The Greene County Board of Supervisors met Monday in regular session.
During reports, County Zoning Administrator Chuck Wenthold mentioned that the County Board of Adjustment scheduled a public hearing for NationalGrid Renewables conditional use permit for a solar panel project near Grand Junction. The meeting will be on July 6th at 5pm at the boardroom in the Greene County Courthouse. Wenthold added another part of that meeting will also be for a substation replacement permit with Hardin Hilltop Wind Farm.
Next, there was a discussion about an open records request with Greene County Recorder Deb McDonald. She received an email request last Tuesday from an individual wanting emails from a certain domain. Information Technology Director Michelle Fields said she spent one hour doing an email search that resulted in 27 accounts, which may or may not have been what the person requested. County Attorney Thomas Laehn said he would communicate with the individual that if they wanted to pursue the matter further, as per the county ordinance, that person would have to pay the hourly rate with an estimated 30-40 hours of additional work to fulfill the request. Laehn noted the individual has the choice to stop his request or continue and pay the rate.
The Board then heard from Iowa Prison Industries about the Inmate Work Program with Scranton Manufacturing. It was mentioned that Scranton Manufacturing would initially use six inmates to work as welders and earn a wage that was either pay back the inmate’s restitution or for a savings account so that when the inmate is released they have some money saved up. The inmates must meet a certain criteria and are on their last 6-8 months of their sentence to be considered for their work program.
The Board also approved publishing a resolution for their intent to appoint County Deputy Auditor Billie Jo Hoskins as County Auditor, effective July 16th, following the impending retirement of current County Auditor Jane Heun. From the time that the resolution notice is published next week, citizens will have 14 days to submit a petition calling for a special election.
The Board then discussed a county employee seat belt and restraint policy. The county’s insurance carrier wants all county employees either driving a county-issued vehicle or their own personal vehicle that is being used for county business to use the seat belts or restraints that are provided, including forklifts. Concerns were brought up by County Engineer Wade Weiss and County Conservation Director Tanner Scheuermann about when their employees are constantly in and out of vehicles and not having to always use a seatbelt if the vehicle’s speed is less than 25 miles per hour. The Board will look at balancing what the insurance carrier wants and what county departments feel is necessary.
Finally, there was an update on the potential HVAC project for the Greene County Courthouse. A meeting took place with Supervisors Dawn Rudolph and Peter Bardole, along with Weiss and Brooks, Borg and Skiles to install an HVAC system that would replace the current hot water boiler and window air conditioning units. The proposed estimate was $3.2 million, with about $1.8 million from the American Rescue Plan Act and the possibility of using $400,000 from the reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from the bridge project on the Raccoon River Valley Trail that has yet to come in. The Board agreed to move forward and they needed to identify where the funding would come from for the rest of the project.