The Greene County Board of Supervisors met twice on Monday.
The first meeting was a public hearing about the proposed property tax levy for the next fiscal year. It was mentioned that the countywide levy rate was $10.23 per $1,000 of property valuation and that the rural tax levy was just over seven percent over the countywide levy rate. County Auditor Billie Jo Hoskins said this was the first year that House File 718 was signed into law about governmental entities that receive property tax money have to hold a stand alone meeting with a public hearing about the proposed property tax levy, prior to the public hearing for the next fiscal year budget. The hearing was closed and the meeting was adjourned prior to the start of the regular meeting.
\During reports for the second meeting, County Attorney Thomas Laehn addressed a concern that was emailed to the Board about the amendment to the solar energy ordinance. He said the amendment was changing the language about the size of a permissible solar energy project that would constitute the geographical area for a project up to 1,000 acres. He also covered another issue that if a company had an existing solar panel farm that was less than 1,000 acres but wanted to expand, they would have to apply for another conditional use permit with the Board of Adjustment. If it is approved, the company could expand up to 1,000 acres.
County Engineer Wade Weiss said the traffic controls are in place for the Snake Creek Bridge replacement project to begin. He also presented information and possible timelines with replacing the boiler system in the Greene County Courthouse and trying for another election to change the language in the revenue purpose statement to use Local Option Sales and Services Tax (LOSST) to pay the debt on a loan for the rest of the HVAC project for the courthouse in November.
County Treasurer Katlynn Mechaelsen said her office is closed on Tuesday, April 2nd for staff training and her office would be opened for normal business hours the following day on Wednesday, April 3rd.
The Board then set the public hearing on the 2025 fiscal year budget for April 22 at 9am and the open meetings policy was also approved. Laehn mentioned the two additions being that the supervisors meeting agenda would be posted one full business day prior to a meeting happening with the Board and that there would be no public participation except for public comment and public hearings for those individuals that are in person. Public comment for agenda-related items will only be allowed if the Supervisors Chair acknowledges the individual. For agenda-related items, the presenter can communicate via electronically or by phone and they don’t have to be in person. The public forum section can be no longer than one hour and it was suggested by Laehn that each individual is limited to three minutes to speak. The Board also agreed that their meeting agendas continue to be posted at the east entryway door to the courthouse.
The Board also approved ten family farm credit disallowances as presented, hiring Katie Fisher as a full time clerk in the County Recorder’s Office to start July 1st with a salary of $48,500. Following a six month probation period and a favorable review, Fisher would have her salary increased to 65.5 percent as a deputy position, which would be about $50,460. Finally, the Board approved awarding a contract through the Iowa Department of Transportation for work on County Road P-46 in Greene and Dallas Counties.
A copy of the open meetings policy can be found here