By Casey Jarmes | The News-Review
SIGOURNEY – During the March 9 meeting of the Keokuk County Board of Supervisors, the board spoke with Aaron Hinnah, a candidate running for Iowa House District 88, which includes Keokuk County and parts of Mahaska and Jefferson Counties. Supervisor Daryl Wood stated that his biggest concern was that the legislature was moving away from local control. As an example, he brought up bill being discussed by the Iowa House which would put limits on the ability of county governments to regulate the building of wind turbines. The bill would prevent counties from putting setback limits on wind turbines any more than three times the height of a turbine. This is significantly shorter than the half-mile setback the Keokuk County Board of Supervisors implemented in 2024. Supervisor Mike Hadley noted that, in 2024, the anti-wind turbine people were much more vocal, while the pro-wind turbine people didn’t show up to meetings. Wood noted that he had asked the company planning to build a wind farm for a blank copy of the lease they were signing with landowners, so the board would know what was being built, but that he had never got it.
Hinnah asked the board their thoughts on carbon sequestration pipelines. Wood stated he was not in favor, but that it was the safest way to move CO2. Hinnah stated that he could see both sides, but was worried about pipelines breaking. Wood brought up a farmer he knew, who had a different pipeline go below his corn field ten years ago, and still had stalks several feet shorter over the pipeline. Wood stated the farmer felt he wasn’t paid enough and that another farmer he knew still had lower yields near a pipeline 50 years later. Hadley stated that the first question they needed to ask was if they believed we need to sequester CO2, and that scientific evidence says yes. He noted that half of Iowa’s corn goes into the ethanol industry that the pipeline is being built for. Hinnah noted that some politicians he had spoken to say Iowa needs the pipeline, because Nebraska’s pipelines give them better markets for corn. Hinnah stated that the problem was the lack of agency farmers have over market costs and noted how expensive gasoline was, despite them growing corn for ethanol. He stated that farmers work “a hell of a lot” for no return.
Supervisor Kevin Weber brought up limits the state had placed on the county’s growth. Wood stated that, between increasing costs and the Back the Blue Act, which requires they increase sheriff salaries, the county will eventually have to cut services. County Auditor Christy Bates noted that the funding sources they relied on were changing and that the state was cutting tax credits. Hinnah, who is vice president of the Oskaloosa School Board, compared the funding struggles the supervisors are facing to how the state government cut funding for schools, then created Education Savings Account vouchers, which move taxpayer money from public schools to private ones. He stated that the state was planning more restrictions on public schools and asked how that makes sense.
Wood stated that a senator he’d spoken to in December said they wouldn’t be able to rock roads every three years. Weber noted that some roads need new rock yearly. Wood stated that the state wanted to control everything they did at the local level. Hinnah stated that the legislature wouldn’t say this, but that they wanted to consolidate the little counties, because they don’t matter. Wood asked how they could make decisions affecting 99 counties with different levels of industrialization.
Hinnah stated that they needed someone to have conversations with boards of supervisors and ask them what was important. He brought up his opponent Helena Hayes’s focus on banning books, pointing to it as something being done instead of focussing on the issues that matter more locally, like farming and education. He said that he didn’t want his kid reading an inappropriate book, but that they weren’t getting them from libraries, and said he was more concerned about his kid’s phone. He stated that District 88 is 96% public schools, but that Hayes had called the implementation of Education Savings Accounts a “triumph.” He called this “blasphemy” in Keokuk County.
Also at the Monday morning meeting, County Engineer Andy McGuire stated that he had submitted an application for federal funding to resurface the Keswick road, which had received more than thirty letters of support from community members.
