At their Monday morning meeting, the Wright County Board of Supervisors held a budget amendment hearing. Auditor Betty Ellis noted some changes were due to increased expenses for COVID related activities like more ballot mailing and extra hours for law enforcement. There were also changes due to different financing sources be used, such as the USDA grant not being received for the Agri-Business park. Ellis said that resulted in reduced payments of other loans. There were also reduced expenditures. Revenue was amended by $2,563,959. The board adopted the amendments.
The board listened to a presentation from CGA Engineering about a right of way documentation and digitization project that the county is considering. Such a project would put all the documents, deeds, and records pertaining to county right of ways in one place in an interactive, easier to use fashion. County Engineer Adam Clemons noted that this would be useful to not only county officials but also to utility companies, landowners, realtors and others. CGA undertook this project for Wright County’s Boone Township at a cost of $7,000-8,000. They noted that each township would be different for costs due to the number of available documents. The board asked the firm to put together a more detailed proposal with costs before making a decision.
Clemons also updated the board on a number of other projects, including the Lake Cornelia tile exploration. After much work, water is now flowing as it should be which should take care of the ponding issue on Page Avenue. A resolution was also passed for bridge weight limit posting. Clemons noted that various county bridges went down in the weights they can handle. A budget amendment passed for the fiscal year 2020 Iowa DOT Secondary Road Budget, decreasing their budget by $170,000.
The board reviewed bids for the county audit for fiscal years 2020-2022. Ellis noted that the firm that previously has completed the county’s audits is no longer able to. The board received two bids. One was from Rachelle K. Thompson out of Hampton and the other was Gardiner and Company, who has multiple offices in the Midwest. Thompson’s bid was for around $32,000-$33,000 per year, while Gardiner’s was $38,000-39,000. The county budgets $40,000 per year for this activity, Ellis noted. The board decided to table the matter so they can review each proposal.
The board took action on drainage district assessments eligible to be spread. If a tract is assessed at over $500, the payments are eligible to be spread out over 10, 15, or 20 years. They also approved a change order that subtracted $50,000 from what is owed for the water supply system at the Agri-Business Park. An ISG engineer explained that this was due to rectification of quantities and taking away some developmental hours. A change order that would lead to an increased payment of $25,000 was tabled until after the supervisors’ on-site visit to the park later this week.
