(Atlantic) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors met Tuesday morning, and heard a request from rural Atlantic resident Glen Nelson, to pave Great River Road (635^th Street), which runs just east of the KJAN Studios. The road runs north to Dunbar Road, which is near the Nishna Valley Trails, trail head. Supervisor Steve Green said there have been discussions held about paving the road for trail use over the years, but it always came with a hefty price tag.

He said it also didn’t meet the requirements and specifications for a bike trail. And, there were other routes that were looked at. There have also been issues with right-of-way easements. Green said Cass County Naturalist Lora Kanning has looked at acquiring a “Rails to Trails” grant, but the organization didn’t want to shell out the money required for the project.

Ideas are still being batted around, but to-date, there’s been no firm action that would allow such a project to proceed. Supervisor Mark O’Brien said there’s definitely a lot of interest, but no one wants to fork over the money.

In other business, the Cass County Supervisors approved permits to sell cigarettes, tobacco, alternative nicotine or vapor products, for three area businesses (as previously mentioned), and they approved the abatement of taxes on parcels owned by: the Iowa DOT (a sliver of land in a ditch near Massena); The City of Massena (104 Spruce), and three parcels owned by the City of Wiota (as previously mentioned).

The Board heard from Cass County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Kennon, who reported the Iowa Alert System WENS (Wireless Emergency Notification System) is being retired and replaced with a similar system for notifying residents of severe weather, civil emergencies and other special announcements. Once the new system comes on-line in July, persons currently registered through Cass County’s Alert Program will have to re-register in order to continue receiving those announcements.

Additional details are expected to be released soon. Kennon said also, they’re using COVID Relief Funds to paint a wall in the Supervisor’s Board Room, and will install a 70-inch flat screen TV, which can be used for multi-media presentations and video conferencing purposes. The TV will be installed where the cabinet-style white board/bulletin board was, on the wall.