The Greene County Board of Supervisors met Monday in regular session.

During open forum, the topic was briefly discussed about possibly moving the law enforcement center in Jefferson to the Midland Power Cooperative building on East Lincoln Way. Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams reported hearing lots of comments in support of the idea, and Supervisors Tom Contner, Dawn Rudolph, John Muir and Pete Bardole also mentioned positive feedback. 

Information Technology Administrator Michelle Fields addressed the Board during open forum. She said due to election security issues from the Secretary of State’s office, all county websites will have a change to their URL addresses, going from the address ending with “.us” to “.gov.” The recommended deadline for all to switch is by July 1st and the County would need to pay its current website company to handle the changes. No formal action was taken by the Board.

The Board then heard an update from Jefferson City Administrator Mike Palmer. He said the City Council will consider approving the bid for the airport runway extension project, along with awarding contracts for a roof project at 100 East State Street and the four walking path trails throughout the City and gave an update on the other downtown buildings the City owns. 

Next, the Board held two public hearings for proposed new hog confinements. The first was for Todd Stumpf with Stumpf Finishers in section 32 of Highland Township. The 90-minute public hearing included about a dozen residents that spoke against the proposal, including the Churdan mayor (near where the hog buildings would be located) and three that spoke in favor of it. The main concerns were that Stumpf does not live in the county and was going to hire an organization from Carroll County to operate it, along with air and water quality issues and master matrix scoring issues. The master matrix score was 460, with 440 as the minimal requirement from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, for the two new hog buildings that would include 4,995 hogs. Following the public hearing, the Board voted 4-1 to recommend approval to the DNR, with Supervisor Vice-Chair Dawn Rudolph voting against. She said it was a poorly handled proposal and very poor communication leading up to the hearing.

The second hearing was for two new hog buildings in section 2 of South Junction Township. The owners are Austin and Jolee Saddoris. They own another hog building in the county, and will own and operate the new facility that includes 2,496 hogs. Two people spoke in favor of it and one person voiced a general negative comment about there being too many hogs in the county while there is a pandemic going on. The master matrix score was 465. Following the hearing, the Board voted unanimously to recommend approval to the DNR.  

Finally, the Board approved the County Recorder’s report of fees for April of $13,573, along with transferring funds to debt service for bond interest payments toward the career academy project with the Greene County School District. A public hearing date was set for May 26th at 9am for several 2020 fiscal year budget amendments as presented.