Greene County Chamber Hosts Annual Meeting; Announces ABC Winner
Around 80 people went to Monday night’s Greene County Chamber Annual Meeting.
The main highlight was the surprise announcement that Diane Wise of Jefferson was the 2014 Above and Beyond the Call Volunteer Award winner. The ABC award is given to someone who demonstrates positive change in the community through their volunteerism. Wise was honored for leading the effort to build a new community center in Grand Junction. 2013 ABC winner Don Orris presented the award with a poem about Wise.
The 2015 Chamber Board officers were introduced and they included Ben Yoder as president, Omega Sang as vice-president and John Brunow as treasurer and secretary.
Economic Development Director Ken Paxton talked about projects from 2014 and looking ahead to even more in 2015. He said a major accomplishment was being named as the state’s first county as a Home Base Iowa community which was Governor Terry Branstad’s program to bring military veterans to Iowa for jobs. Since the governor’s designation, Paxton noted that he’s worked with over 40 other counties to model their Home Base Iowa program after Greene County.
Another highlight was recognizing membership milestones. One of the major milestones were three businesses for their 35 years as Chamber members. Those designations went to Genesis Development, Greene County Medical Center and Medicap Pharmacy.
Greene County Compensation Board Makes Recommendation, Now In Hands Of Supervisors
On Monday, the Greene County Compensation Board recommended a 3% across-the-board increase in salaries for all county-elected positions for the next fiscal year.
The Board felt that with land values increasing in the county by 2.83% and the difference of $6,000 between 2.5% and 3%, that the latter would be a fair recommendation.
Deputy Auditor Billie Jo Hoskins said the Supervisors have the right to lower their salaries separately from other departments, but they can’t raise any departments, including their own, by more than the recommended 3%.
Hoskins pointed out that the Supervisors have 30 days before the public hearing on the budget to act on their own salary percentage. Usually, when the Supervisors approve a percentage, the other non-officials and non-deputies get the same increase in those offices.
New Labor Day Weekend Event Coming To The Raccoon River Valley Trail
A new event is planned to make its Iowa debut on the Raccoon River Valley Trail this Labor Day weekend.
Greene County Conservation Director and RRVTA member Dan Towers says Pedaler’s Jamboree will be a two-day event that goes around the loop of the bike trail with an overnight stop in Jefferson. He states that Iowa native and creator Michael Denehy started the event in 2009 on the KATY Trail in central Missouri where he lives.
Tower notes that Denehy contacted him about bringing the event to the Raccoon River Valley Trail.
Plans are to start the two-day trip on Saturday, September 5th with participants leaving from Waukee between 7 and 9am and travel on “north loop” of the trail and then stop overnight in Jefferson. The trip continues the following day, when riders head back on the “south loop” back to Waukee.
Live bands and other entertainment is being coordinated with each city’s officials that the route includes.
More details will be released during the RAGBRAI route announcement party later this month.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Closure Reminders In Jefferson
A reminder for Greene County residents, several offices and businesses will be closed in Jefferson in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday.
Jefferson City Hall, the post office, library, Greene County ISU Extension office, Greene County Chamber and the Clerk of Courts office will all be closed.
Jefferson Library staff reminds everyone that nothing is due to the library when it is closed for a holiday.
Jefferson residents are reminded that due to the holiday, all garbage routes will be delayed one day. Monday’s garbage will be picked up on Tuesday; Tuesday’s routes will be moved to Wednesday; Wednesday’s garbage pickup will be delayed to Thursday; and Thursday’s routes will be pushed back to Friday. All routes will go back to their normal schedules the following week. Officials remind everyone to have their garbage at the curbside by 6am to ensure pickup.
Concerns Over Possible Closure Of Mental Health Facilities
Earlier this week, Governor Terry Branstad released his budget, showing that there was no funding for two of the four state-ran mental health facilities for Clarinda and Mount Pleasant.
Greene County Mental Health Coordinator Diane Jackson says there’s already a shortage of psychiatric beds and if the two facilities are shut-down, then that’s even fewer places for people with mental illness to get treatment. Jackson notes that the Mount Pleasant facility is especially important because it is a dual diagnosis center for mental health and substance abuse. There are two psychiatric units near Greene County which are at St. Anthony’s Regional Hospital in Carroll and Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames. The closest state facility for Greene County is in Cherokee.
To be admitted for mental health care, Jackson states that the individual must be medically cleared at a local hospital along with the county attorney signing off. Then, the local hospital calls around the state until a facility is found that can take the individual, which sometimes can be a lengthy road trip. If an emergency occurs, where an individual needs acute care, the main criteria that is used is if the individual is in imminent danger of hurting themselves or others, then they need to be admitted right away.
Ever since mental health regionalized a couple of years ago, the state has provided funding for them by using a statewide levy of $47.28 per county and if a county’s levy rate is lower than that, then the state provides money to make up that difference. Jackson notes that Dallas County’s levy rate was set at about $20 per person whereas the other three counties of Greene, Guthrie and Audubon each had higher rates and so the state brought them down to their rate. However, this fiscal year neither the governor’s budget nor the Department of Human Service’s budget has any kind of backfill funds in place for any of the regions.
A way to help cut down on the county’s expense of sending individuals to psychiatric units is by building a crisis care center in Woodward. Jackson believes this could be a solution to prevent individuals from seeking acute care on a short-term basis.
She hopes that legislators will help to support the state facilities and keep them open.