Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

the agenda.

I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second that.

Okay, call for a vote. Tippett, aye. Seaman, aye. Bowles, aye. Okay, the minutes.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Second that.

Okay, I'll call for a vote.

Tippett, aye.

Seaman, aye.

Bowles, aye.

Perfect. The claims.

I spent a lot of money, but it all looked like it was in order to me. I didn't see anything that jumped out. We did our first quarter allocations, I saw it. I would move to approve the claims. I'd second that.

Okay. Call for a vote. Tippett, aye. Thiem, aye. Wolf, aye. Okay, Grace, go ahead and start.

Talk slow. Okay, you guys have the one pager, I believe. Yep, it was the other one. Yep. Perfect. Okay, so I'm just going to talk off of that. So that one pager that you have, that was sent to local public health departments directly from HHS. It was designed to just kind of give a quick overview of information for both local boards of health and boards of supervisors. So kind of just to go over, these are just kind of some quick facts that they would like for you guys to know about the upcoming public health service system alignment. So HHS is kind of updating how public health services in Iowa are organized, funded, and delivered similar to the behavioral health system realignment in some ways. So the alignment changes how things are organized, but it doesn't change county authority, legal responsibilities for counties, for local boards of health, or any kind of local choice about how counties structure local public health service delivery. So you'll notice, um, kind of towards the middle of that handout, uh, beginning January 1st of next year, uh, HHS will be funding, uh, public health lead entities. They're going to be, um, in charge of some district planning communication, and collaboration among local public health departments. So the new public health system alignment map is going to be the same map as the behavioral health system. So Benton County will fall in district six. We will be a separate district from a lot of our current regional partners like Linn County, Blackhawk County, Buchanan County, So we're still like that tip of District 6. So of the 14 counties within District 6, the only county that has expressed interest in fulfilling that lead entity role is actually Mahaska County, and that is just due to the amount of staff time and administrative burden, um, becoming the lead entity will require, um, a lot of the other counties just within our district, including Benton. Um, it's just would not be optimal. Um, so their public health department is hospital based there through the Mahaska health system, uh, out of Oskaloosa. Um, so myself and other local public health directors, Within District 6, we've all been meeting regularly for quite a few months to kind of learn more from their team. I anticipate later this summer or early this fall, their public health department's leadership will likely want to come talk to you guys, come talk to the Board of Health about why they want to be the lead entity for District 6. So then starting July 1st of 2028, HHS funds will no longer cover certain responsibilities that are required by counties, by local boards of health. One of the main things would be isolation and quarantine actions for serious illnesses such as infectious tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria. Counties then assume all financial, accountability for that. Ideally it would be Mahaska are going to be contracting with us other departments in kind of public health service delivery within our communities focusing on three areas which is communicable and infectious disease control, chronic disease and injury prevention, and then environmental public health. Biggest thing is on the back half of that one pager, which is really just what is staying the same. So county autonomy one pager, which is really just what is staying the same. So county autonomy already their required responsibilities. Counties will continue to employ their own staff, continue to contract for services and collaborate with partners as we choose. We'll still continue our existing partnerships, including those with departments that are in other districts. So we're still going to be collaborating. just as we are now with Lynn and Blackhawk and kind of all of our other counties that we currently partner with. Local providers are still going to continue to contract directly with HHS for certain programs. One of those would be like the private well grants program. And then local departments are still going to continue to provide county specific data, such as with our community health needs assessment that is specific to them. All that to say, this is kind of the information that they have released at this time regarding local public health service system alignment. It is all subject to change, so this is just kind of the first installment of some updates that I wanted to share with you guys. Any questions?

They said to pay much for anything more on those. that won't be covered things?

Is there any other? They haven't said. As of right now, that's kind of one of the main things that I think they wanted to put out there would be those financial responsibilities coming with isolation and quarantine orders. they haven't said anything additional yeah exactly and that's yeah um so yeah that is kind of another yeah one of those things that is falling from state responsibility onto counties

Is this affecting some of the grant work you do in the city?

So as of FY27, no. Our local public health services contract, there have been no changes in relation to this. As of next year, that could change. this process mostly shifts kind of a lot of that grant work from being you know instead of us collaborating as much with HHS we would be collaborating more with the lead entity within our district so much of our work at this time stays the same it's more kind of just an organizational element at this time. Again, all subject to change.

Do you do many of these private well grants?

We do private well grants.

But according to this, they have some kind of deal that somebody can sign up for a grant? What do you mean?

I'm not sure what you're saying in part here.

Well, in the brochure it says, local providers will continue contracting directly with Iowa HHS for certain programs such as private well grants and certain high morbidity programs.

Yes, so we have our contract with Iowa HHS for the private well grant. And as far as I know, they decided that they're not going to be changing any of that. I think they're going to want us to do additional responsibilities, but we don't know what exactly this will look like yet for our department.

But my question was, have you done in the past grants for private wells or no? Yeah. Yeah. Just not the permitting, but...

to help get funds right so the private will grant helps cover free testing that we advertise for we can offer reimbursement for coordination and reconstruction uh plug-in um and assessments so that's the services that we utilize so okay so that also

they'll plug in the wells also and everything got it got it so when you see your claims something like well reimbursement that's coming from the grant okay got it yep yep so yeah this is basically just saying that element is going to stay the same as it is at this point in time perfect and we just signed a three-year contract for that okay i have no more questions

okie-dokie and yeah if leadership from Mahaska County does reach out and is looking to kind of come in front of you guys and speak I can definitely kind of make that connection thank you

Well, how about any reports? Got anything?

Public Health Friday. This coming Friday. I attended the Linn County Board of Supervisors meeting. An hour and a half in, they still were having public comments. Five minutes per person. I did get up to make a comment and assume that we know that things are going to happen again down the line. And even though we can't input it in, we want to be in the room and write it so we get the information early and clearly firsthand instead of waiting six months or two months to find out what's going on. I ask for that consideration . I don't know if they will, but it's out there. And then I wanted to give you some updates on the wellness numbers. Online assessments, we're currently at 50.83%. This is in May. When we find out what happened in June, we should receive our first point with a total of four points to give us because it saves us money. It's all, it's working, but we need more involvement. Instead of people, we want people to wait to get this done. And hopefully the department has. Josh was given $100 that he wanted to grant. And Thursday I have parking in Tama, which is always a fun meeting. I'll probably stop. It all depends on when that gets over. If I have time, I'll stop by your office on the way back and drop off all the information that I have. If not, I'll scan it. Yeah. That's fine.

Sandra.

Randy Patton is seeking approval to change the use of approximately 6.26 acres of land to allow for a single family dwelling. The property is located approximately one mile west of Ben Horne in the 700 block of 19th Avenue Ben Horne within the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter and the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 16 township 83 north range 11 west within Union Township. The proposal concerns a 6.26 acre parcel, which the applicant owns. The area of this request has a weighted average corn suitability rating of 83, indicating high quality farmland. However, the parcel has not been used for agricultural production since at least the 1930s. That's just as far back as we can look on aerials. The property borders Terra Hills Country Club to the north and west. To the east, there are scattered single family dwellings and agricultural row crops. and to the south there are agricultural row crops. Access to the property will be via an existing driveway which was reviewed and approved by Dan McKenna from Secondary Roads. The property is accessed from 19th Avenue, a gravel county road with an average annual daily traffic count of 90 vehicles. The dwelling will require a new septic system. The applicant is considering utilizing rural water, but if not possible, the request will require the installation of a private water well. Both the septic and the well will be permitted by the department. Five notification letters were sent to adjacent property owners, and legal notices were published in Benton County's official newspapers, as required by ordinance. The Benton County Land Use Office received one public comment concerning this request, which I will read at the end of the report. This request is located on a parcel with high quality farmlands that has not been used for agricultural production since at least the 1930s. The area involved in the request is an abandoned railroad track. In addition, the request is buffered from agricultural operations to the east by roadway and to the north by the country club. Therefore, this request is not likely to interfere seriously with farm operations in the area. The surrounding area is primarily agricultural with scattered single-family dwellings. In addition, the property is located within a mile of Bent Horn city limits. Therefore, this request should not materially alter the stability of the overall land use pattern in the area. According to the Benton County Land Preservation and Use Plan, it is policy to provide limited and low density single-family dwellings within the general rural use area upon a fair and equitable evaluation. For the reasons reported, this request has been found to be consistent with this policy and all other applicable policies of the plan. And now I'm going to share the public comment we received. This comment came from a neighbor within 500 feet of the request. She said, and these are her words, I'm just concerned about how the work will affect local neighbors, farmland, and the golf course in regards to how he plans to install utilities. And when I asked her what exactly she meant, she said, not necessarily electric lines, since there are lines along the road he can attach to, but more along the lines of natural gas. Will he be using gas or propane, since the gas lines do not currently go there, and he would have to tear up 19th Avenue from 17th Street to his property to get it? Also, building up his property for construction, will that negatively impact the neighboring farmland and golf course? The land on the north side of the golf course already floods and affects travel. I'd hate to see it get worse. So the land north of his request is in flood zone. And I did reach out to DNR Field Office 1. I talked to Michelle Smith. She's part of the flood zone program. She said she has no concerns about this request needing a floodplain permit as the nearby creek drains less than five square miles. Also, none of the part of the property is in a flood zone. I don't know if Mr. Patton wanted to comment on if he plans using gas or propane. And I don't think you're planning on building up the property when everything's cleared out.

Yeah, so I don't see natural gas being used, I guess. I didn't even know what was being used in the area.

And I will say if they do have to do construction in the area, the utility company would have to pull floodplain permits through the state and the county as well so any work that is requires utility work would have to be abide by the floodplain permit to prevent any potential um kind of issues with you know affecting floodplain in the area i talked already see they can trench it in or you know you know it'll all stay right on the

So, sort of checking all that. You guys have any other questions I can answer?

You all have to have septic tank then, right?

Yeah, septic permit or septic system. We'll have to, we haven't done a solid evaluation. We don't do those until they are approved.

This is the first step.

And we went to the area, we took pictures, he has enough room to be able to install something and maintain setbacks from properties. And that was actually one of, she asked other questions and I responded to them and she was satisfied with those. This was the final question that she wanted more information on.

You'll probably hook up to roll water, right?

That is something that I'd have to do paid to get a, the rural water, you have to pay them to do a study or whatever to allow, they just don't do it for free. It's on the north side of the, so if you, across the road from the golf course, on the north side, it goes right along there.

That's right. Okay. A house on the corner don't have water, rural water?

I'm not sure.

Okay. Yeah, because nobody lives on your, or your mile there.

Right, so it'd have to be brought up to it. Yeah. But it is on the north side of the road going along there. It's very close.

Well, gentlemen, you know all about this property. We sold it.

Yes, we did.

Yeah, yeah.

They've all been victims. I don't have any problems. I would make a motion to approve this land use change. Okay. I second that motion.

Call for a vote.

Tippett, aye.

Seaman, aye.

Bowles, aye. Thank you.

And do you want me to email you the compliance certificate or not?

Email, sir. Anything else needed from me? No. All right. You betcha. Have a good day. Or somewhere. See you later. Somewhere.

We're all the way up to Myron. See we got a new, we paid for a truck, if you don't like it.

Yep, it's out there. See you there Friday.

Bruce, back to Linn County, are they doing a moratorium as well?

18 of them.

There's quite a few counties right now in the same process. Yes. Ringgold County was, we talked about it at our summer conference last week.

Yeah, it was voted on two to three to approve the moratorium.

Is that something we're even interested in doing?

I think that...

Ray and Eric are working on something to bring to us. My feeling is we have the strictest land use in Iowa of the 99 counties. Me personally, I don't think we need it.

It's kind of a security blanket for people. If we had that, we've got this ordinance and we have a moratorium.

Because the only thing that I look at is that your towns can still, if we put one in, the towns can still do what they want to do.

Yeah, it has nothing to do with it. Yeah. We don't have any control of that. So if it's inside the city limits, then we're...

Doesn't matter.

Right. What's the area around the city that they can... Two miles.

Two miles they can control?

Yeah.

Yeah. So... I know there's a term for it. Yeah.

I don't know what that is. I don't know what that is either. I think that's what Lynn County's been doing. They've been putting everybody inside the city limits so that the county doesn't have any... I did the one, the gal that I was sitting next to at this meeting, and she'd called me to that before. Just got an eviction notice from a property from the owner of the He owns a couple of data centers. And he owns the property that she was renting and she got evicted. Guess what's going to go there? Like a little boy.

Well I attended the one there at the Legion Hall Tuesday night in Atkins. And I mean it was, they did a good presentation. what's going on. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was nice. I mean, for information that didn't know all was going on, I mean, it was well done.

People were really civil at Linn County, and of course, Kirsten reminded everybody that, hey, everybody has an opinion, and we have to be respectful of that, which was, I'm glad she did that. But one of the biggest concerns people had was that the lack of knowledge as to the effects. What's it going to do to the air? What's it going to do to our water? What's it going to do to this? And even though it was expressed that that information is forthcoming, everyone says, we want that information first. two lakes. Yeah, we're way down the road. Yeah, we wanna know what's going on before we move any further. And I don't disagree with that at all.

Okay, Meyer.

That was a naughty one. It's red flags and everything. That was a white one. That was pretty.

From a couple weeks ago or yesterday? I noticed two this morning on the way to work.

Yeah, I haven't been on that road for a while.

I'd say there was one medium to north of town a few weeks ago that was pretty bad.

Yeah, yeah.

But I noticed two this morning coming to work. Yeah.

one right at the power line and one up by Becker's driveway.

Three resolutions for you to approve hopefully this morning, but the contractor that replaced the box culvert out here just on the west edge of Fitton, where 13th Street ends, basically. Based on the map, I think that box culvert was two feet from touching the city limits, approximately. But got that replaced, poured last week. In my discussions with them on the phone, I have a bad metal pipe down on 31st Avenue between 79th and the Benton Lynn Road. they were gonna replace with an eight by three box culvert. They moved in yesterday and I'm just asking from a resolution standpoint to formally close that road for the length of period we need to construct that, which the way they've been moving right now, it'll be probably about a three week closure.

And that is number 60?

That is number 60. to make sure they fall in line. If the numbering scheme didn't change from yesterday, that was the numbering scheme I was given.

I'll make a motion to accept resolution 2660 for the road closure on 79th Street in .

I'll second that. Okay, call for a vote. Depp, aye. Kamen, aye.

Looking through my notes recently, I realized that Barb Norton, who I hired as my office manager in my office back in January, makes six months Sunday the 12th. Incorporated with her higher resolution was to consider a $1,000 raise at six months and a $1,000 raise again after one year. However, looking at some minutes, trying to find something else here in the last couple days, I did run across the fact that the clerk that was hired in the auditor's office was has the resolution that the salary for that person after six months was going to be set at $50,000. I hired my office manager at $47,500. And so my request today is to reconsider the $1,000 increase and change that I don't know. I guess I'm torn between $1,500 or $2,000, I guess. But I was going to ask if you would consider increasing that $1,000 that we talked about back in January.

I would consider the increase with the... Engineer's recommendation? I don't know.

Want to split the difference?

$1,750. All right. With you? Yes. Yep. All right. With you guys? Yep. You're doing good work, or my review got me here. No, she's caught on great. She's been through some winter. Dust control, contract trucks. Answering the phone. Answering the phone, payroll, claims, and the auditor's office can attest if there's been any problems there because we enter all of that stuff. All of that stuff, we enter into the Tyler system before they see it, so they don't have to enter our information. They just have to review it.

Okay. I'll make a motion to approve Resolution 2661, salary increase for Bard-Norton, $1,750, studies alike. I'll second that.

All for a vote. Tippett, aye. Newman, aye. Wilson, aye.

What's that? Didn't I? When you replied, didn't you receive attachments? I realize that. It's summer.

We have other things on our minds.

The third resolution I had for you this morning going through my records also 32nd Avenue Drive had a bridge on it between 75th and 76th last year. We tore that out and started building the box culvert and then mother nature got cold and we couldn't do the dirt work until the spring. We did the dirt work this spring, I think opened that road in May, but that old bridge had a weight limit on it. The new box culvert would no longer need a weight limit, so I have a resolution removing the bridge embargo for that structure, located a half mile between 75th and 76th on 32nd Avenue Drive. Resolution number 62.

I would make the motion to approve resolution 2662 for removing the weight limit.

Second. Okay. Call for a vote. Tippett, aye. Seaman, aye. Wolsey, aye.

Anything else? No, I don't have anything for the order of you guys. I was trying to think if there was some info I had to just offer generally or not. Last Wednesday, we started second shot applications for dust control. Should finish that up tomorrow. We've had an abundance of rain in the month of June. I think my son who works for an agronomy company commented that the month of June has been one of the top five wettest Junes in the last 134 years or so. We have found some metal pipes that showing their age and concerns that we are working on right now. Yes, they did. The DOT installed it from what I can see. I don't know how that worked.

They worked super late here.

A week ago Thursday night or two weeks ago, I don't remember if it was Wednesday night or Thursday night, but they were still out there working at 7.30, I think it was. The lights were still flashing on their equipment, but I think they work 4.10s right now, so I think they were trying to get what they could get done before the weekend. I know it was, I think, usable that weekend, and they had to come back and dress things up. But yeah, from what I could see, it was the OT equipment that did that, so I don't know what arrangement the church had with the state, but they now have twin tubes in there. It's all fixed back up and that entrance is usable for that church.

I had a couple called here and left who gave They're worried about 32nd Avenue where we're going to oil and chip. They don't want you to start on it until they get the high line through there. They're worried about getting the new oil and chip being done and then Them putting the new trucks in there, and I can't remember if the High Line does go through there at the half mile line, don't it? Yes, it does.

Yeah, it's right there. It goes through two of the McCagney's farms there south of the intersection.

So they were worried that something's going to happen here right shortly, and I said, I don't think it's going to happen as soon as you would like. Am I correct?

Correct. The exact timing isn't set yet, but I know that... I believe all of the poles are set, I think up to 30th, between 30th and the county line. I'm not sure how much they've got started there. They've started delivering poles. I know I've seen, like I said, driving up between, I noticed Watkins particularly, all those poles, to that point are up but i think a lot of them are up till 30th right now also when i go north that way i haven't seen much activity going east yet but i know that They were hoping to be done with that power line in Benton County sometime in August is what their superintendent has told us earlier this spring, summer, and things are going pretty good at that pace that they should be done. And I know that there's the pickets have a wedding reception that is using their machine shed in september and they're they can work around whatever we do as long as they can get there they'll just tell people whether they need to come in from a given direction okay okay and then my other question was uh on the dust controls you guys weren't running around with the brooms sweeping off some of these

Oil slugs for you.

We did a couple that appeared to have the chips collected quite heavily outside of the wheel path. I know we did that long one. I think we did both of them north of Walford and there were two or three others. But they had, I don't know that I really want to call them an excess amount of chips from the first application, it's just that the chips were collected quite heavily in kind of a one row based on the traffic moving them and felt it was thicker than you would want before the second application was applied.

Okay, you just kind of more or less spread them out, you didn't throw them in the dish? I don't think so.

At the most, it would have been off to the edge and incorporated into the windrow that's there.

That's all I've got for you.

Last Wednesday and Thursday, we got stickers put on what signs we have out there that say speed limit 55. Exception I learned this morning is I missed one north garrison, so we'll need to do that, but I counted. 25 signs that we had out in the county that needed stickers put on And so we were able to do that last Wednesday and Thursday easily You did the stickers instead of the sign then? Yes Actually they came quickly I ordered them It came in less than a week, I think. I'm guessing that Iowa Prison had them all made up and they threw them in the mail the minute the order was placed because it seemed like they didn't follow the same timeline as most of the stuff I get from them. Usually it's got to be made and then shipped, but these were here quickly.

I saw they were sharing that notice out.

sign is still posted 55 you have to abide by it until the new signs are there whatever's posted that the ag had reviewed and said was legal so yeah so you don't have to replace the signs then just the stickers and that's good for right now that's good for right now i will replace them either as the sticker comes off or as the sign fades but the sticker is a is an acceptable practice good and it was a quick and easy way to go address those so yeah i think those stickers were between four and five bucks and those signs are yeah um between $35 and $40 apiece. We were guessing right around $100 when we get all.

Okay, that's good.

All right, that's all I have.

Thank you. So do you want to... Are we all writing them on? Yes. You want to stop the meeting now and just end it, period?

Yeah, because I can't live stream when we're out going anyway. You what? I can't live stream this while we're out. Yeah, correct. So I would just say you're adjourning so that we can go on that tour.

Okay. I make a motion to adjourn so we can tour again.

I'll second that. Okay, call for a vote. Chippewa, aye. Seaman, aye. Wolf, aye.