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

During reports, County Environmental and Zoning Administrator Chuck Wenthold informed the Board that Summit Carbon Solutions filed additional permits to add POET Biorefining and Valero as two more ethanol plants to capture carbon emissions in an underground pipeline to an underground storage facility in North Dakota. Wenthold noted the change would add 27 miles of the pipeline through Greene County. The permits will be reviewed by the Iowa Utilities Board.

During open forum, county resident Mike Holden asked the Board to continue to allow for public engagement via zoom so community members could ask questions. He also serves on the County Board of Adjustment and wanted to clarify that when they approved amendments to the solar panel ordinance, that if a company wanted to build a solar panel farm, the project could not exceed 1,000 acres of the geographical area. He said if a company wanted to expand the project on the same site, it still could not exceed 1,000 acres, but if the company wanted to second site, it still could not exceed 1,000 acres, but needed a two mile separation radius. He also urged the Board to consider fully funding Greene County Development Corporation for their annual request of $50,000.

Resident Bryan Helmus also spoke during open forum. He said there is some mistrust between the public and GCDC and thought it was hard to learn what that organization is doing because their meetings are not open to the public. He was hopeful that the new GCDC President would help with their public image and regain the public’s trust. Supervisor Chair John Muir felt that GCDC had not been mismanaged and Supervisor Dan Benitz thought GCDC should be more concerned with empty and closing businesses in the community. Supervisor Pete Bardole serves on the GCDC Board and said that the organization is aware of those situations that are happening. 

The Board then heard an update from Jefferson City Administrator Scott Peterson. He thanked the county and County Engineer Wade Weiss about the upcoming Grimmell Road bridge project. He requested Jefferson residents who have not reported the material that the main water line is made of, need to do that by this October, as a requirement from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. He also spoke about single stream recycling to start this July and the third reading to a zoning ordinance change for a proposed apartment project by KCG Companies would take place Tuesday night at the city council meeting.

Next, the Board canvassed the votes from last Tuesday’s special election on the rural Local Option Sales and Services Tax (LOSST) funds. Following the canvass, the results remained the same: that eliminating the sunset date for LOSST was approved, and the revenue purpose statement change had failed. Then the architect firm for the new county jail, ISG, read the five submitted construction managers at risk requests for proposals. It was noted that interviews with the five finalists would be scheduled on March 22nd, with awarding the project to happen on March 25th.