Government : Benton County Supervisor Notes 6/18/24

The Benton County Board of Supervisors met on Thursday, June 18, 2024 in their regular meeting.

The meeting opened with the pledge of allegiance, approving the minutes and agenda before moving into the rest of the agenda.

The Supervisors approved the hire of Corrections Officer, Dylan Ryder at $21.92 per hour beginning on July 1, 2024.

Melinda Schottmer, county treasurer, brought a piece of property located in Belle Plaine before the board for approval to assign a county held Tax Certificate. The property is located between the Lincoln Cafe and Grieder's Service Station on 13th St. Taxes are delinquent on the property, and taxes have not been paid since 2013. Currently, there is over $30,000 owed on it. The value of the land is $8,100. She explained that the shape of the land would make it difficult to build on and that Grieder's would like to use it for parking. The City of Belle Plaine would like to have it signed over to them and they would do all of the legal work to clear the property so that it can be sold. The Supervisors agreed to allow this.

Ron Tippett presented a proposed transfer of sick time from two employees to another employee in need. Each would like to donate 200 hours. Sue Wilber mentioned that the County Handbook caps the amount that can be donated and the total that can be received (from all sources) at 120 days. There is a handbook meeting this afternoon and they will discuss it and get back to the Supervisors. The supervisors tabled the discussion to be taken up at a later meeting.

Approval was given to Amending Resolution #17-29, Adopting Ordinance # 73

The Supervisors approved a presentation by Barb Greenlee to approve a farm exemption application for Paul Erger and Jess Andrew in SE ¼ SE ¼ of Section 12- T83N- R10W.

County Engineer, Myron Parizek shared with the board that there will be a temporary construction closure on 16th Ave in Bruce in Cedar Townships for bridge replacement.

Approval of a Class C Retail Alcohol License was granted for Traveling Tapster LLC.

Under reports/committee meetings/liaison/etc.

Tracy Seeman, supervisor reported that he attended the EMS meeting on Tuesday, and had a good discussion, Hayley Rippel, county auditor, reported that she had also had a discussion with Benton County Ambulance about borrowing L.O.S.T. funds to purchase a used ambulance, but it would have to be brought up after July 1, 2024 because of the budget, or that possibly it could be obtained through the EMS revolving loan, a repayable loan through the county. There was some discussion of how to find solutions.

Sheriff Tippett reported that the radios were moved from the "30 day burn" so that they contained the complete talk groups, part of Vinton police is done, a couple radios were done for conservation, the sheriff is waiting on a few parts to have them placed in a couple of consoles, and one of the ambulances is done, and the Vinton Fire Department was started on Thursday.

County Auditor Rippel also received a letter of notice from the DNR for the Geno Source LLC, for an increase in cattle. This notice will be placed in the newspaper. If there are comments she has to send those back to the DNR.

The county has an account at Farm Service and she wanted to make sure it was okay to add the Pioneer Cemetery onto that account so that they can charge costs (like grass seed) directly to that account so that they can be billed directly rather than reimbursing individuals for costs.