About 30 people attended the Adel Chamber’s Coffee and Conversation event on Saturday.

The speakers included Adel Mayor Pro Tem Shirley McAdon, Dallas County Supervisor Mark Hanson and State Senator Sarah Trone-Garriott. State Representative David Young was absent. McAdon talked about upcoming purchased items and construction projects such as the 15th Street bridge will be replaced and the City Council bought two new fire trucks that will replace two older models. 

Hanson talked about the county’s tax levy compared to other similar population counties. He also noted that the county supervisors have over $8.5 billion of taxable valuation and of that $2 billion is new taxable values.

Trone-Garriott talked mainly about school funding with the Students First Act and the increase in public school funding for next school year that was set at three-percent with the State Supplemental Aid, which she pointed out was only about $140 per student in additional funding across the state.

“That’s going to be tough for a lot of school districts to try to manage. And so we’re seeing about 72 school districts across our state actually going to have less money next year than they did this year. Because their enrollments are declining and so that means they have less students to get money for. Those are costs that are going to cut programs, increase class sizes, (and) really change what that small rural, or small town school can offer.”    

Most of the questions that the audience asked related to tax abatement for the city of Adel as well as increasing mental health services and funding.