SPRINGVILLE, Iowa (The Gazette) — A deteriorating Revolutionary War monument will be restored this summer in eastern Iowa if the Daughters of the American Revolution can raise enough money. The 16.5-foot marble and granite monument honors a Revolutionary War soldier buried in Linn County. Beverly Franks with the Marion-Linn Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution told The Gazette the monument is something to be proud of and should be saved.

The monument was built in honor of Nathan Brown. The former soldier settled in Springville in the 1800s. Brown lived in Iowa for only 2 1/2 years before he died Nov. 25, 1842, at 81.

As we mentioned last week following the Cass County Board of Supervisor’s meeting, officials with ZION Recovery Services in Atlantic, confirm the substance use disorder, problem gambling disorder and prevention provider, has purchased a building in Atlantic to re-locate services; the building previously owned by Crossroads of Western Iowa. The building is located at 2307 South Olive Street.

Laurie Cooley, Director of Zion and Southwest Iowa Mental Health Services said in a press release: “We want take this opportunity to acknowledge Cass County Health Systems and Cass County Board of Supervisors for all the support and assistance given to the organizations with the relocating of services.” Cooley said the organizations will continue to keep the community, providers and patients updated on the progress of transitioning substance use treatment/prevention and mental health services to a new site.

Re-locating will occur in several phases during the next few months, with the substance use disorder treatment and prevention services having started to provide services yesterday (Monday, March 2nd). The second phase will be renovations to the back portion of the building in order to relocate mental health, medication management and MAT Clinic to the new location.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge has dismissed charges filed against a man accused in the crash deaths of two men in Des Moines. Polk County court records say the judge ruled Monday that probable cause didn’t exist that Alejandro Contreras had committed the crimes of vehicular homicide. He’d already pleaded not guilty to the two counts. The crash occurred around 11:45 a.m. Feb. 20, when a southbound car and an eastbound car that had just entered a roadway collided. Police say two men in the eastbound car died. They were identified as Mauricio Ruiz Quintana and Brayan Martinez Ruiz. They lived in Windsor Heights.

State senators are considering legislation that would crack down on Iowa businesses that sell products used to smoke meth.  Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, says “Metallic and glass devices that are commonly used in one of the biggest problems that Iowa has right now, which is smoking methamphetamines, so we’re trying to define these devices.”

Dawson is also a special agent for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. It is illegal to sell “drug paraphernalia” in Iowa, but Dawson says some Iowa businesses claim these devices are for smoking tobacco or burning incense. The bill would require businesses to have a license to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products, plus ANOTHER license with a yearly thousand-dollar fee to sell these glass and metal pipes. In addition, a new state excise tax would be imposed on every item sold — and those fees would go toward supporting the state’s drug courts.

“On a personal level, I think it’s unconscionable for a business owner to sell these devices full well knowing the destruction that these things eventually create in a people’s lives and then ask taxpayers to pay for it on the back end through the court system, through a variety of other issues,” Dawson says. “U.S. Constitutional case law says I can’t ban the device so what I’m going to try to do is at least make that business owner deploy a conscious business decision that if I’m going to sell these, this is what the cost’s going to be and at least give some relief to the taxpayer on the back end.”

Dawson says some of these pipes are being sold for as much as three-THOUSAND dollars. “These things have proliferated now throughout the state of Iowa,” Dawson says. “We have gas stations selling these devices.” The bill would require retailers to keep these devices out of reach of minors, so they’d have to go behind the counter alongside cigarettes. Dawson says meth is the most common illegal drug in the state now and meth power or rocks is often heated to generate fumes that are inhaled.

“You can’t apply a direct flame to them, otherwise you burn the product,” Dawson says. Glass and metal pipes are commonly used for a key reason, according to Dawson. “How people would smoke methamphetamines used to be back in the day you’d put it on aluminum foil and you’d heat the bottom and they’d use like a pen to smoke it which would create a residue on there, so that would be drug paraphernalia,” Dawson says. “But what people are doing now is they are buying these glass pipes because if they encounter law enforcement they can throw it on the ground and smash it right away and destroy the evidence, which is why it’s becoming more of a preferred use here for people using those illicit drugs.”

Another section the bill is a response to the growing number of products being sold with labels touting hemp or marijuana as key ingredients. Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, says it’s buyer beware today. “It hasn’t been tested, necessarily, and what they’re buying may not be what the container says. I think that’s important,” Bolkcom says.

The bill has cleared the Senate Commerce Committee. It’s scheduled for review this week in the Senate Ways and Means Committee