By Jim Magdefrau

Vinton – Bridge work, land use, roads and appointments were on the agenda for the Benton County Board of Supervisors meeting, Tuesday, Oct. 24, at the service center in Vinton.

A letter of support was signed for water trails along the Cedar River. Signage will be paid by the conservation department, featuring information on parks and area communities.

Treasurer Melinda Schoettmer met with the board on tax abatements and gave an update on office hours. The abatements deal with mobile homes in the Shellsburg/Palo area. Hours will be 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

A land use hearing was held for David Wilson, for land in Section 13, Homer Township. This is for a single-family dwelling and a machine shed.

Sheriff Ron Tippett was appointed to the SARA (Shared Area Radio Agreement) board, with Scott Hansen, Emergency Management, as an alternate.

Supervisor Richard Primmer was appointed to the wellness committee.

A Class C retail alcohol license was approved for the Tipsy Travelers LLC.

Sue Wilber, human resources, met on board position vacancies on the public health and conservation boards. Applications are on the board of supervisors’ page.

Several closed sessions were held at the end of the meeting. After one of the closed sessions, the board accepted the resignation of Darren Stien from the weed department..

Engineer

An agreement was signed for permanent and temporary easements for a bridge project on 17th Ave.

The board approved an IDOT (Iowa Department of Transportation) Federal-aid Agreement for a County Highway Bridge Program Project: Agreement No 6-23-HBP-S-032 .

The board approved an IDOT Federal-aid Agreement for a County Highway Bridge Program Project: Agreement No 6-23-HBP-S-033.

The board approved an IDOT US Highway 218 Detour Agreement for RCB Culvert project in Vinton. This starts next construction season.

Engineer Myron Parizek said traffic was to be moved that day to the new eastbound lane on Highway 30. The Department of Transportation will pave as much of the westbound lane as they can until the snow flies. They also talked about signage for the gravel road at the Highway 218 and 30 interchange. The supervisors are concerned about recent accidents on that road, where the paved road turns into gravel.

Statement

The board released the following statement after one of its closed sessions.

The Benton County Board of Supervisors met today and a motion was made and passed directing the Benton County Attorney to release a statement as follows:

“We wish to clarify previous actions related to the Board of Health to clarify that the primary reason for the action was to reverse the 130% increase in the budget implemented by the Benton County Board of Health and accordingly, we would ask the county attorney to prepare and release a statement.”