keetah Horras says local community action agencies have been taking applications for the program known as LIHEAP.

“With the shutdown now concluded, the community action agencies remained fully operational and are continuing to accept and process applications. Agencies are currently relying on 2025 carryover funds and limited state resources,” she says. She says the carryover and state funding have allowed them to process the applications as they come in. “As of November 5th, a total of 30-thousand-313 applications have been received statewide,” Horras says.

LIHEAP provides some funding to help pay their winter heating bills Horras says it could take time before the 2026 funding comes through. “Due to the shutdown, the federal shutdown. Payments to regulated utilities may be delayed until at least February. HHS is continuing to monitor the funding process,” Horras says.

You can find out more about the LIHEAP program on the Iowa Health and Human Services website.

(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand says an investigation by his office has found the former city clerk in a small eastern Iowa town improperly gave herself 63-thousand dollars in city funds — nearly 90 percent of it in the last month she worked for McCausland. “This is sort of a classic timeline for a financial deed misdoer,” Sand said. “You oftentimes see them start slowly and then gain speed in the rate at which they misspend money as they become more uncomfortable.”

Sheila Bosworth was hired in 2009 to work part time as city clerk for the town of just over 300 residents. On St. Patrick’s Day last year, Blackhawk Bank and Trust in the Quad Cities notified McCausland officials that Bosworth was using the mayor’s electronic signature to write herself checks on the town’s account. Bosworth was immediately placed on leave and resigned a month later.

“When she was asked about it by a Scott County Deputy Sheriff, she stated: ‘I made a mistake, but I’m paying it back,'” Sand said. “There was no evidence that we saw that she was repaying any of the money she admitted taking.” In addition to the 55-thousand dollars worth of checks Bosworth wrote herself during her final month as city clerk, Sand says auditors who reviewed five years’ worth of city transactions found Bosworth had written nearly five-thousand dollars worth of checks for cash.

“When she was asked about this, she also told the Scott County detective that this was all due to a failure in a cryptocurrency investment or a cryptocurrency scheme,” Sand said. “Some of these unsupported charges were to Bitdefender. She said that she was going to repay the city after getting funds from Bitcoin investments and that some of the checks that were cashed were deposited in Bitcoin ATMs.”

Auditors found that over just 25 days, Boswell had written herself 26 checks on the city’s account. On just one of those days, she wrote herself five checks worth 10-thousand dollars in total. The report indicates Boswell also used the city’s credit card to get cash advances from banks in Camanche, Clinton and Bettendorf.

The 25-page special investigation by the State Auditor’s Office has been forwarded to Scott County’s Sheriff and County Attorney as well as the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

(Walnut, IA) – Officials with SWIPCO (The Southwest Iowa Planning Council) have announced a new childcare facility is on track to become a reality in Walnut, after SWIPCO helped secure a $600,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the project.

The facility is set to be created in one wing of the current Peace Haven Retirement Home in Walnut and will be operated by a newly developed 501c3 organization called Play Haven. The total project cost is expected to be $1,030,000 and other funding includes a $500,000 grant from the Lakin Foundation. Play Haven has been doing fundraisers and collecting local donations to help cover the remaining amount needed to complete the project.

Obtaining childcare is a challenge in the region and this facility will be a big help to area residents looking for the service. Currently, a single in-home daycare provider exists in Walnut to serve a population that is estimated to have 85 children under the age of ten. That’s just the need within town. The Iowa Child Care Resource and Referral, a state-run organization focused on connecting families with quality childcare, shows that Pottawattamie County is facing a severe shortage of approximately 6,942 childcare slots to meet demand. The new Play Haven facility in Walnut is designed to serve up to 65 children.

Rachel Hamilton with Play Haven is very excited that this project is coming to life, “We’ve been working for three years towards this and it’s so exciting that is happening. I’m thrilled for our community. The partnership with Peace Haven will create such a positive impact on two vital age demographics, seniors and children.”

Access to safe, reliable, and high-quality childcare close to home will help eliminate the need for area residents to make long commutes for care or piecemeal care arrangements. This can also help working families reduce employment-related disruptions and support greater workforce participation in the region.

Hamilton said inspiration for the project came from her own children who have struggled to find childcare and were asking for help, saying “I think we need to look at this issue in a different way other than grandparents retiring early to take care of grandchildren.” That is how this dedicated group got started and eventually Peace Haven was brought up as a potential space. “When this conversation started there were close to a dozen Walnut residents expecting children, with limited childcare spaces to serve them,” said Hamilton.

A unique aspect of this project will be the opportunity to connect the youth and elderly populations with the connection to a retirement facility. Children and senior residents will participate in shared, structured activities to enrich quality of life and community connection for all involved. Hamilton said they’ve been working hard to make sure it’s a partnership that’s respectful of the residents and enriching for both groups.

The new Play Haven facility is also expected to create 10-12 new jobs, ranging from educators, assistants, and administrative staff. “This has an opportunity to impact the community on a larger scale as well. We’ve already been talking about the need for housing and the potential for wrap-around care, that can set the table for growth,” Hamilton said.

SWIPCO officials say they are proud to have helped obtain this important funding for a resource that should benefit the Walnut community for many years to come. Recently, a similar facility was completed in Malvern, with SWIPCO playing a key role in securing the necessary funding. As part of its commitment to community development, SWIPCO continues to collaborate with member cities and counties, supporting a wide range of grant programs to foster growth and innovation.

(Atlantic, IA) –  The Annual Grand Lighting Ceremony in Atlantic, sponsored by Akin Building Center and Coyote Willow Wind, will be tomorrow, Thursday, November 20th, at 5 PM at the Historic Rock Island Depot in Downtown Atlantic. “Atlantic continues to shine as one of Travel Iowa’s top destinations for celebrating the Christmas season, and the Grand Lighting plays a huge part in that,” said Kelsey Beschorner, Executive Director of the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce. “More than 200,000 lights illuminate the trees along Chestnut Street and throughout City Park, creating a setting that feels absolutely enchanting for visitors and residents alike.”

Grand Lighting kicks off at 5 PM with a free hot dog meal, provided by Atlantic Hy-Vee. There will be free hot chocolate, sponsored by Masonic Lodge and Walmart, as well at the Chamber tent. Charlie Stogdill will DJ from 5 – 5:30 PM, with Santa making his special arrival at 5:30 PM to turn on the lights. He will see children in his cabin, sponsored by Atlantic Rotary Club, Akin Building Center, Coyote Willow Wind, Heritage House and Farmhouse & Flowers, from 6 PM – 7:30 PM.

“We couldn’t achieve this level of holiday magic without the incredible dedication of the Atlantic Street Department,” said Beschorner. “They have spent weeks trimming trees, rehanging lights, garland, and decorations across downtown and 7th Street, and they helped us add a few fun new features in City Park this year. Their hard work is a gift to the community, and we’re truly grateful for everything they do.”

Pick up a Christmas brochure from area retail businesses, ‘like’ the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce on Facebook or follow on Instagram (AtlanticIowaFan) to find dates and details to celebrate Christmas in Atlantic. You can find a complete list of activities and a printable version of the brochure at www.atlanticiowa.com.

Capture the Christmas magic with #MyAtlanticIA and post to the Atlantic Area Chamber’s Facebook or Instagram pages. Contact the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce with any questions at chamber@atlanticiowa.com or call 712-243-3017. Christmas in Atlantic is presented by Gregg Young of Atlantic.