Atlantic Police Chief Steve Green reports that on December 21st, 2013 the Atlantic Police Reserves will sponsor the 6th annual Family Dream Christmas program. The program is for Cass County residents only. During the program we will furnish the officers and transportation to take the selected families shopping here within Atlantic. Families will be taken shopping in Atlantic for groceries for Christmas dinner, gifts for the kids from the parents and also gifts for the parents from their kids.

The police department will be accepting donations from now through the 20th of December. As with last year, they are asking for cash donations only, this year. Any donations can be brought to the Atlantic Police Department and received by an officer on duty or the secretary working.

Applications for families wishing to participate can be picked up at the Atlantic Police Department and are due on December 11th by 4:00 p.m. After all applications have been received, they will be reviewed and the chosen families will be contacted. There is no set limit on the number of families chosen; it will correspond to the amount of donations received. The P-D will try to help as many families as possible!

In 2012, the program sponsored nearly nine complete family units and gave other families toys as well as assistance, as available. Between 8-and 9-thousand dollars was spent through the program, the entire amount of which came through donations from the public. 

The Atlantic Police Reserves would like to thank everyone in the past that has helped and would also like to thank those of whom are anticipating on helping with our wonderful program. For questions or inquiries call the Atlantic Police Department at (712) 243-3512.

An Atlantic man who was sentenced to five-years in prison earlier this week in connection with an incident of domestic assault, has filed an appeal with the Iowa Supreme Court. Cass County Attorney Dan Feistner reports Rex Dean McDermott appeared in Cass County District Court just before Noon today (Thursday), and filed an appeal of the sentence imposed by Judge Jeffrey L. Larson. The Court had set an appeal bond in the amount of $10,000, which has since been posted. McDermott was released from custody pending a final appeal of his sentence.

Feistner says pursuant to the Iowa Rules of Criminal and Appellate Procedure, McDermott will remain free on bond pending a final ruling by the Iowa Court of Appeals or the Iowa Supreme Court which could take anywhere from a few months to possibly six months or more. The appellate court (Iowa Court of Appeals or Iowa Supreme Court) will address any alleged legal issues by the defendant regarding the sentence previously imposed by Judge Jeffrey L. Larson.

The options of the appellate court are that it could: (a) affirm the lower District Court’s decision, (b) reverse and vacate the lower District Court’s decision, or (c) affirm the lower District Court’s decision in part and reverse and vacate its decision in part. Once a final decision has been rendered by the appellate court and Procedendo issues, the appeal is then finalized or closed and the matter is remanded or sent back to the lower District Court for any final action, if any, or the original sentence will be imposed.

On Sept. 23rd., McDermott plead guilty to a felony charge of Domestic Abuse Assault by Strangulation. At the time of his sentencing, he was committed to the custody of the Director, Iowa Department of Corrections for a prison term not to exceed five (5) years. The sentence was not suspended. Mittimus was ordered to issue immediately and the defendant was immediately taken into the custody of the Cass County Sheriff pending transport to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center (IMCC) at Oakdale, Iowa to serve out the five-year prison sentence. But again as of today (Thursday), he is free on bond.

The Iowa Department of Transportation and the Nebraska Department of Roads are working with the Burt County Bridge Commission to transfer jurisdiction of the Decatur-Onawa toll bridge connecting Nebraska 51 and Iowa 175 from the commission to the states.

Once the transfer is complete, the NDOR will maintain Nebraska 51 and be the lead state on issues related to the bridge, including maintenance and snow removal. The Iowa DOT will have control of Iowa 175. The agreement paves the way for the removal of tolls from the bridge beginning Nov. 30th.

The agreement was approved Nov. 12th by the Iowa Transportation Commission and a recommendation to proceed has been received from the Nebraska Highway Commission.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Iowans looking for an alternative to throwing away unwanted items and materials now have an easy way to find places that will take them: the DNR’s Iowa Greenlist. Available at www.iagreenlist.com, the Iowa Greenlist is a web-based directory of locations that accept items to be recycled, reused or repurposed instead of ending up in a landfill.

“Iowans now have a one-stop shop to find other options to throwing away their items,” said Scott Flagg, Iowa Greenlist directory manager. “The Iowa Greenlist is the most comprehensive statewide resource currently available – Iowa’s ultimate recycling directory.”

The website allows the user to search by material, location or organization and displays contact information, a list of materials accepted and hours for all registered locations. The database currently has 506 registered locations available across Iowa that accept products ranging from electronics to used oil filters. New retailers are able to register on the website at any time.

The U-S Agriculture Department’s Farm to School Census finds Iowa’s school districts spent six percent of their food budgets buying from local farms in the 2011-2012 school year. Across the Midwest, most states report 25 to 50 percent of their school districts are buying from local farms, growing edible gardens or teaching nutrition –all parts of U-S-D-A’s Farm to School effort. Corry Bregendahl, of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, says increasingly she hears from districts that want to get more local foods on the table.

“They’re eager to be a part of this, but there’s still some significant challenges associated with their participation,” Bregendahl says. The challenges include regulations, such as the competitive bidding process, and school kitchen logistics. “The food service needs a lot of support because a lot of them don’t even have slicing equipment,” Bregendahl explains. “They’ve evolved to be warmers, not food preparers.” Bregendahl says the survey confirms some of the things farmers have been telling them about the use of local foods.

“We’ve been hearing anecdotal evidence for years that farmers were expanding their operations because they were getting access to new markets and they were ramping up their production,” according to Bregendahl. Bregendahl says, when local food sourcing does succeed it can have ripple effects on the local economy.

(Radio Iowa)