FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) — A monument marking a battlefield where 23 soldiers died has been installed in Fort Madison. The granite monument put in place last week includes a history of the military post on one side and the soldiers’ names on another side. Andy Andrews of the North Lee County Historical Society and Friends of the Old Fort says the $14,000 cost was underwritten by donations through Friends of Old Fort Madison. A flagpole will be installed nearby.

The Fort Madison Daily Democrat reports that Fort Madison originally was known as Fort Bellevue, was built by the U.S. Army in 1808 and abandoned in 1813. It was the location of the only War of 1812 battle west of the Mississippi.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors will meet 9-a.m. today (Tuesday), in their Boardroom at the Courthouse. On their agenda, is the appointment of a member to the Cass County Local Foods Policy Council (If an appointee is available), and regular reports (as available) from the Cass County Attorney and Engineer. The Board will also canvass the results of the Nov. 5th City/School Elections.

On Wednesday, Nov. 13th, the Board will meet at 8-a.m. to perform a post-election audit of ballots tallied at the Cumberland/Union Township precinct, and votes cast for Mayor/City of Cumberland on Nov. 5th. Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman says this is not a recount, but a hand-count audit of ballots tallied by optical scan equipment, to verify that the election vote tabulation equipment functioned as designed and programmed. It will include a hand-count of the votes cast for a designated position on the first ballot style of the selected precinct.

The November session of “Healthy U” will be held on Thursday, November 21st, at Cass County Health System. The program, “Women’s Pelvic Health,” will be presented by Alyssa Rogers, (Master of Occupational Therapy, Occupational Therapy- Registered/licensed).

Alyssa Rogers, MOT; OTR/L

She will be discussing several areas of pelvic health including anatomy, bladder health, helpful hints to improve incontinence, and how pelvic floor therapy works. Alyssa has worked at CCHS in occupational therapy for three years, and she has recently become a pelvic floor therapist.

Healthy U will be offered at noon on Thursday, November 21st. Healthy U is a free educational series at Cass County Health System held monthly in Conference Room 2. The public is invited and welcome to attend, but reservations are required as a meal is provided for all attendees. Call 712243-7479 to reserve your seat.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness or NAMI (NAH-mee) is holding its annual conference later this week. Executive director Peggy Huppert says the state continues to lag behind the rest of the nation in providing mental health services, largely because of workforce issues. “Unfortunately, we continue to rank near the bottom in a lot of areas, including the number of state psychiatric beds, and the number of psychiatrists, the number of psychologists,” according to Huppert.

Huppert says there have been positive developments in the past year, including the state putting in place a mental health system for children. She says Iowa now needs to find a way to adequately fund it.  “Are they going to allow counties to levy what they need to pay for what is required. If not, how are we going to pay for it? The Legislature needs to grapple with that,” she says.

The conference this week will include perspectives from law enforcement, a pediatrician and a former star athlete who has been diagnosed as bipolar.

(Radio Iowa) — The U-S Army Corps of Engineers is still struggling with high water levels in Missouri River reservoirs and time is running out to get them down to winter storage stages. John Remus, chief of the Corps’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Office in Omaha, says there’s been discussion all year on the congressionally-authorized purposes versus the operational priorities for the system. “It is important to understand that authorized purposes and priorities are not the same thing,” Remus says. “While the system is authorized for eight purposes, the Corps’ priority is life and heath safety. In large run-off years such as 2018 and 2019, or during an extreme hydrologic event, the flood control purpose drives the Corps’ operational decisions for the system.”

Remus says water troubles have persisted much of the year.  “In 2019, Mother Nature has made managing run-off in the Missouri River basin very challenging,” Remus says. “People throughout the basin have been, and continue to be, directly impacted, some severely impacted. The Corps is well aware of the damage that this year’s flooding has caused and we are doing all we can to reduce the impact and assist in the recovery.”

Remus says each run-off year is different and calls for different responses. “It’s important to understand that the volume, timing and location at which run-off enters the system significantly impacts the timing and amount of releases,” Remus says. “Each run-off season and flooding event is unique and care should be taken when comparing one event to another.”

The Corps will maintain releases from Gavins Point Dam at 80-thousand cubic feet per second through November before rapidly stepping them down by mid-December.