The Guthrie County Board of Supervisors met in regular session on Tuesday.

During open forum, two people spoke about different issues relating to a proposed underground carbon dioxide pipeline project. The first resident asked the Board to file a brief in support of Shelby County and its lawsuit against Summit Carbon Solutions about the company not needing to adhere to county-specific ordinances regarding pipelines with their project. The Board did not respond following the comments.

Another resident claimed they were one of the landowners within the proposed route for the second phase of the project and said that Summit is wanting to consolidate the two phases into one overall project and are amending their permit to the Iowa Utilities Commission to do so. The resident said Summit also wants to strike out of their permit with regards to CO2 and increase the size of their pipeline to twice as big as before. The Board didn’t respond following the comments.

Then, County Attorney Dana Minteer addressed the Board about a resistance to consolidate that Summit is proposing to do with its two phases of an underground pipeline project. She stated that Summit filed a petition to amend their original permit, with one of the biggest changes to the route that would no longer go through South Dakota. Minteer noted that the Coalition of Counties organization is opposed to the consolidation request by Summit. The Board approved, by a 4-1 vote, to direct Minteer to file a resistance to the consolidation.

Next, after a lengthy discussion, the Board tabled its decision to possibly change the county health insurance effective date. County Human Resources Director Jamie Lindsay explained one of the problems is reconciling invoices for health insurance, that are received after the 15th of the month and are due the first of the next month, with deductions. 

When this happens, Lindsay said, the insurance carrier is paid more than what is needed because employee paychecks are paying for insurance one month ahead. Another issue she pointed out was that the county is charged a monthly $25 fee when a payment is more or less what is being charged. She said this is only a problem whenever there is a new hire, but offered a possible solution is to not have that new employee start receiving health insurance coverage for a full 30 days after their employment.  

The Board then approved a new payment structure for the Secondary Roads Department as presented and called for special election for the Diamondhead Lake and Lake Panorama Rural Improvement Zone for December 9th.