The Shelby County Emergency Management Agency said today (Monday), the Fire Danger Index in the county will remain in the “Moderate” category, through Thursday. Officials say they hope the rain that’s forecast over the next few days, will contribute to the “greening up” of the grassy areas. Persons planning to burn brush or grassy areas should be aware of the frontal activity in the area and the shifting of winds associated with frontal passing.

The EMA says it can assist individual farmers and businesses with the development of burns plans, to assess the safety of any particular burn. Those plans will be developed jointly with the Fire Chief of the Jurisdiction, and the property owners.

w/ Ric Hanson

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The Audubon City Council is set to hold a regular meeting this evening. During their 7-p.m. session at City Hall, the Council will: Receive a Water Study Report from J-E-O Consulting; and, act on a Resolution ordering the publication of 2012 wages.

The Audubon City Council is also expected to discuss Blue Zones resolutions, and other, regular business matters.

Members of the Elk Horn-Kimballton School District’s Board of Education will meet this afternoon, in Elk Horn. During their 4-p.m. session in the Family and Consumer Science Room at the High School, the Board will act on approving the resignation of the Drill Team and Cheerleading Coach.

During his report, Superintendent Dean Schnoes will discuss the purchase of a bus and another vehicle, and under New Business on the agenda, the Board will act on: approving the FY 2012 Audit Report; The 2013-2014 Budget; and, the purchase of Bus Cameras.

The meeting will adjourn after a closed session to discuss negotiations.

The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education will hold a regular meeting tonight at the High School. During the 7:30-p.m. session in the Media Center, the Board will discuss possibly adding more staff for the 2013-2014 school year.   According to Superintendent Dr.  Michael Amstein, Washington Elementary Principal Stacey Hornung believes an additional first grade teacher and third grade teacher would be needed for the elementary school, due to the number of students coming into those classes next year.

Amstein said also, assistants may be needed for English Language Learners at the high school and Special Education department, along with a school nurse for the Level III program. The Board is expected to act tonight as well, on Volunteer coaches contracts, and any resignations to come before them.

In other business, the Atlantic School Board will act on approving the 2013-2014 School Lunch prices, Seasonal/Substitute teacher rates, and teacher recommendations for the 2013 Summer School. The Board will also receive an update on the Atlantic Middle School Construction project, from the district’s contracted architectural firm.

Low pressure will organize over Colorado today and move onto the Plains tonight and Tuesday. It will advance east through Missouri Wednesday and into the lower Great Lake Thursday night. Thunderstorms will develop tonight and continue intermittently through Tuesday night.Isolated severe storms are possible from Interstate 80 south. As the low passes to the east of Iowa, colder air will be drawn south into the region. The rain will gradually change to snow from the northwest. Accumulating snow will be restricted to far northwest Iowa and areas northwest with heavy snow possible. Moderate to heavy rainfall amounts over the next few days could result in ponding on roads and ditches Tuesday and Wednesday.

Leaders of the U-S Army Corps of Engineers will hold public meetings this week to cover water management plans for the Missouri River basin this spring and beyond. Jody Farhat, head of the Water Management Division for the Corps in Omaha, says it’s a chance to continue the dialogue with the public over how the river is being run during the drought. “The purpose of the April meetings is to let stakeholders in the basin know about the current hydrologic conditions, what the soil moisture and the snow pack looks like,” Farhat says, “and what we expect to do with regard to our operation of the reservoir system through the remainder of this calendar year.”

Farhat says they continue to see river reservoirs slowly dropping. So far, they’re down about eight-and-a-half million acre feet, or around 22-percent of the total storage available. “We are implementing drought conservation measures,” Farhat says. “We had low winter releases as a measure to conserve water and as we start the navigation season here in April, we’re providing what we call minimum service flows for navigation.”

Farhat says the Corps is in position to continue “near normal” operations for quite a while, several years, in fact. “Storage in the reservoirs is designed to serve the authorized purposes during a 12-year drought like that of the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s and early 1940s,” Farhat says. “As we get deeper and deeper into the drought, we conserve more and more water by providing reduced service to navigation and other uses.”

The region is just entering the second year of drought and she says, given the 12-year drought plan, they should be “good for another decade.” The meetings are being held this week in: Nebraska City, Nebraska; Fort Peck, Montana; Bismarck, North Dakota; Pierre, South Dakota and Smithville, Missouri.

(Radio Iowa)

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 504 AM CDT MON APR 8 2013
COUNTIES: AUDUBON-GUTHRIE-CASS-ADAIR-MADISON-ADAMS-UNION-TAYLOR-RINGGOLD

AS SKIES CLEAR AND WINDS BECOME CALM EARLY THIS MORNING AREAS OF
DENSE FOG WILL DEVELOP…REDUCING VISIBILITY TO BELOW A QUARTER OF
A MILE AT TIMES. ANYONE ON THE ROADS SHOULD BE ALERT FOR RAPIDLY
CHANGING VISIBILITY.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department reports the arrest early this (Monday) morning, of a Villisca man. 53-year old Kenneth Charles Richards was arrested on a charge of Child Endangerment, after deputies responded at around 12:20-a.m. to an incident in the 100 block of West 2nd Street, in Villisca.

Richards was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $5,000 bond.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A new study says the death rates in small rural hospitals are worse than at most hospitals. The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association notes that the death rate in remote hospitals got worse between 2002 and 2010. The death rate at other hospitals improved over that same time period. Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas and Kansas are the states with the most critical-access hospitals.

Nebraska has 65 of the smaller, rural hospitals that qualify for special treatment from Medicare because they provide critical access to care. The study’s lead author, Doctor Karen Joynt, says it may be harder for rural hospitals to afford the latest technology and advancements that are helping other hospitals.