Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

All right, good morning everybody. It's Tuesday, April 7th, 2026. My name is Don Smiker. I'm going to call the Jackson County Board of Supervisors meeting to order. To my left, I have Mike Steinus. To my right, I have Nin Flegel. Got Bjorn from IT, Lisa from the auditors, Britney back in the press box, and first up today is we have visitors and citizens. Is there anybody here that would like to address the board today not listed on the agenda? We got Michael. Okay. Hearing none, we'll go proceed to prevention coalition board chair Scott Warren and DFC project court director Karen Wells. You're up.

Good morning. Morning. Good morning. Thank you for having us. Morning. Morning.

Yes. I believe you received the written information that we provided. Um, as a prevention coalition, we would ask that you consider terminating the DFC contract, uh, providing 30 days uh, notice to the employee. Um, we would also ask that you consider continuing that grant on an interim basis with Julie Fern. She's in no way in no way interested in a full-time position, but on an interim basis for a 30-day period, she would go ahead and continue with that grant. We would also ask that you consider looking for another notfor-profit organization that could provide leadership to it. Uh if that does not work, um looking to post a position uh and working to hire or rehire that position. Um as you know, we have about two and a half years left on that grant. So just wanted to come before supervisors and put that out there and u get your input, answer any questions you might have. Does anybody have any questions for Scott or Karen?

So Julie was in the in that position previously. Is there um a reason to or discontinue the program as it as it's working at present time?

Um we would we would continue the grants. I would I wouldn't recommend that you return the grant at this point in time. We still feel confident that we can uh meet the grant objectives uh which obviously whoever is in that position uh would be ultimately responsible. We as prevention coalition our board provides um assistance to that individual to meet the grant expectations. So working with Julie would be at a per hour basis between the supervisors and then uh and then her. Like I said, she has no interest in it as a full-time position. she has a full-time job. She would just hate to see it um kind of fall through the cracks or us not be able to uh meet those key objectives uh collectively. Um, if we act on your recommendation and we look to somebody else, we when we went through this, I would assume that we would either have coalition assistance or whatever because evidently objectives that we were looking at weren't the same as what the coalition was doing. So, um,

we would we would love that. Yeah, we would love the opportunity to work in partnership with you guys and identifying a good solution. And I think 30-day interim period gives us that that time to do that.

So, you're looking for discussion and action. Uh is is if if we did that, the 30-day notice would go out first or how how does the process? I I would believe that would be Yeah, that would be step is that our action item? I would see Yeah, I would see that. And then um yeah as a step two would be an interim action and then step three would be looking for a permanent solution as I would see it. Those coming to the board.

So there ain't no fixing or other educational routes we can take at this point in time. I would not see that.

So the motion would be to discontinue um with the project coordinator as is and to or is the motion to approve the 30-day notice? I would see approving. Where would it need to be? Motion to I would say that you need a motion to um I would say that you need a motion to approve and authorize the chair signature on a 30-day termination notice of the contract between Jackson County and Don Nelson as the drug-free communities project coordinator effective April 7th, 2026.

Uh I would make that motion. I would second that. We got a motion by Mike, second by N to repeat that to approve and authorize the chair signature on a 30-day termination notice of a contract between Jackson County and Don Nelson as the director free communities project coordinator effective April 7th, 2026. Any other discussion? Again, I would just like to add going forward, we need to have some immediate communications between the board and the coalition to kind of rectify the shortcomings between what we did and what you're looking for because um it's unfortunate we're in this position all the way around.

So, agreed. With any other discussion, all those in favor say I. I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you for what you've done. Is there any on the requirements to be done before a time period? I think as far as um the 30 days. Yeah, we'll address that and go move forward. Thank you very much. All right. I don't see our reporter here. over. Um, I don't see Den here. Um, knock on the door.

Morning. We have Jaden Shekele, the county engineer, to give us an update on a few things. Good morning. Good morning. Well,

on our agenda is discussion and action on fiscal year 27 contract rock home. So, as part of our fiscal year 27 budget, um we did budget money for the producers to not only supply us rock, but for them to actually haul the two roads. Um this is an attempt to try to resurface some of our reclaim roads that were done in year one and year two. So, we picked about 50 miles approximately throughout the county on on various roads that were done either year one or year two um just to resurface them at about 400 tons per month just because you know so they had some major re-rocking done with the reclaim year one and two which is probably getting to be at least two years old at this point and they won't get hit again until we get a full site or until our whole uh initial cycle of weakling throughout the county is completed. So it could be another two years before they were to see some uh resurfacing. So this is an attempt to get them along until we hit it again. So um provided the map of the 50-ish miles of road. We sent bid documents to the four producers um in our that supply rock to us in this county. Um the bid tab was provided as well. and we split it up each district for us. Our our outlying shop areas we put as like a separate project. So a producer that way we don't one producer doesn't serve all of our shops if that's the case or that's and that's the way this ended up being is that different providers producers I should say um will supply rack to different districts where they were the lowest. Um, so Wling Quarries was the predominant one supplying to most of the areas, but we did also have Bard and River City Stone

um supplying to some of our districts. And again, so this is for them to not only supply the rock, but for them to haul. And um just kind of interesting that their cost to haul it is actually less than our cost. um mainly due to one they can haul depending on what trucks they use. I mean they can haul easily twice as much as what we can. So less trips for them. Um and they just have more staff to do that and then it also frees up our staff to go do other things. like they'll be busy reclaunching, don't get me wrong, but instead of having to find guys to go resurface these roads, they can the resurfacing get done and then our guys can also, you know, get caught up or try to get caught up on some of the ditching work throughout the county or patching, whatever work that comes up throughout the summer. So, we talked about this during the budget season and we analyzed where our cost savings would be, of course. So, it goes all back to like, you know, time constraints. Um, again, cost. Does it make sense that they can haul it cheaper? Well, you know, it's kind of it's got it's pretty amazing. But not only does does it save us revenue there, it also saves us wear and tear on our equipment that we're not running back and forth. And they have, you know, I hear every all the good things when they're cutting this brush and and doing these, you know, and good thing about our road. So um

and when and when they do this we will they're supposed to as part of the documents they uh you know supposed to give us x amount of days of uh heads up so that way we can staff when they start doing to have a motor operator there to you know when they start dumping to blade the roads and so it's not just case you get piles of rock or something but we will have this well I would sure hope it's a coordination because um I would assume that we're going to inspect these type of situations too as ongoing to say hey yeah that's sufficient Who's going to who's going to track this for us as far as like the tickets or making sure that they

to make sure that we're getting the tonnage out there or you know who's tracking or telling them like are we telling them which routes to take so that they're not taking these heavy loads over roads and beaten them down and now we need more rock on these roads because they've called these heavy loads or that they're not taking a road that has a restricted weight limit and well they don't really care. They're going to go across that bridge anyhow and now we have more bridge closed rivers or

Yeah. So our office staff will be the ones to when we do this process to verify all that and to also uh like depending on what size of trucks they want to use, you know, to get it at 400 tons per mile, a truck in theory should at a certain speed should go so far. So we'll be out there to start I was going to say who's who's Yeah. and who's making sure we're getting that because if they're bringing different trucks, you know, you know, maybe they're hauling with a dump truck, but then maybe they're hauling with a belly dump or whatever. That's going to give you different lengths that they need to be traveling, obviously, as you know. But

so to me, that seems like a pretty simple calculation. I mean, if you got five miles and it takes 400 ton whatever. Yes. You know how many's on each truck and you got the tickets for that and if it's not covered if your explanation was like a half inch. Yeah. I mean that's what it equates to you know. So I'm just saying or you know we're sprinkling it under. So we should be able to calculate if they turn their tickets in per road. Yeah.

So basically you have one on say dump trucks for example they have just like what we do. It's basically be the same process we do for reclaim is set their chains up when we first get going to let the rock dump out and then they'll adjust their speed because one truck and say has I don't know just random this many tons well to that many tons on so many tons per mile basically that truck should go x distance down the road so how fast does or slow does he need to go to dump that load so um same as our reclaim process and

I was going to say will this kind of piggyback on the reclaim process because you were talking about a lot of the roads that we need to do now are getting farther away from the quaries to the point where it wasn't maybe as cost effective for our guys to haul that rock back and forth and you were thinking of contracting the transport. I mean, can we utilize this for that as well? So, we didn't have that in the budget as far as in the reclaimed part of the budget, but no. And the problem with that is when they would that be nice. Yes. But I just worry that you know when they're going to haul rock like they want to haul a bunch of rock and we may only have a maybe at best on any given day a half mile of or less of rock or road ready to be rocked and

where they would want to probably have miles so they could just dele delegate the staff to it and just haul the rock. I can't see it would free our trucks up though to help in the reclimate. I think you guys are rocking the other road, you know. Well, if we're if we're a big client, you know, sometimes they'll help accommodate a little bit, but be worth asking, you know, to see if that can

I have heard from one of the producers uh yesterday that if this goes forward, they would actually want to start hauling um say in the Butler area as soon as possible before so that way they could utilize to your point then like the Bernard Road as their route before that closes for the overlay because that'll especially especially with the Cory being right there. Um that will make things a little difficult. So they would if this goes forward they would start doing that ASAP essentially and we would monitor the roads if it starts right now they're fine but knowing obviously you know why I don't but

you know them were things that I got told really need to be watched when you're doing this. So just kind of putting them out there that yeah cuz we we want that we want the 400 tons per mile but we also don't want to go overkill. We don't want 600 ton per mile because that comes out of the mean well and that's just going to leave you short somewhere. I mean obviously and and we want to make sure that we're getting what we say we're getting also. Well, and hope that our contractors and our people are are honest enough to do do our best and do our best. Saying it that way. I'm not saying that they're going to do us, but they've just Yeah. got watched.

Other counties have had where they thought this road got covered with 400 tons per mile. Well, it got shorted. Mhm. They didn't get all the road all the rock called there and they moved them on to someplace else. and that's his staff's monitoring. So, yeah.

And this will be the first time Jackson County's ever done this. So, I I'm hoping it goes really smooth, but you know, we we'll work out any uh speed bumps, if you will, along the way, no pun intended. But, uh I just I think this is a good start for us to I do foresee this in the future expanding to be more miles. um not to just copy what other counties do, but all our neighboring counties do this to a greater extent already. Um and we do have a completion date in here too that by like July 17th. So that way, you know, once you get mid July, end of August, it starts to get really dry, but we want that rock to kind of get seated as best as possible. So not to say if weather say you get end of July or August where it starts to maybe get some rains where that completion date can maybe extend but um point being you know they would get all this rock called ideally right by mid July. So, we continually try to improve and we hope this will be improvement. Also, um just a little bit before the motion while we're talking about rock in your budget, there was a substantial amount of rock to one one producer like 110,000. So, I just want to make sure that we confirm to the public that that all did not get dispersed in the last snowfall. It's still on the road. So, Um the roads are actually really

the roads are really good. Really good right now. Not good, but um been going well, but we did have some comments on that. You know, they're going to plow all that rock and they know actually the guys did really good. Well, they landed on the side of the road from what I could see and then they brought it back. Yeah. So, all right. So what's the motion with the So I guess I would say how do you want to work this because I look at your your agenda and cut calling to the rock producers as presented.

So yeah, how do you want to word it, Lisa? So, I potentially would say I would take a motion to approve an authorized chair signature on the contracts for project 2027-461 between Jackson County and Bard Materials Inc. for $33,143. River City Stone, a division of Ma Matthew Construction Company, Inc. for $44,811 and wetling quaries for $189,252,000 for Rock and Hall approximately. Yeah, I would make that motion. I would second.

Got a motion by Den, second by Mike to do what Lisa said and approve the rock contracts as presented for the coming year. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries.

Um, and then an update. I know I sent out a road notification last week. Um, and I know I updated you, Britney, as well. Um, but to any of those watching today or that will watch this yet tonight, starting tomorrow, um, the bridge on 362nd Avenue, aka Z15, will be closed for replacement starting tomorrow. and it'll last approximately four months. The detour route signage should be going up today. So, there will be the detour route, but just to make the public aware since that is a heavily traveled paved road will close.

Oh, yeah. In a little better description is the road from Bel to Spring, correct? Those around the area, the Spring Brook Highway is what it's commonly referred to. And a brief update on the Preston shop.

Yes. So last well the Thursday night there was a what it sounds like a confirmed EF1 tornado in the Clinton southern Jackson northern Clinton County area. Um our Preston one of our shops at our Preston shop area did receive some substantial damage. Um, so more than likely I view that till I talk to you further, but I assume that that uh structure which acts more of a storage shed for our equipment like tractor and whatnot, it's probably a total loss. the roof came off and so we're working through that on how we I'll work with you Lisa and the insurance on next steps and ultimately try to replace that shop because our sheds we need that shed was used all the time to store random piece of equipment whether it was a tractor at the time or not a grater but our various um equipment that we use. So,

so when you say the roof is gone, is it tin gone or are we talking roof is gone? Raptors, everything. Uh the tin and some of the rafters and it's a big hole. Yeah, it's a So, is it uh something that we need to have a contractor look at and see if it's fixable, salvageable, or total loss? Yes, I'll probably do. I'll have to probably defer to Lisa on those further discussions. First thing I can do is get a contractor in and have the contractor um you know give an opinion as far as the extent of the damage and if it is help. Okay. Yeah. So even Yeah. Or have Jeff maybe take a look at me that way too. He's familiar with we're going to need something to work with something. Okay. Yep.

I can do that. But so yeah. Uh overall I guess it's we did there were some other residents that have significantly more damage. So at least everybody's safe. That's the biggest thing in any situation. But yes, we did receive some damage and we will work through that best we can. And Channel, yeah, they should actually be pouring the pier cap today. Uh so sorry, uh the north pier that they had the column and footing poured. They should be ready to pour that pier cap, the canal levered part, uh today. And they're working on the coffer dam for the south pier. So,

we're making good progress. And there's been a lot of dirt work up until this rain last week for all the embankment fill coming in, but obviously with the rain, dirt's pretty wet, so it can't compact very well. So, that's basically at a halt right now. But bridge other components of the bridge construction are still moving forward. But just in that time of year where we do get frequent rains, so nothing's delayed. It's all on track. It's just two contractors working simultaneously. It looks like rain's in the forecast for the next week. So, it's a nice problem to have because we were definitely short. But back here, Preston, did it do any damage to any equipment inside like the door falling on the tractor or anything?

Thankfully, no. Just uh uh the beacon light on the top was damaged, which is pretty minimal in the grand scheme of things, but no glass, no cab, no. I mean, no, it's actually far fairly well there, too. All right. All right. Anything else for Jade? Was there a question in the back? Somebody had a hand up. Yeah, the county needs all new buildings for the shops. Can you Can you introduce yourself? I'm Dale Hoger. Okay. But anyhow, I was wondering the rent check went through for the farm. Yes, it did. Did it? Okay. I'll just check it though. That's all I need to know. So, thanks, D. Yep.

All right. Thanks, Jen. Appreciate it. Next up, we got Jennifer Jones from the corner's office. Good morning. Good morning. Just here with my March month. How's it going? It's going very well. Yes, very well. I put my head in once in a while and everything's everything's peachy. I can't I can't imagine it's that peachy, but you know, it is pretty intense. No, I've got knocking on some I've got great girls. Awesome. Yeah. And thankfully we're kind of hitting our busy time of year. So tariffs is learning super fast, faster than I would have expected. What does that mean? You're busy.

Um yeah, so of course boats have really really picked up. Side by sides really haven't never slowed down. Real estate. Of course, we're seeing a large uptake. People are buying and selling now that the weather's getting nice. Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. No, it's still great. So what do you got for us today? just my monthly report. So instead of me presenting the report, um I thought it would be appropriate to have Jennifer come in to present the report for the um month of March. The reporter fees that have been collected. I didn't see it, but I didn't print it. So if they want to briefly It looks like the total is $43,42252.

Yep. Any highlights or red flags? Nope. Okay. Not at all. Well, that's pretty easy. And we'll say move. Well, we appreciate, you know, uh again that the work you guys do and that you're everything's working out good and I hope that continues. You did. I do too. And good luck in November. Thank you. So we need a motion to approve the reporter's report of So what I would say is we need a motion to accept place on file and authorized chair and auditor signatures on the county reporters report of fees collected for the month of March 2026 the amount of $43,42252.

I'll second that. Got a motion by Mike, second by N to approve and place on file um by recorders report for fees collected for the month of March in the amount of $43,42252. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion carries. Good job. Thank you. All right. Have a good day. Next up, we have Lisa. Uh good morning. This morning I need a motion to approve the March 31st, 2026 meeting and work session minutes as written by auditor fifth and authorized publication the official newspaper. I'd make that motion.

Got a motion by n second by Mike to approve the minutes of the March 31st, 2026 meeting and work sessions as written by Auditor Smith and authorized publication in the official newspapers. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. I need a motion to approve and authorize the auditor's office to issue warrants in the publication of the claims listing in the amount of $400,84723 cents. Move to approve. I would second that.

Good. A motion by Mike, second by N to approve the auditor's office to issue warrants and the publication of the claims listing in the amount of $400,847 23. Um, any other discussion? And just know that there's a $26,000 uh waste authority payment. There's a $44,000 towards the second Tahoe for the sheriff's office. We got $39,000 for salt, $111,000 for rock, and I'm assuming the 12,000 for the environmental health study, the uh um virtual study for the county sanitarium. That's her software license, so she can do some of her stuff via the computer. and then about 36,000 in dental insurance which makes up almost threequarters of those expenses. So, any other discussion? All those in favor say I.

I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. I need a motion to approve the renewal of a class C retail alcohol license to Parker's Pit Stop LLC at 29418 Highway 52 Belleview effective April 4th, 2026 through April 3rd, 2027. I would make that motion. I would second. We got a motion by N, second by Mike to approve the renewal of a class C retail alcohol license to Parker's Pit Stop LLC at 29418 52nd Highway 52 Belleview effective for April 2026 through 3 April 2027. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

I. Opposed. Motion carries. I need a motion to accept the resignation of Lori Barren from the Jackson County Historic Preservation Commission effective March 31st, 2026. I would make that motion and thank her for her service and wish her best. I would second that. Got a motion by Mike, second by N to accept the resignation letter of Lori Barren from the Jackson County Historic Preservation Commission effective March 31st, 2026 and extend our gratitude for her service and everything she did during that her time with us. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

I. Opposed? Motion carries. I'll bet I have you with you today. And while we're talking, I'll go ahead and we can just address uh the the letters that got sent out for taxes to inform us what the county tax is going. There was a statement on there. We've received a couple of questions and concerns about it as far as statement on there saying that part of the reason taxes went up was because of expenses for the jail staff and and different thing. And understand that um revenues in general are going up. Mhm.

Uh that was one of the bigger areas where expenses did go up. So it was a generic way of saying this isn't a way to single out the jail staff or the sheriff's department in any way. It was just that's that was the in the intent was the biggest thing. Um understand that some of those expenses are the contracted prisoners that come into the county. But also with that expense, we also have the revenue. It's just with expenses going up on that side. Uh it looks a little different right now. So

yeah. No, actually with when we reworked the contract as far as the jail staff there, it was it was basically an even wash from the part-time overtime to the um putting down a couple actually. So I mean of course obviously our insurance rates weren't up. I mean and very minimal. Um your tax levy as it stands be very minimal. So appreciate everybody's concern. Thanks for calling and asking questions if there explanations you're doing and we appreciate everybody's work on this process. Is there that's all you got? That's all I got for the board today. Thank you.

Is there anything else for the good of the meeting? I will say I do have something. We had a um the WMA um uh the Makoka River Water Management Authority um Aaron Ericson has been our director for quite a while but she's accepted another position we found out last week. So she will be moving on to be the watershed manager for the city of Cedar Rapids and it's quite an upgrade compared to to our wershed. So we extend our gratitude for everything that she did with our WMA as she looks forward and then in the next month or so we're going to figure out and look to replacing her in her capacity. So that's the big thing going on.

She's a lot of good work there. We thank her for her time and her service also. Yes. Nice. Um, as happens every week I drive by the transfer station, so I get curious and I made a phone call to the director and uh, and don't everybody get all wound up here, but he says soon. So soon is soon, I hope. And 2026, he guaranteed not to elaborate, but he said it should be within two weeks. So, that's that's a lot closer than we've been. We uh

steel the steel is on the inside. The conduit, the tubes are up, the doors are on, the motors are on the doors, and we're just pulling wires and hooking them up. biggest thing we want to do is thank the citizens of Jackson County for their patience. It's a shame it's taken this long to get it fixed, but when you're dealing with insurance companies and all that kind of stuff and fire marshals and chains of supply and takes time, you know, all that everything needs to come together. We will be rolling again and it will he says it is a really nice facility. Yeah. All right. for anything else for the good of the meeting. No further business. I make a motion we adjourn. We do have a couple work sessions. So, yep. I will second that.

Got a motion by Mike, second by N to adjurnn. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Have a good day everybody. Motion carries. We are adjourned. Go out and enjoy the sunshine before the rain comes in the next week. her tongue.