At their meeting Monday morning, the Wright County Board of Supervisors again took up two abatement orders for the federal government after they died a few weeks ago for lack of second. The federal government holds a tax-exempt status per Iowa Code. The abatements, which are for two drainage districts and amount to about $310, were passed although Chairman Dean Kluss voted no on the measure, as has been his policy on such matters.
Iowa State Extension Regional Director Jerry Chizek was at the meeting to update the supervisors about activities from the past year. He noted that the Wright County Extension office is in the midst of hiring a new Program Coordinator since the former one, Sarah Zwiefel, has moved on. Chizek also informed that because of some reorganization across the counties, a new regional director will now be working with Wright County.
Sandy McGrath with Environmental Health and Planning and Zoning gave her monthly update. She spoke about coronavirus (see the press release on page 7 for more information). She also noted that though influenza B cases are starting to slow down, influenza A is starting to crop up more.
Supervisor Karl Helgevold addressed some concerns the sheriff’s office has been getting from the public about purchasing sheriff’s vehicles using debt service, as has been reported about in the past weeks. Helgevold and auditor Betty Ellis explained that this was not because the sheriff’s department failed to budget for vehicles, but rather because this is better in the end for taxpayers and the county. If the funds come from debt service rather than a general fund, TIF dollars are used to pay the debt, meaning entities like Prestage help pay, with taxpayers contributing less.
Though a conference call was scheduled with Riley Construction, no one ended up calling in so no update on the Agri-Business park was given during the meeting.
