The Greene County Board of Supervisors met Monday in regular session.
During open forum, Greene County Conservation Director Dan Towers introduced Tanner Scheuerman as the new county conservation director. Towers will retire after 37 years of service at the end of the month. Scheuerman is a Greene County native and has been working as the Boone County Conservation Director for the last four years.
County Engineer Wade Weiss then gave an update. He talked about using a portion of the county’s allotment of funds from the federal American Rescue Plan to pay for the design and a small portion of the construction costs for a new heating and cooling system for the Greene County Courthouse. He estimated about $135,000 to develop designs and to install a new system for an estimate of $1.8 million.
Greene County resident Laura Olerich then addressed the Board. She owns property on the north side of Highway 30 in Grand Junction. She had a concern about the ditch by the highway being full of thistles. Olerich has addressed the matter with the Grand Junction City Council and was told they don’t have the equipment to handle the issue. Olerich asked if there was a process to annex her property into the county and have the problem taken care of by the county secondary roads department. Weiss said he would talk with Olerich.
The Board then heard about an Inmate Work Program at Landus Cooperative. Iowa Prison Industries Director Dan Clark told the Board the program is for inmates who require minimum security and are due to be released from prison in the next 6-18 months. They are looking to have three inmates work at a Landus elevator in Paton and two in Churdan. While working, the inmate will be paid a wage, where the inmate would keep 20-percent and the other 80-percent would go to fines, victim restitution and the state. Iowa Prison Industries has been working with Landus at other sites since 2018. The Board was not required to take any action or make a statement of support.
Finally, the Board review the year-to-date for 2021 and the 2020 actual figures with Group Benefit Partners for the county’s health insurance. Representative Ryan Berven told the Board that due to several claims against pharmaceutical companies, this was going to be the toughest year for health insurance. He reported the county has already surpassed its maximum allowable claims of $606,000. The annualized amount is anticipated to be over $1 million by the end of the calendar year. Speciality prescription drugs have led to significant overall increases. He is expecting the county to pay an additional ten-percent increase in premium costs for next year. Berven will come back in October for formal recommendations.