At Monday’s Wright County Board of Supervisors meeting, they picked up the previous week’s discussion about mental health regions. The county was contemplating leaving the County Social Services (CSS) region and joining the Central Iowa Community Services (CICS) region because of state rules. Russell Wood and various team members with the CICS region spoke about how they operate, services they offer, and how their financing works. Wood emphasized that if Wright County makes the move to CICS, “We are not looking at taking away client services and we want to make sure clients have continuity in services.” He encouraged the board to move forward with a decision to join CICS as soon as possible in order to protect Wright County employees and work on budgets and contracts. The board agreed that they wanted to make the move. They passed a motion to send a letter to CSS that they intend to leave that region and join CICS, effective July 1, 2021.
Engineer Lee Gallentine updated the board on repairs to drainage district 117, which is southwest of Belmond in Grant Township. Tile in the area has been clogged by tree roots. Previously, the plan had been to clean up the tile by cutting the roots and lining the tile. However, there was only one bid on the project, and it was significantly above the engineer’s estimate. Subsequently, it was decided to go with another repair option- an open ditch repair. Various affected landowners were in attendance and agreed with the plan. The NRCS had also been consulted on the option and there were no big wetland concerns. The bid letting for the open ditch option will take place December 14. Gallentine was hopeful the county could get various bids given the scope of the project.
In the COVID update, Sandy McGrath noted the county’s positive number is at 924, up from 814 last week. The two-week positivity average stands at over 21%. “We are really heading towards the edge of a cliff if we don’t get these numbers down,” said McGrath. She again reiterated what the people need to do: wear masks, avoid gatherings, stay home if sick and get tested if you have symptoms.
In other business, Engineer Adam Clemons noted that Secondary Roads had been involved in helping mitigate a chemical spill last week after it was discovered that discharge had overflowed from a large storage tank at the ReNewTrients 1 facility southeast of Clarion. (See page 9 of the Monitor for more information about this). Additionally, County Assessor Shari Plagge also presented applications for the family farm tax credit program. She recommended which applications be denied and accepted based on who was applying, a flow chart defining eligibility, and how much land the applicants farmed. The board accepted her recommendations.
