COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Officials in western Iowa are worried that $50 million in levee repairs won’t be completed quickly enough to avoid having an area deemed a flood zone, which would require costly insurance coverage. The Daily Nonpareil reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to remap Council Bluffs’ potential flood zones in 2023.

Mayor Matt Walsh says the city should be able to complete repairs in time. But the Army Corps of Engineers’ lack of funding has slowed down the approval process on the city’s repair plans. Walsh says the Corps hasn’t reviewed and approved any levee-repair projects since last spring. Walsh says that if the project isn’t completed in time and the area is deemed a flood zone, flood insurance costs could triple the cost of mortgages.

Iowa Department of Transportation crews are trying to work around Mother Nature when it comes to improvements to area roads. One of their projects is on Atlantic, is Highway 71, south of the intersection with Highway 6. Scott Suhr is the Transportation Planner for the DOT’s District 4 office, in Atlantic. He says if the weather cooperates, they hope to complete the curb and gutter sections soon. Afterward, asphalt will be applied to the road surface. The next project will be to resurface areas where cold-in-place recycling was done, from U-S 6 north, to the Audubon County line. The goal, he says, is to try and complete the project before the end of Fall. If that isn’t possible, their intermittent goal is to get a binder lift, or what’s applied before the surface lift. Suhr says the work is needed because storm water runoff is having trouble getting to the gutters and into the storm sewer intakes.

Residents of and visitors to Atlantic who dealt with road construction on Highway 6/E. 7^th Street in 2015, will have a little bit of déjà vue where that stretch of road is concerned. Suhr says they will start where they left off two-years ago, near Burger King, with milling and resurfacing of the road that wasn’t finished the last time around. He said the two outside lanes will likely be closed while the milling is underway. Once that’s done, traffic will shift to those lanes and work conducted on the inside lanes.

In other words, the entire street won’t be blocked off and traffic detoured, like it was in 2015. That project was a “full deck replacement.” The current project has been in the DOT’s plans for a couple of years, and was waiting for funding to come through, which it has. The curbs and gutters along that stretch of road are in good shape, according to Suhr, so they will remain untouched.

He says it’s something that needs to be done, and will improve safety. Other area projects include a micro-surfacing of Interstate 80 that’s currently underway from the Cass County line east to Dexter. That will require slight lane shifts from time-to-time. Suhr reminds motorists to slow down in work zones, obey the posted speed limits, and avoid distractions.

A reminder from the Cass County Memorial Hospital’s Obstetrics (OB) Department: The “Love Steps Up” walk will be held tomorrow (Saturday, October 7th) at 10 am at the Atlantic High School track. In the event of rain, the event will take place in the AHS gymnasium. Love Steps Up is an initiative created by the OB Department to raise awareness and support for families impacted by pregnancy and infant loss. The annual walk is held in October, and a support group meets monthly at the hospital.

During the event, some personal stories will be shared, in hopes it won’t make families who have experienced the loss of a child at or before birth, so alone. Coming together, honoring the babies, and sharing stories. officials say, help us heal and raise awareness in the community about just how many families this touches.

The event is free and open to the public. And again, it will be held tomorrow (Saturday, October 7th) at 10 am at the Atlantic High School.  If there’s inclement weather, the event will be held in the AHS gymnasium. Participants will gather for brief remarks, walk, and then the event will conclude with a balloon release. There is no registration or fee for the event, but you can order a Love Steps Up t-shirt at www.casshealth.org through September 21st. Any questions can be directed to the CCMH OB Department at 712-250-8862.

Gambling studies released by the Iowa Racing and Gaming commission Thursday show a new casino in Cedar Rapids would have big impact on existing casinos. The study by White Sand Gaming says the best time to consider casino in Cedar Rapids was in 2003. Linn County voters turned down a gambling referendum back then. It says the Riverside and Isle casino in Waterloo now service the area and a Cedar Rapids casino would take money away from those two existing facilities. It says the three current proposals for Cedar Rapids casinos overstate the revenue potential of the facilities.

The other market study by Marquette Advisors came to a similar conclusion. It showed any of the three proposed Cedar Rapids casinos would cannibalize between 45 and 56 percent f their annual revenue from Riverside and Waterloo. Cedar Rapids was denied a gambling license back in 2014 with commissioners citing the impact on current casinos as the main reason. The commission will hear formal presentations on the two market studies at their meeting next week in Emmettsburg.

You can see both studies on the Iowa Racing and Gaming website.

(Radio Iowa)

The Washington Post is reporting that President Trump told federal officials to deny Iowa’s request to stabilize the individual health insurance market. The Washington Post reports Trump became outraged after he read a Wall Street Journal account of what has become called the state’s “stop gap” plan. It’s an attempt to help up to 72-thousand Iowans buy individual insurance policies for 2018 through the Affordable Care Act exchange. Trump reportedly directed the federal agency in charge of reviewing the state’s request to “tell Iowa no.” Iowa officials say there’s been no denial delivered. The only notice they’ve gotten is that Iowa’s waiver request has been “deemed….complete.” That triggered a required public comment period that ends October 19th.

(Radio Iowa)