One person was hospitalized following an accident involving a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle Monday afternoon, southeast of Stanton. According to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office, a call from the scene near 240th Street east of O Avenue came in at around 3:50 p.m. Officials say 18-year-old Cody Johnson, of rural Stanton, was eastbound on 240th Street when his ATV’s brakes locked. The machine was nearing a ditch when Johnson jumped off and injured his leg when he landed. He was taken by ambulance to Montgomery County Memorial Hospital in Red Oak.  The four-wheeler was not damaged during the incident. The Sheriff’s office was assisted at the scene by the Stanton and Red Oak Fire and Rescue Departments.

The City of Atlantic’s Parks and Recreation Board has set the date of their next meeting as the time for a public hearing and input on making Sunnyside Park a smoke-free area. Their decision came on the heels of a request by Karla Akers and a group of young people who are associated with the Kiwanis’-sponsored, Middle School Builders Club. Akers said originally, the tobacco-free zone request focused on the skate park area at Sunnyside Park. She said the hope is to eventually make all parks in Cass County being tobacco free, to make them “A family friendly, safe, positive environment for healthy activity.”

To that end, Akers presented the Parks and Rec Board with a signed petition requesting Sunnyside Park be designated as Tobacco Free. She also presented the Board with a proclamation, which if approved, specifies how violators would be dealt with. It says the person will be instructed to stop using tobacco products on Park property, or leave the property. If they fail to do so, a trespassing complaint may be filed with law enforcement. The Kiwanis Club also signed a letter of support for the proposal, and verbally expressed their willingness to enforce the movement. The Kiwanis Club said they would be willing to help enforce the policy in a friendly, non-confrontational way.

Before a Tobacco-Free designation for Sunnyside Park is made however, the proposal must be approved by the Parks and Rec Board and full City Council. As part of the process, the Board will take public input during their meeting on July 15th in the Council Chambers at City Hall.

People who apparently have nothing better to do with their time have damaged property meant for the enjoyment and relaxation of others, in Atlantic. During Monday evening’s meeting of the Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department’s Board of Directors, Director Roger Herring said it’s believed persons from out of town destroyed a park bench at the Schildberg Recreation Area. The incident involving the very first new bench to be installed by a local Eagle Scout wasn’t discovered, until a week ago, when Herring went out to mow.

He says the bench was gone, and next to a picnic table was a round burn mark. Herring learned someone had pitched a tent and camped there the previous weekend. It didn’t take long for him to realize the campers tore apart the bench as used it as kindling for a campfire. Evidence of the fact included the discovery of the bench’s nuts and bolts in the campfire site. Herring says they have received leads in the case, and they don’t point to anyone local.

In another incident, Herring says someone took trash from a can at the City Park in downtown Atlantic last weekend, and dumped it in the men’s restroom. With the heat and humidity allowing the refuse to “Ferment” over the weekend, when the incident was discovered by Park workers, the stench nearly overwhelmed their senses. The culprits didn’t do any other damage, and even returned the trash can to its proper place.

City Councilman Chris Jimerson, who represents the Council on the Parks and Rec Board, mentioned also, that sometime over the weekend, persons on motorcycles tore up the Soccer Field by the Little League Park.  Herring says he believes that young people who are bored, are responsible for “That kind of Mickey Mouse stuff.”

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of two women on unrelated charges. On Saturday, 35-year old Maria T. Gudenrath-Hurst of Omaha, was arrested on a Pottawattamie County warrant for Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. She was taken into custody at around 12:40-a.m., during a traffic stop on Interstate 29. Her bond was set at $1,300. And, 22-year old Heather Jean Vorthmann, of Council Bluffs, was arrested at around 12:30-a.m. Friday on I-29, for Driving While Revoked. Her bond was set at $1,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The latest crop report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows Iowa’s cornfields have been hit hard by the wet spring. Twelve percent of the crop is in poor condition, worse among the 18 leading corn growing states. Monday’s report says 4 percent is very poor while 34 percent is fair and 50 percent is good or excellent. Eleven percent of corn plants haven’t emerged from the ground yet and 6 percent of the crop hasn’t been planted. Normally the crop is all in by now and 99 percent emerged.

The USDA already assumes the average amount of corn expected to be harvested per acre in the U.S. to be reduced to 156.5 bushels per acre down from 158 bushels estimated a month ago.

A Shelby County company that produces honey, is planning an expansion of their facilities. Smitty Bee in Defiance is prepping to add close to 20,000 square feet to their plant. The expansion is set to increase capacity by close to 50 percent. The company says the new space is for bottling room, offices, and additional warehouse space and research and development labs. 

Smitty Bee sales have soared to the highest ever in the 80 years of production in part because of the increasing finds of health benefits in honey. The fourth generation family owned operated honey packer and producer says they remain committed to the quality of honey customers have consumed over the years and the expansion will continue to help maintain the high standards along with building the business. 

Smitty Bee in Defiance provides a wide variety of honey products to both industrial and retail customers and can be found at many local grocery stores.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

The Atlantic Police Department reports a local woman was arrested Sunday. 23-year old Wendy Daughenbaugh, of Atlantic, was arrested on a Simple Assault charge. She was booked into the Cass County Jail and held, pending an appearance before a magistrate.

Fire fighters in Harlan were called to an unusual water rescue on the NishnabotnaRiver Sunday morning south of Corley in ShelbyCounty. Harlan Fire Chief Roger Bissen says the call came in around 10-am Sunday about two kayakers, who had gotten into the Nishnabotna River at Nishna bend, and were heading toward Hancock.  Bissen says they got about a mile half from Nishna bend before their kayak’s tipped over and the man and woman in their 50’s became stranded in debris in the water. Bissen said the female was on one log about 10 feet from shore, while the male subject was in a tree hanging onto branches and was about 30 feet from shore.

Bissen said the couple never attempted to make it to shore. He says if they had tried, they wouldn’t have been able to, because the bank was about 12- to 15-feet straight down into the river. The pair were able to dial 9-1-1 while they were in the river, though. Fire fighters received information from dispatch following the 9-1-1 call, but they also had assistance from aircraft that were in the area for the Harlan Flight Breakfast. 

The planes circled above the pair and radioed back to the airport their location. Firefighters found the couple and repelled down the bank, before putting them into rescue vests and pulling them up a steep bank. Bissen said the couple was from Omaha, and were out on a leisure activity for the weekend. The Chief said the river is at a dangerous stage right now from all the rain and people should be aware before hitting the water.

“When we get a lot of rain and the river goes up, they become very dangerous. You have a lot of water with turbulence from debris. So you get the turbulence before and after and that causes problems if you are in a boat, kayak and really dangerous if you have to try and swim out of the situation.” Following the rescue, the unnamed kayakers were checked out by medical staff before being transported over to Nishna Bend to shower and clean up. The Harlan Fire Department was assisted by Harlan Police Department, Medivac Ambulance, the HarlanAirport and Shelby County Sheriff’s Department.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports one person was arrested early Sunday morning, following an investigation into a 9-1-1 hang up call in Shambaugh. Officials say a deputy responded to 107 Main Street shortly after 3:45-a.m.  During an investigation, it was determined a violation of a Domestic Abuse protection order, and a domestic assault had allegedly occcured. With assistance from the Clarinda Police Department, 44-year old Jodie Marie Sherman, of Council Bluffs, and formerly of Shambaugh, was taken into custody. Authorities say Sherman had previously lived in the home at 107 Main Street.

Sherman was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault (an aggravated misdemeanor), Violation of a Protection Order and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (both are Simple Misdemeanors). Additional charges are possible, pending completion of the investigation. Sherman was being held in the Page County Jail without bond.

Governor Terry Branstad is directing the Iowa Department of Education to come up with new rules that would prevent school districts from starting school in the middle of August, or even earlier. Current state law requires schools to start in the week in which September 1st falls, but districts apply for and receive waivers from the Department of Education to start earlier. “I believe the Department of Ed is intending to move forward with new rules that would change this policy,” Branstad says. “I believe the present policy has been too lax and has not been fair to the tourism industry in Iowa.” 

The tourism industry argues they lose millions when schools start early, as families stop traveling and teenagers quit their summer jobs at the swimming pool, resort or ice cream shop. Branstad has met with tourism industry leaders to discuss their concerns and, after legislators have failed for years to pass a uniform school start date law, Branstad appears ready for the executive branch of government to take action. “They will go through the traditional rule-making process in making this change,” Branstad says. 

That means the new school starting date standard won’t be in force until the 2014/2015 school year. It also means there will be statehouse hearings on the proposal and school officials are likely to protest as they’ve done with legislators, saying it should be a local decision left up to local officials. Administrators argue an early August start date allows for longer holiday breaks and lets schools in college towns synchronize their school schedule with the college. Branstad appears unmoved. 

“All the studies and statistics I’ve seen show that having an earlier start date has not improved academic achievement,” Branstad says. “In fact, academic achievement has gone down in Iowa compared to other states like Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and a lot of other states in other parts of the country that have a much later start date.” 

Branstad was governor back in 1983 when he signed the law stipulating that schools should start as closely as possible to September 1st. In the past school year, all but eight of Iowa’s 348 school districts asked for and got a waiver to start earlier than August 27th — which would have been in the week September 1st fell in 2012. In April of 2012 the Iowa House passed a bill that would have forbidden Iowa schools from starting before the 4th Monday in August, but it was never passed in the Senate. In previous years, Senators voted to keep schools from starting early in August, but those proposals died in the House.

(Radio Iowa)