When the Atlantic City Council holds its first meeting of the new year, Wednesday, among of the items on their agenda, is a presentation followed by discussion, with regard to a Water Source Protection Plan (WSPP) by DNR Source Water Community Facilitator for Southwest Iowa, Zachary Johannes.

According to City Administrator John Lund, Johannes would like to create an action plan for the City that can help to organize water supply protection. The idea is to draft an WSPP that meets the City’s needs, but in order to do so, Johannes needs a letter of commitment from City leaders. Lund say he will encourage the Council to allow the City Attorney and himself to review any documents, prior to making a commitment to another government agency. Anything the binds the City into making future expenditures or limiting revenue opportunities, Lund says, should be referred to the Personnel and Finance Committee.

In other business, the Council will take action on annual administrative matters, such as approving a bank for the City’s 2019 Checking Account, Approving the official City Newspaper for 2019 legal publications, and acting on a recommendation to change the duration of Parks and Recreation Board member terms from six-years, to four-years. The Parks & Rec Board has already approved the term-limit change, because they feel a longer term discourages people from running for the Board, and creates burn-out.

If the Council goes along with the plan, current Board Member terms would be adjusted as follows:

John Krogman & Jolene Smith, (whose old term expire 11/15/2023) – New term 11/15/2021

Charlene Beane & Vice-Chair Erin McFadden (whose current term expires 11/15/2019) – would be left at the same expiration date.

Stuart Dusenberry (Board Chair) – term would remain unchanged, with expiration date 11/15/2021.

The Atlantic City Council meeting begins 5:30-p.m. Wednesday, in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall.

The Adair County Board of Supervisors are set to hold their first, regularly scheduled meeting of 2019, this Wednesday morning (Jan. 2nd), in their Board Room at the Adair County Courthouse in Greenfield. During their session, which begins at 9-a.m., the Board will take care of their annual administrative matters, including (But not limited to): Administering the Oath of Office; Electing a Board Chairman and Vice-Chairman; Approving an Organizational Resolution; Approval of Deputy and/or Assistant Clerk appointments for the Recorder, Treasurer and County Attorney.

In other business, at around 9:30-a.m. Wednesday, the Board will hold a Public Hearing on a Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Amendment, followed by a Resolution to approve the amendment, and an Appropriations Resolution. At 10-a.m., the Adair County Supervisors will consider and set Compensation Board Recommendations for FY 2020 and set the FY2020 hourly wage increases for full- and part-time County employees. They’ll also act on a County Engineer Resolution, and other Secondary Roads Dept. matters.

The Audubon Community School District’s Board of Education will hold a Special Session early Wednesday morning (Jan. 2nd) in their Board Room at the Audubon High School. The only action item on their agenda for the 7:30-a.m. session, is a Motion to Approve [a] New Superintendent Contract.

The Board had narrowed down their choice of 13 candidates to a final five, and held followup interviews with some of those candidates on Dec. 19^th. The person selected will succeed Brett Gibbs, who is retiring at the end of the current school year.

CLINTON, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say one person was hospitalized after a fire in the basement of home in the eastern Iowa city of Clinton. Firetrucks were dispatched around 6:10 a.m. Sunday to the one-story house. The two residents were outside by the time the fire units arrived, but firefighters rescued two dogs from inside, giving one of them oxygen to help it recover. The fire cause is being investigated. The name of the injured person was not released.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines’ last single-screen movie theater has closed after 80 years. The Des Moines Register reports that the Varsity Theater was packed during its final screening on Sunday, more than eight decades after the theater opened on Christmas Day in 1938. Theater owner Denise Mahon says the turnout touched her heart. She’d announced the closure in November, citing plans to undergo knee replacement surgery.

Mahon took over running the theater after her father died in 2009. She decided to play one of her father’s favorite films, “Cinema Paradiso,” for the theater’s final showings. Theatergoers say the Varsity Theater was known for playing movies that were more unconventional, such as independent and foreign films. Mahon says she’s taking her time finding new owners who will carry on the theater’s legacy.

(Radio Iowa) — If you run out of adult beverages at your New Year’s Eve party, there are more outlets than ever in the state to buy more. Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division spokesman, Tyler Ackerson, says the fiscal year that ended in June showed an increase in licenses. “We had almost 17-thousand licenses issued throughout the fiscal year, and that’s a new high for us,” Ackerson says. “We also saw more than 21-thousand people being trained and certified in the responsible selling of alcohol through the online training program.” The increase in new liquor licenses was caused primarily by convenience stores. He says the law changed in 2001 to allow convenience stores to sell liquor, and he says that’s where they see the most growth. Convenience stores made up around 50 percent of the class E licenses.

The I-A-B-D suspended the licenses of 70 retailers in the last fiscal year. “The overwhelming majority of them are for licensees failing to maintain dram shop insurance,” according to Ackerson. “Whenever there is a lapse in that insurance coverage their license has to be suspended… there’s usually a short-term suspension until they can get that dram shop insurance put back into place.”  He says there are a couple of other issues that would cause a license to be pulled. “Nonpayment of taxes — that would be taxes due to the state — we can suspend the licenses for that reason. The other major category would be danger to the public. Fortunately, we did not have any licenses suspended for that reason this fiscal year,” Ackerson says.

Ackerson says they collected 157-thousand dollars in penalties for those who broke the rules while selling or serving of alcohol and. Those violations include things like selling to underage individuals or selling after hours.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Davenport is considering selling a city-owned fire department building for $200,000 less than it cost to build six years ago. The Quad-City Times reports that the land the building sits on was owned by Eastern Iowa Community Colleges, which sold it to Hawkeye Paving, of Bettendorf. The company wants to use the building as its new headquarters.

The proposed contract would have Hawkeye pay the city $600,000 and would let Davenport and other emergency agencies use parts of the facility for training purposes for free until October 2020. Movable training pieces such as the burn tower and a hazmat simulator would be sold to the city by Hawkeye for $1, and the city would have to pay to move those training pieces elsewhere.

The vote to finalize the building sale could take place as soon as Jan. 9.