Andy Hallman

RIVERSIDE ? The Riverside City Council took a new direction in its effort to improve employee safety. The council unanimously approved a motion to program the phones at city hall to dial 9-1-1 by pressing a single button. At its May 7 meeting, the council approved installing panic buttons in city hall. Councilor Bob Schneider Jr., who was present at the meeting via teleconference, suggested programming the phones ...

Fields in southeast Iowa have been hit hard by root rot in the past month, which will force some farmers to replant their corn. Iowa State University Crop Specialist Jim Fawcett said the problem stems from the hard rain that fell on the area in early May.Fawcett said that farmers who planted corn between April 23 and April 27 are taking the brunt of the root rot. He said a disease known as Pythium is killing the ...

Students in Tim Balvanz?s class don?t mind walking. In fact, they have walked more this year than any year in Balvanz?s career. Balvanz kept track of how many miles his students walked throughout the year, and realized last week that they were approaching a milestone.The 426-member student body had collectively walked almost 20,000 miles. Balvanz saw that if the students kept up their pace, they would walk all ...

The Washington City Council approved the third and final reading of an ordinance Wednesday to allow golf carts on city streets. The vote was 5-1 with councilor Russ Zieglowsky casting the only no vote. Resident John Grover addressed the council about a query he had regarding the golf cart ordinance. Grover said he drives his golf cart down an alley every morning to pick up a newspaper. He was curious to know if ...

Residents of Riverside are being asked to conserve water today (Wednesday). A part that connects the well to the water plant is being replaced, which means no new water is coming from the well and that it is all coming from the storage tank. Deputy City Clerk Teresa Sladek said the part should be replaced later today and that residents can then return to their normal water usage. There is no boil order in effect.

A man has been convicted of burglary, assault and intent to commit sexual abuse for an incident that occurred at a rural Kalona home last fall. Dallas Jay Miller, 23, of Aplington, was convicted by jury of those crimes at the Johnson County Courthouse Thursday. Miller will be sentenced on June 18 at 11 a.m.Miller was accused of breaking into a home in the 2200 block of 500th Street about five miles north of ...

For the second time this month, classes at Washington Junior High School were delayed due to a concern in the family consumer sciences lab.As they arrived at school shortly before 8 a.m. today, students were kept outside after the odor of natural gas was detected coming from the family consumer science lab. Washington Schools Superintendent Mike Jorgensen said he believed that during the incident on May 3 that ...

The Washington County Communications Center may be short tends of thousands of dollars in revenue next year because of a bill that the Iowa legislature passed and which Gov. Terry Branstad signed last week. The bill was Senate File 2332 and was signed into law Wednesday, May 2 and will take effect Jan. 1, 2013.Most notably, the bill limits the monthly landline surcharge a county can impose for 911 equipment to ...

The emergency alert system that sent text messages about the tornado last week has been funded for another year. The future of the Wireless Emergency Notification System (WENS) was in limbo until last week when the Washington County Communications Commission agreed to fund about $4,700 toward the $14,000 project, which means it will last at least another year. Washington County Public Health and the Washington ...

DES MOINES ? A Kalona man has been convicted on four counts of making false claims to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). United States Attorney Nicholas Klinefeldt announced that James Lavon Miller, 62, was convicted of the tax offenses Monday. Miller waived his right to a jury trial and was tried before U.S. District Judge John A. Jarvey.Miller was convicted based on false tax returns he filed in 2008 and 2009 ...

RIVERSIDE ? The Riverside City Council voted to install panic buttons in the staff offices at city hall in response to a phone call the city clerk received last month. The vote, taken during the council?s Monday night meeting, was 3-2 in favor. Councilors Christine Kirkwood, Nate Kasdorf and Kevin Kiene voted yes while councilors Bob Schneider Jr. and Ralph Schnoebelen voted no. Deputy City Clerk Teresa Sladek ...

Two people were pronounced dead at the scene after they were thrown from their motorcycle in a head-on collision with a pickup truck near West Chester Saturday afternoon.The driver of the motorcycle was Ronald D. Rozema, 57, of DeKalb, Ill. and the passenger was Lynn M. Rozema, 55, of DeKalb, Ill. The two occupants of the pickup were transported by ambulance to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics where ...

An accident between a pickup truck and a motorcycle occurred at approximately 4:40 p.m. Saturday on Highway 92 a few miles east of West Chester. The Iowa State Patrol reported the male driver of the motorcycle and his female passenger died in the collision. Their names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. The driver of the pickup was Randall J. Graber of Washington. He and passenger Jerri L. ...

Jia Dong is poised to do something that has never been done in his family. Jia is a senior at Washington High School and will graduate this May. When he does so, he will be the first member of his family to graduate from high school. Jia was born and raised in China. His parents and grandparents did not attend high school because they began working at a young age. ?They didn?t get a chance to go to school when ...

The Washington County Communications Center is facing a significant reduction in revenue pending a bill that is before Gov. Terry Branstad. The bill, Senate File 2332, would limit the monthly landline surcharges for 911 equipment to $1. Washington County?s landline surcharge is $1.50 per month. Washington County Communications Supervisor Cara Sorrells said emergency communications would lose about $30,000 in ...