The Greene County Board of Supervisors met yesterday in regular session.
During the open forum, Deb McGinn and Alan Robinson gave updates to the Board about Jefferson Matters: Main Street. McGinn said they received enough money to implement ten total historic plaques around the downtown square, requested using the courthouse in December for their second annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony and using the plaza for the luminaria ceremony during the event. She also reported that they will be unveiling their first-ever roof-top art in May of 2015.
Robinson told the Board that they were rejected for a challenge grant to help offset the cost of the repairs to both of their stain glass domes on the courthouse.
The Board approved an amendment to the 2015 fiscal year budget. For the additional revenue, Auditor Jane Heun said there was an additional $81,000 from Federal Emergency Management Agency grant for repairs to be made on the Raccoon River Valley Trail and at Dunbar Slough from 2012, $265,000 from Scranton Manufacturing’s grant along with $28,000 from a hazmat grant and $1,280 from the Greene County Extension office for the Sheriff’s office to have a summer intern work as a part-time animal control officer.
The Board also approved additional expenses such as $36,758 for public safety, a $31,930 for pay increases for the jailers and dispatchers with the Sheriff’s office, $2,000 for a new vehicle for the Sheriff’s office, $100,000 for the county’s share in the crisis care center for regional mental health, $340,000 to conservation and $35,000 for the stain glass dome repairs and $2,900 for human resource services.
Altogether, the Board approved a negative balance of $173,629 which will be paid out of the reserve account from the county’s budget.
The Board also approved a resolution in support of a public art initiative and an application by the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association to be added to Iowa’s Great Places. Chair John Muir talks about why the Board wanted to support that initiative.
“I think it’s important for us, the way we’re situated on the spur on to here, to be involved in everything that they do and to use that in our area also to draw people up this way.”
The Board approved several other agenda items including an application for a disabled veteran’s homestead tax credit that provides 100% disabled veterans no property taxes annually, the County Recorder’s report of fees of $4,604.04 for September, the Auditor’s passport report of fees of 30 in the last quarter and transferring $480,000 from rural, $175,000 from Local Option Sale and Services Tax and $50,000 from general funds to the secondary roads funds.