From official minutes

Road embargoes, E911 update and wind turbines

April 16, 2019

The Benton County Board of Supervisors met in regular adjourned session with Supervisors Primmer, Bierschenk and Seeman present.  Primmer called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.  Unless otherwise noted, all actions were approved unanimously. Summarized Resolutions will be available in the Auditor’s office and at: http://www.bentoncountyiowa.org

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Bierschenk moved/Seeman seconded: To set land use hearing date for Cara Eberle in part of Parcel A in SE ¼ SW ¼ and E 8 acres of SW ¼ SW ¼ of 11-86-10 for Tuesday May 14, 2019 at 9:15 a.m. Motion carried. 

Seeman moved/Bierschenk seconded: To approve the minutes from April 9, 2019. Motion carried.

Kelly Geater, Benton County Treasurer, discussed with the Board changing vendors for tax statement processing and mailing. Geater stated she currently uses Mail Services and the Treasurer’s Association is switching to Master’s Touch. Master’s Touch will be able to e-mail tax statements out to residents which would save the County money on postage. 

Seeman moved/Bierschenk seconded: To approve and sign Master’s Touch LLC agreement for tax statement processing and mailing. Motion carried.

Larry Andreesen, Benton County Assessor, discussed needing office space for Vanguard Appraisal for reappraisals for the next year and half. He questioned if there was office space at the Service Center or if the GIS Room in the courthouse basement was available. Vanguard would need to have an office space that has internet access, that they can lock up and access on the weekends. Several locations were questioned, Act 1 office space to lease, the old Animal Shelter, Transportation and Sheriff’s office. Vanguard is starting on May 6, the Board placed the item back on next week’s agenda.

Seeman moved/Bierschenk seconded: To approve Recorder’s Quarterly Report. Motion carried.

Board discussed possibly embargoing county roads due to frost boils and Mother Nature. Supervisor Primmer stated that on 54^th Street past Perry Zoo, there is boil after boil. There is a company that is hauling fill around there and didn’t know if we could or should stop commercial or non-agricultural hauling. Myron Parizek, Benton County Engineer, stated that they probed a road bed and about 32-36 inches down there is 8-10 inches of frost still. Nicer temps and the rain coming this week will help with the road conditions. If you haul rock on the roads with these conditions it won’t help the roads look any better. There was 150 ton of rock hauled over by Blairstown recently and you can’t tell anything was done now. Parizek explained that the Code allows the board to embargo county roads up to 90 days due to weather. The frost may come out of the roads within the next week to 10 days. 

The Engineer discussed the 2019 dust control program provided by secondary roads. The engineer advised that the cost of oil and fuel went up some and that the board should increase the costs by $145.20 to cover the expenses.

Bierschenk moved/Seeman seconded: To approve the cost of MC-70 dust control applied by Benton County Secondary Roads for the summer of 2019 at $1,185.20 for two applications of 400 feet each.  The cost per additional foot is set at $2.00 per foot for two applications.  Dust control permits are to be submitted no later than May 13, 2019. Motion carried

Seeman moved/Bierschenk seconded: to Approve Resolution # 19-20, Wage and classification change for Jeff Winsor to Equipment Operator 1 with a wage of $21.54 an hour effective April 15, 2019. Motion carried. 

Seeman moved/Bierschenk seconded: to Approve Resolution # 19-21, Wage and classification change for Donald Erger, now Equipment Operator 1 at the wage of $21.54 an hour effective April 15, 2019. Motion carried. 

Seeman moved/Bierschenk seconded: To Approve Resolution # 19-22, Wage and classification change for Gabe McGowan, to Equipment Operator 1 at $21.54 an hour effective April 15, 2019. Motion carried. 

Bierschenk moved/Seeman seconded: to Approve Resolution # 19-23, Wage and classification change for Joshua Burkhart, Equipment Operator II at the wage of $21.61 an hour effective April 15, 2019 . Motion carried. 

The time of 10:30 a.m. having arrived and this being the time and date for a public hearing to review comments for Final Notice for City of Vinton Project. No comments were submitted. Public hearing was closed. 

Bierschenk moved/Seeman seconded: To approve and sign real estate purchase agreement for constructive wetland managed by Benton County Conservation with Craig and Judy Albert for 21 Acres for $153,000.00. Motion carried. 

Bierschenk moved/Seeman seconded: To enter into closed session pursuant to Iowa Code 21.5(1)i.  Motion carried at 10:49 a.m.

Seeman moved/Bierschenk seconded: To exit closed session and enter into open session. Motion carried at 11:05 a.m. 

Seeman moved/Primmer seconded: To proceed with what was discussed in closed session. Ayes-Seeman, Primmer. Nay-Bierschenk. Motion carried.

Bierschenk moved/Seeman seconded: To approve to advertise to hire Rural Access Center Manager. Motion carried.

Ronald Tippett, Benton County Sheriff, Mike Day, A True North Consulting Firm, and Dan Rammelsberg, Radio systems project manager with the E911 Board, met with the board to update them on the E911 Radio and paging system. Elert & Associates (A True North Company) performed a complete Benton County radio system review and identified varying operational and coverage issues confronting the public safety users. The county is currently on a VHF band radio system which is being phased out. Our neighboring counties are all on the Shared Area Radio Agreement (SARA), the state is on Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System (ISICS). Day presented 3 options to upgrade the current system, ranging from 4.7 to 9.7 million dollars. Board questioned on where the funding comes from for projects like this, if there grants available. There is currently no grants available. Most counties go out to Bond for funding. The estimates the board received were only budgetary estimates. The system may be able to use the current towers but will have to upgrade the towers. Rammelsberg explained how the current system works and how difficult it is for Fire/Ambulance to respond to calls, they have to remember what area they are in for different frequencies. It would be more efficient if we were on the same system with our neighboring counties to avoid confusion and downtime for emergency calls. The first thing the E911 would have to upgrade is the paging system. They wanted to inform the board on what was going on with E911 behind the scenes so they would not be so surprised when it came to a potential big project coming up. 

Bierschenk moved/Seeman seconded: to Approve Resolution # 19-24, Approve LOSST gift to Blairstown Emergency Services for the amount of $17,997.70 for the 10% match towards purchase of an emergency services vehicle.  Motion carried. 

Board briefly discussed quotes for Benton County Service Center duct work/splits for heat and air. There was 4 different companies that had bids. One of the companies was unaware to make a bid for spiral ductwork. The board is going to reach out to that company to see if they want to bid it for spiral ductwork so it would be comparable to the other bids.

Supervisor Seeman reported he attended an Iowa County Board of Supervisor meeting regarding wind generation towers. Seeman stated the meeting was very confrontational. There were approximately 100 farmers in attendance who were against the wind generation tower project, another 7-9 people who signed contracts and now wanted out of them. Farm ground property value within 2 miles of a wind generation tower has gone down 20-50%. Wind generation towers are not taxed more than 30% of value, after 15 years it goes down.

Bierschenk moved/Seeman seconded: To adjourn.  Motion carried.