~by Janice Harbaugh for GreeneCountyNewsOnline
The county supervisors at their March 8 meeting discussed allowing the county face mask mandate to expire March 31. The mandate was first put in place March 31.
“We’re not quite out of the woods, yet,” said board chair John Muir. “There might be a surge after spring break. We want to concur with public health recommendations.”
Muir did acknowledge, “At some point, we have to turn it over to personal responsibility.”
“It’s going on a year,” said supervisor Dawn Rudolph. “We’ve preached enough.”
“We’ll have more conversations (about whether to continue the mask mandate.) I’m probably going to wear a mask a little bit longer than others might,” Muir said.
Supervisor Pete Bardole said, “(After a mask mandate expires) it’s a personal responsibility decision.”
The mask mandate will be on a future board agenda.
The board also held a public hearing to receive comments from the public about the proposed FY22 maximum property tax dollars. No objections to previous amounts presented at the meeting on Mar. 1 were received, either verbally or in writing.
After closing the public hearing, the supervisors unanimously passed and adopted Resolution 2021-08 setting maximum property tax dollars for general county services and rural county services, effective March 8.
According to the resolution, general county services cannot exceed an increase of 2.16 percent from the previous year, making a total of $4,583,055 in taxes. Rural county services cannot exceed an increase of 5.25 percent from the previous year, making a total of $1,859,752 in taxes.
The board set a public hearing for the proposed FY22 Greene County budget for March 22 at 9 am.
In other business, engineer Wade Weiss presented in-depth information on topics he had initiated at the previous meeting.
About the old brick shop on County Road E-53 at Scranton, Weiss told the supervisors the building is almost 100 years old, and said “It’s at the end of its life. It could take $3 million dollars to fix the old structure.”
Supervisor Dawn Rudolph, who lives in Scranton, said, “It’s served its purpose. We don’t want to put that kind of money into an old building.”
Weiss said he has looked at other possible sites and buildings for summer storage of snow equipment and road materials.
“A lot of equipment storage space was lost when the old armory building was sold to the school district a few years ago,” Weiss said.
Weiss said he has spoken with Alliant Energy about its property at the north edge of Jefferson and they are willing to sell at a price of $582,000. Weiss said the building is 16,800 sq.ft and there is some ground there, also.
“I don’t want to indebt us,” Weiss said, “but (in buying this building) we wouldn’t be taking something off the tax rolls.”
Auditor Jane Heun said an installment contract would probably be needed and county attorney Thomas Laehn said a contract similar to the Law Enforcement Center’s agreement with Midland for the purchase of its building would be possible, with an agreement that modifications to the building could be made if necessary before paying the full debt.
Weiss explained his department has a fund balance of $250,000 from the sale of the armory and will be receiving CARES funding also that could off-set the cost.
Supervisor Tom Contner said he is “hesitant” about buying it. The board discussed his hesitancy, seemingly based on the cost of the building.
“Local service to the communities is important,” said chair John Muir, regarding the location of the Alliant building.
In the end, Weiss was encouraged by the supervisors to pursue the purchase of the property with assistance of the county attorney.
“At this point, you have our support,” said Muir.
During open forum, Bill Sutton asked about Weiss’ report at the March 1 meeting involving issues of wind turbine maintenance, damage to roads, and permits needed for the large equipment. Sutton was concerned about the Hardin site turbines.
Weiss explained his report was about the Mid-American Energy turbines and permits have already been issued for the heavy equipment needed for maintenance on the Hardin site turbines.
“Blades weigh 90,000 pounds and need (large areas to) turn-around,” Weiss said of the Mid-American turbines. “There’s over six miles of road (to travel with heavy equipment.)” Weiss described the situation as “a mess over there.”
Mike Palmer, Jefferson city administrator, reported on various city projects. Palmer described the east corridor coming into Jefferson as eventually having “small trees and prairie grass” in the islands along the highway and a “Welcome to Jefferson” sign by the cemetery.
Palmer also said the city is entering into a development agreement for the harness shop north of Angie’s and the city will be “turning over Angie’s to a ladies’ group.” Palmer referred to the former Angie’s Tea Garden on the northwest corner of the square and to the development group Why Not Us? which has been renovating the structure after water damage two years ago. The group reportedly wants to re-open the Tea Garden and have living space above.
Other projects include the AirTemp building on the east side of the square which Palmer said will be getting a new roof and work on the front, and improvements to the alleys “by the vet clinic, post office, and White Apartments.”
“It will cost $170,000 to tear up and put new concrete down,” Palmer said.
Palmer thanked Jane Heun for “pointing out changes” needed as project planning progressed.
County veterans services director Mike Bierl was unanimously appointed by the board of supervisors as general assistance coordinator for four to five hours per week in addition to the 20-25 hours he now spends in veterans services.
Bierl told the supervisors he must spend a minimum of twenty hours per week in veterans services to maintain a $10,000 a year grant awarded by the state of Iowa.
“We’re comfortable with however you set up your schedule. We appreciate you stepping up and being willing to do this on top of your veterans schedule,” Muir said.
County recorder Deb McDonald informed the board that state law now allows regular ATVs to operate on secondary roads and counties are prohibited from making rules regarding this operation.
Attorney Thomas Laehn spoke of a heavy schedule of jury trials now that the grand jury has been impaneled. He again praised law enforcement for their work in evidence-gathering and testifying.
Muir thanked all county employees for their work and said, “It reflects well on all of us.”
During open forum, GCNO asked the board if the policies being written for the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower by the board and the Bell Tower Community Foundation will be available for the public to read.
Bardole said the policies will be available to the public before the board votes on them.
