The Greene County Board of Supervisors met yesterday in regular session.
The Board approved hiring Cody Potter as a part time telecommunicator and Randy Winkelman as a part time telecommunicator and jailer with the Greene County Sheriff’s office and the Supervisors also approved the end-of-the-year report to the Iowa Department of Public Health to continue to receive its substance abuse grant.
During the discussion about the November election for the Local Option Sales and Services Tax, the Supervisors decided to put a resolution in for next week’s meeting to approve changing the ballot language so that the Supervisors could spend more of the funds from LOSST on other projects other than in just the rural parts of the County.
The Supervisors held a discussion with Sheriff Steve Haupert about increasing the part time personnel wages. Haupert said he would like both of his part time help in the jail and in dispatch to be equal in base salary and asked for a $1,500 increase for jailers. He also asked for a raise to $14 per hour for uncertified part time people and $15 per hour for certified people. He pointed out that competition from surrounding counties and getting qualified individuals has been hard because of the low rate at which part timers are getting paid. No action was taken on the topic.
The Board also heard an update and request for funding from a couple of representatives on the steering committee for the Grand Junction Community Center project. Larry Pote spoke to the Board about applying for a Region XII Council of Governments and United States Department of Agriculture grants along with several others to help with funding for their close to $1 million project. He asked the Board to consider helping with partial funding for the project that is slighted to begin work sometime next spring. The Board said they wanted them to fill out a Louis Dreyfus application to see if they could commit any kind of donation toward it.
During the open forum, Jefferson VFW Post Commander Don Ihnken told the Board that they have repainted the walls and are currently working on their plumbing for the VFW building. They also are trying to fundraise another $12,000 to repair the roof. He mentioned an open house the the VFW hall will have sometime in September.
There was also a discussion about the regional mental health board talking about finding another facility in the four counties: Dallas, Audubon, Guthrie or Greene for their new mental health crisis care center. The facility the Board was looking at in Woodward may not work due to financial misunderstanding between the current building owner and the Board.