The county secondary roads department has applied for a building permit to put a hoop building on property it purchased in Scranton, county engineer Wade Weiss reported to the county supervisors Monday.
The property is located on S. Kendrick St just south of Elm St. The secondary roads crew earlier this summer finished demolition of a house that had been gutted by arson years ago and cleared out junk metal and vehicles from the property.
The building will be a 60’ X 135’ hoop building and comes at a cost of $98,000. It will be used for storage, in part to replace storage space lost when the county sold the former armory to Greene County Schools for use as a transportation facility. The school district paid $250,000 for the armory.
Weiss has plans for a larger facility to replace the county’s Jefferson shop. When the Scranton property became available he saw it as a location for a temporary facility until the eventual construction of the new Jefferson building.
Weiss has also suggested the Scranton property could be a location for a new shop to replace the Scranton shop, a former Department of Transportation building. It needs to be replaced, but that is in the far future, Weiss has said.
Also at the meeting, a public hearing was held on an expansion of Skalla Farm Site on G Ave in Section 24 of Scranton Township. Skalla and five other persons were at the hearing, which lasted only four minutes. No comments were offered.
The 101’ X 213’ building will have an 8’ manure pit. It will be to the west of a building already on the site. The proposed CAFO scored 480 points on the Iowa Department of Natural Resource’s master matrix, with 440 needed for approval.
Skalla feeds hogs for Cactus Family Farms of Webster City, formerly Swine Graphics Enterprises. Cactus Family Farms is part of Cactus Feeders of Amarillo, TX.
Only three supervisors were in attendance – John Muir, Tom Contner and Mick Burkett. They voted to recommend approval by the DNR of the construction permit.
Greene County sheriff Jack Williams reported that Verizon Wireless has contacted him about replacing the radio tower atop the law enforcement with a cellular tower. The proposed tower would be 40 feet taller than the existing tower. Verizon will pay “rent” for the roof space. Williams said a price had not been discussed, but that Carroll County receives $3,000 per year for a similar tower.
Jefferson city administrator Mike Palmer updated the supervisors on the downtown façade project, alley construction, clean-up at the former Pizza Ranch, and the addition of a four-lane Highway 30 from Ogden to Jefferson to the Department of Transportation’s priority list.
Board chair John Muir then asked Palmer about the proposed new animal shelter. Palmer said the city council is “in the thought process” on the project and fully supports it.
The county supervisors last month agreed to fund a share of operating expenses once a new shelter has opened, but the city council has not yet publicly made a commitment of funds.
