The Shelby County Emergency Management Agency reports part of Hazel Road will be closed beginning today (Tuesday). The 2100th block of Hazel Road is closed due to a bridge repair just south of 2117 Hazel Road in Union Township between sections 20 and 21. The repair will take approximately 4 weeks to complete, weather permitting.

The Shelby County EMA says addresses in the 2100 block will only be accessible from the north. Addresses in the 2000 block will be accessible from the south. The bridge repair will impact the Earling area. Emergency crews should plan to take alternate routes when responding to nearby residences. If you have questions, contact the Shelby County Engineer’s Office at 712-755-5954.

In a followup to our story last week about a shooting incident near Grant, authorities say a Cumberland man was cited for reckless use of a firearm, and public intoxication. According to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, 31-year old Danny Shannon was cited for his role in the incident which took place during the late night hours of July 18th.

Several law enforcement agencies responded to the scene, after receiving reports of a man shooting a gun from a bridge and threatening to take his own life. Shannon was eventually apprehended at his residence near the bridge, and brought to the Cass County Memorial Hospital for evaluation. At the time, Sheriff Darby McLaren said no charges had been filed.

The Audubon City Council has passed a resolution authorizing an amendment to a loan and disbursement agreement between the City and the Iowa Finance Authority. City Clerk Lora Hansen told KJAN News the agreement allows the City to reissue more than 2-million dollars in Sewer Revenue Capital Loan Notes (Series 2002), and take advantage of a lower interest rate from the IFA.

The Council also heard from Peggy Toft, with the Exira Community Club, with regard to a proposal for a Community Development Plan that would incorporate all the communities in Audubon County. The idea is for the County and its communities to contribute financially to the plan. No action was taken on the proposal during Monday evening’s meeting.

The Council did however, approve requests from the Audubon Chamber of Commerce pertaining to the T-Bone Celebration that takes place during the first Saturday in August. The request included moving picnic tables from the various city parks to the main City Park, approval of the parade route and related street closings, and the use of folding tables, sandbags and trash cans, as needed.

In other business, Tyler Thygesen provided the Council with a report on the flushing of the City’s water mains, and fire hydrants that are in need of repair or replacement.

w/ Ric Hanson

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• 2/3 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons EVOO
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 head romaine, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 large cucumber, halved lengthwise, seeded and sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 cup red grapes, halved
• Zest of 1 lemon, plus 3 tablespoons juice
• Salt and pepper

Preheat a grill or grill pan to medium high.  In a small bowl, mix buttermilk, EVOO, thyme, lemon zest and juice; season with salt and pepper.  In a medium bowl, toss the chicken with half the buttermilk mixture.  Thread chicken onto 8 skewers.  Grill, turning frequently, until cooked through and browned in spots, 13 to 15 minutes.  In a large bowl, toss together the romaine, cucumber, onion and grapes.  Drizlle with the remaining buttermilk mixture, season.  Serve the salad with the kebabs.

w/ Ric Hanson

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High winds, heavy rain and hail walloped parts of Iowa last night as a cold front pushed out the extreme heat. Meteorologist Rod Donovan, at the National Weather Service, says the biggest hail fell in north-central Iowa.The Clarion area reported two-inch diameter hail, as did Boone, with smaller hailstones the size of golf balls reported in Garner.

Some areas had tree damage with winds gusting to 65 miles an hour. In the KJAN listening area, quarter-sized hail was reported by spotters in Guthrie Center just after 9-p.m. Quarter-sized hail and winds of 40-50mph occurred near Bagley, in Guthrie County, at around 8:30-p.m. A few minutes earlier, nickel-to quarter-size hail fell in Avoca. Quarter-sized hail also fell at around 8:10-p.m., three-miles northeast of Shelby. Half-dollar-sized hail fell at around 7:20-p.m. four miles South of Missouri Valley in Pottawattamie Co., and quarter-to half-dollar sized hail fell at around 7:10-p.m., one-mile south of Missouri Valley, in Harrison Co.

Donovan says the storm front is leaving behind weather that’s much cooler that it was a year ago. The forecast is for highs in the 70s and 80s for the next several days with another cold front expected by the weekend, keeping highs only in the 70s. Last night’s severe storms forced the cancellation of a host of planned events in Perry for the thousands of overnight visitors on RAGBRAI, who head for Des Moines today.

(Radio Iowa/KJAN – Ric Hanson)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – An Omaha man who aimed a laser point at a jetliner and police helicopter has been given two years in federal prison. 30-year-old Michael Smith was sentenced on Monday.

Prosecutors say a Southwest Airlines pilot reported that a laser pointer was aimed into his cockpit as the airliner was landing at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield on the morning of July 11, 2012. A police helicopter responded, and it, too, was targeted several times by a laser pointer. The pilot of the helicopter reported that he was temporarily blinded by the laser beam.

A Douglas County sheriff’s deputy testified that he found Smith in his backyard, pointing the laser at aircraft.

Sheriff’s officials in Page County say a Nebraska man was injured during a two-vehicle crash late Monday morning, southeast of Shenandoah.  Douglas E. Metcalf, of Waverly, NE, suffered incapacitating injuries, and was flown by helicopter to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, following the crash, which happened at around 11:30-a.m., near the intersection of Highway 2 and E Avenue. The driver of the other vehicle, 43-year old Steve Allen Harris, of Shenandoah, was not injured.

Officials say Harris was northbound on E Avenue at the intersection of Highway 2, and failed to notice an eastbound motorcycle driven by  Metcalf. When Harris’ vehicle pulled into the path of the cycle, the bike clipped the left front bumper of Harris’ vehicle. The motorcycle went out of control across Highway 2 and tipped over, tossing Metcalf off. The bike came to rest on it’s left side, on the north shoulder of Highway 2.

The accident remains under investigation.

Rain fell in parts of Iowa this weekend providing some much needed moisture to Iowa corn and soybean fields, but the showers were isolated, for soil that has been drying back out. Iowa State Extension Agronomist Clark McGrath covers the counties from Carroll to the Missouri border. He says it’s dry, but conditions are better than last year.  “Last year at this time, it was entire fields, and this year, luckily, it’s portions of fields. So, yeah, we could us moisture,” McGrath says. “But after talking to people from across the state — actually RAGBRAI just came through and I talked to farmers from southeast Iowa and east-central Iowa — and they said that they felt like southwest Iowa here was some of the best stuff they’d seen, and I kinda agree with that.”

Joel DeJong is another extension agronomist who covers nine-western-Iowa counties from Sibley to Missouri Valley. He says the rain is important as the corn crop hits a critical stage.
“We’re entering that time period when it’s the most critical time period. It’s at pollination where we really determine where how many kernels we end up with on those ears. The next five weeks after that, it’s kernel fill, but the next four weeks determines what our ultimate potential is,” Dejong explains. “And so, if we can’t get rainfall we would like to bring our average daily temperatures down into that highs into the lower to mid-80s rather than the lower to mid 90s because, that drops daily moisture demand almost in half.”

Dejong says the crops are showing moisture stress. “We haven’t had but a half inch of rain in the last three, four weeks, so we’re starting to see more and more on a daily basis, those plants curling, particularly in the corn fields — and in the lighter soils — the corn is basically turning white,” according to DeJong. He says the plants need an inch of rain daily at this stage of their growth.

(Radio Iowa)