FALL CAR CARE
ONE-CLASS MEET
With wintry conditions right around the corner, is your car prepared? Get fall car care tips from local experts on pages 8A and 9A of today’s paper. >>
Creston girls cross country places fifth at competitive one-class meet at Atlantic Thursday evening. Boys take 10th overall. Read more in SPORTS, page 1S. >>
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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2014
SWCC board votes for new auditing company By BAILEY POOLMAN
Board terminates auditing contract with Draper, Snodgrass, Mikkelsen and Company because SWCC’s chief financial officer has ownership interest in the company. ■
CNA staff reporter bpoolman@crestonnews.com
Southwestern Community College Board of Directors terminated the contract with the college’s current auditor Draper, Snodgrass, Mikkelsen and Company earlier this week. The board of directors also approved a bid for a contract with a new auditor. During the meeting, the board of directors passed a unanimous motion to terminate the auditing
contract with Draper, Snodgrass, Mikkelsen and Company because Randy Cook, SWCC chief financial officer, has ownership interest in the company. Cook took over the chief financial officer position Sept. 29 when Teresa Krejci took a position as
Drake University’s associate vice president of finance in Des Moines. The board also unanimously approved a bid for the audit services of Denman and Company of Des Moines. The auditing company bid $112,200, a combined total for audits of years ending in 2014, 2015
and 2016. “I contacted one of the finance officers at the other colleges. They gave them a very good, reCook sponsible response,” Cook said. “They felt they worked very good with the college staff, very cooperative with getting in and getting the work done, felt they were really easy to get along with at work, and
Iowa’s tax revenue likely to grow in coming months
high lakes outdoor alliance banquet
CNA photos by JAKE WADDINGHAM
Jammed: People pack into Three Mile Lake Lodge Thursday night for the High Lakes Outdoor Alliance (HLOA) banquet.
Standing room only
DES MOINES (AP) — A panel of state budget experts on Thursday predicted modest growth in Iowa’s tax revenue for the current fiscal year. The Revenue Estimating Conference met to project state revenue. The group predicts net state revenue — made up of taxes and other sources — will come in at just over $6.7 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. That represents a 6.7 percent increase over the previous year and ■ Revenue the growth is expectEstimating ed to continue. The three-memConference ber panel includes predicts Department of Manstate reveagement director David Roederer, nue in Iowa Legislative Services to come in Agency director at just over Holly Lyons and an independent mem$6.7 billion ber, Mason City in current economist David fiscal year, Underwood. They said Iowa’s econwhich ends omy is stable and June 30. growing, noting job gains and rising home prices as positive signs. Still they stressed that there are risks for the state, including that prices for corn and soybeans have dropped, which affects Iowa farmers. They also said that global tumult could impact the world economy. “There seem to be more trouble spots than there have been in some time,” said Roederer. The numbers discussed at the meeting do not have any bearing on the state budget process. The panel will meet again in December to set the revenue projection that the governor must use to craft the next state budget. The Revenue Estimating Conferences was created during budget reforms in the 1990s, and is designed to force the governor, Legislature and an independent economist to all agree on how much the state will collect in taxes and use that as a base for a new state budget.
Right, Zach Ballard with West and Frey Auctioneers calls out a bid at the HLOA auction Thursday night at Three Mile Lake Lodge. More than 280 guests enjoyed a prime rib dinner by Up in Smoke BBQ in Afton plus games, raffle and auction for prizes. HLOA President Doug Jones said the support from all of the donors and the community made it a successful night and the money raised will go toward enhancing outdoor opportunities in Union County.
Liberia lawmakers seek more power to fight Ebola outbreak Liberia has been hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak, recording more than 2,200 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberian lawmakers debated Friday whether to grant President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf more power to restrict movement and public gatherings in the fight against Ebola as one parliamentarian warned that the country could turn into a “police state.” State media said the House of Representatives would convene a special session Friday to discuss the proposed measures outlined in an Oct. 1 letter. The contentious proposals include the power to restrict public gatherings and appropriate property “without payment of any kind or any further judicial process”
■
to combat Ebola. The letter also says Sirleaf can “limit the right to assembly for any reason.” Sirleaf’s government imposed a three-month state of emergency beginning Aug. 6, and a statement warned at the time that this would involve suspending some rights and privileges. The new proposals, however, drew protest as soon as they were read out in a plenary session earlier this month.
A headline in the newspaper Women Voices this week asked: “Tyrannical Times or Ebola Preventive Measures.” “I see a kind of police state creeping in,” said lawmaker Bhofal Chambers, a one-time supporter of Sirleaf who has since joined the opposition camp. In August, a quarantine of the city’s largest shantytown sparked unrest and was derided as counterproductive before being lifted. The Com-
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also were willing to work with the college and staff throughout the year as needed.” Draper, Snodgrass, Mikkelsen and Company cost $36,600 for the 2013-14 audit year, whereas Denman and Company’s first year bid was at $36,900. Williams and Company of Sioux City bid $125,500 for the three combined years. Winkel, Parker and Foster of Clinton bid $141,830 for the three years. McGladrey of Des Moines bid $171,350 for the three years.
mittee to Protect Journalists has accused Sirleaf’s government of trying to silence media outlets criticizing its conduct. On Thursday, Liberian police used batons and rattan whips to disperse 100 protesters speaking out against the proposed new powers. Student activist Benedict B. Williams urged lawmakers not to approve them. “In my view I think the people have the right to assemble,” Williams said. “This is tantamount to dictatorship. The police brutalized people Please see EBOLA, Page 2
SAVE THE DATE the 5th Annual
EXTRAVAGANZA holiday to holiday
Thanksgiving | Christmas | New Years
Monday, October 27, 2014