Iowa DOT ATLANTIC, Iowa – July 11, 2019 – The Iowa Department of Transportation awarded a contract Thursday to Reilly Construction Co., Inc. of Ossian to begin emergency repairs to Iowa 2 west of Horse Creek in Fremont County. The winning bid for the project was $905,626.02 This area was overtopped by flooding in March and severely damaged by a second round of flooding in May.

The emergency repairs will restore limited mobility between Interstate 29 and the Nebraska border. Once opened, traffic will travel in a head-to-head pattern in the westbound lanes. This temporary solution is expected to be completed by mid-August.

Several options are being considered for permanent repairs to Iowa 2 that will reduce the chance that Iowa 2 will be overtopped by floodwaters in the future and have the potential to reduce impacts from that overtopping if it does occur.

For the latest in flooding information and recovery resources, as well as an image gallery showing the flood damage and recovery efforts go to https://floods2019.iowa.gov/.

(Radio Iowa) Four projects have won Community Attraction and Tourism grants from the Enhance Iowa Board. Iowa Economic Development Authority spokesperson, Jessica O’Riley, says a grant of 400-thousand dollars was approved for the Iowa West Sports Plex in Council Bluffs.

The total project cost is more than eight-point-three million dollars. Another sports facility — the MidAmerican Energy Company RecPlex in West Des Moines — won a grant..

Cascade won a grant of 228-thousand dollars to build a new swimming pool to replace their old pool.

The whole project will cost a little more than three-point-three million dollars. The final project is indoor project in Iowa City known as the FilmScene. O’Riley says the 320-thousand dollar grant will help fund the one-point-five million dollar project.

O’Riley says these projects will all have a big impact on their communities.

The board approved the awards at its meeting Wednesday in Des Moines.

The Atlantic School Board met on Wednesday evening in the high school media center and a big portion of the discussion focused on the facility upgrade projects that are in the works after the April bond issue was passed. Some preliminary mocks-ups have been put together for the high school sports complex and the baseball and softball complex. Superintendent Steve Barber said they are working on making decisions to get the projects closer to bid-letting.

The plan all along has been for the 2020 baseball and softball seasons to be missed with upgrades to the fields and surrounding buildings but Superintendent Barber said they have considered turf options that would potentially speed up the process.

The fields need to be torn up in order to change the layout of the complex and to fix some elevation issues.

Mr. Barber said they plan to meet with the steering committee next week to go over the plans and make sure all the necessary details are added to move the project forward.

The Board also took action on a number of contracts and resignations that were on the agenda and Mr. Barber wanted to thank Tony Wiley for his long tenure as a teacher in the Atlantic district.

The Board also heard a special presentation last night from the School Improvement Advisory Committe about a new program called “A Portrait of a Graduate.”

The Board also talked about bond proceed investment with local banks and approved the school handbook for this upcoming year.

ANKENY, Iowa – July 11, 2019 – Summer travel season is in full swing. With the increased traffic comes an increased emphasis on sharing the road with all types of vehicles and showing off those safe driving behaviors.

Starting July 14, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is promoting a nationwide law enforcement focus on safe speed as part of Operation Safe Driver Week. The Iowa Department of Transportation’s Motor Vehicle Enforcement officers, in coordination with the Iowa State Patrol, will be conducting several targeted enforcement projects around the state in a continued effort to reduce crashes and positively impact driver behavior, particularly in and around commercial vehicles such as semis.

As the number of miles traveled by both commercial and non-commercial vehicles increase, analysis of data has helped safety professionals pinpoint areas where more focus on safety is needed. To increase the effectiveness of Operation Safe Driver Week’s targeted enforcement, the locations were selected by analyzing data using the “Heavy Truck Crash Tool”  developed by Iowa State University Institute for Transportation.  This tool allows law enforcement and traffic safety staff to evaluate crashes involving trucks and identify trends and factors that contributed to these crashes.

Using this data, Motor Vehicle Enforcement and Iowa State Patrol officers will be teaming up to watch for both commercial vehicle drivers and how non-commercial vehicles behave around commercial vehicles.  They will focus on speed, distracted driving and seat belt usage. Unmarked vehicles and Iowa State Patrol aircraft may be utilized.

Dates and locations of the enforcement activities include:

Monday, July 15 – Winnebago, Hancock, and Sioux counties.
Tuesday, July 16 – Interstate 80/35 urban loop in Des Moines, Iowa 141 near Granger, Grimes area and Dallas County.
Tuesday, July 16 – Greenhill Road area / U.S. 218 in Waterloo.
Wednesday, July 17 – I-35 north and southbound Worth County.
Wednesday, July 17 – Mills and Fremont counties.
Thursday, July 18 – Johnson County/Iowa City area

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of a lawsuit challenging a new state law that changed the way some judges are selected in Iowa.

A state court judge last month dismissed the lawsuit filed in May by a group of lawyers and Democratic lawmakers against Gov. Kim Reynolds, saying they didn’t have legal standing to challenge the law.

The new law gave the governor an additional appointment to the 17-member state judicial nominating commission, meaning the governor will appoint the majority of members.

The lawsuit alleged the vote of the commission’s lawyer members was diluted and that the law is an unconstitutional overreach by the legislative branch into the judicial branch.

The commission nominates justices for the Iowa Supreme Court and the Iowa Court of Appeals.

Supreme Court Justice Bruce Zager signed an order Tuesday denying a request to halt enforcement of the new law until the case could be considered on appeal. However, Zager says the court will hear the appeal.

The Creston Police Department reports two arrests on Wednesday.

At 1:02pm Officers arrested 54-year-old Daniel Snedeker of Diagonal for Driving While Suspended. The arrest occurred at the intersection of Maple and Montgomery Streets in Creston. He was later released from the Union County Jail on $300 bond.

At 3:05pm Creston Police arrested 40-year-old Dustin James Seley of Creston at 404 Oak Street on the charge of Trespass. He was cited and released on a Promise to Appear.