All has not gone smoothly opening the new Greene County jail. Sheriff Jack Williams told the supervisors at their Sept. 14 meeting that moving the first eight inmates into the jail “went pretty smoothly, but they definitely don’t like living in jail.”
Technical issues delayed moving more inmates until this week. Williams planned to have all inmates moved in by the end of the week, and then to start moving items out of the former jail on S. Chestnut St.
The supervisors spent nearly two hours conducting a pair of public hearings – the first on an annexation request for Drainage District 20, and the second for a reclassification in the same district. DD20 is located in Highland Township, east and extending north of Churdan.
Jacob Hagen and Tyler Buman of AgriVia presented information and moderated the hearings. The supervisors last January approved a project to replace the main line and an alternate, with the $1.1 million cost being split among landowners based on the number of acres and benefit each parcel will receive from the installation of the larger tiles. Several landowners stated their objections at the public hearing then, but there weren’t enough objectors to stop the project.
The annexation hearing was to add five contiguous parcels into the project. Hagen said there were 21 acres and four landowners in the proposed annexation who own other parcels within the drainage district who needed to be included in the project. There were no objections to those annexations and the supervisors/trustees approved them.
The second hearing, a reclassification of all the parcels in the proposed project, drew more comments. The cost is now set at $1.730 million to replace 22-inch tiles with 36-inch tiles, and to relocate the outlet for 1,542 acres involved. The reclassification hearing was needed because of the cost of the project and because four written objections had been received.
Those who objected said how they use the land should be considered, as not all of it is tilled and used for crops. Hagen explained state law prohibits considering land use because landowners can’t be told how to use their land.
The average cost per acre in the project is $1,122. The trustees/supervisors voted to accept the reclassification with one exception for a landowner on whose property no work is being done.
After closing the drainage portion of the meeting and moving back into session as the board of supervisors, the supervisors approved a preconstruction agreement with the Iowa Department of Transportation for improvements on Highway 30 between Jefferson and Grand Junction. That project is scheduled to begin next summer. The supervisors approved a resolution hiring Mickayla Coffin as a driver license clerk in the county treasurer’s office, effective Sept. 24. Her annual salary will be $47,500.
