One vote broke a three-three tie on a Resolution to place on the ballot in November, a Public Measure asking for an increase in the City of Atlantic’ Hotel-Motel Tax. The tie was broken by Atlantic City Councilperson Kathy Somers. Voting against the Resolution was Council persons Halder, Jimerson and Casady. Council members Brink, Hartkopf and Hayes, voted in favor. If approved by the voters later this year, it would bump the current four-percent Hotel-Motel tax to seven-percent, beginning January 1st, 2018.

Prior to the vote, a number of persons, most of them with ties to local hotels or motels, spoke in opposition of the resolution. Among them was Dale Gross, who said while he is and always has been “Pro-Atlantic,” the increased tax, if approved, will hurt the City more than help it in efforts to further improve the parks and recreation system.

Gross said one thing he’s garnered from his travels and stays in various cities, is how much he “Hate(s) that tax.” He said “It is probably one of the most underhanded and hidden taxes that we’ve ever seen in our lifetime.” And, that while it seems to be “Universal,” he firmly believes that if we’re taking $50,000 out of guests’ money, we can probably find a way to adjust the budget of our parks and rec department.”

Like most the other speakers, Gross said when people come to stay in Atlantic, they’re not here to see an attraction. He said they’re here because they are visiting their families (or in town on business). The budget this year for the Local Option Sales Tax that is applied toward Parks and Rec improvement, according to City Clerk Barb Barrick, is $155, 930. Former City Councilman Steve Livengood has dealt with the issue of putting a Hotel-Motel Tax before the voters when he was on the Council. Livengood, who is on the Schildberg Recreation Committee, said the issue should be put on the ballot.

During further discussion among the Council before the vote to place the Measure on the ballot, Councilman Dana Halder said he was “torn” on which way to go. He said the hotel-motel owners gave up a lot when they agreed to work with the City on a 4-percent tax that went into effect in 2011. He said coming back and asking for more money seems unfair. Halder said a committee is working on promotions that would bring more people into town who will stay at those hotels and motels, thereby bringing in more money for parks and recreation.

He said on the other side of the coin, it’s his duty to allow the citizens to have a say on it. Halder said also, the Parks and Rec Department needs to work within its budget and cut back in some areas if necessary. The measure will come before the voters on November 7th.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Several law enforcement agencies are searching for a man accused of leading officers on a chase from Iowa to South Dakota and injuring a sheriff’s deputy. The search Wednesday is centered in Sioux Falls. Police spokesman Sam Clemens says the suspect struck the squad car of a sheriff’s deputy from Iowa’s Lyon County, sending the officer to the hospital.

Authorities say the man was driving a stolen pickup truck from Harrisburg that was found in a business parking lot in Sioux Falls. They also say there might have been a second man in the vehicle. Officers from Sioux Falls, the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office and South Dakota Highway Patrol are using a drone and an all-terrain vehicle in the search. Authorities say the suspect might have a stolen weapon.

Police in Council Bluffs say four adults were hospitalized Tuesday night, after they apparently overdosed on Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. Council Bluffs Police and EMS found three of the subjects, two men and one woman, unconscious in and around a car parked in the D & S Express gas station parking lot, at 1220 N. 25th Street. They were discovered just before 10-p.m.

Thirty minutes later, police and fire/rescue personnel were dispatched to a house a few blocks away (2500 block of Avenue H) for another unresponsive adult male. All four people were transported to local hospitals and were treated for suspected overdoses of Fentanyl. Three of the four subjects remain hospitalized as of last report, but are expected to recover. Police are still trying to verify whether the two incidents are related. The incidents are being actively investigated by the Council Bluffs Police Department’s Vice/Narcotics Unit.

Authorities say  it is important for citizens, in addition to police and fire/rescue responders, to be aware of the extreme dangers of Fentanyl use and the potential for accidental exposure. The following link provided by the Drug Enforcement Agency gives detailed information about this: www.dea.gov/druginfo/fentanyl.shtml

(OAKLAND, Iowa) August 2, 2017—Local farmer-owned cooperative officials today announced a purchase agreement has been signed for the sale of the Oakland, Iowa Landus Cooperative agronomy plant to be sold to Farm Service Cooperative (FSC). The purchase between Ames, Iowa-based Landus Cooperative and Harlan, Iowa-based FSC is slated to close Aug. 31, 2017.   As a result, all physical assets and the property at 41938 Industrial Drive just north of Oakland, Iowa will join FSC’s local operations.

“FSC is excited to add this state-of-the-art agronomy site to better serve our members and customers in Pottawattamie County,” stated Gary Jahn, Executive Vice President at FSC. The soon-to-be-acquired site includes an automated dry fertilizer blending system, automated seed system, 42,000 gallons of NH3 storage, a variety of bulk agronomy storage and the office. Current inventory, application machines, tender trucks and NH3 rolling stock are not part of the purchase agreement.

“This sale is a good move for both cooperatives,” stated Milan Kucerak, CEO of Landus Cooperative. “The acquisition of our Oakland site aligns well with FSC’s current customer base while allowing us to focus our capital in core geographies of our business.”

FSC’s focus will remain in the farm supply business, maintaining eight agronomy locations, an energy division, feed division, and a retail computer store. Landus Cooperative has three full-time and four part-time employees who will end their employment on Aug. 31, 2017. They have been offered an opportunity to apply for employment with FSC.

Growers who are members of either cooperative will not see a change in their membership status as a result of the change. Landus Cooperative will work with its Oakland-area customers to finalize work and invoicing on or before August 31, 2017 at which point those customers may choose to do business with FSC at the same location. Landus Cooperative and FSC have a multi-year grain marketing agreement for FSC’s locations in Harlan and Denison which is unchanged by the Oakland sale.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – University of Iowa officials say the Gerdin family has committed $5 million for renovations and new programming at the athletic learning center that bears the family name. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that center will be getting more study rooms, a commons area and a cafe. The programming will include a life skills and leadership development program. Work on the center is expected to be finished by spring 2018.

Ann Gerdin and her late husband, Russell, started giving to the university in 1980. They founded the transportation company Heartland Express. The next Gerdin generation has continued the philanthropy.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A northwest Iowa tax preparer indicted in a fraud case has been ordered to pay more than $61,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. Federal prosecutors say 56-year-old Toui Lo, of Storm Lake, was sentenced Tuesday in Sioux City. She was given four years of probation and fined $3,000, in addition to the restitution. She’d pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting the preparation and filing of a false and fraudulent tax return.

Lo said in her plea agreement that she prepared and filed a false tax return on behalf of a client, fraudulently increasing the amount of the client’s refund by falsely claiming business expenses and various itemized deductions. Lo also admitted filing several other false tax returns between 2009 and 2013.

The Iowa Court of Appeals has reversed the deferred judgement opinion of the Pottawattamie County District Court in the case of a woman who was convicted on drug and child endangerment charges following a traffic stop on Interstate 80. The traffic stop took over an hour. Erika Lopez-Cardenas had appealed her case based on the length of time an Iowa State Patrol Trooper took to question her and the driver of the vehicle. The Trooper pulled the vehicle with California license plates over, for having dark tinted windows and because it appeared to be heavily weighed down in the rear.

The driver of the van and Lopez-Cardenas were questioned at length about where they were going, why they had stopped and what the relationship was between the two adults and a child in the vehicle (The child was Lopez-Cardenas’ niece. They were returning from vacation so the girl could begin school.) A K9 requested by the Trooper arrived 49-minutes after the traffic stop. The dog alerted on the van, but no narcotics were found. The vehicle was weighed down by several containers of fertilizer and the occupants’ personal property. No drugs were initially found in the vehicle, but a later search located three socks containing marijuana seeds.

Lopez-Cardenas contends the district court should have suppressed the marijuana evidence on the ground that the trooper unduly prolonged the stop absent reasonable suspicion, and her trial attorney was ineffective in two respects relating to the child-endangerment charge.

The appeals court concluded the trooper unconstitutionally prolonged the stop of the vehicle, absent reasonable suspicion, and the evidence gained as a result of the unconstitutional detention should have been suppressed.  Because suppression of the evidence affects the findings of guilt on both charges, the Court reversed the findings of guilt on both charges and remanded the case for a new trial.  The Court said in light of its remand for a new trial, they didn’t need to address the remaining issues.

Tornadoes can spin out of the sky during any month of the year in Iowa, but now that we’re into August, twisters are becoming much less likely. Meteorologist Rod Donavon, at the National Weather Service, says Iowa is wrapping up the season with fewer tornadoes than usual. “Certainly, we did start off fairly quickly in 2017, we did have a couple of tornado events, one in February and another one in March, that accounted for several tornadoes,” Donavon says. “We’re already sitting at 40 tornadoes right now. The average in Iowa is mid- to upper-40s so we’re pretty close to average, even though we’ve been fairly quiet the last month or two.”

An E-F-one tornado hit McGregor in northeast Iowa on July 19th, causing widespread damage in the historic downtown. The biggest risk going forward, Donavon says, will likely be hail and severe winds, not tornadoes. “We’re going back to another dry period and we’ll really start tailing off,” Donavon says. “Typically, in severe weather season, we tend to go more damaging wind events as we get more into July and August and our peak tornado season really ends by mid- to late-June, so, we’re starting to get out of tornado season.”

Last year, Iowa reported 43 tornadoes.

(Radio Iowa)

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Regulators are seeking tough penalties against a former Sioux City councilman and his electronics recycling company, accusing them of repeatedly violating environmental law. Iowa Natural Resources Department documents say Recycletronics owner Aaron Rochester has wrongfully stored lead-containing glass cathode ray tubes at a Sioux City facility and illegally stored or disposed of the material at five more locations. The department says Rochester hasn’t paid more than $75,000 owed on a state loan used to buy equipment.

The department is asking permission from the state Environmental Protection Commission to turn the case over to the state attorney general’s office, which can seek higher penalties than the department. Rochester says he’s been working with the department to close Recycletronics. The department also says federal regulators have inspected Recycletronics sites in Nebraska.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors held a very short meeting today (Wednesday), in Atlantic. Officials heard from Snyder and Associates’ Engineer Dave Sturm, with regard to the Elite Octane, LLC. Gray Water Transmission project. Sturm provided the Board with a Resolution authorizing the County to request bids for the installation of pipes and related components needed for the gray water line from the Atlantic Wastewater Treatment Plant to the ethanol plant.

Sturm said they have the plans and specifications mostly finished and are just waiting on their electrical sub-contractor to provide their schematics, which are expected by no later than Friday. Afterward, they plan on going to bid for the project, with taking bids on Aug. 22nd. Bids received will be considered during the Board’s meeting on August 23rd.

A Public Hearing will be held on the proposed project plans, specifications and form of contract August 23rd, as well. Sturm was asked about the engineering costs of the gray water project. He said the most recent estimate, was $700,000. A better estimate will be available for the board prior to taking bids.