~by Victoria Riley, GCNO
Greene County supervisor Dawn Rudolph said last week she was “disappointed” the cost of a decades-late replacement of the heating and ventilation system at our century-old courthouse has increased beyond what funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) would cover.
“Disappointed” was her response when she learned the price tag on the project had increased from $1.5 million in 2018 to $3.4 million, making the project “way out of reach.”
I’m disappointed, too. I’m disappointed at the lack of leadership we’ve had from the county supervisors on this issue. Their lack of leadership is what led us courthouse-lovers to be disappointed.
The county supervisors have discussed the HVAC at the courthouse on and off for as long as I’ve covered them. That goes back to 1998 or so.
And here we are, having celebrated the centennial of the courthouse five years ago, still relying on the original steam boiler and radiators.
County engineer Wade Weiss has nudged the supervisors as he’s able. At his encouragement, the supervisors hired Brooks Borg Skiles (the successor of the firm that did the original design on the courthouse, and now known as BBS Architects) to design a project in 2014-15. Cost of the project then, which included replacing the steam boiler and radiators, installing central air conditioning, and replacing all the windows with historically correct windows, was $1.4 million.
The supervisors considered the project and ultimately decided to hold off until they could set aside some of the needed funds.
By May, 2018, they had managed to squirrel away $400,000 for the project. BBS reps told them the cost had increased 6-8 percent since 2015. That would have put the cost at about $1.5 million.
GCNO quoted then-and-still board chair John Muir as saying, “After 20 or 30 years everybody thinks it’s time for us to move forward rather than worry about it all the time. What steps do we take? Where do we go next?”
His colleagues on the board all agreed to move forward, but no motion was made. The BBS reps said they’d return in two weeks with a proposal for the firm’s services to prepare design documents needed to bid out the project.
“We’re ready for that,” Muir said.
The next month the supervisors agreed to pay BBS an amount not to exceed $134,850 for labor and reimbursable expenses for a completed design and construction administration costs.
BBS started planning, but the supervisors got sidetracked. Dennis Morlan, who had provided ambulance service doing business as Greene County EMS and under contract to the county, retired. The supervisors learned what a great deal they had been getting from Morlan, as the cost of a county-based ambulance service added about $550,000 to the expense side of the county budget.
And that’s when the supervisors’ lack of leadership became detrimental.
The supervisors had the authority under Iowa Code Chapter 422D, adopted by the state legislature in 2013, to seek voter approval to generate local funds for EMS through a local income surtax, a local property tax, or a combination of both.
The supervisors could have protected the general fund from taking the entire hit for EMS by asking for and winning approval from the voters for an EMS levy. A levy for emergency medical services would have been an easy sell; who would say “no” to ambulance service?
But the supervisors didn’t ask. They also didn’t budget for the HVAC project, not in FY20, not in FY21, and not in FY22. And, like happens many times, the $400,000 they had tucked away in 2018 has been re-appropriated for other things.
When the supervisors took no steps to plan for the project, BBS recommended suspending the unfinished portions of the contract. That was in February 2020, just weeks before Covid-19 virtually shut down the country.
Engineer Weiss said then it was best to reevaluate the project at a later date, using the preliminary design work the county paid for in the contract. He said the county could move forward “once a funding source is identified. That seems to be the biggest hurdle for the county right now.”
The supervisors, and many of us, were excited to learn ARPA funds could legally be used for projects that improve ventilation. No one had guessed, though, that while the supervisors weren’t watching, costs had increased drastically.
The HVAC project wasn’t saved by the magic ARPA bullet. Using all the ARPA funds the county receives would cover only half the cost.
What’s the supervisors’ next move? They have been adamant about not incurring debt, and the county has no debt except for bonds sold for the Greene County Career Academy. Those bonds will be paid for through tax increment financing against MidAmerican Energy wind turbines. The supervisors agreed to that only after considerable persuasion by the players of the county’s economic development game.
I assume the five Republican supervisors understand how to use borrowing power in their personal lives or their businesses. Not many people buy homes without a mortgage. Farmers go into debt to purchase things necessary for their operation after working with bankers to attain affordable terms for the loan. Shouldn’t the same strategy be used for large, necessary county expenditures?
Guy Richardson was the last progressive Republican elected to the board of supervisors. After 16 years on the board, he lost in the 2016 primary election to fellow Republican Pete Bardole. Richardson suggested to his fellow supervisors during his last few weeks on the board that they consider borrowing money to pay for the project. “We can easily service the debt and pay it off in short order. And that’s exactly what we need to do,” he told them.
Think of the courthouse as our county’s home, or as our county’s business office – either way, we need to have reliable heating and ventilation, and air conditioning is pretty standard in this century, too.
Supervisors, it may be that your pleasure in being able to claim you haven’t added taxes or debt isn’t in the county’s best interest.
You ran for supervisor saying you want to lead the county. It’s time to step up and do it. Do what it takes to keep our courthouse viable, even if that means taking on debt. And do it soon, before project and interest costs grow any more.
