A juvenile has been arrested in an investigation into shots fired west of Washington. Last Thursday at about 9:30 pm Washington law enforcement authorities received a report from a resident on Kiwi Avenue saying they’d heard what sounded like two or three gunshots when a vehicle stopped in front of their home. A Washington County Sheriff’s deputy located the vehicle at North 12th Avenue and East 2nd Street. As a result of the investigation the juvenile has been charged with “person ineligible to carry a dangerous weapon,” possession or purchase of alcohol by person under 18, assault while displaying a dangerous weapon, reckless use of a firearm, two counts of a minor armed with a dangerous weapon, and second-degree harassment.
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The Van Buren County School Board met in special session last week and voted to build a new activity center. The center is estimated to cost approximately 6 million dollars. The money will be borrowed against SAVE, the 1% state sales tax fund. This means the project will not impact property taxes. The activity center will be an addition to the existing school building. It will include a second gymnasium, a new wrestling room, 2 classrooms, an area for batting cages and turfed flooring for athletic practices, 2 restrooms and an office with a meeting room. Carl A Nelson and Company will be the project manager. S.V.P.A. will lead the architecture and design team. The project will begin late this summer and is expected to be finished by August of 2023.
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The Mt. Pleasant Municipal Utilities will be starting an underground electric replacement project in the area of Old Orchard and Baker Streets. Customers are being notified with a notice on their door or in their mail box. This project will take several months. During this time scheduled outages will take place and customers will be notified a couple days prior to any scheduled outage. The Utilities apologizes for any inconvenience during this time. For questions or concerns, please call MPMU at 319-385-2121 day or night.
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April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Region 7, that includes Iowa, is working with law enforcement agencies to ramp up enforcement of distracted-driving laws to raise awareness about the dangers of using your phone while driving. This annual campaign is part of a national high-visibility enforcement effort that runs from April 7 – 11. Between 2012 and 2019, 26,004 people died in crashes involving a distracted driver. In fact, there were 3,142 people killed in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in 2019 alone. This represents a 10% increase in distracted driving fatalities from 2018. The distraction figure was the largest increase in causes of traffic deaths reported for 2019.
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The Fellowship Cup in Mount Pleasant will be starting up the weekly Wednesday Community meal. Small groups of three to six individuals are needed to cook, serve and clean up after the meal is served. The meal begins at 11 am. The time involved would be from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. If you or your group would like to help please contact the Fellowship Cup at 319-385-3242.