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

The Board heard about a housing program from the Highway 144 Corridor Housing Initiative. Chair Mary Weaver said the program would consist of the towns east of Highway 144, including Paton, Dana, Grand Junction and Rippey, which was driven by Nueva Vida En Greene County. An exterior grant would allow existing homeowners in those towns a 50/50 match of up to $1,000 to improve the outside of their home. They are also developing a program to clear lots of dilapidated housing and have incentives to build new houses. Following the presentation, the Board recommended coming back to a future meeting with a grant application for Louis Dreyfus. 

The Board also discussed a draft of a new county policy for the courthouse and grounds. Parts of the policy that were talked about at length included a rental deposit or rate for portions of the grounds and other rentable spaces within the courthouse and the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower, not allowing any animals on the grounds or in the courthouse except for service animals. The Board took no action, but will review after revisions were made and the Bell Tower Community Foundation reviewed the policy as well.

The Board also hired Sydney Crnovich as a full time dispatcher for the sheriff’s office, effective November 21st, transferred $74,000 from tax increment financing to debt service for interest and there was no motion made and the measure died for a $600 request from the Iowa State Association of Counties for a soil compaction project.  

During open forum, Supervisor Mick Burkett mentioned that he and County Drainage Clerk Michelle Fields met with Summit Carbon Solutions for an update. Burkett said the company was around 87-percent of the landowners involved in the county with the carbon capture pipeline have reached easement agreements.

Greene County Ambulance Director Michelle Madsen reported that they passed their ambulance inspection, along with Churdan and Grand Junction Rescue Units and they are licensed again for three more years. She also mentioned an emergency medical technicians class is being held starting January at the Greene County Career Academy and to contact Iowa Central Community College to register. 

County Attorney Thomas Laehn said his office now has 60 pending criminal cases. He also had a discussion with the Sac County Attorney about pooling multiple county’s opioid settlement funds into creating a drug court. Nothing has been finalized, but Laehn thought if the county has no other use for their portion of the funds that they could look into the idea further.

Following two other discussions, the Board decided to move next week’s meeting to Tuesday so that they could canvass the votes from this Tuesday’s election, as per new state law. They also moved the swearing in of newly elected county officials to December 27th, but those elected would not officially take office until after January 1, 2023.