Mahaska County Supervisors July 5, 2011
Mahaska County Supervisors Met In Regular Session on July 5, 2011
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Mahaska County Supervisors met in a mostly routine meeting on the 3rd floor meeting room at the Mahaska County Courthouse.
Items on the agenda were to approve the agenda, approval of the minutes for the June 20th and June 30th meetings.
The Supervisors moved to approve the paying of the bills for June.
Lanphier Landing Bait & Tackle was requesting approval of their application for a Class C Beer Permit. After approval from the Sheriff’s Office, and some discussion between Supervisors, they voted 3 – 0 in favor of the permit.
The Health Insurance Committee brought a recommendation from Mahaska Health Partnership Occupational Health which had the least cost bid on their wellness program for county employees.
Appropriations Resolution Operating Transfers Resolutions for Secondary Roads were both passed with a 3-0 vote by the Board members.
The Salaries for the 2011 – 2012 Budget Year passed also with a 3 – 0 vote from the Supervisors.
The Quarterly and Annual Reports of the Auditor and Sheriff also both passed with a 3 – 0 vote from the Mahaska County Supervisors.
Voting Precinct discussion was brought to the table next. Because of redistricting of the Iowa House and Senate, as well as other entities, plans and discussions started on how best to make voting easiest for those that live in the rural areas when new voting locations must be established. Voters in Spring Creek and Keomah Village will not be voting in University Park because of the district line changes.
“Voting is about making it reasonably easy for people to vote,” Rozenboom said of the difficulties the Board will face in finding appropriate places and distances one should be expected to drive in order to vote.
The Board then heard a report on the roof repair of the Courthouse. Some unexpected areas of rot have caused extra expenses and time. The Supervisors agreed that the repairs now were needed.
The 10-15 Transit Board that Supervisor Ken Rozenboom is a part of is currently operating without a contract. The contract expired June 30. He spoke of some issue with getting the State to renew the contract in light of the troubles the department has faced after it’s director and other staff were found to be inflating ride counts. “Trying to move this forward, let the State kind of get their boot off our neck a bit,” Rozenboom said of attempts to resolve the issues with the Transit Board and the State.
Approved subcontractors for bid bonds 3 – 0 . The County now has to approve all sub contractors before projects would start.
Iowa Code mandated transfer farm to market mileage. Here is the code used, “Section 306.4(3) of the Code of Iowa mandates when the control of farm-to-market extension roads for cities with a population less than 500 be transferred and vested to the county board of supervisors of the respective county. The Code section also states that the transfer of farm-to-market extension road mileage back to city jurisdiction can only occur if the latest federal decennial census or special census exceeds a population of 750.”
According to this Code of Iowa, University Park fell from a population of 536 in the 2000 census to 487 in the 2010 census. Beacon went from 518 in the 2000 census to 494 in the 2010 census. With the drop in population for these two towns, they have since had their farm-to-market roads transferred to the county.
Bid were opened for a new track excavator for the Secondary Road Department. The bid was awarded to Ziegler for a Cat 320 DL, for the amount of $171, 809.00. It was decided upon for various reasons even though it was the higher priced machine. Resale value and parts availability were some stated reasons for choosing the model they chose.
