RUSS and Emergency Management Is Focus of Discussion At Supervisor Meeting

The Mahaska County Supervisors for 2012 left to right, Greg Gordy, Ken Rozenboom and Willie VanWeelden (file photo)

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The first of the month brought about the hearing for the Mahaska County Budget, and with it some questions about ongoing support for RUSS in this years budget.

Randy Pleima approached the board and questioned the need for supporting the organization when, according to Pleima, Mahaska County is already served by his organization, Mahaska County Rural Water, in nearly the same capacity.

RUSS (Regional Utility Service Systems) has been under the microscope in recent months for its dealings with the communities it serves.  One of the high profile cases located in the northern section of Washington County, in the unincorporated town of Richmond, has drawn considerable attention.

Support for RUSS was tenuous last year with Supervisor Ken Rozenboom voting on the measure to support RUSS until he could be better informed. Rozenboom was appointed as an alternate member to represent the county with RUSS. Embattled Willie Van Weelden’s future with the supervisors is unknown at this point, and is no longer the Chairman for RUSS.

In the end, the Supervisors agreed to remove the line in the budget for RUSS, effectively cutting support from the group. This is an uncommon maneuver to be done so late in the budget process.

Chairman Greg Gordy then questioned the need for the 10 cent levy for Emergency Management. Gordy pointed towards published documents stating that the end balance would be to high according to published budgets.

Supervisor Rozenboom questioned the timing of Gordy’s decision to question the levy, since it had been passed out of budget meetings in the previous months.

Rozenboom pointed towards an apparent underfunding of the department with the previous per-capita levy, and depleted funds due to floods and storms.

Mahaska County Emergency Manager Jamey Robinson pointed out that the budget for Emergency Management is still in the red, and those published numbers are a reflection of monies that are still owed, and currently unpaid, by FEMA and similar programs to the county. Mahaska County Auditor Kay Swanson concurred with Robinson, saying his department is in the red and is awaiting reimbursements.

In the end, the 10 cent levy passed and will be reviewed again at next years budget when the Emergency Management Commission makes its recommendation.

Also set was the public hearing of the 28E agreement between Pella, Oskaloosa, and Mahaska County of a proposed regional airport.

The public hearing is set for March 21st at 9am. After the hearing, at that point, the board will vote to either adopt the resolution or not. The supervisors will hold their regular meeting at that time as well, moving it from the traditional Monday time to the Wednesday.