A Corning man was arrested Tuesday morning, on an assault charge. The Adams County Sheriff’s Department says 30-year old Richard Alexander was charged with 3rd offense Domestic Abuse, a Class-D felony. He was taken into custody after deputies were called to investigate an incident which allegedly occurred earlier that morning.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Department says a Corning man was arrested Tuesday afternoon on drug charges. 25-year old Garret Templeton was arrested after authorities received a call at around 5:53-a.m., about a missing 16-year old. Upon further investigation, Templeton was allegedly found to have marijuana and drug paraphernalia in his residence. He was charged with Possession of Marijuana and Drug Paraphernalia.

The Atlantic City Council is expected to act on a couple of resolutions, and possibly set the date for the first reading of an ordinance changing the speed limit on a portion of West 22^nd Street, during their meeting 5:30-p.m. Wednesday, at City Hall. One of the Resolutions pertains to approving the plans, specifications, and Form of Contract for the Sunnyside Park Tennis Court Project.

The Council last summer tabled action on the matter, and it’s expected they’ll act to table the items until next January or February, at the request of Snyder and Associates Engineers and Parks and Rec Director Roger Herring, in order to allow the City to secure the best bid prices for the work. The other Resolution pertains to the establishment of a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Policy.

The Council received a Resolution establishing a new TIF Policy during their last meeting, but additional comments and input was received from local developer Don Sonntag, and, from City Bonding Attorney Bob Josten. The Resolution was revised by Josten to allow the Council more flexibility, and make language in the Resolution more “open-ended.” Among the changes Josten recommends, is Property Tax Rebates as the preferred method of giving TIF assistance. In his report, Josten said issuing TIF bonds would result in additional costs to the City that would eat up the City’s limited legal debt capacity. The Council will decide which if any, of the proposed changes to the policy it would like to incorporate into the final document.

In other business, the Council, Wednesday, will receive a report from the Community Protection Committee, with regard to reducing the speed limit on West 22^nd Street, from Chestnut to Palm Streets, from 45- to 35-miles per hour. As we reported earlier, the Committee, on October 25^th, met to discuss a petition the City received in support of the change. Despite findings that indicate the road is capable of handling the current speed limit, and a report from Police Chief Steve Green that there has not been a problem with accidents on that stretch of road, the Committee, with Green’s recommendation, proposes the Council amend the Traffic Ordinance to reduce the speed limit to 35-mph. If the Council agrees to do so, the first reading of an ordinance incorporating the change, would be held on November 20^th.

The Council will also act on approving a change order that adds 20 working days to the 2012 Hot Melt Asphalt (HMA) street project contract with Henningsen Construction, Incorporated, due to Oak Street Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) reconstruction time used to construct sidewalk ramps for the City on a separate grant-funded project, and, a change order for the 2012 PCC Paving and Storm Sewer Improvements project with Carley Construction, LLC, that will result in a net savings to the City amounting to just over $1,253.

A sampling of county auditors across the state finds a brisk pace for voting so far today (tuesday). Pottawattamie County Auditor, Marilynn Jo Drake, says good weather greeted western Iowa voters today. “Most of our precincts are reporting long lines, people are very patient and waiting for their chance to vote, but the lines are long,” Drake says. She says many people in the county took advantage of early voting. “Well, compared to four years ago in the presidential, we had 14-thousand (early) voters, and this time we had 20-thousand,” she explained. Drake says they had a couple of label machines that gave them some trouble, but otherwise things are going smoothly. We haven’t had any actual polling place problems, everyone was able to get into their polling place and that’s a record. We usually always have one or two where someone has failed to go and open the door for us, but we didn’t have any of that today. So that was nice,” according to Drake.

In central Iowa, Polk County Auditor, Jamie Fitzgerald, says voting machines have been busy. “We had an historic levels for out early voting — well over 90-thousand people had cast their ballots before election day — and were seeing a lot of that trend parlay into today. A lot of my poll workers showed up to work today and opened the polls to a line of people waiting to vote,” Fitgerald says. “So we’re seeing a pretty steady trend of people voting. I think we are going to surpass our 2008 number of over 215-thousand voters, I think we are going to get to that today.” If that trend holds true, Fitzgerald says they would have just over 80-percent of the registered voters in the state’s largest county turn out. He says the number of early votes could lead to some smaller lines at the polling places today.

He says with 18 to 20-thousand people voting early, there could be some drop off at the polls today. Fitzgerald says they had to replace one voting machine that was not working, but otherwise things have gone smoothly. In northeast Iowa, Black Hawk County Auditor Grant Veeder is keeping an eye on the voting. “We had our precincts call in with their turnout at 10 o’clock this morning and at that point we were at about ten-and-a- half percent of registered voters turn out. And that compares to four years ago at that time where we were at about 13-and-a-half percent,” Veeder says. Veeder attributes the in-person drop off to the number of early votes.

The polls will be open until nine tonight.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa State Patrol says a Guthrie County woman was injured during a single-vehicle accident Sunday morning, northwest of Stuart. 95-year old Agnes French, of Guthrie Center, was transported by Stuart Rescue to the Guthrie County Hospital, after the 1994 Pontiac she was driving left the road and entered a ditch before driving through a farmer’s fence line. The accident happened on White Pole Road, just west of Victory Trail, at around 8:55-a.m., Sunday. The woman had been traveling west on White Pole Road when she lost control of her vehicle, after the car slipped onto the shoulder of the road. She suffered apparent minor injuries, and was transported to the hospital to be checked out, according to the Patrol. Officials say she was wearing a seat belt. French was cited for Failure to Maintain Control. Her car sustained about $3, 500 damage.

Stuart Fire and Rescue, the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office and Iowa State Patrol assisted at the accident scene.

The Department of Defense today (Tuesday), confirmed earlier reports a southwest Iowa soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom has died during combat operations in Afghanistan. In a news release, the DOD said 19-year old Pfc. Brandon L. Buttry, of Shenandoah, died Nov. 5th, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. Buttry was assigned to 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.  His family was notified of his death Monday morning.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources say Green Valley State Park near Creston, will be closed to the general public Nov. 17-18, for the ninth annual special park deer hunt. The hunt will allow 25 hunters to harvest up to 50 antlerless deer using only muzzleloaders. Hunters have already registered and will receive two antlerless tags each redeemable only during the special hunt at the designated areas and specified dates. Additional DNR staff will be on hand to patrol the park boundaries. Green Valley will re-open to the public on Nov. 19.

Alan Carr, park ranger for Green Valley State Park says “The hunt helps keep the deer population in the park under control. Hunters must attend a special safety meeting before the hunt where we explain the reason for the hunt, discuss the rules and show them the park boundaries.  We hope to harvest as close to 50 female deer as we can and do it in a safe and efficient manner.”  Carr said the hunt has been a great deer management tool for state parks.

“People want to see deer when they come to park, but we need to maintain a balance in the deer herd,” Carr said.  “Research shows that if you stop these hunts completely, the deer population tends to go back up rather quickly so the hunt will probably remain an annual event. The depredation biologist sets number of deer targeted for removal each year that is based on the population survey.”

The average harvest for the two day hunt has been just over 40 deer each year.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A spokesman for the Iowa secretary of state’s office says about 670,000 people voted early, but roughly 68,000 absentee ballots requested by voters hadn’t been turned in by Monday night.  Spokesman Chad Olsen says the number of absentee ballots not submitted sounds like a big number, but the percentage not returned is typical of past elections.    Olsen calls it “nothing new.”

He says Iowa was setting a record for early voting, with up to 45 percent of people voting outside the normal polling place. People with absentee ballots could mail them up until Monday. Such ballots won’t be counted if mailed today, but they can drop off ballots off in person.