The Greene County Board of Supervisors approved increasing the wages for part-time employees in the Greene County Ambulance Department at Monday’s meeting.
The Board approved the resolution to bring the part-time hourly wage for a paramedic and registered nurse to $27, advanced Emergency Medical Technician up to $25 and a basic EMT is $23, with associated on-call hourly wages as well, to be retroactive to November 2nd. Additionally, the Board also approved a resolution to hire Justin Bristow as the new Information Technology Director with an annual salary of $85,000, and another resolution to hire Mickey Teed as a full-time Equipment III Operator for the Secondary Roads Department.
Following a lengthy discussion, the Board decided to move forward and will consider approving a financial request from the Iowa State Association of Counties of $500 for a brief in the appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court for a court case. County Attorney Thomas Laehn told the Board that Summit Carbon Solutions sued Shelby and Story Counties that they went beyond their authority to establish zoning ordinances with their proposed liquid carbon dioxide underground pipeline.
He said that the federal district and appeals courts ruled in favor of Summit and the request from ISAC was to help pay for a lawyer to write a brief to plead with the Iowa Supreme Court to hear their case that the two counties did have the authority to establish zoning ordinances.
During reports, Environmental and Zoning Administrator Chuck Wenthold said that the roof replacement for the HVAC project on the Greene County Courthouse may now be done next spring instead of late fall or winter, due to timing of when materials would be on site.
County Treasurer Katlynn Mechaelsen asked the Board for financial help to purchase new desks and some chairs. She made the request because of the age of the furniture and that when those items are disassembled when new carpet is installed after the HVAC is implemented, she thought now would be a good time to make that upgrade. The Board needed further review of the financials before a decision can be made.
The Board agreed to not move forward with a new offer from Summit for a permanent easement on the Raccoon River Valley Trail. The Board cited some of the reasons being that if they granted the permanent easement, they would no longer control that parcel and would need permission from Summit to do any construction in that area.
Finally, the Board agreed to move forward with the process to establish zoning ordinances for data mining centers. The Board was approached by Greene County Development Corporation Director Greg Piklapp with a proposal from Simple Mining that is interested in establishing several modular data centers in the county as part of their bitcoin mining operations. The Board will hear more about the potential project to create 8-10 local jobs at next week’s meeting.