(Radio Iowa) — The11th annual Iowa Mission of Mercy (IMOM) free dental clinic is on the western side of the state this year in Sioux City. Dentist Richard Hettinger says all the patients will be treated in the Tyson Events Center. “We’ve got a hundred dental chairs set up on the surface that normally has ice on it for hockey this time of year,” Hettinger says.

Doctor Hettinger practices in Sioux City and says they will treat patients on a first-come, first-serve basis.”We can do fillings and extractions and cleanings and root canals. We’ll be able to do some partial dentures for people who have missing front teeth.” He says the dentures are something he particularly enjoys making because of the impact they can have. “Those are the kinds of things that allow people to go apply for a better job or maybe get a promotion in the job that they’ve got, according to Hettinger. “When they can have the confidence that they can smile and talk to somebody and not look like a picket fence.”

He says it is important to treat dental issues people have to avoid longer term problems. “Infections that can reside in the mouth can be kind of long-term and chronic. And then flare up into something that can be life-threatening if it happens to invade into the brain or something like that,” Doctor Hettinger says. “And it’s not something that happens every week — but it does happen someplace every month in this country.”

Hettinger says they are able to get a lot done in their makeshift dental office. “We will probably take care of about a thousand people in the next two days. We’ll do about 900-thousand dollars worth of dental care,” Hettinger says. All of the care is donated. He says they’ll have around 900 volunteers who are dentists, dental assistants, hygienists and other doctors to clear the patients to have the dental care.

Hettinger says people already had started lining up Thursday to get in when the doors opened at 6:30 in the morning today (Friday). The free dental clinic continues Saturday from 6:30 a-m until 5 p-m in Sioux City. This is the second time the free clinic has stopped in Sioux City.

WEST UNION, Iowa (AP) — Owners of three eastern Iowa wind energy turbines are fighting a court order to tear them down. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that attorneys asked Judge John Bauercamper on Wednesday to put a hold on his previous order to remove the turbines by Dec. 9th. The turbine owners are appealing a decision by the Fayette County Board of Adjustment to deny a variance that would have legalized their towers. The wind towers built in 2015 drew opposition from housing developers and homeowners in nearby Fairbank who believed they would be detrimental to the town.

The city and housing developers filed a lawsuit claiming the county issued construction permits for the turbines without following zoning ordinances. Bauercamper sided with the city in 2016, and the Iowa Supreme Court upheld that ruling.

Authorities in Central Iowa are investigating two reported incidents of strangers allegedly trying to pick up students outside schools. According to KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Des Moines Public School District parents received an email from school officials, claiming a man tried to convince a middle school student to get into his vehicle near Moulton Elementary School.

The school district said the vehicle was a black Range Rover with tinted windows and described the man as being heavyset with dark skin and a nearly-shaved head. The man appeared to be in his early 30s and had facial hair, according to the school district.

Parents of students in the Prairie City-Monroe Community School District said they received an e-mail about an incident that allegedly happened Wednesday afternoon, outside the Monroe Elementary School. During the incident, a woman and two men in a silver car approached a female student and claimed the girls’ parent asked them to pick her up and take her home from school.

The driver of the car was a woman with red, bushy hair. The men were wearing T-shirts with cut-off sleeves.

BLAIRSTOWN, Iowa (AP) — The state Department of Transportation is looking to expand U.S. Highway 30 from two lanes to four on a stretch in eastern Iowa. KWWL-TV in Waterloo reports that the DOT wants to do the work on a 14-mile stretch of highway near Blairstown and Van Horne in Benton County. Catherine Cutler, a district transportation planner, says the idea has been in the works since the early 2000s.

Culter says it’s the last segment between Cedar Rapids and Ames to become a four-lane highway, and the project is driven by additional capacity needs for passenger cars and semitrailers. Cutler says expanding the road’s capacity will also improve safety by giving drivers better passing opportunities. The first stages of construction could take place next summer.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have arrested a Council Bluffs man who is accused of threatening to kill the city’s mayor. The Daily Nonpareil reports that 33-year-old Chase Points faces charges of first-degree harassment, assault and disorderly conduct in a place of business. Points was being held without bond Thursday at the Pottawattamie County Jail. Council Bluffs police say an officer who was sent to Mayor Matt Walsh’s city hall office on Wednesday heard Points screaming expletives.

A subsequent records check showed Points had an outstanding arrest warrant for harassment and assault at City Hall on Sept. 27, when employees say he got in an employee’s face and left a threatening note on Walsh’s desk. Police say Points posted other threatening messages on Facebook.