Grant Petty with the Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund, recently gave a donation of $200 to Officer Devin Hogue of the Atlantic Police Department, to become a sponsor of this years summer programs.  Each child and department chaperone who attends their zoo trip and camp out will receive a t-shirt. Fund spokesperson, and Trevor’s mom, Melanie Petty, said “This is just another great opportunity for the children in the community to experience the great outdoors or a trip to the zoo.” She thanked the A-PD for organizing the events.

Grant Petty (left) & Atlantic Police Lt. Devin Hogue (Photo provided)

Funds are raised at the annual TFred Memorial Golf Tournament.  For more information follow them on Facebook or through KJAN.  Petty says “We look forward to continuing to give back to our community in Trevor’s name for years to come.”

The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education, Wednesday evening, approved Superintendent Steve Barber’s recommendation to accept the 2018 Master Contract Agreement with the Atlantic Education Association, which represents the District’s Certified Staff (teachers, etc.). The agreement calls for a $480 increase on the base, with no step movement. The total package increase is 1.90%, for a total cost to the District of $139,367. In his report to the Board, Superintendent Barber provided an update on the Construction Trades Pre-Apprentice Program at the Achievement Center on the west side of town. He say the bay area of the Center will be where the shop is located, and some of the unoccupied space is available for use as a classroom.

(He said students in the Associated Building Contractors program will be certified in OSHA training and other, potential certifications.)

The goal he said, is to “Create a high level program…that is what we’re going to work on, beginning with the Fall semester on Aug. 23^rd. Barber said in order to free-up time for Middle School/High School Industrial Technology Instructor Mr. Jade Walter to teach the new program, it was necessary to replace his middle school exploratory. The plan, which is part of the STEM Best Grant, is to begin an exploratory gateway to technology project in 8^th grade through the Lead the Way Program called “Robotics and Automation.”

(He said they are also exploring additional, similar programs for the 7^th grade.)

In other business, the Atlantic School Board approved the 2017-18 Amended Certified Budget, which does not call for an increase in taxes paid in the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2018. Instead, the change in estimates of expenditures will be financed from increased receipts and balances not budgeted or considered in the current budget. The Board accepted the resignations of High School Para-educator Brian Thompson, and Middle School ELA Teacher Jennifer Hartwig. They also approved a bid for Milk from Highland Dairy, a bread bid from Bimbo Bakery, for bread, and a trash collection bid from Hepler Sanitation, as well as a 70/30 Sharing Agreement with the CAM School District for Atlantic’s Business Manager.

The agreement stipulates the CAM School District will receive the services of Atlantic School District Business Manager Sarah Sheeder 30% of the time. In return, CAM will provide 30% of the cost associated with the shared position. Since the business manager position is one that fits under the Operational Sharing legislation, each district will receive additional revenue. Board member Josh McLaren had some concerns about the arrangement, despite the financial gains to both districts, but Sheeder assured him it wouldn’t be placing a burden on her.

ELDORA, Iowa (AP) — A state official says another state worker has been severely beaten by a resident of the Eldora Boys State Training School. The Des Moines Register reports that the unidentified staff member had numerous teeth smashed out and suffered broken bones in his face. Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven told his department’s advisory board at a Des Moines meeting Wednesday that the assault occurred Saturday. The school is for boys whom courts have found to be delinquent because they committed crimes. Officials say that about six weeks ago four residents beat up another staff member during an escape attempt.

In November the group Disability Rights Iowa sued Foxhoven and other administrators, saying school residents were unjustly locked in isolation rooms, strapped down in restraints and denied mental health care.

Dewitt, IA (Radio Iowa) — A 48-year-old who’s running across the country to raise awareness about childhood sexual abuse crossed into Iowa Wednesday. Christian Griffith of Atlanta, Georgia, says his goal is to get people to talk openly about abuse — just like they’d talk about any other disease. “If I was to do just another marathon, nobody would be paying attention,” Griffith says, “but I chose to do something big, something that’s seemingly insurmountable because I wanted a platform to talk about something that people are just simply not talking about.”

Griffith is calling his three-thousand mile trek “Run 2 Heal” and he’s trying to raise a million dollars for a group called “Help for Children.” The group gives grants to local child abuse prevention and treatment programs. Griffith first told someone he had been abused as a child in the fall of 2015 — when he was 45 years old. Griffith began getting counseling and treatment in February of 2016 — and Griffith says he’s found talking frankly about the abuse he endured as a child is important. “I know and understand what it feels like to isolate and hide from that and feel like your situation’s different or you’re unique and you can’t talk about it,” Griffith says, “and I want people to feel comfortable with the fact that they absolutely can talk about it and all of the fears that they have and the labels that are going to come at them when they do — none of that’s going to happen.”

Griffith began skateboarding in his teenage years and then pursued more “extreme sports” as an adult because it had a calming effect.  “It made it so it didn’t have to think about home,” Griffith says. “…I kept finding greater and greater challenges to numb the pain or kill the demons — whatever you want to call it.”  He says talking openly and frankly about abuse is important and Griffith is making stops along the way to talk with groups about the issue. Griffith runs about 30 miles a day. That means it’ll take him about a week-and-a-half to run across the state. His western Iowa trek takes him through Guthrie Center, Kimballton, and Persia, from May 18th through the 21st. (If you’d like to join him, you must pre-register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeeXlMROqK6EgiMzD6o9BXzrM_i94wjCkHs4hXM7ywRba6VNw/viewform) For more information check out his Facebook page at Run2Heal, of go to https://run2heal.hfc.org/run-details/

Red Oak Police say two people were arrested on separate charges, Wednesday. At around 11:40-p.m., 18-year old Courtney Ann Hall, of Red Oak, was arrested in the 2300 block of Eastern Avenue, for Domestic Abuse Assault. Hall was being held without bond at the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center, pending an appearance before the magistrate. And, at around 5:30-p.m. Wednesday, 24-year old Ozzy Ray Hunter, of Red Oak, was arrested for Driving While Barred. His bond was set at $2,000.

Sheriff’s officials in Taylor County report the arrest on Tuesday, of 25-year old Rebecca Holbrook, from Lenox. She was arrested in the 600 block of E. Ohio Street in Lenox, and charged with Domestic Abuse Assault. Holbrook was being held in the Taylor County Jail without bond, until making an appearance before the magistrate.

The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office reports that on Tuesday, Ben Reece, of New Market, plead guilty to the criminal offense of Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, a class “B” forcible felony. Reece was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison on the charge. Back on Feb. 20th, his partner, Joanna Marie Gray, of New Market,  plead guilty to criminal offenses that include Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, a class “B” forcible felony and Incest, a class “D’ felony. Gray was also sentenced to serve 25 years in prison on the Sexual Abuse charge plus 5 years in prison on the Incest charge, to be served consecutively.

Reece

Joanna Gray

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CDT

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A top aide to Gov. Kim Reynolds has been hired by Apple months after helping promote a controversial $208 million incentive package for the company’s planned Iowa data center as a good deal for taxpayers. Tim Albrecht resigned as Reynolds’ deputy chief of staff, then began in March as a manager of strategic initiatives for Apple. The governor’s office says Albrecht’s position is “unrelated” to the $1.3 billion complex the company is building outside Des Moines.

MT. PLEASANT, Iowa (AP) — Federal immigration officials have raided a precast concrete manufacturing plant in southeastern Iowa. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers took 32 people at Midwest Precast Concrete in Mount Pleasant into custody Wednesday on suspicion of immigration violations. The agency says those detained came from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — Health officials in northern Iowa have confirmed seven cases of whooping cough in Cerro Gordo County. Mason City television station KIMT reports that the Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health says it’s investigating instances of the highly contagious disease in the Mason City Community School District and among staff at a local McDonald’s restaurant.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa agency that promotes affordable housing has suspended the use of employee credit cards that were issued outside the state’s normal program. The move by the Iowa Finance Authority comes as the agency faces investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and questionable financial practices by its former director, Dave Jamison. Documents show that 21 employees of the agency had been issued Visa credit cards through Wells Fargo to cover travel, meeting and other expenses.

While the Mississippi River is rising and starting to flood along Iowa’s eastern border, flooding is not a big worry on the state’s west side. Heavy snows this winter — and spring — are forcing the U-S Army Corps of Engineers to increase flows into the Missouri River, now that the snow is melting. Corps hydraulic engineer Nicole Shorney says they expect runoff much higher than usual.

“April runoff was 182% of average above Sioux City,” Shorney says. “Runoff was above average partly due to the heavy Plains snowpack in Montana melting. Mountain snowpack accumulation has peaked in both reaches.” Corps engineer Joel Knofczynski says they still have plenty of storage space in the reservoir system to handle the runoff.

“Reservoir system storage is currently 60.9 million acre feet or 4.8 million acre feet into the 16.3 million acre feet of available flood storage,” Knofczynski says. He notes they expect to ramp up outflows in the next couple of weeks. The average release from Gavins Point Dam during April was around 34-thousand cubic feet per second.

“Due to the higher-than-average runoff being forecast in the Missouri River basin above Sioux City, the service level has been increased 15,000 cubic feet per second above full service to facilitate the evacuation of stored floodwaters. As downstream flows recede, Gavins Point releases will be increased to about 42,000 cfps by around mid-May.” Even with the increased releases, Corps officials say river levels below Gavins Point Dam should stay well below flood stage.

(Radio Iowa)

The draft five-year transportation improvement plan that covers spending on all forms of transportation was presented to the Iowa Transportation Commission at their meeting Tuesday. Three-point-four BILLION dollars of the program goes for the state roadways and D-O-T spokesman Stuart Anderson says that includes a lot of ongoing work on the interstates.

“Probably the most significant projects on the interstates right now are what we would call modernization projects — so its totally reconstructing the interstate systems in Council Bluffs and Sioux City to meet modern design standards and to address increased traffic,” Anderson says. Another interstate project adds a segment to the work on the highway between Ankeny and Ames.

“This draft program does include the addition of reconstruction and improving I-35 from the north end of Ankeny up to Iowa 210 as you head towards Ames,” Anderson says. There are also several projects on non-interstate highway.

“We expect to complete the four-lanning of U-S 20 in western Iowa by this fall,” according to Anderson. “So that’ll complete the four-lane constructon of U-S 20 across the entire state. That’s been a project that’s been underway for many years.” Other state highway corridors are also in the plan.

“This five-year program continues work on four-lane improvements on U-S 30 in Tama and Benton County. And also U-S 61 down in southeast Iowa. So, significant corridor work will be continuing,” Anderson explains. Anderson says part of the funding comes form the gas tax increase.

He says this program includes a little more than 500 million dollars of the fuel tax increase implemented in March of 2015. The Transportation Commission will take a vote on the program next month. He says the plan is available on the D-O-T website for any comment and the commission will act on final approval during their business meeting on June 12th. Anderson says the years in this program have been some of the top years for the number of road construction projects.

(Radio Iowa)