The Greene County Board of Supervisors met in regular session on Monday.
County Attorney Thomas Laehn addressed the Board. He is working on a draft of a 28E agreement between the Ambulance Department and Greene County Medical Center for patient transfers. Then, following a brief discussion, the Board agreed to move forward with a quote from Tri-County Lumber to update the blinds in the jury room, based on the recommendation from Court Administration. He also commented on the remarks from the Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, Susan Christensen, said last week when they held an event in Jefferson about the third floor of the Greene County Courthouse and was impressed with the updates to all of the court areas.
Next, County Engineer Wade Weiss reported that County Roads E-26 and P-46 will be resurfaced with the bid letting to happen in March of 2026. He also mentioned that he met with the Iowa Department of Transportation about the safety action plan and looking at intersections to install blinking red lights to bring awareness to those areas, as well as looking at improvements to the curve on Highway 4 and P-29 intersection.
The Board then heard from Jefferson City Administrator Scott Peterson said Jefferson Parks and Recreation Assistant Director Henry Pohlmeyer was recently hired as the new finance officer and they are now looking for the replacement with JPRD. He also talked about needing to hire a sanitation and streets position, along with a parks and cemetery position, with an impending retirement coming, as well as contracting with a private company for the water plant operation, due to a recent resignation from the Water Superintendent. He noted that this is looking to be a 30 day contract until they can find a permanent solution.
The Board then agreed to move forward with a proposal for an amendment to the zoning ordinance to provide procedures issuing conditional use permits for construction of digital mining facilities and data centers. Greene County Development Corporation Director Greg Piklapp said Simple Mining from Cedar Falls wants to build modular data centers for its bitcoin mining operations. He said the company will not request tax abatement, is investing $12 million into the county, will include 8-10 full time jobs that will be sought locally, and use 15 acres of Midland Power Cooperative property that is in the southern unincorporated portion of the county.
Next, they approved a contract with Integrated Telehealth Partners for the Sheriff’s Office for inmates to receive mental health services that were once done through the Central Iowa Community Service mental health region. The bills are paid through a reimbursement from the state to the company. The Board also approved 24 homestead and military disallowances for property tax credit, due to changes in ownership, and three transfer resolutions. The first was for $6,054 from the American Rescue Plan Act to the general fund to pay to Optimize Systems for HVAC work on the courthouse and two transfers from tax increment financing of $48,642 for the career academy and $283,899 for the first phase of the county road projects, both paid to UMB Bank.
The Board then approved a $500 payment to the Iowa State Association of Counties for a lawsuit brief to the Iowa Supreme Court for Shelby and Story Counties that were sued by Summit Carbon Solutions, as well as various payments when they acted as the Drainage District Board of Trustees for work done in some Drainage Districts and to AgriVia for engineering services and being the Drainage Clerk for October.
Finally, the Board decided to move forward on a bid they received from Raccoon Valley Lawn Care for lawn mowing and snow removal at their meeting next week.