Two weeks ago he described it as ‘crazy’
Greene County supervisor Dan Benitz back-pedaled at the May 13 county supervisors meeting when he was confronted by Jefferson resident Bryan Helmus about a comment he had made concerning the Central Iowa Juvenile Detention (CIJD) facility in Eldora at the April 29 meeting. Benitz is the Greene County representative to the CIJD board.
Janice Harbaugh of GreeneCountyNewsOnline quoted Benitz as answering a question from supervisor Dawn Rudolph about staffing by saying, “There’s a high turnover in staff because youth throw urine and feces at staff daily. It’s crazy.”
Harbaugh, who has a doctorate degree in counseling and has many years of experience with troubled and at-risk youth, followed up with an editorial, also posted on GCNO. She questioned if sending youth to the Eldora facility is the best use of county tax dollars.
At the May 13 meeting, Helmus said he shares Harbaugh’s concerns and asked if the supervisors exercise any oversight, whether there was information about transitioning youth back to the community after time in Eldora, and if there are other placement options available.
Benitz answered that his comment was “blown out of proportion.” He said part of the problem is that other similar facilities in the state have closed. “If you or she are such an expert, I recommend you go up there and consult with management and find out what’s really going on. It’s about as safe a place as you could ever want. They put on a very expensive addition. It’s just that when you have juveniles who committed a first degree murder, they’re playing out their time in the facility, what do they have to look forward to? It’s a mental thing, Sure we need more mental institutions.”
Benitz said more than half of Iowa’s counties use the Eldora facility. “They do a very good job,” he said.
Supervisors John Muir and Pete Bardole have also served on the CIJD board. Both agreed with Benitz that it’s a “good” facility.
Muir said he sometimes worries that Greene County youngsters sent to Eldora learn behaviors there they wouldn’t have learned here, “but I’m confident and comfortable that we’re sending them to the best, or the only, place in Iowa right now. They do have some incidents, though.”
Bardole said students must attend classes and that Individualized Educational Plans (developed for special education students) must be followed for students who have them. “There’s lots of stuff that happens there to give the kids the best chance. They have a psychologist on staff,” Bardole said.
“We understand the concern and share the concern, but I think what’s done up there is very professional and the best we can do at this point,” Muir concluded.
The supervisors made very short work of a request from Deb McGinn of the Tower View Team that the Mahanay Bell Tower be lit in pink during the first weekend of June to kick-off June as Barbie Month. Last fall the supervisors approved a policy stating that no outside requests for special lighting on the tower would be accepted, making Monday’s discussion very short.
“Barbie’s not that meaningful to me. We’ll stick to our policy,” supervisor Dawn Rudolph said. “Now if it was Roy Rogers….” Benitz quipped without completing the sentence.
The supervisors approved a contract between the county and Image Trend for CAD software for reporting emergency medical incidents. Annual cost of the contract is $3,500, with a one-time setup charge of $675.
Greene County Ambulance manager Michele Madsen explained that records must be kept for every patient contact. The ambulance service has been using software Image Trend makes available at no charge, but that program doesn’t interface with the CAD system Greene County dispatchers use. The updated software will also allow medical information like EKGs done by ambulance staff to immediately upload and be available to medical center staff.
The supervisors approved a policy for dealing with uncashed checks. County treasurer Katlynn Mechaelsen said the policy will ensure the county’s financial records are updated in a timely and correct way with respect to transactions involving uncashed checks.
Mechaelsen also discussed a resolution updating the county’s policy for the use of county credit cards. Concerns were raised by the state auditor’s office that the county’s policy was not broad enough to include some necessary, appropriate, and lawful purposes. The policy as amended by the supervisors May 13 requires department heads to have on file with the county auditor’s office a list of all employees authorized to use each credit card.
Jefferson city administrator Scott Peterson provided his monthly update. He said the pre-construction meeting for the resurfacing of E. Lincoln Way will be held May 30; that Origin Homes is working toward building three single-family homes on vacant lots that are now owned by the city, with the project contingent on Origin receiving affordable housing tax credits; that the city is close to having all cemetery records available and searchable online; and that single-stream recycling will begin once the new collection trucks arrive this summer.
