At the Monday meeting of the Wright County Board of Supervisors, Clint Middleton, Clarion City Administrator, and Clarion City Attorney Zach Chizek presented a petition for the abatement for unpaid real estate property taxes for two lots in the Gates Subdivision in Clarion. In 2016, the city entered into an agreement with IHB Technologies, Inc., formerly known as Superior Coating Group, LLC out of Minnesota to develop property in the subdivision, which never came to anything. The city has now come to an agreement with the company to get the property back.
The board has agreed to abate the taxes on the property, totaling around 150,000 per year for three years, which must be done for Clarion to retake the property. Middleton noted that he had already spoken with Iowa Central and the CGD school district about the abatement, as those entities plan on tax revenues as they prepare their budgets. The board emphasized that they don’t want to have to take these steps again and hoped Clarion can develop the property to the point where it is actually generating taxes for the county and other entities.
Jarika Eisentrager, Emergency Management Coordinator, gave an update on the CARES Act grant that the county would be submitting this week. This pertains to federal money given to the state for coronavirus response and is divided among counties. Wright County is eligible for up to $159,000 should it show evidence of that amount being used for public safety and public health. Eisentrager noted that she had found over 1.9 million in eligible costs related to coronavirus from March to the end of July. (This amount includes things like salaries, workmen’s comp, etc. for regular employees who spent any part of their time working on virus related issues). There is also possible FEMA money that the county can apply for. No board action was needed for the grant application.
Sandy McGrath with the Emergency Operations Center gave an update on COVID-19 in Wright County. She noted that over the last week, there has been a slight trend upward in cases, with several investigations related to two cases. As of Monday, Wright County was at 540 cases overall. McGrath added that the county’s nursing homes will soon all have antigen testing capabilities which is helpful in detecting remnants of the virus though it is not as helpful in detecting early stages of it. She also noted that she is continuing to develop a large-scale vaccination plan for when that comes available.
In other board business, during the conference call with ISG engineers regarding the AgriBusiness Park, Chairman Dean Kluss continued to push for work to progress on the sanitary sewer at the site. The engineers noted that the company responsible is waiting on parts. The board approved the final contract with Reutzel Excavating for the drainage district #107 repairs project.
