(Atlantic, IA) – The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education held a regular monthly meeting Wednesday evening (March 11), in the High School Media Center. First-off, the Board received a presentation from Megan Roberts, Cass County Public Health Director, and Grace McAfee, Community Wellness Coordinator in the form of an update on the Community Health Assessment. The three top priorities coming from that Assessment were: The County cancer rates; Healthy and Active living; and Mental Health priorities. Roberts said that is still the number one priority for Cass County, based on that feedback.

Grace McAfee addressed the issue of mental health as it pertains to schools in the County, especially with regard to suicide prevention.

Hope Squad Advisors trained the students on what to look out for as far as their fellow students who are struggling with life’s issues. The program is funded for up to three-years, and will be re-evaluated afterward to see if the program is still beneficial to students or if there is something new that might be more effective.

Grace McAfee (Left) and Megan Roberts (Right) speak with the Atlantic School Board March 11, 2026.

They also heard from Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen, who spoke about a new, two-year Iowa Western Community College Precision Ag program that will be offered to students this fall, at IWCC’s campus in Atlantic. The idea came about in discussions with IWCC President Dr. Dan Kinney, following passage of a bond to improve Iowa Western’s various campus facilities.

The classes will be offered to the general public as well, not just high school students.

The Board approved their Consent Agenda items, which included the resignation (effective at the end of the current school year) of Megan Andersen – High School Para-educator. And, they approved Recommendations to Hire: Roger Warne – Asst. Track Coach; Mark Andersen – Boys Asst. Soccer Coach; Bryce Casey – JV Baseball Coach, and the transfer of Faye Dreyer to Title 1 Math position for the 2026-27 School Year.

Atlantic Community School District Superintendent Beth Johnsen.

Other, action items that met with the Board’s approval, included:

• Out-of-State travel requests
• An FY27 Cooperative Purchasing – Nutrition Agreement
• FY27 Technology Bids (as presented by Technology Director Roger Warne)
• An FY27 Green Hills AEA Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU)
• A Budget Guarantee Resolution, and,
• They set date for the Second Public Hearing on the ACSD FY27 Budget as April 8th at 6-p.m.; The First Budget Hearing, and that of the School Master Calendar, will be held March 25th at 6-p.m., in the High School Media Center.

And, District Technology Director Roger Warne discussed projects that include an update and expansion of all of the District’s WiFi access points.

Another project is with regard to the fiber optic line from the Middle School to the Schuler and Washington Schools.

New fiber optic lines will be run between the buildings. Warne also mentioned replacing the District’s system of cameras. The current cameras will be used in other places where there currently are no cameras. As mentioned above, the Board approved the purchases and costs associated with those projects.

(Atlantic, IA) – Atlantic Mayor Rob Clausen, Wednesday evening (March 11), issued the Oath of Office to Atlantic’s new City Clerk, Jackie Carl. Here’s a portion of that Oath….

As previously mentioned, Jackie Carl has 21-years of City Clerk experience, having served Moville from 2005-to 2016, and Carter Lake from 2016-to 2026. Last month she accepted a conditional offer of employment, with a FY 2026 salary of $80,000. She will also be credited with 40-hours of vacation time upon hire. Jackie Carl succeeds Laura McLane, who resigned to move with her husband to eastern Iowa. Rich Tupper has been serving as the Acting City Clerk while the full-time position was vacant.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council, during their regular meeting, approved a pay application in the amount of $48,130 to TK Concrete, for the West 22^nd Street Improvement Project.

The City Council awarded the West 22nd Street Improvements Project contract to TK Concrete of Council Bluff’s for $1,421,207.75. There have been no change orders to the project, so the original contract price of $1,421,207.75 remains the total amount to be paid to TK Concrete. This pay application of $48,130.00 will bring the total amount paid for the project to $1,110,957.75, leaving $262,120.00 to be paid to TK Concrete to complete the contract.

City Engineer Dave Sturm updated the status of the project.

He said they’re expecting to wrap-up the work sometime in April. The Council passed a Resolution “Establishing Signatories to City Checks and Payables.” The official signatories include:

Mayor Rob Clausen

City Administrator John Lund

City Clerk Jackie Carl

Deputy City Clerk Rich Tupper, and

City Coordinator Amanda McEntaffer.

(Radio Iowa) – Many areas of the state got a quick taste of snow this (Wednesday) morning, and now the forecast is calling heavy winds to blow in. National Weather Service Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff says the snow accumulations were around an inch in most areas. “The most remarkable thing really was how quickly it fell and then disappeared. We went through kind of a six hour period where we went from no snow to an inch of snow and back to no snow again,” she says.

Hagenhoff says whatever moisture we got from the snow is going to soon be blown away. “We’re looking at wind gusts between 35 to 45 mile per hour during the daytime on Thursday,” she says. “And we actually have a red flag warning out for those winds along with dry conditions. And so we’re worried about any burning that could happen tomorrow.” Hagenhoff says the winds will have some staying power Thursday.

As we move later in the day, we’re actually expecting winds to continue to increase and switch direction. And so overnight, they’ll transition to out of the northwest and increase. We’re expecting wind gusts from 50 to 60 mph possible late Thursday night through Friday morning,” Hagenhoff says. It might seem like the snow that came and melted would keep things from being dry, but she says the winds are going to take care of the moisture left behind.

“The wind as it starts to increase kind of through this evening and gradually increase into the day on Friday or on Thursday should be able to dry out those fuels pretty quickly,” she says. “We’re also looking at the relative humidity on Thursday is going to be between 20 to 30 So very low across the area, which will help to dry out fuels and create just dry air conditions.”

She says two areas of the state are at the greatest risk for fire issues. “Mainly western and southwestern Iowa are the largest concerns. We could certainly see those conditions start to creep towards central Iowa and further east, kind of across into southeast Iowa. But certainly western Iowa is going to see the driest conditions,” she says.

The red flag warning advises against any outside burning due to the dry, windy conditions.

(Radio Iowa) – A move to raise the speed limit to 60 on Iowa highways where the posted speed is 55 has passed another hurdle in the statehouse. The bill cleared the Iowa Senate in March of last year and a House subcommittee advanced it this (Wednesday) afternoon. Representative Megan Jones of Spirit Lake says there’s a lot of interest among House Republicans in passing a bill to hike the speed limit.

“And the senate, certainly, in sending it over send us a message that they’re interested in increasing the speed limit,” Jones said, “and so I think we need to have this conversation on a bigger level and make sure that Iowans know that we’re at least entertaining the conversation.” The Iowa Department of Public Safety is registered on the legislature’s website as undecided on the bill, but Josie Wagler — the department’s legislative liaison — suggested a recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety could be a warning sign.

“Their analysis of 25 years of changes showed that each 5 mile per hour increase in the maximum state speed limit was associated with an 8% increase in fatality rates,” Wagler said. “So if that 8% increase were to be applied to Iowa’s fatality county from last year that would be about 20 additional fatalities.” The number of traffic deaths in Iowa last year was the lowest in a century.

Representative Jones, who is chair of the House Transportation Committee, says it seems like Iowans are doing the right things when it comes to highway safety.”And so if we can continue to be mindful of the things that keep us safe on the roads, then maybe we can increase the speed limit and get us there a little bit faster.”

The State Police Officers Council opposes increasing the speed limit on Iowa highways. The speed limits on the interstates that run through Iowa were raised to 70 in 2005.

(Atlantic, IA) – The Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce is excited to announce the return of Girls Gettin’ Out, happening Friday and Saturday, April 10–11, in Atlantic.

This popular spring shopping event invites women from across the region to grab their friends and spend a day in Atlantic enjoying shopping, dining, and fun experiences at local businesses. Participating retailers and businesses will offer special promotions, giveaways, and in-store activities throughout the weekend.

Adding even more excitement, Atlantic’s city-wide garage sales will also take place the same weekend, creating the perfect opportunity for a full Girls Day in Atlantic. While the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce does not organize the garage sales, pairing the two events gives visitors even more reasons to explore the community and search for great deals.

“Girls Gettin’ Out has become a fun tradition for Atlantic and a great way to showcase our local businesses,” said Kelsey Beschorner, Executive Director of the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce. “It’s the perfect opportunity to shake off the winter blues, grab your girlfriends, and spend the day shopping, dining, and enjoying everything Atlantic has to offer.”

The Chamber is also planning a new interactive promotion for this year’s event that will encourage shoppers to visit multiple businesses throughout town while competing for a special Girls Day Out prize basket.

More details about the event, including participating businesses and special promotions, will be announced in the coming weeks.

For updates, follow the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce on social media or visit www.atlanticiowa.com.

(Des Moines, Iowa, March 11, 2026) – U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development’s Iowa State Director Michael Sexton today participated in a groundbreaking ceremony at the worksite for Guthrie County Hospital’s expansion and renovation. Last August, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the Department would lend the hospital $37 million through the Community Facilities Direct Loans and Guaranteed Loans program to help make the project possible.

“This critical project is going to have a direct and positive impact on the health and safety of Iowans in Guthrie County and surrounding counties,” said Sexton. “Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Rollins, USDA is making good on our commitment to infrastructure and support for healthcare in rural Iowa.”

The Community Facilities Direct Loans and Guaranteed Loans program provides affordable funding to develop essential community facilities in rural areas. The funding here will support:

• A 16,000 square foot addition to include a behavioral health room in the ER, an MRI room, exam rooms, and lab space
• Updates to the nurse call technology, new digital master and area alarm panels, and new sleep ventilators
• A fire suppression system for the ambulance garage
• Renovations to the dining hall and kitchen

(Atlantic, IA) – The Cass County Auditor’s Office is providing details with regard to the Atlantic Community School District special election that will be held in Cass County (IA) on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Election Day Voting:
Pre-registered voters must provide an approved form of identification at the polling place to receive and cast a ballot.
Approved forms of identification include Iowa driver’s license or non-operator identification card, U.S. Passport, U.S.
military or veteran’s identification, tribal identification/document, or an Iowa voter identification card with PIN number.
Voters who are not pre-registered, such as those registering on Election Day or changing precincts, must provide proof of
identity and residence using Election Day Registration documents.

If a voter cannot provide these, they may:
• Have a registered voter from their precinct attest to their identity and residence, or
• Cast a provisional ballot and bring the required proof of identity and residence to the Cass County Auditor’s Office
by 12:00 PM on April 2, 2026.
A list of Election Day Registration documents may be found at https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/voterinformation/edr.html.

Absentee Voting
• In-person-absentee voting will take place at the Cass County auditor’s office 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. March 18 – 30,
2026 with extended hours of 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 27, 2026.
• Those wishing to vote by mail must submit an absentee ballot request form to the county auditor’s office by 5:00
p.m., March 16, 2026.
o Request forms are available at sos.iowa.gov/elections/electioninfo/absenteeinfo.html or at the county
auditor’s office.
o Absentee ballots must be returned to the county auditor’s office by 8:00 p.m. on election night.
• Absentee and special-voter ballots will be counted at the county auditor’s office on Election Day.

Accessibility
Any voter who is physically unable to enter a polling place has the right to vote in the voter’s vehicle. For more information,
contact the county auditor’s office at 712-243-4570, or email auditor@casscoia.us. For TTY access, dial 711 + 712-243-4570.

Election Security and Audit
• Voting equipment will be used to tabulate the election results.
• The public test of election equipment will be held Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. in the courthouse.

Sample Ballots
May be viewed on the County’s website: https://www.casscountyia.gov/county-government/elections/special-elections/.

Precincts and Polling Locations – precincts with a temporary polling place change are indicated with an asterisk (*)
• Atlantic Ward 1………………………………………………………………………………………..Zion Lutheran Church (811 Oak St)
• Atlantic Ward 2……………………………………………………………………………………Atlantic Public Library (507 Poplar St)
• Atlantic Ward 3…………………………………………………………………….Cass County Community Building (805 W 10th St)
• Atlantic Ward 4………………………………………………………………………………….United Church of Christ (1607 Hazel St)
• Atlantic Ward 5……………………………………………………………………………….Heritage House (1200 Brookridge Circle)
• Bear Grove & Cass Twps*……………………………………………………..Cass County Community Building (805 W 10th St)
• Benton & Franklin Twps, City of Wiota*……………………………………………………. Zion Lutheran Church (811 Oak St)
• Brighton, Grove, Pymosa, Washington Twps, City of Marne………Cass County Community Building (805 W 10th St)
• Audubon County Atlantic School District Voters*………….……………………….………. Zion Lutheran Church (811 Oak St)
• Pottawattamie County Atlantic School District Voters*………….… Cass County Community Building (805 W 10th St)

Candidates
Atlantic School Director – At-Large – To Fill Vacancy – Vote for 1
Jordan Zarbano
Chase B. Roller
Dianna Blake

Public Measures
There will be no public measures on the ballot.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican U-S Senate candidate Ashley Hinson has submitted over 15-thousand petition signatures to qualify for the 2026 G-O-P Primary ballot.  “We’ve really built a movement of people who are sick and tired of the way Washington, D.C.’s chaos and dysfunction has been running and who will not rest until our nation’s capitol runs a whole lot more like Iowa,” Hinson said. Hinson, a former T-V journalist, served two terms in the Iowa House and she’s been a member of the U.S. House since 2021. Hinson announced her campaign for the U.S. Senate a few hours after Iowa Senator Joni Ernst said she would not seek reelection. Hinson says over the past six month she’s built a coalition that will be an asset to other Republican candidates in the fall election.

“This is Ashley’s Army of pepole who are going to be out telling that story, just like I will be as top-of-ticket and working with our colleagues up and down the ballot to continue to share the contrast of our vision for the state and the country and what those on the other side of the aisle are proposing.” During an appearance early this (Wednesday) morning at the Westside Conservative Club, Hinson said she’s held events in 65 of Iowa’s 99 counties so far to hear what Iowans are concerned about. “They are making sure we have a safe country, making sure we have a secure border and we’re deporting these dangerous illegals out of our communities,” Hinson said. “We all saw what happened in M with some of these thugs that they have arrested and deported. Some of those very people are hiding in Iowa. We need to do everything we can to deport the dangerous illegals from our communities.”

Hinson says Iowans tell her their other priorities are ensuring only girls participate in girls’ sports, standing up for farmers, protecting Social Security and Medicare — but first and foremost, protecting taxpayers. A man in the crowd asked why Republicans in congress don’t stick together like Democrats do. “Trust me. I look forward to serving in the Senate because there’s a little less chaos over there than there is in the House and frankly I went to Washington to get things done and I find it frustrating when we have some obstructionists (for whom) good is the enemy of perfect,” Hinson said. “I will always vote for the most conservative bill we can get consensus on. That has always been my philosophy.”

Republican Jim Carlin of Sergeant Bluff has also been campaigning for the U.S. Senate, however Hinson has been endorsed by President Trump and has raised far more money for her race. Two candidates are competing in the June 2nd primary for the Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate.

(Radio Iowa) – Zach Wahls of Coralville — one of two Democrats running for the U.S. Senate — says 10-thousand people signed his nominating petitions for the Primary ballot — and 15 percent of them are registered Republican or independent voters. “I think it’s a good example of the coalition that we are building as we’ve been traveling across Iowa,” Wahls says. “A lot of the issues that we’re facing are not just Democrat versus Republican or left versus right. They’re about bottom versus top and Iowans trying to put our state first rather than just the status quo out in Washington.” Wahls says he’s done 250 campaign events in 66 of Iowa’s 99 counties — and voters tell him they’re most concerned about the economy.

“We’re hearing a lot of concern right now about the war in Iran and the impact that’s going to have on costs, whether it’s gasoline, diesel, fertilizer and a lot more,” Wahls said. “It’s time for us to have someone in the Senate who is going to fight for us and not just toe the party line.” Wahls started his campaign last June, a few months before Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican, announced she would not seek reelection. “Everywhere we’ve gone, whether we’re in big cities, small towns, rural communities, there’s a lot of excitement at the prospect of real change in the United States Senate,” Wahls said. “People understand that we have an economy right now that’s working great for Elon Musk and the billionaires but so many Iowans — working class Iowans, middle class Iowans, retired Iowans — are really struggling with what’s going on right now.”

Wahls was first elected to the Iowa Senate in 2019 and reelected in 2022. ) “I’m really proud to have represented small town and rural Iowa, to have won elections in swing counties like Cedar County and Muscatine County,” Wahls said, “and I think that the lessons that I learned from representing those communities is it’s really important for Democrats to show up, to listen, to have a positive vision for the future of small town and rural Iowa.” Wahls spoke with reporters in the Iowa Capitol’s rotunda this (Wednesday) morning.

Josh Turek, a member of the Iowa House, is also running for the Democratic Party’s U.S. Senate nomination, but has not yet filed the paperwork to get his name on the June 2nd Primary ballot. Friday at 5 p.m. is the deadline for federal and state candidates to submit nominating petitions for this year’s Republican and Democratic Party Primaries.

(Radio Iowa) – Administrators at the Iowa Department of Transportation says they are cutting the budget for the next fiscal year in part with savings in building construction and equipment. The D-O-T’s Melissa Gillette says the big construction project is a new maintenance garage in Alton in Sioux County. “The newest sections of the Alton garage were constructed in the 1970s, but the oldest were constructed in the 1940s. So of course, our equipment has changed,” she says. Gillette told the Transportation Commission the new garage will provide much more space.

“This will allow us to expand into 12 maintenance bays and two wash bays, appropriately sized, as you can see there, rebuilding on land that we already own, “Gillette says. “And simply we have outgrown what our older facilities were designed to accommodate. And so this is a 13 million dollar recommended budget for the replacement of the Alton garage.” She says the budget is four-point-nine million dollars less than the last new garage the D-O-T built. Gillette says they are making some changes that will allow the D-O-T to save million of dollars in the budget for the equipment that is maintained at the state garages. “That includes leasing tractors versus owning. So we’ve identified a significant savings and positive return on investment by making this choice. And so this is something that our teams have been working toward for some time,” she says.

Gillette says they started looking at their plow configurations after the pandemic and have dramatically reduced them to help save costs.  “We, of course, like everyone else, had supply chain issues and were struggling to receive our plow trucks on time. And so the team work together to identify an opportunity to streamline and standardize those configurations,” Gillette says. “We had 55 separate different configurations that we were sending out to outfitters, and we were able to reduce that and standardize that to five.” She says the has helped with the supply chain issues as they don’t need as many different types of truck setups. Gillette says they cut 33 light vehicles from their fleet and the total equipment savings will be 14-point-six million dollars.