Bruce Braley, who lead opponant Mike Whalen by 29 points in late polls, easily surpassed Whalen with 54.68% of votes cast, Whalen received only 43.6% of the votes. Braley will take over the spot Nussle vacated when he chose to run for governor.

Michael Mauro won the office of Secretary of State over Mary Ann Hanusa, 53.54% to 46.46%.
Bill Northey squeaked past Denise O’Brien by receiving 51.9% of the votes, compared to O’Brien’s 48.1%

In local elections, Joe Cruise retained his District 3 Jones County Board of Supervisors seat, over Ivan Eden. Cruise came out with 56.17% of the vote, or 4,081 votes, and Eden picked up 43.78% with 3,181 votes cast in his name.

Jones County residents also voted to keep the School Infrastructure Local Option (SILO) tax, with 55.29% of the votes in favor of the measure. Since the measure passed, all schools in the county will benefit from the SILO tax, which was developed in 1998 to help school’s with repairs, renovations and bond repayment. For example, the current SILO tax has enabled the Anamosa Community School District to pay bonds back early, saving the district $820,000 in interest.

The candidates for Auditor of State, Treasurer of State, Attorney General, State Representative, 31st District, Jones County Board of Supervisors District 4, County Treasurer, County Attorney and County Recorder all ran unopposed.

Voter turnout was heavy, as expected, and in Jones County 54.33% of voters turned up to cast thier votes. Poll workers said lines formed at the polls on several occasions, despite the fact that several polling booths were available at all the precincts.

All results are unofficial. For a complete list of results, visit the Iowa Secretary of State website at www.sos.state.ia.us

The Anamosa Police Department’s (APD) newest officer has already earned his keep. Lucky, a canine officer that’s partnered with officer Dave Riches, officially became part of the force on October 21. In that short time the dog has found narcotics on three occasions.

“It’s been going great. I love having him as a partner and he’s fitting in good with the department–everyone loves him.” Riches praised.

After a nearly three-week training session in October, Riches had learned the commands and become certified in narcotics searches.

The pair will go to annual training and must be recertified each year. The training is offered free from the kennel that raised Lucky. In addition to searching for narcotics, Lucky is trained to conduct building and area searches, tracking and apprehension.

“There’s been so many times when we’ve needed to have a dog, but Jeff Swisher (Jones County Deputy Sheriff) and his dog (Nitro) were tied up,” Riches explained, saying his normal shift is at night. “I’m on call if they need me.”

Anamosa Police Chief Matt Menard agreed.

“Having one (canine officer) in the city will give availability to the dog at all times. The county shouldn’t have to pay a deputy to perform services for the city,” he said.

Lucky, originally from Poland, was acquired through a grant that Menard applied for earlier in the year. The dog and training were free, but the police department is responsible for equipping and caring for the dog. Money previously donated to the Police Department’s for the purchase of a dog, will now be used for maintenance of the animal.

“One of the details for the grant is that we must keep the dog for at least five years,” Menard included.

He feels the presence of the dog in the city will serve as a as a deterrent as well.

The Anamosa Community School District meeting began with two celebratory items on Monday night. West Middle School’s 8th grade Reading was recognized by the Iowa Association of School Board (IASB) for Breaking Barriers in Reading; improving by 15% in one year.

Joan Coons attributes WMS success in reading programs by the use of two iniatives:

a. Guided study program with school wide interventions
b. QAR questions and relationships in reading techniques

AHS Principal, Steve Goodall addressed the board with the good news about AHS being chosen to receive the Model School Project Grant. Goodall responded to questions, which served as an application for the grant.

This grant is a three-year commitment with a chance for Anamosa to go from a promising school to an improved school. Through the grant AHS received seven free registrations for the High School Summit in Des Moines and seven free registrations for a national conference in Washington, DC in June.

Jennifer Husmann Alcohol Reduction Project Coordinator updated the board on data from the beginning of the third year of the grant project. Husmann summarized the results from the 2006 Iowa Youth Survey and also gave updates on the CMCA project.

Amy Halvorsen shared the LRP program events and project results as well as an extraordinary video of an LRP (Leadership & Resilency Program) student reaching a goal of climbing a 40 foot pole. Halverson encouraged the board to continue to support the LRP program as it’s work has longstanding affects on the children in the program.

Steve Goodall presented a report to the District on Co-Teaching. He showed a brief overview, a slide show created by AHS Art Class students on the six styles of collaborative team teaching.
This program helps teachers in the classroom, uses the No Child Left Behind requirements and meets the needs of special needs students regular needs students.

Goodall also reported to the district on ACT Test Scoring trends since 2002, the impact of core (classes) versus non-core (classes) on ACT scores and recommendations given by the ACT report on how to improve ACT scores. The Anamosa Schools Foundation has purchased an online ACT version for real-time testing and prep for Anamosa students. Goodall is working on getting the ACT online readiness information out to parents & students.

Anamosa Superintendent Dr. Dale Monroe discussed the School Budget Review Committee application report with the board. This report is regarding the increased certified enrollment in the district. The district has the opportunity to receive an on-time funding budget adjustment up to 100% of the enrollment increase by making a request to the SBRC. The board approved the application report.

Also approved on Monday eveningwas a fundraiser request from the International Club of AHS to sell Dairy Queen ice cream bars to help fund French/Spanish field trips (Domestic not International).

Personnel appointments & adjustments approved are as follows:

• Hiring of Abby Smith as WMS Paraeducator/Special Education Student, effective 11/7/06.
• Hiring of Daniel Adams as Volunteer Asst. Wrestling Coach, effective practice begin date.
• Hiring of Kris May and Jim May as HS Speech Coach, effective immediately.
• Resignation of Dennis Christianson as 7th grade Football Coach, effective immediately.
• Resignation of Chris O’Shea as JV Basketball Coach, effective immediately.

A combined effort on the part of Monroe and Strawberry Hill Principal Reona Ewlad regarding the Preschool report was well received by the district board. Ewald was positive in the advantage of the integration of the preschool program and early childhood program. Monroe shared some ideas to consider regarding costs of the programs, current and future funding, and ways to increase enrollment while maintaining optimal class sizes.

Discussion became heavy in the room when the community forum information was item was reached on the agenda. Monroe asked the board members three questions.

1.) Do We feel like the people that attended the Forum were representative of our community?

2.) Are we satisfied with the questions and the dialogue that occurred?

3.) Other than the questions about State-owned property, what other questions or data do we need to collect prior to the decision about land and type of building?

Monroe and Anamosa School Board President Jim Mitchel are meeting with State officials on November 7 to discuss the possibility of state owned land available for purchase or as a gift to the district.

Several board members wanted to talk about preliminary dollar figures prior to making a decision on which piece of property as there are concerns of the cost of land acquisition, dirt moving, safety, design & building costs. After much discussion a straw poll was taken (A straw poll is an informal type of voting where the results are just to gauge opinion, not a valid vote) as the item was not on the meeting agenda. The opinion heavily leans towards a new high school and the next agenda will be afforded to the land acquisition and the discussion of the new building and costs associated with the planning stages. Doug DuCharme of Shive-Hattery will be invited to that meeting.

The meeting adjourned after taking note that January 2007 will have one district meeting as the first Monday of January is New Years Day.