The Cass County Board of Supervisors will conduct a Public Hearing beginning at 9:05-a.m., Tuesday (Feb. 11), with regard to a proposed Cold Springs Park Paving Project. The hearing is part of their regularly scheduled, weekly meeting.

Afterward, the Board will act on approving the: Plans; Specifications; Cost Estimations, and Form of Contract, for the project. The Supervisors will also discuss and act on: approval of a 2020 Wellness Plan; expense and transfer appropriation changes; the acceptance of bids and contract for stock pipe and project pipe.

The Board will then act to set the dates for public hearings on a re-compilation of the Cass County Code of Ordinances, as requires at least every five-years under the Code of Iowa. The re-compilation includes the re-adoption of ordinances already in effect, and the repeal of any ordinance(s) that are deemed no longer necessary.

During a Work Session that follows the regular meeting, Tuesday, will take into consideration Budget requests, as well as review the FY2020 Budget and 2021 Budget items, including library and ambulance service contracts, funding requests, along with individual departmental budget(s).

The CAM School District’s Board of Education will hold its regular monthly meeting 6:30-p.m. Monday (Feb. 10th), in Anita, at the CAM High School Superintendent’s Office. Among the discussion and/or action items on their agenda, is:

• A CAM Education Association (CAMEA) presentation of their opening proposal for negotiations.
• An ICA (Iowa Connections Academy) Contract.
• Discussion with regard to the FY 2020-21 School Calendar and Budget.
• The Early Retirement Policy.
• Consideration of the bid process for 2020 Summer Mowing.
• Discussion with regard to the Facility Upgrade Process.
• And Disposal of old football uniforms.

After the Board adjourns, they will move into a closed (exempt) session, for Strategy Negotiations.

PLYMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – In 2018, female candidates helped power the Democratic takeover of the U.S. House. But women in the Democratic Party seem only moderately enthusiastic about voting for a woman for president. AP VoteCast finds that women in Iowa were only slightly more likely than men to back a woman. And the survey shows that many women thought a female candidate would have a harder time beating President Donald Trump in November. The concern has been an added burden for the women seeking the Democratic nomination for president. The leading female candidate in the race, Elizabeth Warren, is trying to confront it in New Hampshire.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Democratic Party is reviewing roughly 5 percent of the precincts in last Monday’s Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses, after issuing a deadline for campaigns to offer data demonstrating inconsistencies with the party’s results. In a statement Saturday, state party officials in their effort to clean up after Monday’s reporting breakdown said they were reviewing campaign data from 95 of the 1,765 precinct caucuses and would issue any corrections to the final results by this Monday (Feb. 10th). The party asked the campaigns to submit evidence of inconsistencies in the final results of the caucuses.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with Families United Action Network (FUAN) announced Saturday, that Iowa Representative Ako Abdul-Samad and Senator Mark Segebart introduced the FUAN False Allegations Protections Bill to Change the Child Protective Services (CPS) Tip Line from Anonymous to Confidential.

Officials say the purpose of the proposed change is to show connections to false allegations to the Iowa DHS Child Protective Services division in high conflict custodial divisions in order to hold those accountable of false reporting under Iowa Code, that cannot be accomplished under the current, anonymous call-in reporting system.

FUAN says “Currently, high conflict divorces frequently result in false reports made to DHS by or on behalf of one of the parties. Whether founded or unfounded, these reports often affect the accused party negatively in custody battles while the accuser benefits. DHS takes approximately 37-thousand calls a year about child abuse. Of that 37-thousand, about one-third of the reports are rejected right away because they don’t meet the agency’s criteria. On the other 25-thousand, when they send out an investigator, two-thirds turn out unfounded. This usually is the result of someone with a personal grudge trying to cause a problem.”

Jerry Foxhoven, former Director of the Iowa Dept. of Human Services (DHS) says “It is important to protect individuals reporting child abuse when they have a good faith belief that abuse has occurred. However, intentional false reports put children at risk by diverting resources that should be dedicated to protecting children who are truly at risk.”

The introduction of Senate File 2148 and reintroduction of House File 373 would seek to recommend a legislative study into Child Protective Services call-in reporting line. It would also recommend change to the Iowa Child Protective Services in-call reporting line from anonymous to confidential by adopting similar verbiage to Connecticut’s call-in reporting script.

The annual meeting of the Cass County Tourism Committee is set to take place 5:30-p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11th, in Atlantic. The event, to be held in the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce’ meeting room at the restored Rock Island Depot, is open to anyone with an interest in tourism in Cass County.

The Cass County Tourism Council’s purpose is to promote area attractions, and to continually develop and market the culture, history and economic well-being of Cass County, Iowa.  The 2018 Economic Impact Assessment of Travel in Iowa reports that domestic travelers generated a total of $517,500,000 in tax receipts in Iowa. Cass County’s piece of the pie came to $1.9 million in state tax receipts and $210,000 in local tax receipts. Domestic travel directly supports the payroll of food service, entertainment and recreation and lodging sectors.