A Creston teenager’s charged with a felony after fast work by cops solved a bomb threat Thursday at the local high school. Union County Attorney Tim Kenyon says a routine fire-safety check was going on so the local emergency-response leader was already at the school. He says it was handled as “kind of a test matter” and the school was evacuated for a time.

The officials determined there was no explosive device in the school, and took a 16-year-old into custody. Kenyon wouldn’t say exactly what the bomb threat consisted of. He says the paper found in the school indicated a threat. Kenyon praises school officials for how they handled the incident, as well as law enforcement, the juvenile-court office, and the department of human services for their coordination.

Kenyon says a school liaison officer also helped coordinate the administration with outside agencies working on the case. Kenyon says officials treated the bomb threat as a serious concern but says there’s no more threat to safety now the matter’s been addressed and the teen’s in custody. Parent-teacher conferences were scheduled later in the day and classes were due to let out at noon anyway, so students left after the evacuation.

Today (Friday) is the start of the school’s spring break. The charge against the 16-year-old is making a bomb threat, a felony in Iowa. The teen is identified as Patrick Baker of Creston.