The Greene County Board of Supervisors met Monday in regular session.
During open forum, representatives with Jefferson Matters: Main Street and the Tower View Team committee presented the four selected sculptures for the Ring Out for Art contest. They informed the Supervisors that the sculptures would start arriving to the courthouse grounds on May 1st and asked to keep them on display until November 1st to which they agreed. The committee members also asked the Board to commit to always keeping the sculptures on the courthouse grounds for at least six months, around the Bell Tower Festival, and the Board didn’t make that commitment.
Board Chair John Muir also addressed a concern during open forum. He talked about wanting to include the Greene County Farm Bureau in the discussion regarding a letter of resolution to send to the state legislature to review the master matrix. He said he didn’t mean to leave out other groups such as the pork and beef producers, or any other groups like that. Going forward, Dale Hanaman asked the Board again to draft a letter of resolution for the state legislature to review the matrix. Supervisor Vice-Chair Dawn Rudolph asked Hanaman to include specific changes to the matrix in the letter. Supervisor Pete Bardole then said he is drafting a letter and will include input from both sides that the Board will discuss and consider approving at a future meeting.
The Board then approved several contracts with ACCESS Systems to provide network support services along with software updates and security essentials for the law enforcement center for $2,200 per month.
The Board also reviewed two master matrix scores for hog confinement proposals. One was for a two new hog buildings in Section 20 of Cedar Township. The operator will be Collin Brown. The score was 460 and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources requires a minimum score of 440. There will be a total of 4,994 hogs and there is a manure management in place. The second proposed hog confinement is an expansion of a current facility owned by John McCormick in Section 24 of Highland Township. The matrix score was 515 points. The total number of hogs that the new facility will have is 2,480. Both public hearings will be held at next Monday’s regular Supervisors meeting.
County Engineer Wade Weiss then addressed the Board. He said a crane company was fined for using heavy equipment on county roads and bridges over the weekend. The weight limits exceeded what capacity and the company didn’t have permits to use equipment on them for repairs to wind turbines in the Spring Lake Park area.