The Greene County Board of Supervisors met Tuesday in regular session, due to the Labor Day holiday on Monday. 

During reports, County Environmental and Zoning Administrator Chuck Wenthold gave an update on the manure spill clean up near Cooper. He said clean up has been ongoing at the site with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources leading the investigation and that the issues that caused the spill into the tributary that feeds into the North Raccoon River are being addressed. 

County Attorney Thomas Laehn also gave an update. He is working with County Veteran Affairs Director Michael Bierl to update the current general assistance policy that Bierl is also involved with. Laehn said there is going to be a new addition to the policy about an appeal process. He mentioned Assistant County Attorney Laura Snider is working on backdated victim restitution from current to ten years ago. Laehn talked about there being outstanding payments that still need to be paid to victims of crimes. He said the only accountability that is in place is if a criminal is on probation, otherwise, it is difficult to keep track of criminal’s making payments to the victim.

County Engineer Wade Weiss said the County Road E-57 is progressing nicely. Shouldering work will begin soon and the asphalt overlay surface of the roadway is almost complete. He talked about needing to make adjustments to the Urban Renewal Plan to include concrete overlay of about 19 miles on the Dana and Paton main pavement roads near the wind turbines. The Board will need to amend the plan when the proposal is ready.

The Board then held a public hearing and approved the resolution after the hearing to sell 907 North Cedar Street to Charles Heimer for $100. They also approved changing Jamie Brenner with Greene County Ambulance from full-time to part time. 

Finally, a lengthy discussion took place for the Board to reconsider amending a resolution to allow for year-round decorative lighting on the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower. The current policy allows for random colored lights to be displayed on the bell tower Fridays and Saturdays, with designated colored lights for county holidays and using white lights the other days of the year. Several members of the public spoke in favor of changing the policy to allow for random colored lights every evening, except for county designated holidays with assigned colored lights. Guy Richardson, Peg Raney, Don Van Gilder, Matt Wetrich, Michelle Fields and Supervisor Pete Bardole were in favor of the change. The reasons that were cited included promoting tourism, generating more downtown activity, and enhancement for the entire community. Supervisors Dan Benitz, Mick Burkett, Vice Chair Dawn Rudolph, and Chair John Muir wanted to continue with the current policy with the possibility of re-evaluating it in the future. Their main reason was because they already approved changing to the policy recently and needed to stick with that change. 

Following the discussion, Bardole motioned to change the policy to allow year-round random colored lights every evening except for county designated holidays. The motion died with lack of a second.