The Greene County supervisors agreed at their June 30 meeting to provide $180,000 in funding to the Paton-Churdan Early Learning Center for a new modular building. The funds will be taken from the county’s local option sales and service tax (LOSST) fund over five years. Board chair John Muir said the repayment schedule may be shorter.
Per county attorney Thomas Laehn’s instructions, the supervisors and the PCELC board will first sign a 28E agreement. The action taken by the supervisors Monday was to direct Laehn to write the agreement.
Bob Allen, president of Home State Bank, spoke to the supervisors during the open forum at the meeting. He encouraged the supervisors to participate in the project. He said he toured the PCELC’s current building and was surprised at the poor condition. “I know budgets are tight. I commend you guys for considering helping them out. It serves a very rural part of our county with limited resources… We all know that early childhood development is really important. At a time in our county when we’re trying to get people to move back and have a place to work, a daycare is pretty important.”
PCELC board president Cassie Fiedler attended the meeting. She said that board is working with Region XII Council of Governments on USDA funding. That amount would be $600,000, half the total cost of the project.
County engineer Wade Weiss reported rainy weather last week slowed the projects on E-18 and P-46, but he is hopeful work can be done this week. He also noted that delivery of salt for use on roads next winter will begin this week. The cost is the same as last year, $79.39 per ton. He has ordered 100 tons.
Jon Heydon of Heritage Insurance walked the supervisors through the renewal rates from Iowa Communities Assurance Pool for the county’s property and casualty insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, and surety bonding. The insurance package total cost is $392,119, a decrease of $1,439 from the current year.
Muir and supervisor Pete Bardole reported meeting with Greene County Medical Center CEO Chad Butterfield and other medical center staff about the jointly-operated ambulance service. The group agreed to pay for a third-party study of ways to “further communication to a better place.” The study will cost $3,000 to $4,000 total. Muir hopes the study will show ways Greene County Ambulance can cover more calls, particularly calls for transfers to other facilities. Billie Johnson-Daves, veterans service administrator for the county, provided numbers to the board. There are 185 veterans in the county receiving monetary benefits. There are four pensioners and two receiving a survivor’s pension. Twenty-two persons receive dependent indemnity compensation. Benefits paid in Greene County over a year total $392,911.
