Police in Red Oak cited a teen for Failure to Obey a Stop Sign and Yield the Right of Way, following an accident that happened at around 4:50-p.m., Friday. Authorities say the accident happened at the intersection of W. Washington Avenue and N. Broadway, when a 2008 Chevy Impala driven by 16-year-old Cayden Gillespie, of Red Oak, failed to yield as he was traveling westbound across Broadway.

The Impala struck a 2001 Chevy Blazer broadside, at the intersection. The driver of the SUV was identified as 35-year-old Gregory Kyle Frazier Boehne, of Adel. Both vehicles sustained an estimated $6,000 damage, each. No injuries were reported.

One person suffered possible/unknown minor injuries during a collision Saturday afternoon, in Guthrie County. The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office reports the accident happened at the intersection of Chirma Road and Highway 4, at around 2:25-p.m.  Authorities say a 2015 GMC Canyon pickup truck was stopped or stopping northbound on Highway 4, and turning left onto Chirma Road, when his vehicle was struck from behind by a 2013 Ford F-350 pickup. The driver of the GMC, 33-year old Matthew Wilson, of Omaha, was hurt, but was not transported to the hospital.

Officials say skid marks at the scene indicated the driver of the Ford, 22-year-old Riley Barr, of Indianola, appeared a short distance from the impact site. Barr was cited for Failure to Stop in a Safe Distance, and Open Container as a driver. Damage from the collision amounted to $30,000 (15k each vehicle). The Ford was declared a total loss.

A man from southwest Iowa who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7^th, 1941, will be remembered during a Memorial Service on Sept. 25^th. Eli Olsen’s remains were identified from among 429 who were onboard the battleship U.S.S. Oklahoma when it was sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers. Olsen was a 23-year-old Navy Petty Officer 3^rd Class serving on the ship as a storekeeper. He was from Exira. John Henry Tibben, of the Ames area, is his nephew. Tibben – who is 80-years old – was just three-months old when his uncle died, so his memories are sparse.

Tibben says his grandpa and grandma didn’t have any specific idea of what happened to Eli. They had received a telegram saying he was “missing in action.” About three months later they were told Eli had been declared dead.

The remains were removed in 2015, following political pressure from Congress, USS Oklahoma survivors and their families. Olsen’s remains and those of 20 other soldiers and sailors from western Iowa and Nebraska were eventually identified through DNA analysis, at the Defense Department’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency Lab at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Eli Olsen, of Exira. KIA Dec. 7, 1941 on the USS Oklahoma. (Photo via the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)

His identity was confirmed in September, 2017. John Tibben said his mother Ruth Tibben (Eli’s sister) had a hard time dealing with the news Eli’s remains had been identified. He says when she was told Eli was coming back and would be laid to rest in Exira, “she didn’t want anything to do with it,” and that John could take care of it, because “She had dealt with that and gone through it all.”

Ruth Tibben was Eli’s last living sibling. She died in April at the age of 100. Her brother will be buried next to her and near his brother Paul, in the Exira Cemetery. The Memorial Service will be held in the Exira Lutheran Church. John Tibben says bringing his Uncle home after all these years is a “good feeling” for the family, and offers the chance for a family reunion.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa State Fair wrapped up its 11-day run last (Sunday) night and will evidently come up short on setting any attendance records. The final tallies will be out soon, but fair officials say they’re confident the event drew more than a million people this year, but will not exceed the attendance record set in 2019 of more than one-point-one million. Last year’s state fair was canceled due to the pandemic.

As of Saturday night, the fair counted 994-thousand visitors, which is about 70-thousand fewer than two years ago. The fair first topped a million in 2002.

With Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.2MB)

Subscribe: RSS

With Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.3MB)

Subscribe: RSS

POWESHIEK COUNTY, Iowa — An annual event honoring the life of Mollie Tibbetts will help in another high-profile search in Poweshiek County. KCCI reports the fourth annual Mollie Tibbetts Memorial Run will kick off from the BGM School parking lot at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 26. The 5-mile race collects donations in Tibbetts’ memory. This year, half of the funds will go to the University of Iowa’s Stead Children’s Hospital. The other half will go toward helping to find 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson.

Xavior vanished from his Montezuma home in May. The money raised during the race will be donated to the Find Xavior Harrelson Fund which has already raised $36,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa — More Iowans are lining up for COVID-19 tests. Demand for testing jumped more than 60% from the end of July. With TestIowa sites closed for good, private labs are filling the gap. Dr. Casey Rice with MercyOne tells KCCI testing is still critical. He said it’s important to know if you’re infected so you can isolate and health experts can know what type of variants are circling in the community.

Rice also said getting tested at the first sign of symptoms can lead to much more effective treatment. While state testing is closed, you can order or pick up a free at-home testing kit through TestIowa. Rice said if you’re doing an at-home test it’s important to closely follow the instructions.

Most of MercyOne’s current COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated. Rice said the vaccine is the most effective way for people to avoid test lines and the hospital.

(Radio Iowa) – The 2020 Annual Drinking water Compliance Report shows Iowa’s public water systems have 98-point-nine percent compliance. The D-N-R’s Corey McCoid says the number of systems meeting all health-based standards was the highest in 25 years. “This is all based on what would be the finished water that the water plants produce in the local communities or other water supplies. Some of those would be based on groundwater or wells, and some of them would be based on surface water,” McCoid says.

He says most of the larger cities in the state get their water supply from surface water. McCoid says they keep a close eye on the product they produce. “A lot of communities are doing testing on a daily basis. And then for compliance purposes that may be monthly, it may be quarterly. Or for some of the contaminants that we don’t sample as often, it may be over a six-year period,” according to McCoid. It just depends on what we are looking for. Some more of your acute contaminants may be sampled on a much higher frequency than some of the other contaminants.”

He says some of the key contaminants haven’t changed. “Bacteria is always one of the first ones that we take a look at — as well as your nitrates and nitrites in Iowa,” he says. McCoid says the history he has seen shows Iowa ranks highly across the country. “I would say we are in the top ten percent of states across the country for compliance numbers. I haven’t seen the recent statistics — but I know that is how we have been categorized in the past,” McCoid says.

You can see the full report on the Iowa D-N-R website.

(Radio Iowa) – With wildfires raging on the West Coast and a busy hurricane season developing on the East Coast, the American Red Cross is calling on Iowans to sign up for difficult — and rewarding — volunteer positions. Josh Murray, spokesman for the agency’s Iowa chapter, says they need people of all ages who work in a range of professions to handle disasters large and small. “Pretty much whatever skills and interests you have, we can find a position for you,” Murray says. “We have ones that are going to be on the front line to help at shelters, help deliver food and get relief supplies to people, health services, mental health services. We also need people who are either working from home or working in an office to help answer some phone calls.”

Select disaster response volunteers reach out via computer to victims of house fires, for example, but he says it’s hoped more of that type of assistance will be done in-person soon. “If you have just an hour or two a week, we can get something for that. If you’re able to deploy and go help on the West Coast or the Southeast during one of these big disasters and can be gone for a week to ten days, we have that opportunity, too,” Murray says. “We can really find something that fits your interests, your availability, and your skill set.”

The Red Cross Disaster Action Teams are the first line of care, comfort and compassion for those affected by a disaster, he says, and the volunteers find the work fulfilling. “They come in and they want to just get their toe in it and see how it is, and then they realize, ‘Oh, wow, this is great!’ You feel good about yourself and see the impact you’re making,” Murray says. “Ninety percent of the work that we do is carried out by volunteers, so we couldn’t do anything we do without our volunteers and they see that impact they’re making when they serve.”

Learn more about how you can help the Red Cross chapter in your area at: www.redcross.org/iowa.