The Greene County supervisors at their regular meeting May 30 passed a resolution affirming their support of the freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The action was a back-pedal from the May 22 meeting when Bell Tower Festival steering committee chair Phil Heisterkamp asked if a religious service could be held on the stage on the Bell Tower Plaza, which is owned by the county. The answer was to find a different location.
Board chair John Muir said that because Heisterkamp had been talking with the supervisors about the upcoming festival, he assumed the religious service was a Festival event.
Muir verified that the courthouse grounds are available for use by anyone “as long as it’s a legal action they’re wanting to conduct.”
“I was being cautious not wanting to step on toes, and I think I did step on toes,” Muir said at the Tuesday meeting. “We stepped out of bounds.”
County attorney Thomas Laehn was not at the May 22 meeting. He met later in the week with Muir, county auditor Jane Heun, assistant county attorney Laura Snider, and Pastor Isaac Wagler, Josh Monthei and Sean Sebourn, who were among those planning the service Heisterkamp had asked about.
Laehn used legalese to explain that the board had not taken action last week. The board can only act through a resolution, motion, an ordinance or an amendment, he said. “Otherwise, it’s just discussion. There was a discussion that occurred, which is fine and good, but the board didn’t act,” he said.
Per the policy for use of the courthouse grounds, the county auditor is the one who accepts or rejects applications to use the courthouse grounds. The auditor has not received an application to use the grounds for the suggested religious service.
The service Heisterkamp mentioned a week ago would have been an ecumenical, community service, he said this week, and not part of the Bell Tower Festival. He also told the supervisors Tuesday that the group planning the service will not be making a request to use the courthouse grounds.
The resolution approved notes that the board of supervisors “affirms its support for the proposition that individuals and groups who adhere to a religion should be afforded the same rights and privileges with respect to the use of the county’s buildings and grounds as individuals and groups who do not and that a person’s adherence to a religion should not be relevant in any way to his or her standing in the political community.”
In other business, the board held a public hearing on a proposed hog confinement – Oakview Pork LLC, Site 2 – in Section 21 of Greenbrier Township. Owners are Nick Miller and Andy Carman. The site scored 520 points on the master matrix, with 440 points being the minimum needed for approval.
Muir read a letter of support from Martin Halbur.
Ed and Ellen Morris, who live approximately one-half mile from the site, wrote a letter that was hand delivered to Muir by Kent Bates, who also lives near the site. The Morrises asked the owners to commit to maintaining a screen of trees, to use pit additives to reduce odor and flies, and to provide notice of manure hauling and spreading.
Bates also wrote a letter and asked Muir to read it aloud. His letter was worded more strongly, calling the proliferation of CAFOS in the area since they built a new home on the family home farm 14 years ago “a surprise attack from volcanic stench.”
He referred to Oakview Pork 2’s application as “the complete enchilada,” noting that 13 miles is the shortest distance from the site that anyone who will benefit from it lives. “You don’t ask someone to do something you won’t do yourself. If you have the testicular fortitude to build a hog house you should have the same to live next to it. Obviously, that’s not the case here,” Bates wrote.
Kathy Deal, a friend of the Bateses, called the proposed facility “a golden opportunity to create goodwill, which is a tradition of farming” in planting a tree screen using fast growing Australian trees and evergreens.
The supervisors voted 4-0 to recommend approval of the construction permit to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Supervisor Mick Burkett was absent from the meeting.
The board held a public hearing on an amendment to the current year budget. There were no comments submitted or heard. The board approved the budget amendment and appropriating funds for the amended expenditures.
The supervisors approved a letter of support to the US Department of Agriculture for an application by Region XII Council of Governments for a housing preservation grant. The grant would provide funds for owner-occupied housing rehabilitation projects for low-income homeowners.
Supervisor Dawn Rudolph reported to the board that new legislation changes the make-up of the governing board of Central Iowa Community Services, which oversees mental health services in many counties. Each county will no longer have a seat on the governing board, but seats will rotate on a two-year basis. Counties that do not have a seat on the governing board will have seats on an advisory council. All governing board meetings will be open meetings.
Serving as drainage district trustees, the supervisors approved 2023 drainage district assessments for DDs 13, 27, 35, 51, 81, 101, 117, 146, 169, 171, 18-35, 110M, 110YY, lateral 10 of DD 10.
