(Radio Iowa) – The State Health Facilities Council has reversed its vote of six months ago and approved a plan for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to build a 230 million dollar hospital in North Liberty. The 4-1 vote Tuesday reversed the 3-2 denial of the plan in February. The administrators at other hospitals in the area say plan if for the new facility to expand beyond specialty care and take away their patients. U-I-H-C C-E-O Suresh Gunasekaran says they provide complex treatments beyond what the other hospitals offer. “So, what we’ve seen is as the Iowa population is aging — not just complex care — but care being delivered for complex patients,” Gunasekaran says.

He says other hospitals are closing their residencies for new doctors while the U-H-I-C wants to expanding by 100 in the next five years — and the new hospital provides more space to do that. Gunasakren says the new facility will not take away the patients of the other hospitals in the area. “Let’s be clear, over 70 percent of U-I-H-C volume comes from outside of Johnson and Linn County. The patients are not choosing between U-H-I-C and the other hospitals in Johnson and Linn County,” he says. “They are choosing whether to get their tertiary care at U-H-I-C or whether to seek it out of state. Sixty-eight-hundred patients leave Iowa every year for care that U-H-I-C can provide.”

The C-E-O of Unity Point in Cedar Rapids, Michelle Niermann was one of those to speaking opposition. Niermann says the plan presented is nearly the same as the one that was turned down. “It has the same potentially detrimental impact to community hospitals — which is what we are here to talk about today. It represents the same governmental entity competing with private enterprise, competing with community hospitals,” Niermann says. She says the U-H-I-C is trying to expand to take in more patients who need less specialized care while the hospitals in the area have the capacity to handle patients. She says most have more than 50 percent of their capacity available and will continue to struggle as “the University of Iowa seeks to pull and keep care from our system.” Niermann says the U-H-I-C hasn’t shown the need is there for a new facility.

“We’ve heard over and over today that this expansion is necessary for the university to meet the most complex needs of Iowans — yet across 50 slides, three consultants, and dozens of pages of correspondence about their resubmitted application — we still don’t have a specific description of how it addresses needs,” Niermann says. Several other speakers testified before the state body throughout the afternoon — with both sides at times saying the other was not telling the truth. The members of the Facilities Council asked questions during the testimony, but did not make any comments before taking the vote approving the facility. The new hospital would be completed in 2025. The opponents have an opportunity to appeal.

The broadcast News at 7:08-a.m., with Ric Hanson.

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DES MOINES, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety, today (Wednesday), report that on Tuesday, August 31, 2021, the Jones County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from the residence located at 23966 42nd Street Martelle, in rural Jones County.  Upon arrival, deputies observed a large structure fire and they also encountered an individual with a knife. Multiple law enforcement officers from the surrounding communities responded to the scene.  Initial reports indicate the subject did not comply to orders given by law enforcement to drop the knife.  Law enforcement deployed non-lethal and lethal rounds.  The subject received multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene.

Two deputies from the Jones County Sheriff’s Office discharged their service weapons and have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation.  Three officers from the Anamosa Police Department discharged their service weapons and have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation.  A Linn County Deputy deployed non-lethal rounds and has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation.  It is standard protocol for the deputies and officers of the aforementioned departments to be placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an Officer Involved Shooting investigation.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) was requested to investigate the officer involved shooting.  The Iowa State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFM) was dispatched to investigate the fire. Both investigations are currently ongoing and no additional information will be released at this time.  The names of the Sheriff Deputies and Police Officers will be released once they have been interviewed by the DCI.  The name of the decedent will be released pending notification of family.

Agencies that responded to the incident were: Jones Sheriff’s Office, Linn County Sheriff’s Office, Anamosa Police Department, Mt. Vernon Police Department, Monticello Police Department, Iowa State Patrol (ISP), Martelle Volunteer Fire Department, Lisbon Volunteer Fire Department, Anamosa Volunteer Fire Department, Mt. Vernon Volunteer Fire Department and the Morley Volunteer Fire Department.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday morning, received a presentation on ISICS (The Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System). During a nearly 2-hour Q&A session, ISICS Interoperability Coordinator Chris Maiers explained the difference between a VHF “legacy” system and a “trunked” radio communications system like ISICS. The latter utilizes the 700 megahertz, digital frequency, while the old system is analog.

VHF, he says, may have channels that are idle 90-percent of the time, while the trunked radio system can be configured to support the entire county. The problem is the County has signal “drop-out” zones, or “dead spots.” Cass County has bent over backwards over the years to prepare for communication upgrades, including purchasing a new console for the Cass County Communications Center, along with mobile radios, to name a few of the improvements. But the dead spots in signal reception remain, due to the county’s topography. Supervisor Steve Green said Cass and other Counties were caught between a rock and a hard space when ISICS came out.

Green said the County has been negotiating with Motorola for a tower and related enhancements for a tower site, to complete ISICS connectivity.

The latest proposal calls for the construction of a communications tower to handle ISICS. It’s estimated the cost will be approximately $3-million. Installing a pad for the tower, erecting the tower and other facets of the it, could take anywhere from nine-to 18-months.

Steve Green said before the County takes any action, he wants to see the City Council’s for each city in the county, to discuss with their citizens the advantages of the system, how much it would cost, and if bonding for the project is a viable option.

In other news, the Supervisors, Tuesday, approved a request for grant matching funds from the Cass County Fire Association which received a Department of Homeland Security grant for the purchase of mobile radios. The 5-percent local match totals $17,699.62. The Supervisors also approved the fiscal year 2020-2021 Urban Renewal Report.

(Radio Iowa) – Record numbers of Iowa families relied on food pantries during the pandemic, but with increased federal benefits through the SNAP program, some pantries are finally seeing a bit less traffic. Luke Elzinga, spokesman for the Des Moines Area Religious Council, says many people are getting a lot more money for food through pandemic emergency increases to SNAP. “When people have the money to spend at the grocery store on their food, they’re less likely to come to a food pantry,” Elzinga says.

Those emergency benefits are temporary, but starting in October, SNAP will see a historic, permanent increase to the amount of money a person gets each month. Even with the higher base-level benefits, Elzinga expects people will go back to the pantries once the pandemic allotment runs out. “They’re going to be needing to fill that gap somehow,” he says, “and a lot of them were previously using food pantries to do so and so we expect that they will return.”

Once the emergency assistance stops, he says people will get different amounts of money, sometimes less, despite the permanent increase to SNAP.

(By Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Tuesday, said an Essex man, 38-year-old Blake Sandahl, was arrested at around 4:30-p.m. Thursday (Aug. 26), for Driving While Barred. Sandahl was transported to Montgomery County Corrections and held on a $2,000 cash bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy is sending 120 workers to southern Louisiana to help with recovery from Hurricane Ida. MidAmerican Energy spokesperson Tina Potthoff isn’t sure how long the crews will be in the impacted area. She says that still hasn’t been determined, but they plan to leave Wednesday (Today) and arrive in the area on Thursday to get to work. Iowa saw crews from all over come in and help following last year’s derecho. Potthoff says it’s something that is common in the industry.

“We all can relate to the devastation of these storms and we really do stand together and do everything we can do to help each other out when one area is impacted over another,” Potthoff says. She says MidAmerican’s customers have benefited from having crews from around the country coming to help and she says they always feel like it is important to help neighbors in need. The hurricane left hundreds of thousands of people without power and it is not known how long it will take to restore the power lines and poles.

Locally, Jacob Matthews from FS in Audubon, was set to leave this (Wednesday) morning, to take fuel to victims of the hurricane.

(Radio Iowa) – Senator Joni Ernst says this weekend she confirmed that the few dozen Iowans who were in Afghanistan — and who had contacted her office for assistance — were evacuated. “Some of them may not have been back in the United States at that point, but they were out of Afghanistan, so we knew they were safe,” Ernst says. Ernst and her staff are still working on behalf of other Afghans who’ve received or applied for Special Immigrant Visas because they or a family member worked with the U.S. military or the U.S. government.

“Unfortunately, all of the additional SIVs, we were able to get a number of the interpreters’ families out. Those were always great when we received news about that, but we were not able to get all of them out,” Ernst says. People inside Afghanistan still trying to make their way to the U.S. must now clear their paperwork with a consulate in Doha (DOH-ha), which is about 24-hundred miles away.

“I think all of this is going to be exceptionally more difficult because we don’t have a presence in Afghanistan any longer,” Ernst says. “…Doha — it’s wonderful. I am glad that we are able to locate there right now, but unfortunately when you have people in Afghanistan, they may be impeded by the Taliban or other violent, extremist organizations. We really needed consular activities in Afghanistan and that collapsed.”

The Cass County Auditor’s Office reports one candidate filed nomination papers, Tuesday, to have their name on the ballot for the Nov. 2nd City Elections. The latest to file is Simon Jensen, who is running for one of three seats on the Anita City Council.  As of Tuesday (Aug. 31st), the following candidates have filed to run for offices in Cass County:

Mayor of Atlantic:

Pat McCurdy

Grace Garrett

Kathy Somers

Atlantic City Council, 5th Ward (Vote for 1):

Dick Casady (Incumbent)

Mayor of Anita (to fill a vacancy):

John Knutson (Appointed – term ends 11/2021)

Anita City Council (Vote for 3):

Simon Jensen (Incumbent)

Anita City Council (to fill a vacancy) – Vote for 1):

Mark Harris (Incumbent)

City of Atlantic Parks and Recreation Board (Vote for 1):

Shirley Jensen

Cumberland City Council (Vote for 3):

Mike Hill (Incumbent)

Darrin Hardisty (Incumbent)

Cumberland City Mayor

Nancy Virginia Coughlin (Incumbent)

Nomination papers may be filed with the Cass County Auditors Office until 5-p.m., Sept. 16th.

(Radio Iowa) – We could see an increase in prices at the gas pump in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. Triple-A Iowa spokesperson Meredith Mitts says the storm forced the oil industry to take action. “The rig workers were pulled off those rigs to make sure we keep everybody as safe as possible. And because of that, we did have to shut down some of those pipelines and rigs temporarily,” Mitts says. She says it is hoped this will be a temporary slowdown in the supply.

“This is a fairly standard and routine thing that happens, it happens every year during hurricane season,” according to Mitts. “So as soon as the power is back online and those rigs and pipelines can be inspected for any damage, and then the roadways are clear and things are returning to normal, we should be getting all of those operations back to normal.” Mitts says the resumption of normal operations is based on crews being able to get to work quickly.

“The only thing that could change that is if there was some major damage — which I haven’t heard of any yet. Or, it takes a really long time to restore power for some reason,” she says. Gas in Iowa right now is averaging three dollars for one gallon.