Also discuss animal shelter and hear funding request from Bell Tower Community Foundation
The Greene County supervisors held their 2023 organizational meeting Jan. 2. John Muir was elected by the board to begin his second decade as board chair. Dawn Rudolph was re-elected as chair pro tem.
Meeting times remain unchanged. Regular meetings will be held Mondays at 8:30 am, year-round. Regular meetings will be held the Tuesday following a Monday holiday. Other meetings will be scheduled as needed on Thursdays during the budget process.
County holidays were set as Presidents Day, Monday, Feb. 20; Memorial Day, Monday, May 29; Independence Day, Tuesday, July 4; Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 4; Veterans Day, Friday, Nov. 10; Thanksgiving, Thursday and Friday, Nov. 23-24; Christmas, Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 25-26; and New Year’s Day, Monday, Jan. 1, 2023.
The supervisors will continue their previous assignments to commissions, other board and committees. New supervisor Dan Benitz was appointed to those groups on which Tom Contner served with one exception.
Supervisor Peter Bardole will no longer serve on the Central Iowa Juvenile Detention committee. “It’s taking up a lot of time and they’ve got a lot of other things I know that are going to take up more time dealing with here,” he said in declining that appointment. He said it was a good chance to talk with other county supervisors, “but it takes up a half day. That’s the downfall.”
The committee meets bimonthly in Eldora, with the meeting and travel time taking up the better part of a day.
Benitz was appointed to the committee.
A complete list of the supervisors’ appointments and appointments of county residents to various boards and committees is under GCNO’s Calendar/Agenda tab.
The board mentioned a need to appoint someone to serve on the the board that will oversee the city-owned Greene County Animal Shelter.
A board composed of representatives from the city of Jefferson, PAWS members and a county representative will oversee shelter operations. County attorney Thomas Laehn said assistant county attorney Laura Snider, who he called “an animal lover,” will serve on the board once it’s established.
That led to discussion of the 28E agreement with the city of Jefferson for operating the shelter. The current 28E agreement calls for the county to pay up to $6,000 per year towards operation of the shelter. However, during discussion of building the new shelter in 2017, the supervisors agreed verbally to pay up to $15,000 per year once the new shelter is operational.
The new shelter is finally complete, with move-in set for Jan. 7.
A new 28E agreement has not been written, and the county is waiting for the city to start the conversation.
The current fiscal year ends June 30. The county will need to amend its budget to provide funding at the higher rate once the new agreement is inked.
The supervisors heard a funding request from Carole Custer and Bob Schwarzkopf, representing the Bell Tower Community Foundation. Custer first addressed the relationship between the foundation and the board of supervisors, which was tested last month when attorney Laehn suggested more oversight of the tower by the county. “Through the years I think we have a good relationship built up with the supervisors,” Custer said. “We have Pete (Bardole) as your representative on the board as VP. I think I’ve mentioned before that at any time if you want us to report more often, we most certainly can.”
Schwarzkopf is foundation treasurer. “You’re aware we provide a full, detailed financial report to Pete every month. I don’t know if he brings that to you,” he said.
Muir interjected that Bardole “reports that he’s happy.”
Custer reported the bell tower observation deck was rented six times during the year – a wedding, a birthday party, a Fourth of July party, a book club outing, a coffee group outing, and a Thanksgiving dinner. Rentals are $50 each.
She said attendance was just short of 6,000, with 3,880 of that as paid adult admissions. The remaining visitors were children whose admission was paid for by the Dean and Lois McAtee Trust. Visitors came from all over Iowa, 48 other states, 20 foreign countries, and six continents.
Expenses for 2022 were $31,341. Expenses for 2023 are budgeted at $39,000. The biggest expenses are promotions and advertising. The adult tour guides are paid $11/hour.
Income for 2022 included $11,070 in paid admissions, the $2,750 donation to cover children’s admissions, and other sources (the city of Jefferson and Greene County) of about $14,000.
The foundation requested $8,500 from the county last year and received $7,500, the same amount as in the past 20 years. “If you apply inflation to that, in today’s dollars, that would be about $12,600 or $13,000. I know money is short everywhere, but you haven’t kept up with inflation as far as what it takes for us to run the thing,” Schwarzkopf said.
This year the foundation is requesting $10,000 in county funds. The supervisors took no action.
