Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

I don't have heat right now, but being in a new furnace at my house, it was 54 degrees. So cold. Oh, that's the, isn't that the safety bed? You want to see how long it takes? Push it, push it.

Oh, no. Do it, do it.

Let's see how long it takes. Oh, no.

We're not testing that today. We're gonna have a smooth sailing.

Well, I have nine o'clock, so I think we'll go ahead and get started. Got the recording going? Okay, can we get a roll call for attendance, please?

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here. We do have a quorum, so I would kindly ask if everybody would rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice,

Agenda deletions. I believe item G under the consent agenda is gonna be removed and moved to next meeting. There was a misprint there, so that item G is gonna be not taken up today. Our first item for our agenda is the consent agenda. All items listed under the consent agenda will be enacted by one motion. Item A, fringes, $22. Item B, minutes to approve. January 20th, 2026, board meeting. January 27th, 2026, special meeting, closed session. January 27th, 2026, work session. C, approve payroll removal. Mary Claire I. Colts in zoning. Approve wage change Elden Emick, Sergeant Deputy Sheriff's Office. Approve wage change Jason Hunter Mark, Deputy Sheriff Office. Approve wage change Reagan Kingree, Dispatch Communications. Item G. is not going to be acted on today. That's going to be moved to next meeting. Item H, approve wage change Ray Paeberg, Deputy Sheriff's Office. Approve wage change Noah Smith, Deputy Sheriff's Office. Approve wage change Allison Townsend, Dispatcher Communications. Item K, approve ways change Daniel Boland, Detention Officer, Sheriff's Office. Item L, approve job reclassifications. Sarah Downard, Community Coordinator, Thrive Initiative in Health Services. approved job reclassification Fallon-Flander Community Navigator Thrive Initiative Health Services, approved auditor's accounts payable, clerk job description, and approved general assistance opioid prevention program coordinator job description.

Motion to approve. Second.

I had a motion, second. Roll call, please.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Item number two, claims. Do we have the, okay, the amount?

Total of $162,886.99.

Oh, yeah. No problem. It looked like zeros to me. Okay. Thank you, Supervisor DeWitt. I didn't have it in front of me. We don't have it on the screen today. Screen's not working? Yeah, okay.

No biggie. I think we should talk to IT as well, too, because they're kind of blinky up here.

Me and... Supervisor McIntyre, we're discussing that before the meeting started, so thank you. But anyway, item number three, claims, in the amount of $162,886.99. Any discussion?

I'll make a motion to approve claims.

Second. Motion, second. Roll call, please. McIntyre? Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Agenda item number three, consider inter-fund operating transfer for secondary roads with possible action. Good morning, Megan.

Good morning. So this is a transfer that we do every year. It's already in the budget. It's just on late because when I went to do it, I noticed that the resolution hadn't been approved yet. So I haven't done the transfer yet after we get this approved, then I'll get us all caught up. So it comes with a long resolution, so I can go ahead and read that for you to prove in here. Whereas it is desired to authorize the budget director of Warren County, Iowa to periodically transfer sums from the general basic fund and rural basic fund to the secondary road fund during the 2026 fiscal year. And whereas said operating transfers must be in accordance with section 331.429 and 331.432 code of Iowa. Whereas said operating transfers were budgeted and approved for fiscal year 2026, now therefore be it resolved by the Board of Supervisors of Warren County that the total maximum tax revenue transfer from the general basic fund to the secondary roads fund for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025, shall not exceed the sum of 205,000 and the total maximum tax revenue transfer from the Rural Basic Fund to the Secondary Road Fund for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 shall not exceed the sum of $2 million. Upon being notified of the apportionment of current property taxes and state replacements against levied property taxes, the General Basic and Rural Basic Fund, the budget director shall transfer from said funds to the Secondary Roads Fund. The amount of the transfer required by Section 2 shall be equal to 1.905% of the apportionment of collected property taxes in the General Basic Fund and 99.229% of the tax apportionment of the Rural Basic Fund. Transfers from the Rural Basic Fund for revenues generated from sources other than property taxes shall not exceed $1.44 million to be paid in installments. Notwithstanding, the provisions of Section 2, 3, and 4 total transfer to the Secondary Road Fund shall not exceed $205,000 from the General Fund three point four four million from the rural basic fund notwithstanding the provisions a section two three and four the amount of any transfer shall not exceed the available fund balance in the transferring fund so this was budgeted for per the code we have to fund between two figures in order to get the farm to market revenues would be able to use those funds and so the total amount was 3.645 between the general and rural was what was approved in our budget.

Okay. Very good. Just for clarification, you said 2026 budget? That's the current budget? That's the current budget, yes. Ending 2026, yes.

Yes, fiscal year 2026, yep.

Okay.

I'll make a motion to approve.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Roll call, please.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes. Thank you, Megan. Item number four, consider approval to hire the following positions with possible action. We have, just for clarification, the deputy sheriff is on here, but this is actually, I'm not sure that that, needs to be acted on today. This was one that was approved in the last fiscal year, around June. The position was advertised and never filled, so it's being re-advertised. So I'm not exactly sure what the procedure protocol is on something like that. I think you could either take no action, because it was actually approved in the last fiscal year, or we could re-approve what we've already approved, and then also a General Assistance Opioid Prevention Program Coordinator?

It would be a good idea to table the Sheriff's Office request until we have a representative from the Sheriff's Office come explain that. Make sure we're clear on that. But as far as the opioid prevention, Joelle, can you give us a little more information on that?

Yeah, I think it's great. Good morning.

Good morning.

Yeah, this is a refill position for general assistance and the opioid prevention coordinator position. So it's a shared position. So it's .6 for general assistance and .4 for the OPP coordinator since Sarah has moved into a different position. So it's basically a refill.

The email that I sent you regarding the opioid prevention program, do we want to look into that before we fill that position?

I think we would need to have a person in the position to be able to do some of the work in that email that you sent to me. I think having that person, they can kind of facilitate some of those interests that you mentioned in the email.

I wasn't sure about that. I just sent it to you. I didn't know if it was a company looking for more business or what it was exactly, so I wanted you to look into that.

Yeah, I'm hoping that once we have if you all approve this position to be refilled I'm hoping that once I have that person in that position then they can do facilitate some of that work that you suggested

Very good, yes, it looks like Sarah had a new community coordinator position, which we already approved, and that's just backfilling where she was.

That's correct, yep.

I'll make a motion to approve item four with tabling the deputy sheriff position until we have a representative from the sheriff's office come in, but approving the general assistance opioid prevention program coordinator.

Second.

Any discussion? Can we have a roll call, please?

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Item number five, consider approval of engineers 2026 bridge posting changes with possible action. Good morning.

Good morning. This is the result of our annual bridge inspections that we currently pay Calhoun Burns to do. They're required by the Federal Highway Administration. This listing used to be a lot longer. This year it's pretty small. We're closing one bridge on a dirt road. That doesn't make fiscal sense to spend $900,000 to replace. Other than that, no big surprises. If you have any questions about individual bridges, I can answer that.

I know we have the bridge ID numbers. I was glancing at the map earlier. Can you just run down through there starting with the D3330 and let us know what roads those are on.

D3330 is on 33rd Avenue between Fillmore and Dubuque Street, south of Cumming. That's a high trestle bridge on an FM road. That one is over North River, so that'll be at least a $2 million bridge if we want to replace it. I think I have other ideas about that one rather than trying to replace that one. But if it comes down to it, it comes down to it. We don't have any immediate plan to do anything to that bridge right now just because of the cost. So E2203, I have to look, too, because that's why I brought my bridge book.

If you don't know all of them, that's fine.

Well, I have them right here. E2203 is on the northeast side of Martinsdale. That's on a dirt road. It's basically a concrete box culvert that we just added to the list because you don't have to... It's considered a bridge if it's 20 feet or longer from inside to inside, and that's one that hadn't been on the list, and we just added it. Most of these are dirt road bridges. F0280 is on Fillmore Street, just east of 115th. That one we'll talk about during budget time because I want to move some stuff around and repair that bridge, do like a $60,000 repair to get it up to maybe legal for the next 25 years and not have to worry about that one. K2285. is on G-58 east of the Highway 65 corner. That's a paved road bridge that is getting posted for the first time. That one's on the short list for the five-year plan for a paved road bridge. It's not anything immediate right now because it can still hold a legal semi. R-20-56, I believe, is a dirt road bridge. Yep, that's the one just north of G-76. 145th that's the one we have to close it's been three ton for a while it's that is a that's a 55 foot long wooden bridge that is Like I said, it will cost anywhere between probably $700,000 to $900,000 to replace on a dirt road. So we're trying to keep roads open on level A roads that are much higher. And you can get to it from both sides. It's not cutting anybody off. It might be inconvenient, but the fact is the farmers and nobody could go over that bridge for the last 10 years anyway. So they've had to make adjustments. R3603 is another dirt road bridge. no that's on that one actually we just replaced so that was a high trust that we just replaced so it's going from three ton to legal okay that's on 180th south of g76 that project was completed last year oh okay yeah i remember that one then s 0802 that's the dirt road bridge on let's see That one's on 200 south of Roosevelt, another dirt road bridge that has been six ton for quite some time. That might be a candidate to rip out and put a low water crossing in.

Oh, I like low water crossings.

The farmer already has a low water crossing on his side. But again, it's another one that just doesn't make fiscal sense to try to replace. We have a lot of those dirt road bridges. Over the last few years, we've been trying to go around putting pipes in it, twin pipes, just to try to get them access. But some of these are just low water crossings about the only thing that makes sense, just because of the money. okay now we're currently just unrelated but we're currently replacing two bridges in the county yeah two roads closed as of yesterday yeah r57 south of norwalk and 65th south of merrill or monroe changes in there so that one just closed yesterday gotcha so about west of r57

about 2.7 million dollars with the bridge projects going on right now so well an inconvenience but replacing bridges is yep a good thing in the long run so that's good it's time good progress very good i'll make a motion to approve engineers 2026 bridge posting changes second any discussion roll call aye aye aye

Aye. Item number six, consider offer to purchase a permanent easement between Warren County and Nathaniel Earl and Carly Rae Smith for project number LMP 2024-91-4 in the amount of $1,200 with possible action.

This is a project that was budgeted for this fiscal year. I don't think we're gonna be able to get this done, so come budget time, we're gonna swing things around. This'll be budgeted for next fiscal year. It's a three ton bridge south of Sandyville that has been failing. We expected it to close this cycle on that bridge posting, but it didn't. It's probably got one more year. We're gonna replace it in-house with a box culvert. We've done a few of those in the past. We can do it for 125 to 150,000 as opposed to much bigger number. This is the first site right away that we need. We're still trying to talk to the other landowner, which is, there's a board involved in that one that has to go through different conversations than just landowner and us. We came to an agreement with the one side, so we want to get them paid so it's not sitting out there. And we're still working on getting the other sides.

So this is actual like land easement, not like a floodplain easement.

It's a permanent easement. Gotcha. Because when we're going to take this narrow bridge out, we're putting in a concrete precast box culvert with the proper side slopes. And to maintain the ditches and the revetment, we need just a little bit more right away. It comes down to like eight hundreds of an acre.

Gotcha. I'll make a motion to approve the purchase of a permanent easement between Warren County and Nathaniel Earl and Carly Rae Smith for project number LMP 2024-91-4 in the amount of $1,200. Second. Roll call. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Item number seven, consider approving funds for the Warren County Freedom Rock with possible action. This was, I don't think there's anyone here from the public to speak on this, but this was, item came up in work session last time. The Warren County Freedom Rock that's located in Norwalk is in need of being repainted and I think It was determined at work session we would contribute $7,500 that would maintain the Freedom Rock for a period of 10 years and this is a one-time ask by the veterans that maintained the rock. They had some large expenditures and that they had built a gazebo with lighting, flag poles, probably to the tune of about $20,000 surrounding the Freedom Rock. So the next step is to actually get that repainted for the public. There's some outdated items on there including a advertisement for a golf course that doesn't exist there at that location anymore. So the city of Norwalk also contributing $7,500 and the ask was for Warren County to match those funds. The rock would be repainted and some work would be done to solve some of the cooling issues they had with water and moisture and things, so.

I'll make a motion to approve. Second.

Any discussion? Roll call.

McIntyre? Aye. Ericsson? Aye.

Ludwig? Aye.

Marlowe?

Aye. Motion carries. Item number eight, receive and file reports, Veterans Affairs.

I'll make a motion to receive and file Veterans Affairs Report.

Second.

Roll call. Second. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Item number nine, Supervisor's Report. Anyone with a report today? I've got a few just really quick items, not really reports, but more of the shot out. One, I'd like to give a shout out to our conservation department as they have been awarded a grant to repair a good stretch of the bike trail from Martinsdale North, which is in really dire need of repair. So we had the The grant awarded, and that work I believe was gonna, he said was gonna start this summer, and he was thinking completed by October. So they did a real good job with the grant writing and being awarded that. Secondly, everyone who was involved in the recent cold weather little snafu we had here, we had some construction going on here in the building and weren't able to utilize our auditorium at all, but the emergency management folks and everyone involved in the community, private and both government, they were opening the cold shelters here in Indianola. So that was much appreciated. I know Supervisor DeWitt was also on top of that and keeping the board informed and working with the various departments. So good job everyone there with the cold weather stations. And lastly, I attended the state supervisor meeting, was in downtown Des Moines last week, last Thursday. And a lot of talk about the legislation. changes coming for the coming, like changes to levies and property taxes and the way property taxes are, there's a lot of different things being floated, nothing concrete that could really be reported on, but kind of the consensus was just focus on fiscal responsibility because there's a lot of things up in the air and we don't really know what the impact or effect are gonna be on on our local budgets yet until the legislation is enacted. So that's just something to keep in mind as we go into our budget preparation and our workshops actually at the conclusion of this meeting. And that's all I had for my supervisor report.

No one else?

Item 10 is public input. Comments will be limited to three minutes per individual. The board will not take any action on the comments due to the requirements of the open meetings law, but may do so in the future. No public input will be allowed for any of today's agenda items. Anyone from the public? Okay, go on. Come on forward and just state your name and address for the record, if you would, please.

Yes, my name is Joe Kunzel, K-U-N-C-E-L. I live at 13445 168th Avenue in Otter Township. Excuse me. I'm here this morning to ask for the board's help in getting Zoning Director Becky Schultz to let us file an appeal to the Board of Adjustment for her rejection of our request for zoning enforcement. She's required by the zoning ordinance and Iowa code to let us appeal her decision, yet she refuses to do so. On Wednesday, 12 of us property owners submitted a signed request for zoning enforcement at 1347868th Avenue. It's a 2.8 acre property owned by DeCarlo Tree Care Company. The property is owned agricultural, but is being used by their commercial business. All 12 property owners have, for well over a year now, been negatively impacted by this property being used for commercial business activities that include late-night junkyard salvage operations, equipment maintenance and storage, incineration of materials, tree debris dumping and burning, and even employees camping out there overnight. You may recall we've asked for zoning enforcement for this property before, only to be told by Becky Schultz at the time, We just don't do any of that. Those are her exact words. We noticed that you've appointed a new zoning administrator, so we 12 affected property owners signed and submitted a formal request for zoning enforcement. I submitted the letter to the zoning administrator on Wednesday, but on Thursday morning, Becky Schultz, who's not the zoning administrator, apparently took over the role of zoning administrator and informed me that considering the facts in our request, she determined there is no violation of the zoning ordinance at this property. And so she was rejecting our request. We presented three facts in this enforcement request. One, this board of supervisors in the past has stated their belief that the property was in violation of the ordinance. Two, the county assessor, with the advice of Brian Arnold, is taxing the property as a commercial business. and 12 of us property owners have signed statements, submitted stating that we have witnessed for over a year now that this property, this Ag Zone property is being used for commercial purposes. She rejected all three of these facts and said there are no violations. Well, we were pretty confident that her decision was wrong, so we submitted in person that same day an application to the zoning administrator to appeal her decision to the Board of Adjustment. We're allowed to do this by the zoning ordinance and by Iowa code. In fact, county attorney Doug Eichorn himself told me in a court filing last November that we can and should appeal this decision to the Board of Adjustment. Nevertheless, Schultz once again took over as zoning administrator, refused to accept our application for appeal, and no one in the zoning office would even talk to me about it. He ignored me until I left. We've heard nothing from Schultz or from the real zoning administrator ever since, so we conclude that Zoning Director Schultz will not follow the law and will not let us appeal her decision to the Board of Adjustment. So all I ask today is that the Board direct Becky Schultz to comply with the law and allow the zoning administrator to let us appeal her decision to the Board of Adjustment. I know you don't want to take any questions, but I only have 13 days left to get her to accept our application. And I know she's going to try to run the clock out, but can you tell me you will do something about this so that if not, I have to find another way? No response? Thank you.

Okay, item number 11 looks like to set the next meeting date for February 17th, 2026 and an adjournment.

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Second.

Second. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Thank you. We are adjourned. And it looks like we will reconvene here for a work session on budgets. Thank you.