~by Janice Harbaugh for GreeneCountyNewsOnline
The Greene County board of supervisors heard from Chris Whitaker of Region XII Council of Governments about the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Career Link Employment Transportation Program at the regular meeting May 9.
Whitaker, at various times in his presentation, referred to the service as “employee busing,” “employee shuttle service,” and “commuter shuttle route.”
Whitaker described the IEDA program as a two-year grant program with a cap at $150,000 that can be used to provide transportation for employees living where there are not job opportunities to an employer in another community or county.
Whitaker said Region XII first heard of the program in 2016 and 2017 when the Region worked with Crawford County and Monogram Foods and Midwest Industries to bring employees from Denson to Harlan and Ida Grove.
“At least 51 percent of the employees using the transportation service must be low to moderate income as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,” Whitaker said.
Whitaker said, “The IEDA requires a one-to-one cash match for transportation projects. This can be a combination of funds from the businesses, local, state, and federal funds.”
In Greene County, Whitaker said Western Iowa Transit could provide transportation services.
“A transportation service to bring employees to businesses in the county could turn out to be a way to entice people to move here,” Whitaker said.
Board chair John Muir said, “We’ve done a lot to entice people to relocate here. This could be a step in the Diversity Project.”
“This could be a design for getting people here, but we still have housing issues,” said supervisor Pete Bardole, who is an ex officio member of the Greene County Development Corporation board, which is spearheading the Diversity Project.
“I’m not entirely onboard with this,” Muir said. “This is just discussion at this point.”
The board discussed the current state of the Diversity Project’s goal of encouraging Latinos to come to Greene County to fill job vacancies.
The board noted the Diversity Project is not yet completely funded and there is no information as to where the employees might be coming from or the businesses they might be going to.
Also at the meeting, Jefferson city administrator Mike Palmer gave a monthly report on projects.
“The new animal shelter has foundation problems,” Palmer said. “We’re fortunate we found it now. The extra cost to stabilize the ground will be on the contractors and the soil company.”
Palmer said the former Air-Temp building could be done by Bell Tower Festival in June and landscaping is being done on the east entryway to the city. The swimming pool cover is off and bids are out for family restrooms at the pool.
Palmer also spoke about cemetery software enabling people to search cemeteries online for available lots and for records of burials. Palmer said the project could go county-wide.
“Money for the software is coming from the city’s Grow Greene funds,” Palmer said.
Engineer Wade Weiss reported Holly Elbert from Brooks Borg Skiles plans to do a walk-through of the courthouse and review the plans for HVAC renovation on May 26. Weiss said there will be discussion of how offices could be moved around during the actual work.
Funds for the HVAC additions to the courthouse are from the American Rescue Plan.
The board unanimously approved hiring Brian Wind as part-time custodian at a rate of $16.00 per hour for approximately a 20-hour week, effective May 9.
Auditor Jane Heun reviewed a proposed county budget amendment with the board. The board unanimously set a public hearing for the proposed amendment on Monday, May 23 at 9:00 AM.
Sheriff Jack Williams told the board Motorola and Unplugged Wireless will reschedule a presentation to the board about the need for a new radio tower for official communications in the county.
County attorney Thomas Laehn told the board the Iowa legislature has amended the open records law to now require “municipalities to donate the first 30 minutes of time used to provide a requested public record at no cost other than the cost to copy the record.”
“The board already has a policy of donating one hour (to research and provide a public record.) We want our policy to reflect language in the new policy which is effective July 1,” Laehn said.
Laehn also described a situation in Boston, MA, involving that city denying a group permission to raise a particular flag on public property.
“The Supreme Court of the United States issued a unanimous document of twelve pages saying this was unconstitutional,” Laehn said. “If you allow one group to do something, you must allow all groups.”
Laehn said Greene County exercises “editorial control” over public displays such as art and flags. This is written into the Public Art Policy.
“We look at the display and decide if it communicates a message we want to represent us,” Laehn said, emphasizing the Boston situation would not have been a problem if that city had written an editorial control policy.
