Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Agenda was posted on time, but the thing just didn't go. My computer, I had to restart it, and it was spinning. So if you didn't get the email until like 9, 10, you didn't notice.

It was posted on time. I looked at it last night. Speaking of the agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. I'll second.

Call for a vote.

Tippett, aye. Siemen, aye.

Bowles, aye. How about the minutes? I read them over. I saw nothing that needed any improvement, so I'll make a motion to approve the agenda.

I'll second that. Okay, call for a vote. Tippett, aye. Siemen, aye. Bowles, aye. EMS claims. Haven't seen them? I didn't see them. Okay.

I didn't get the email. Eric, how are you?

I'm here. There you go.

Oh, we're very active.

Eric, I'm going to forward you an email I got from the county. Sure. Regarding that EMS. Oh, okay. I had to explain that the levy, we had to reduce it even though we voted on 68 cents. Yeah. I was forced by the Department of Management to lower it. Yeah. Due to the TIF values now. Anyway, for us, it was like $44,000. We're still getting the same dollar amount like if we wouldn't. Yeah. They're looking at it differently because of that TIF dollars. So like some of the counties... got shorted like $370,000. So they actually did some kind of a mild pursuit. So they haven't bailed their tax date, which is pretty good.

That'd be interesting.

Yeah. So he's supposed to keep you posted on that. So I'm going to include you in some of those.

I would appreciate that. I would make a motion to approve the EMS claims as follows. Garrison first responders, $75. Garrison first responders, $89.99. Garrison first responders for $5.88.49. And the Atkins EMS radio equipment for $1,120 for a total of $1,873.48. And I will second that. Call for a vote. Tippett, aye. Sieman, aye. Wolin, aye.

Perfect.

Salute. For the Veterans Affairs Commissioner, I only saw one applicant. It was Mike Sohonic. He was already a current member. I just want to make sure.

Is Courtney going to come for this?

Let me run down next.

Big trials in the wings and everything's taken care of for just a little bit.

Discuss and approve vacation. I don't have a problem with it. He's going to be able to get it worked in.

He hasn't been able to do it so far. That's the worst part.

No, I'm fine with it. Can I get a motion then? I'll make a motion to approve Rick Wood's vacation carryover of 61.5 hours to be used by December 1st. I'll second that.

Okay. Call for a vote.

Tippett, aye. Seaman, aye. Wolves, aye. Do we need to initial one of these?

Nope. Those are just the quarterly reports. Ah, okay. This goes in as personnel, huh?

Then, I'll give that to her, too. I signed that one and then put a date on it.

To be used back?

Yeah, see that?

Yep.

That good? Yep. We've got a few minutes to kill reporters.

I had historical preservation last Thursday. I joined via Zoom. Really, they just wanted this going over the invoices for their convention that they attended. And we approved all the expenditures there and discussed a little bit about the event that we held. Everybody was happy the way it turned out and they're gonna brainstorm to try to continue to do something similar in the future. And I encourage them to do that. That's the only thing I have.

Might all stack up at the end of the month. As I think everybody's do.

I had Eastern Iowa Trust Fund, Housing Trust Fund. We had a special meeting last Thursday. I'll kind of pass this around. Did you print copies for them guys in the folder? I did not. Okay.

But I did post it to our bulletin.

You did?

I might put it on the website, too.

Okay. Well, anyway, they've got a new program, repair program, that lower-income people can qualify for. It goes from roofs to furnaces to water heaters. I think it has like sewer plumbing, windows. Yes, deck, windows, yes, up to $20,000 per house. It's got the criteria how on the main pamphlet what your income has to be or less. to qualify for this program. So I'm hoping some of the people in Benton County would apply for this. So I'm trying to get it out to information. I forwarded everything to Haley. And then it's got the second thing is that you got the criterias, how to qualify, how to apply for it and everything, which she has a copy of that too.

Did they say the lump sum that they have to pull out to everybody?

Yes. They said as of right now it's $224,000. Can we get a hold of city clerks?

and send them a pamphlet, and so that, because they would have a better handle on who. That would be all right.

Like somebody needed a new septic or sewer, and they'd take that.

Yeah.

They could do a mass email, probably.

Yeah, and give it out and say, hey, this program's available. Because at Benton, Iowa, Jones, and Washington County. So to me, it ain't going to take long.

To go through that. Yes.

This is just starting.

So I would assume they'd have to bring estimates or quotes or how...

Yes, well you'd have to start first before you go see if you qualify through the funding and get to own your house. That's the first step. Then if you qualify, then you start getting bids. What it's going to cost. What you actually need.

So it might not be that full 20?

Yeah, correct. Might be just enough to get somebody over the hump to get something done, though. Right. So it's a first-come, first-served basis, of course. I don't think it will take long to get rid of that money. I don't think so. But it's a new program just started, so I wanted to throw that out there.

I think it's great, especially for home buyers who don't have a nest egg to pay for repairs or something that comes up after the fact.

Correct.

We've got to move out. Be right back.

Okay. Tonight I also got a IRM tour of the county of what they did. For planting the wildflowers.

Is that the whole commission goes?

The IRM commission, not the conservation commission.

Right, but they're all going tonight?

Yeah, I don't know how many's going. I was asked to right along, so. Another trip back to Bittenham Walk tonight. I swear you should have an apartment.

You saw him yesterday.

Well, this was 60 mile an hour. You get here five minutes later.

There you go. That's right. Yeah, 16, you can do 65 right now. Yeah, there you go. Push the envelope.

You know, you'd be surprised how many people still only go 55. It's like you get behind them, it's like, come on.

Yeah, I get caught in that where you didn't see the sign, so is it posted at 60 or is it posted at 55 still? I get tripped up by that.

Or your vehicles that have it on the thing. Right. they're not all up to date no they're all 55 yet you're pretty quiet over there me yeah

I haven't been sleeping very well, so I shouldn't.

Baby?

No, just cycle I go through. I feel like every two or three months I sleep really good, then I sleep really bad.

Morning.

You guys have your safety training today?

No, the 6th. Thursday? Thursday. Okay. Okay, 9-15.

It's all yours, Myron.

Couple different times earlier throughout this calendar year. I have mentioned to you a box culvert project that we are developing plans for replacement on 16th Avenue In Cedar Township The property owner on the east side of that project changed from when the project started the design to when we were working on acquiring the right-of-way. The current property owner on the east side of that project, we have not come to a price on the right-of-way purchase voluntarily. We have met with the property owner, we meaning county attorney Ray Lau and myself. The property owner had a few questions. We went back and researched those questions. And upon completion of all of that research, determined it was still in the best interest of Benton County to proceed with box culver design at that location. During the negotiations, that property owner did not express any number price-wise that they were interested in settling for this project. And so I'm asking to keep this project going that we pursue condemnation. And I've been in contact with county attorney's office on necessary measures to do so. And Derek has equally been involved with that. What I have on the agenda today, I think number two can be deleted based on our conversation, my conversation with Derek yesterday, but certainly item number one, a resolution to approve to acquire or condemn property, which would be in the southwest quarter of section 30, Township 86 North, Range 11 West. for bridge replacement project BROS C006, parent 126, AJ06. We're talking 22 hundredths of an acre for permanent right of way, 11 hundredths of an acre for temporary easement. Secondary roads had hired a company called JCG Land Services to conduct the land acquisition. We've used those in a number of projects. They had determined, based on some prior sales, that $13,000 per acre was about the selling price that they'd seen when they looked up sales. That was the number we used. All of the property we were acquiring was pretty much in the floodplain, so it was reduced 50%. And then the temporary easement was 8% of the land value is what was considered for that. $1,545 is what we offered to the property owner. They expressed, the property owner did express what they paid for the land they bought. They bought the farm on the east side, which totaled a hundred and, 7.22 gross acres, 103.73 net acres. If you took the purchase price divided by the gross acres, you would come up with $14,350. He mentioned a number more like $15,400 an acre. But even if we offered him that, which we did verbally, it was no interest in pursuing this project. And so we've reached a standstill.

And the temporary easement, obviously, it'd probably be reverted back to him after the project's completed.

Correct. It's just for the duration of the project.

So it's like two-tenths of an acre, essentially.

Yeah. A little bit over two-twenty. Twenty-two hundredths, but yeah. which is what showed kind of in that trapezoid shape on the first colored page that I gave you under the letter that went out from the county attorney's office to the property owner.

The green area is on the right-of-way? Correct.

Correct.

And then the red area is what we're looking at?

What's the biggest concern? Why is he not going to?

It's been multiple things, Bruce. The first conversation felt that a bridge was necessary. The box culvert wasn't adequate. The most recent conversation that Ray and I had with the property owner was, thought that the box culvert was too long. We were, this was impacting their property more than was necessary. And secondly, rip rap was not liked as a protection device around there. It was a haven for weeds and trees and that you would have to maintain that and have that visual issue for the future ray had mentioned to him that you know the county could spray that area to eliminate reduce that that could be included in an agreement um but There has been a track record of something new coming up every time a conversation is had with this property owner.

The bridge currently has a three ton weight limit due to some piling conditions underneath. It is

20 foot wide it is precast concrete panels that are laid next to each other on top of that footing abutments that type of design that was put in pretty heavily in the 50s, 60s, 70s, up until a change in their design and construction in the 70s does not quite hold the same type of heavy loading that you use for design today versus what it was then. And when it's come to comparison and pairing the cost of ribbed. repair versus replacement. When we've looked at replacement, we've gone 30 foot wide for the last 35 years to accommodate some of the bigger limits.

20 foot sounds narrow.

And box culverts can hold a lot more weight than a ridge over the long run?

They're probably similar it's just that the box culvert depending on you add soil fill to that which actually helps. To a certain degree you get to a major major heavy fill. It might be the opposite way but then there's adjustments made in the box culvert based on how much soil cover is on top of it. The property owner on the west side has already signed off. We've already paid them for the right of way based on the design that we have right here.

So the alternative is leave the three ton weight limit and when it gets so bad, close the road because we can't use it. Yes.

For the most cost effective approach, the box culvert makes sense if you were to say to heck with it and you wanted to build a bridge instead to redesign this location for a bridge, it adds time and expense. This particular project is the one that is most advanced in our replacement. plans, Benton County gets allotted X amount of dollars per year for bridge replacements. It's upper 300,000, almost 400. You can allow that fund to carry a balance of three years, but above three, you would potentially lose it. whatever is excess of that, we are reaching that point. And so we need to spend some money this calendar year on a bridge project. This one's ready to go. But in order to meet the December letting date for the DOT, we need to have some progress made by the 15th of September. And that doesn't mean that going forward with condemnation that the hearing has to be held by that date, but it just needs to be set by that date.

Sounds to me like we need to move forward with condemnation on this piece of property we're going to use for a while and then return.

The box culvert generally has a longer service life than a bridge does, that you might be replacing a bridge before the box culvert would need in the long-term future.

One quarter of an acre.

Just under, yes. And right now, the footprint is hard to probably say in a little picture, but there might be Five or maximum 10% of that, that might be an end of the row crop a little bit, at least when the previous property owner had it. I think this has been reseeded under grass right now with the current property owner and that you're all in the grass waterway right now.

So it wouldn't impact any crop?

No, not currently. I think the property might imply that a grass buffer might be needed after the project is done and does that move the grass buffer into the crop ground a little bit. But the flood maps still show that this area is all in the floodplain area.

And the plan would show that any disruption to the ground would be hydro-seeded and everything?

Everything would be seeded back after the project is done that's disturbed.

And maintained by the county because it is our property?

Everything within the permanent right-of-way would still be maintained by us and if the property owner had a special seed type request that could be incorporated into the contract for the final seeding.

I don't think that the pricing is on time.

That's ultimately what the compensation board would be assigned to do was to determine what the price per acre would be and that's what we're unsuccessful in accomplishing at this point. The property owner has not provided a counter offer We have offered to match the purchase price of the property that they just bought a year ago but that did not sound to be acceptable based on the conversations and the reports I have.

I guess I feel Myron dealt with gentleman mm-hmm why we paused this a few months ago look at the plans give me copies of everything and out there half a dozen times I guess I feel I'm torn on this one here As a supervisor, I can understand the money and the bridge and all that. We need to move forward. But me as a farmer, I hate to say I agree with the guy. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to abstain from this vote if it happens today. It's up to them two guys.

I don't like the term condemnation. I don't want to see us spend any more money trying to redo anything. I don't want to see the county lose the grant money. And the bridge has to be replaced. I think it kind of puts us in a situation where when you weigh it out i think that i can understand tracy's concerns i truly can but i think that moving forward is probably the best path to take i i agree with bruce that moving forward is our best path and by far least expensive path to take

Therefore, I would make the motion that we move forward with this condemnation proceedings on this project.

I brought two of them.

The resolution describes the permanent parcel and the temporary parcel with its full survey description. It's a lengthy, meets-and-balance description because of the trapezoid shape, but the You can read the resolution, but I'll read it verbatim real quick that we've got a bridge project that's necessary from a safety standpoint to replace. We need some additional easement right away. and that the Board of Supervisors finds that it may be necessary to require or condemn all or a portion of the property of interest described with the property owner, and that we have tried our good faith effort to negotiate the purchase of it, were unsuccessful, and that you are recommending condemnation proceedings. And that goes into two pages. That's... Set it there to start. I'll let you vote on it first to decide whether it needs to be signed.

Did you make a motion on it and include the resolution number? No, I need to include, I'll make the motion to concede, to proceed to condemnation and our resolution number is 26-69. All set.

Okay. Call for a vote. Tippett, aye. I abstain. Bulls, aye. Passes.

Do you ignore or absent the signature if you abstain or do you throw an extra line on there, a note on there from an abstention? I see some of those forms. Some counties do that. In this case, since there was a formal abstention, I didn't know if it needed to be noted such in the printed resolution.

I will definitely put it in the motion, but on that sheet, we can always add a line to it.

I just got the majority vote.

But I get to get your point out.

That's all I have.

Question. On the corner of 28th and 77th, there's a culvert that goes on the road. The county years and years and years ago installed a wooden deflection so that when the water comes over, the deflection can fall into the ditch. And that's deteriorating that wooden deflection. Would you have the time to take a peek at that? It's still there, it still works, but it's starting to fall apart. And I don't know what you all do with that now. Do you put a rock in there instead?

28th and 77th?

28th and 77th, yeah, just half a mile north of the highway.

No, I know a guy that travels that direction pretty much on a daily basis.

He could look at it. You don't have to get out of the vehicle to look at it.

You can see it. What's happening with 32nd Avenue?

Probably a little less truck traffic now. I don't know. I know there was a lot of truck traffic a couple weeks ago with that power line. It looks to me like, at least driving the county line Monday morning coming to work, that because they've been progressing west to east, the furthest east pole in Benton County has the concrete footing board and the first section bolted to it. So I think all of the pole bases are in place. It's just the intermediate rest of the pole and the upper apparatus and then the lines to the first section. cables to run across it yet that they have to do, which was creating some extra traffic in that area. You had mentioned a couple weeks ago that someone or a group of individuals said, let's wait until they get done.

And so I've, from an internal perspective,

personnel standpoint still have some limitations with some of my employees on workers comp, but that is being slowly Reduced and can Perform a few more functions and then what we had available a few weeks ago, but that still is slowly It's still a slow process I

Are you hurting in the labor force that you need to hire? Would you say?

Yes and no both. We probably have personnel to accomplish a lot of the tasks, but with your paid leave policy being changed a year ago there are a number of employees that get more paid time off now than what they did so we try to limit that heavily in the winter time when there's winter activities so If you've got five people requesting to be off in the summertime, I tend to grant it just because I restrict it more heavily in the wintertime.

Makes sense. So would it be wise maybe to put a hat out? Maybe get some...

I certainly could feel some interest. I'd say the last time I threw something out there, we had... Basically nobody can apply.

I guess I would start. See what's out there. You know, if you could pick some CDL drivers, that would be awesome.

That has been a challenge.

Those are good jobs with benefits and everything. Wow.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Any thoughts on the Watkins-Blairstown corner? I know we talked about that.

Yeah. It's a nasty corner. I know those. What do we... These heavy rains this last month have not been helpful there either. I mean with one of those recent rains we took the power broom down there and swept that intersection pretty tough because we had a lot of shoulder rock that came out there too. For secondary roads to do anything, no. I don't think there's any fixing it with manual labor. I know that when that road was resurfaced going towards Blurstown, the contractor ground off some of that concrete and put a very thin asphalt width there. That's what's popping off right now that you're seeing. And outside of, Inquiring and getting a quote from somebody to do that how busy anybody is it does Not as many asphalt contractors Own that type of grinding equipment anymore that they let those that grind Specializing that and bring them in and so you're talking to two different contractors to do a very small project But I know that you included that But that road is in the five-year plan and it would be addressed then and whether or not Trying to do something forehand to go down there and even replace it with a new concrete intersection. I don't know if you could time that right. It would limit large trailers, truck traffic, because now you'd be talking a 90 degree turn. Even if you split it in pieces as to how easily you could get vehicles short of closing it, you know, and I know it's a route that's, well, any route, paved route in the county is heavily used, but you've got that one that's... How would that affect school bus traffic?

It would. Yeah, it would be a huge, huge... Yeah, they go out and take care of that a lot. But, so, not much can... I mean, you can't put a Band-Aid on it, so we just have to wait until it... until the time comes when we redo everything and that's it.

That's been my plan at this point and monitor things. There again, I drive by it usually twice a week. I know you see it a lot. And whether or not a Band-Aid may be necessary or not. It might be a question to visit with a contractor and see if there is a cost-effective Band-Aid approach, even though we are looking at doing some major work to that in the near future.

No, I could have thrown money at it just so that it lasts a year. It doesn't always make a lot of sense.

No, I appreciate that. Thank you. The company you had to hire between Adkins and Newhall to do that blowout replacement? Yes. They did a good job. They really did, I think.

No, I think they do too. I had them catch a few others that I felt were necessary and a few other roads. They did some south and west of Norway and north of Watkins and because it worked, I actually had them do a couple on the road east of Garrison, even though we're going to do some major work on that road very soon, but it was with that quarry traffic and Fall harvest traffic, there's no way there was five or six spots that were going to hold up. So to add them to their primary work was between Newhall and Atkins. The cost was very cost-effective.

The only thing I don't understand why, there again, I'm not an engineer. Maybe you can explain it to me. Well, they cut it out when they borrowed a rebar to peg it. Why didn't they put expansion joints? around there. I mean ain't that the whole problem why we're getting the blowouts because the cement in the heat and that's what blows it up. Would have been smart to put some expansion joints in there and take some of the pressure when you know I don't know that's why I'm asking the question.

saw with gives you some you know and the number of them that were done there you get to a large extent the same effect you have released a lot of that pressure when they cut that was out and even though you're pouring it back flush with the existing concrete you still have taken you've got a shear plane somewhat that's the full thickness of the concrete, whereas the joints that they put in on top are just an inch saw joint. Okay.

On the other side of the narrow way, every single saw mark has been replaced, it seems like. Not quite, but pretty close. I have virtually...

I have not counted them, but I have nearly mentally counted them. Yes. From Norway south to the curve, pretty much so. Not quite so much from the curve east to 151.

I noticed that the other day. Wow.

A lot of stuff here. Thank you. Thank you.

Discuss, appoint, approve, use courthouse loan application for Vinton Unlimited for Boomfest. They're not going to set fireworks up around the courthouse, are they?

Nope. They do, like, a vendor booth. It goes off the downtown and have different vendors come in and close down. They might have, like, a food trailer and stuff, too.

I'll be making foul cakes that day. Yeah.

They're not from the park, though, are they, that night? No. It's just... It's just the downtown activities.

Okay, a bounce house. Maybe a rock wall.

Rock wall.

Which we had during... Parting at the park.

Parting at the park, yeah.

All the insurances and everything, you're all verified?

Yeah.

That's all good?

Yeah, she sent that stuff. Okay. We sit and give you guys all that one.

They've done this how many times now? A lot. Every year? Yeah. Yeah. I don't have any problems with it. I mean, if we have all the adjournances they've done before, I'd make a motion to approve the use of the courthouse lawn for Vinton Unlimited Boomfest.

I'll second that motion.

Call for a vote.

Tippett, aye.

Seaman, aye. Bulls, aye.

Seems so quiet in here.

I'd move to number 12, Tracy.

Okay.

I'll make a motion to adjourn. I will second that.

Call for a vote.

Tippett, aye.

Scheman, aye. Bowles, aye.

I'd like to steal that one from you, Bruce.