~by Janice Harbaugh for GreeneCountyNewsOnline
The Greene County board of supervisors held two public hearings at the regular board meeting on Mar. 13.
The first was for the proposed FY2024 maximum property tax. No oral or written objections were received from the public and the board unanimously approved a resolution setting limits of $5,010,033 for general county services and $2,018,666 for rural county services.
For general county services, the amount is an increase of $110,018, or 2.25 percent, from FY2023. The rural county services amount is an increase of $114,993, or 6.04 percent, from FY2023.
The board also set a public hearing for the FY2024 proposed county budget on March 27 at 9 am.
The second public hearing was for the proposed sales of two properties, one at 520 S. Park St in Paton and the other at 305 S. Georgia St in Jefferson. No objections or new offers were heard from the public and the board unanimously approved resolutions authorizing both sales.
The Paton property will be sold to the city of Paton for $600 plus unpaid taxes and assessments. The Jefferson property will be sold to Joe and Janet Cummings for $500 plus unpaid taxes and assessments.
In other business, county attorney Thomas Laehn reported the new community services program for juveniles and adults coordinated by Kelly McCane has graduated two juveniles who have completed court-ordered community service hours. Laehn said one adult is currently in the program.
“It will take a year to get up and running fully,” Laehn said, “but we’ve had good success with juveniles so far.”
Laehn said he and Chuck Wenthold, environmental department, met with National Grid Renewables before the company officially submitted a an application for a conditional use permit. NGR has proposed the construction of a solar farm south of Grand Junction.
Michelle Fields reported the courthouse telecommunications upgrade committee has met with four companies and a request for proposals is being written.
Doug Hawn told the board he has met with representatives from Motorola, the microwave installation survey crew, and RFCC concerning the location of a county communications tower.
A proposed site for the tower near Seven Hills Park, southwest of Jefferson, was discussed.
Hawn said any proposed tower must be able to communicate with towers located near Templeton and Perry.
Engineer Wade Weiss reported the Mahanay Memorial Carillon is scheduled to receive maintenance by the Verdin Company of Ohio.
The board unanimously approved the appointment of supervisor Pete Bardole as alternate supervisor representative to Region V Hazardous Materials Response and to LEPC with Doug Hawn remaining the main official appointed to both.
Hawn was also unanimously appointed by the board to be an authorized signer for an agreement of services with GSS, Inc., a company from Urbandale, Iowa doing environmental compliance work at the proposed Seven Hills Park communications tower site.
The cost for the work is estimated at $14,945.
The board canvassed and approved the results of the special election held Mar. 7 for the Paton-Churdan Community School SAVE tax. The board reported 41 yes votes and 3 no votes with 5.87 percent of the electorate voting.
Resolution 2023-11 was introduced and the board unanimously approved the retirement of Phyllis Jean Tuhn. Tuhn was commended for “nearly 25 years of service to Greene County as an employee at the Greene County Law Enforcement Center.”
