(Updated) Cass County Wellness Coordinator Brigham Hoege reports that on Tuesday April 13, a drive-thru USDA Farmers to Families Food Box distribution will be held at the Cass County Community Center from 3-6 PM, or as supplies last. Anyone is welcome to visit the drive-through food box pick-up, and no documentation or proof need is required.

Boxes will be given away at no cost. The USDA Farmers to Families Food Boxes are expected to contain 10 pounds of fresh produce, 5 pounds of pre-cooked meat, and 5 pounds of dairy with a gallon of milk. (this may change). People from surrounding towns and communities are welcome, and you may pick up an extra box for your neighbor or home bound friend.

Details: Cass County Community Center Farmers to Families Food Box Giveaway
What: Drive-through food distribution.
Where: Cass County Community Center (805 W. 10th St. Atlantic, IA 50022)
When: Tuesday, April 13 3:00-6:00 PM (or as supplies last).
Who: Anyone is welcome! No documentation required. People from surrounding towns and
communities are welcome.
Cost: No cost!
Contact: Brigham Hoegh, Cass County Wellness Coordinator, 712-249-5870

The Atlantic Fire Department has had a busy morning. At around 9:10-a.m., Atlantic and Marne Fire were called to the area of 590th and Chicago Road (north of Atlantic), for a field fire. As it turns out, that was a controlled terrace burn. Then, at around 10:17-a.m., Atlantic Fire was called to 54166 598th Street, north of Atlantic, for a barn fire. According to reports, persons on the property were burning in an in-ground fire pit when the wind switched directions and caught the barn on fire. There were no injuries.

And, at 11:48-a.m., Atlantic Fire was dispatched to the scene of a field fire south of town, at 60373 630th (or in the area of Highway 71, south of Keystone Lane). The flames/embers had reportedly found there way to some outbuildings.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and attorneys general from seven other states are siding with the biofuels industry in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. On April 27th, the court will hear arguments over how the E-P-A has granted waivers from the ethanol mandate to the oil industry. Monte Shaw with the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association says his takeaway from the brief is the attorneys general are simply asking the Supreme Court to uphold the Renewable Fuel Standard.   “The process is laid out. These exemptions were supposed to be for a short period of time to help people transition into the RFS,” Shaw says, “and that was 13 years ago.”

The attorneys general argue in their brief that overturning an appellate court’s decision would be a devastating financial hit to many rural communities. At the Capitol in Des Moines, an Iowa House committee has made changes to the governor’s proposed biofuels mandate. A coalition of gas stations and convenience stores argued the initial plan would have cost their industry as much as a billion dollars to install new fuel pumps. The House Ways and Means Committee would let retailers have multiple pumps offering “no alcohol” gasoline — the governor’s plan would have allowed just one — but the committee’s bill still calls for all stations to start selling gas with 15 percent ethanol by 2028 and includes provisions to boost use of soybean-based biodiesel as well.

w/Max Dirks.

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Iowa Counties: Monona-Harrison-Shelby-Pottawattamie-Mills-Montgomery-Fremont-
Page–
409 AM CDT Thu Apr 1 2021

This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of southwest Iowa…west central Iowa…east central Nebraska…northeast Nebraska and southeast Nebraska.

Today and Tonight: Fire danger could reach into the very high category this afternoon across portions of the area.

Friday through Wednesday: Fire danger could reach the very high category during the afternoons into early next week.

(Radio Iowa) – The grass is starting to turn green and a turfgrass specialist with the Iowa State University Extension says it’s time to begin working on our lawns. I-S-U horticulture professor Adam Thoms says the first thing he does is to pick up all of those twigs, sticks and other debris that gathered during the winter so it won’t get stuck in the mower or dull its blade. “Now’s a great time to go ahead and fertilize your yard and start to get that grass up and growing for the year,” Thoms says. “We typically say to put out three-quarters of a pound of nitrogen per a thousand square feet for a rate.”

The stores are full of heavy fertilizer bags and they can be pricey. What ingredients should we be looking for in a fertilizer for the yard? “Really, the big thing is to try to find a slow-release nitrogen source,” Thoms says, “something that’s going to release over time so you don’t have a quick flush of growth, so that you’re not mowing-mowing-mowing like crazy in the spring because it all grew out at once.” Some Iowans may be finding large grey spots in their yards, which he says can be fixed without too much trouble. “Grey snow mold is a pretty common thing over Iowa this past winter,” Thoms says. “It’s from extended periods of snow cover which we had in the state. The best thing right now is to get out some fertilizer to recover out of it. Rake your yard to stand the grass up and let’s hope for warm weather to help it grow out of it.”

Now is also the time to hit those pesky weeds that seem to creep back every year. “One of the most common problem weeds is crabgrass,” Thoms says. “That’s going to be controlled with a pre-emergent herbicide. As long as you get that on April15th through May 1st throughout the state, that will prevent the crabgrass from coming up.” If you’re planting grass this spring, he warns do -not- use any crabgrass prevention products as they’ll keep your grass seeds from germinating.

w/Kate Olson.

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(Iowa DNR News) – A new federal law goes into effect on April 1, that requires the operator of a boat with an installed Engine Cut-Off Switch (ECOS) to use the ECOS link while operating on all federally navigable waterways. In Iowa, that means the four flood control reservoirs: Coralville, Rathbun, Red Rock and Saylorville; and the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

The link is usually a coiled bungee cord lanyard clipped onto the operator’s person, personal floatation device or clothing and the other end attached to the cut-off switch, but there are plenty of variations on the market, including electronic wireless devices.

When an operator is wearing a link while underway, the engine will cut-off if the operator is separated from the operating area, an occurrence that can happen if the operator is ejected from the vessel or falls within the vessel.  The shutdown of the engine is essential for safety reasons. If the operator is ejected from the vessel, the shutdown may prevent the operator from impacting the vessel’s spinning propeller, and may aid the operator in safely returning to the drifting vessel.

The intent of these new laws is to improve safety for all recreational boaters by reducing the potential for propeller injuries to recreational vessel operators, other users of the nation’s waterways, and marine law enforcement officers responsible for responding to runaway boats. Boats with motors less than 3 horsepower are excluded from the law.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has authority to enforce federal law on the federal reservoirs, the U.S. Coast Guard patrol has the authority to enforce federal law on the border rivers.

(Radio Iowa) – Marshall County residents noticed the smell of smoke as they awoke this (Tuesday) morning. The culprit was multiple grass fires. While the entire state was under a Red Flag Warning, it was after that warning expired that grass fires began popping up in the northwest portion of Marshall County. The blazes first reported around 9:00 Monday night and firefighters from all over the county spent over four hours quenching the fires. The grass fires, extending over roughly 400 acres, were mainly between the Marshalltown city limits to the northwest towards Albion.

No structures were burned, nor were any injuries reported. While the wind has backed off from yesterday’s 40-plus mile per hour gusts, they are still in the 15 to 25 mph range. Combined with low humidity, there remains an elevated chance of grass fires.

(Radio Iowa) – House Speaker Pat Grassley says a House committee is likely to debate a bill this week that’s designed to boost the use of ethanol in Iowa. Grassley says both Democratic and Republican presidential administrations have not always been the best friends of the ethanol industry. “We need to stand up and send a message to the country that we’re going to do what we have to do in the state of Iowa to also promote the product,” Grassley says.

Grassley describes the core of the bill as providing incentives to retailers to install new gas pumps that can dispense ethanol-blended fuels. “We’re not making those complete investments, but being a partner in that, to make sure that we can continue to promote it,” Grassley says.

Earlier this year, Republican Governor Kim Reynolds suggested a proposed renewable fuels standard for Iowa to require all retailers to offer at least a 10 percent ethanol blend — and require any new pumps installed be designed to dispense fuel that includes ethanol. Iowa’s convenience stores and gas stations have lobbied against that mandate.