Before getting into this week's Supervisor's report, a note about last week's report. In that report, I reported that, "After poring over the numbers for a few minutes the Supervisors noted that the county's total fund balance, after all outstanding payments were subtracted, was $941,333.17." Wright County Treasurer Peggy Schluttenhofer reached out to us to inform us that "the correct number of our balance on hand is $14,750,836.48."
To verify this, I compiled a transcript of the Treasurer's report portion of the video from the January 23rd meeting of the Board of Supervisors. The transcript sheds some light on the misunderstanding. Here's the relevant portion:
Chairman Dean Kluss: "And if I understand it correctly then on the 31st of December our total fund balance was $14 million 750 thousand 836 and 48 cents of which we had $941 thousand 333 point 17 that was still outstanding there. I mean the checks haven't cashed yet."
Treasurer Peggy Schluttenhofer: "That includes those, that's the actual fund balance. So the fund balance has already taken into effect the outstanding warrants. Because Betty writes it, it comes out of the fund. They just have not cleared the bank yet."
Supervisor Karl Helgevold: "But they're out of the fund balance already."
Schluttenhofer: "Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm."
Helgevold: "So you don't have to subtract them."
Schluttenhofer: "Nn-nnn."
Helgevold: "Okay."
Without the actual semi-annual report before me, like Treasurer Schluttenhofer and the Supervisor's had during the meeting, I took the exchange above to mean that the supervisors had concluded that $941,333.17 was the final balance once all the payments had been subtracted from the original $14,750,836.48. In fact, according to Treasurer Schluttenhofer, she meant the opposite of that. So, $14,750,836.48 was the balance on hand after the $941,333.17 was subtracted.
With that straightened out, let's move on to this week's meeting.
Unfortunately, at this point I am unable to report the first six items on the tentative agenda that was sent out, because "there was an issue with the recording and it lost the first few minutes," as County Information Technology Administrator Andy Flagge explained. However, I can report what those agenda items were:
1. Convene Meeting at 9:00 a.m.
2: Approve tentative agenda.
3. Approve minutes of last meeting.
4. Approve claims for payment.
5. Open forum for public input.
6. Review and act on resolution 2023-08 – Wright County Right-To-Use Lease Asset Policy.
The recording begins right after that sixth agenda item, with the seventh agenda item, accepting the resignation of Doug Helgevold "from the Ambulance Advisory Committee" and appointing Mickey Cooper. The Supervisors proceeded to do so, and also were informed that the resignation and subsequent appointment were to the EMS Advisory Committee and not the Ambulance Advisory Committee, which is a different committee. Which was noted to the record.
Then, because the speakers were scheduled to start at 9:30 AM, the Supervisors skipped past the eighth and ninth items on the agenda, hearing from Julie Edwards of Upper Des Moines Opportunity, Inc. (UDMO) for a presentation of UDMO's annual update and funding request, as well as from Ryan Berven with Assured Partners to review Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC) health insurance renewal.
Which brought them to hearing from Wright County Engineer Adam Clemons. First the Supervisors considered a resolution (2023-09) to award a contract for the county's paving project "for the curves on C70 and patching across the interstate bridge," as County Engineer Adam Clemons explained it. Clemons noted that "we will not be doing anything on the interstate bridge because that is not our bridge, but the approaches coming up to it are." Clemons informed the Supervisors that two bids had been received, one from Heartland Asphalt, and one from Fort Dodge Asphalt.
Supervisor Rick Rasmussen noted that the two were "relatively close", which Clemons affirmed. Rasmussen then made a motion to approve the resolution, which Supervisor Karl Helgevold seconded, and the board then voted to approve, awarding the bid to the winning bidder, in the amount of $358,153.11, as read out by Clemons.
Next the Supervisors considered a resolution (2023-10) for "Bridge number 53, which is south of Galt," Clemons explained, adding, "there's a small bridge there that we're replacing," and that the county "did some additional right of way purchasing for this project and then also have done additional grading already in the drainage ditches around that to facilitate this project." Clemons also noted that the best bid "came in about 130 over our estimated budget" but that the Iowa DOT had ruled that the county can still approve the project because "they said that our VR money is fine", and noted, "I don't see us getting any better price." The board then approved awarding the contract in the amount of $571,677.49, as read out by Clemons, to the winning bidder.
Then the board discussed the sale of Bridge number 200. Following a Facebook post about historic bridges by the Iowa DOT last year the county received multiple inquiries asking what the county planned to do with the bridge, Clemons said. This prompted a structural analysis of the bridge, which concluded that the bridge was safe for pedestrian traffic only, no vehicular traffic. And so the county "had the county attorney put together a kind of agreement" to be sent out to interested parties stating that the bridge "can only be used for pedestrian traffic and it must be placed over a water feature" because it is a historic bridge.
Clemons has sent out an email to the possibly interested parties and will continue to work to sell the bridge "and then we will probably set something maybe for mid-March" as a possible sale date, "and we'll do some postings and some advertisements maybe on Facebook and around the county," Clemons added. Some discussion that followed centered on how challenging moving the bridge would be for the purchaser, who would be responsible for doing so, with Clemons stating that unless a heavy helicopter was used to move it, it would be necessary for the buyer to take it apart. Supervisor Rick Rasmussen expressed some interest in buying it.
Clemons then gave an update on the Secondary Roads, noting that the crews had done some maintenance and "sundry" and had also been called out to clean up snowfall on multiple occasions due to wintry weather.
The supervisors then went over the meetings they've participated in and discussion of upcoming meetings. Highlights included Rasmussen noting "workforce" was "an utter disaster" and now the state wants to take it over, and Helgevold noting that he met with the CEO of Gold-Eagle Cooperative, Chris Boshart, to hear their opinion on the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, which Helgevold noted didn't get into the issue of eminent domain.
After a short recess, the Supervisors then went on to hear from Julie Edwards of Upper Des Moines Opportunity, Inc., which she explained offers a wide variety of services to Wright County residents ranging from heating and water utility assistance, a food bank, chore funding for seniors, weatherization programs to replace furnaces, water heaters, insulate and otherwise reduce heating and utlity costs for those who qualify, back to school programs and youth enrichment programs to help young people become involved in sports and other activities, gifts for kids on their birthdays, Coats for Kids, and more.
Edwards explained that due to the rising costs of heating and utilities, and food, 600 more people had received help with heating and water bills in the past year than the prior year, and 570 more people than the prior year received food assistance. "So you can see where UDMO's grant money and county money is going in your county," Edwards concluded.
"It seems like a great return on our investment of $15,000.00 for returning services last year of $482,652.00 dollars," Chairman Kluss noted.
Edwards noted that the actual sum of the county's contribution had been $14,062.00 dollars, and that this year UDMO is requesting a slight increase, of about a thousand dollars, to $15,000.00 total.
The supervisors then went into a lengthy discussion about the Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC) health insurance renewal options with Ryan Berven of Assured Partners. The discussion was very in the weeds, so to speak, but highlights included Berven emphasizing that, in his estimation, the county would do well to stay in the plan due to factors such as the high costs of newly approved medications, and that the COVID 19 pandemic had actually reduced the county's costs as people avoided the hospitals and waited on elective procedures. Much more was discussed in the 45 minutes Berven and the board spoke than can be summarized here. Interested persons should watch the video, starting at 21 minutes and 50 seconds, at: youtu.be/Ovv-O6z5Dds&t=21m50s
After a closed session in accordance with Iowa Code Chapter 21.5(1)(j) "to discuss the purchase of sale of a particular real estate" where the sale price could reasonably be expected to be increased by disclosure of the government's interest in the property, the meeting then adjourned.
