The Greene County supervisors delayed a number of decisions at their March 23 meeting, delaying decisions on a 9-foot-tall monument commemorating the Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey, a 28E agreement with the city of Jefferson for recycling services for rural residents, and a proposed solar project.
After taking care of drainage business and an amendment to the FY26 budget, the supervisors reviewed plans for the Schoolboy Soldiers monument – a 7-foot obelisk set on a 2-foot base. Three sides of the obelisk will feature the story of the Schoolboy Soldiers, 32 students and two teachers from Rippey who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Art will be on the fourth side. It will be placed on the southeast corner of the courthouse grounds.
Chuck Offenburger, a co-chair of the Schoolboy Soldiers committee, presented the near-final design of the monument at the meeting.
The supervisors reviewed the text telling the story of the Schoolboy Soldiers that will appear on three sides of the monument. The story names the battles in which the boys participated. County attorney Thomas Laehn said he was surprised to see Sherman’s March to the Sea listed. “As a disinterested Greene Countian, I think of that as a real blemish, something not to be proud of… That was total warfare. They burned people’s houses and businesses and set a precedent for warfare of the 20th Century. I don’t want to whitewash history,” he said, and questioned if the purpose of the memorial is to provide a history or to honor the schoolboy soldiers. “If it’s just to honor the young men, I don’t think you want to include that they participated in the March to the Sea.”
Offenburger said the March to the Sea is now seen differently than it was then, and it was a turn to victory for the North, “a back breaker for the Confederacy.” He said it shows the boys were involved in “real combat and the ugliness of warfare.”
Supervisor John Muir said the purpose of the monument is to recognize the soldiers from Greene County. “I’m not interested in narrating the war. I just want the monument to recognize the service of those students…. I want to acknowledge their service, just like the service other soldiers have given. On the monuments we have already, we didn’t describe where their service was or what they did, just that they made the supreme sacrifice.”
Offenburger said the intent was to show that Greene County had an unusually large participation rate in the Civil War. “That state has been known for that for a long time. The county was known for that at the time, but not necessarily now. That’s the value of having the additional (information) there,” he said.
The supervisors earlier approved $5,000 toward the cost of the monument, with the money coming from the Dreyfus fund. Final approval of the monument is pending the supervisors’ seeing a draft of the planned artwork.
The monument will be part of the county’s observation of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The supervisors reviewed but didn’t discuss a proposed 28E agreement with the city of Jefferson to provide recycling services for county residents. The agreement would be for three years, with a maximum expense to the county of $25,000 per year.
The agreement calls for the city to maintain dumpsters “in a convenient location” for the use of Jefferson residents and residents of the unincorporated areas of the county. The dumpsters will be emptied at least once a week. The city will bill the county $250 per dump for 70 percent of the total number of dumps from dumpsters designated for plastic, metal and paper, and 25 percent of the total number of dumps of the dumpsters designated for corrugated cardboard.
The supervisors wanted to wait until the Jefferson city council approved the agreement at their regular meeting the following day.
Also, the supervisors continued discussion of Red Lion Renewables’ proposed contract/lease agreement of solar installations at the new jail, the law enforcement center, the Jefferson secondary roads shop, and Spring Lake Park. Terry Dvorak of Red Lion was present and answered several questions, but the supervisors again tabled a decision until their March 30 meeting. Applications for the federal tax credits that make the project financially possible for Red Lion expire March 31.
The Jefferson city council approved a similar solar project on several city-owned sites in late January.
The supervisors opened the March 23meeting with a public hearing on an amendment to the current year budget. The amendment shows revenues increasing a total of $10,619,277 due to an insurance reimbursement to the sheriff’s department, investment interest, transfers from the ARPA fund; and bridge replacement funds.
Expenditures increased $6,679,000 due to increased costs for the medical examiner and ambulance department wages; increased costs for sheriff’s deputy and jailer training; an increase in costs for housing Greene County inmates out-of-county and for providing medical services for inmates; and other items.
Acting as drainage district trustees, the board opened bids for work on DD #20 in the northwest portion of the county. Nine bids were received, ranging from a bid of $1,359,084 from Healy Excavating of Lake View to $1,976,512 from Schraeder Tiling and Terrain LLC of Atkins. The engineer’s estimated at $1,570,000. With Healy Excavating the apparent low bidder, the trustees agreed to award the bid at the March 30 meeting to allow drainage clerk Jacob Hagan time to review the bid.
