The Wright County Board of Supervisors met on Monday with Chairman Rick Rasmussen and Supervisor Dean Kluss present and Supervisor Karl Helgevold attending via Zoom.
At 9:15 a.m. Elaine Kolb was scheduled to discuss her property next to the Wright County Public Health building, allegedly damaged by the French Drain installed for the Public Health building. Ms. Kolb indicated that she would like to reschedule her discussion since her engineer and lawyer were not present, but that her request to postpone the discussion was not submitted in time to change the agenda. Dan Hennigar presented video footage of the inside of the pipe installed for the French Drain, which was bored near the street under along the edge of her property, and was not near the house. Because Ms. Kolb’s representatives were not present, this discussion will be rescheduled and both parties will present in full. Mr. Hennigar also offered to inspect the pipe near her house for free to make sure the alleged damage was not caused by his company’s work.
Chairman Rasmussen went into recess from 9:27 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. when the board voted to go into closed session pursuant to Chapter 21.5 (c) of the Iowa Code to discuss strategy with counsel in matters that are presently in litigation or where litigation is imminent where its disclosure would be likely to prejudice or disadvantage the position of the governmental body in that litigation pertaining to a drainage district crossing issue. The closed session discussion continued for approximately two hours before the Supervisors voted to come back into open session for a vote. The Supervisors then voted to put the item of petition for repair by Pogges filed July 11, 2022 regarding Wright County Drainage District #107, Lateral 1 for consideration for the appointment of an engineer to investigate the petition for repair on the agenda for next Monday’s meeting at 10:00 am.
The board then voted unanimously to require Summit Carbon Solutions to bore under all drainage district tiles and drainage ditches, should the planned CO2 pipeline receive permits for construction.
County Engineer Adam Clemons presented two job applicants for potential hire, a Belmond Patrol Operator and a Clarion Patrol Operator, which were both approved for contingent job offers as presented to the Supervisors. Clemons then gave an update on the potential purchase of a Caterpillar Motor Grader, stating the vendor is still honoring first price quotes to Clemons from January 2022. The price for a brand new piece of equipment will be $384,440 now. Next year’s model, also new, would cost $455,000. Since the money has already been budgeted, Clemons will likely purchase the equipment now in order to save approximately $70,000. Clemons finished his presentation with the Secondary Roads update. The department completed 15 work orders. A few staff members attended a streets and roads conference , and Adam did a presentation with a colleague on FEMA. Concrete patching will be finishing this fall on county road C70.
After a discussion of past and upcoming meetings for the group and allocation of COVID money, the meeting was adjourned at 12:02 p.m.
