(Atlantic, Iowa) – Nishna Valley YMCA Executive Director Dan Haynes, today (Tuesday), issued a statement with regard another anonymous donation in support of operations at the Sunnyside Pool, in Atlantic. The donation will help to pay for five additional people to take the Lifeguarding Class, who plan to work at the YMCA, as well as a sign-on bonus to those who act quickly! The LifeGuard Classes begin next week.

(Radio Iowa) – Ground was broken this morning on Mason City’s Destination Iowa bike park project. City Administrator Aaron Burnett says a grassroots effort from a local organization turned into a state-funded project with help from a $4.5-million Destination Iowa grant.

Burnett says the bike park is specifically designed for off-road and mountain biking with features for all ages. The closest example of a facility like this is in Arkansas.

“A bike park is really a place where you can work on your skills, everything from a little kid just getting on a bike for the first year of their life and riding it around and going over some small bumps, all the way up to expert jumplines where you have a little more danger, but you are also getting air and experiencing that, working on your jumps, going over features,” Burnett says.

The Prairie Rock Trails Bike Park will be located on the southern edge of Lime Creek Nature Center and will link the 450-acre conservation area to Mason City’s new High Line Trail, the Riverwalk near Southbridge Mall and 20 miles of existing trails. Burnett says the bike park is the main feature of the city’s Destination Iowa grant, which includes the build-out of a trail system in the area.

“We’re building many miles of single-track trails here. We’ve got the bike park that we’re celebrating today with the groundbreaking, but we’ve already completed the High Line Trail,” he says. “The Riverwalk has been bid, and that will start construction this year.”

Alaina Santizo, of the Iowa Economic Development Authority, says Mason City’s application was part of a very competitive process in choosing award recipients for Destination Iowa grants.

“The county, city and these groups that really coalesced around one plan brought forward, but also the uniqueness of all,” Santizo says. “This is the first of its kind in our state and even in the Midwest, so it’s really exciting. During those COVID years, we really saw people just really craving those outdoor recreational opportunities and that’s just remained. The COVID days are past us now, but people still love doing some of that outdoor recreation.”

Photo by Bob Fisher, KRIB

Santizo praises the local efforts of Mason City and Clear Lake in recently receiving Destination Iowa grants for projects. This project fits into the program’s outdoor recreation awards, while the Clear Lake Surf District project received funding from the “placemaking” portion of the program.

She says, “The projects that both of those communities brought forward were extremely competitive, and so they scored well in our process, and we were pleased to be partners on both of those projects.”

The bike park is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2025.

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Northern District Office reports a Red Oak woman, 49-year-old Ann Sulsberger,  pled guilty April 18, 2024, in federal court in Sioux City, to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

At the plea hearing, evidence showed that between April 2023 and May 2023 Sulsberger and others conspired to distribute over a pound of methamphetamine in the Woodbury and Monona County areas.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand will be set after a pre-sentence report is prepared. Sulsberger remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Sulsberger faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $10,000,000 fine, and at least five years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Patrick T. Greenwood and was investigated by Bureau of Indian Affairs, DEA Laboratory, Tri-State Drug Task Force based in Sioux City, Iowa, that consists of law enforcement personnel from the Drug Enforcement Administration; Sioux City, Iowa, Police Department; Homeland Security Investigations; Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office; South Sioux City, Nebraska, Police Department; Nebraska State Patrol; Iowa National Guard; Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement; United States Marshals Service; South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation; and Woodbury County Attorney’s Office.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Police in Glenwood report two arrests. 57-year-old Sherry Harvey, of Glenwood, was arrested today (Tuesday), for Theft. Her bond was set at $300, but Harvey was released on her Own Recognizance.

And, 31-year-old Antonia Hudson,  of Red Oak, was arrested in Glenwood on Sunday, for criminal mischief 4th degree. Hudson was released after posting a $1,000 bond.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak have arrested a man on a felony, Theft, charge. 29-year-old Tylor Daniel Fine, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at a residence in the 100 block of E. Nuckols Street at around 9:45-a.m. today (Tuesday). He was charged with Theft in the 2nd Degree [>$1,500 but < $10,000] (a Class-D Felony). Fine was being held on the Montgomery County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Libraries in Kossuth County are facing nearly $200,000 in budget cuts. Kossuth County Library Association president Lany Mitchell said that cut in county funding means each of the county’s 12 libraries will get about $7000 in county support during the next fiscal year. “A $7000 per year funding is literally a death knell for at least four of the libraries here,” Mitchell said. The Kossuth County Board of Supervisors met with area residents for nearly two hours Monday afternoon to hear their concerns. Library officials learned just last week that the county would be reducing their funding. Mitchell is director of the public library in the small community of Wesley.

“I believe (the library director in) Fenton said that even if she worked for free, that $7000 wouldn’t make the library operational for Fenton,” Mitchell said. “Seven grand doesn’t even keep the lights on and the internet paid for. I can’t stress enough how that’s going to be ugly for a lot of libraries.”

In the current fiscal year, Kossuth County provided over $270,000 for libraries in 12 communities. For several facilities, that county funding is the vast majority of the library’s budget. Cutting library hours is not an option for many, as state funding gets cut if a library isn’t open for at least 20 hours a week. The Kossuth County Supervisors made the decision to cut library funding at a budget workshop two months ago, but didn’t inform the county libraries. Supervisor Carter Nath said that decision was a mistake. “I will take as a portion of that responsibility making that decision on February 22 in a budget workshop that you were never notified,” Nath said, “and that was wrong.”

Photo courtesy of Public Library in Wesley, population 383.

Board Chairman Kyle Stecker said budget cuts would have to be made to restore funding for the county’s libraries. “I would personally support restoring library funding to the levels in the current budget in the form of a budget amendment after the fiscal year starts if we as a board can come up with an agreement in reductions to the secondary road budget to the tune of $200,000 plus for Fiscal Year ’25,” he said.

Kossuth County library leaders say that leaves them in limbo, not knowing whether the budget cut will be rescinded and they’ll be able to stay open.