[0:00] Please rise

[0:05] to the flag of the United States of America to the stands one nation under

[0:12] God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

[0:17] » Thank you. >> Thank you so much for being here

[0:21] tonight. Um, we know that, uh, an accessible government is an accountable

[0:27] government. And so the board, we know that Liberty County is a big county and

[0:31] that it's important to bring the the the government to the people. And so that's

[0:35] why we're here tonight. And so we appreciate all of you being here. Um,

[0:39] we'll start off with just a few introductions. I think we'll start with

[0:43] the board of supervisors and then we can go around to some of the elected

[0:46] officials in department head. So I'm Mark Nelson. I'm the 2026 chair of the

[0:51] board of supervisors and we have Matthew sitting here Dan Bing to his right uh

[0:57] David Dietrich and then also from Anthony from the city of Anthony here we

[1:02] have Mayor Port County and Councilman Ross. So thank you guys for hosting us

[1:06] in town today and you guys are on the business tour. Appreciate that. If we

[1:10] have any other elected officials in department heads, I ask you to please

[1:14] kind of stand. Engineer Lord Severs, our MS director Drew Ber, our county

[1:20] treasurer Tina Bertran, our HR director Melissa Thomas, budget director Ryan

[1:25] Ericson, our zoning coordinator Dan Priestley, county, county James Lewis,

[1:30] sorry James, and then our city district health Kevin Green over there. So, thank

[1:34] you all you guys. Hello, Michelle Scaff. I'm sorry, Michelle Scout.

[1:38] I'm sorry. Sorry. Um, do we have any Secretary Rose

[1:44] foreman here that >> I'll be there. So, thank you. Oh, and

[1:50] and Tim, thanks for being here, guys. So, we have we have four foremen that

[1:54] oversee four districts in the county and these guys are supervising the staff in

[1:58] those districts and those day-to-day operations. Tim is out of

[2:01] Correctionville, Jim is out of ODOT. They oversee the east side of the

[2:04] county. We got Jamie and Michael out of Mobile and Hornets respectively. And so

[2:10] those guys are are overseeing a lot of work every day and we appreciate the uh

[2:14] the work that they do. Um uh also I'd like to recognize if there's

[2:19] any other mayors, councilmen or city clerks from other communities in the

[2:24] county that are here tonight. If you just give a wave of the hand or

[2:28] Okay. Okay, we got a couple. Thank you. Thank you for uh joining us. Um if you

[2:33] saw over here we have refreshments that were sponsored by United Bank of Iowa

[2:37] here in Anthem. Uh typically the board would buy um snacks and and refreshments

[2:42] for these types of things. UI reached out when when this was announced and

[2:47] said is that something we could do and so very appreciative that they wanted to

[2:50] do that. So thank you to UBI. Um but then a really big thank you to um Amy

[2:57] McFarland and AC/DC. So when when we wanted to come here, I I wanted to have

[3:02] an event center and then do a tour of some of the businesses in Anthen and

[3:06] give people a chance to interact with those business owners and see the great

[3:10] work that's going on in Anon. And I kind of gave Amy a directive things I want to

[3:14] do and she made it happen. And so thank you, thank you, thank you so much for

[3:17] that and for all that ACDC does. I think as supervisors, we're pretty um proud

[3:23] that we get to tell people that we have the coolest named economic development

[3:27] group in the state of Iowa. you're not going to top AC/DC, right? So, thank

[3:31] you. Thank you so much. Um, so you've all probably seen the agenda of some

[3:36] items that we're going to cover tonight. Um, at the end, we do have open for any

[3:41] any comments, any feedback, any questions. Um, as we go through these,

[3:45] if you have any questions or comments you want to make as we go through these

[3:48] items, absolutely raise your hand. We'd love to hear from you. The only thing

[3:52] that we ask is that we're respectful of people when they're talking. So, let's

[3:56] try to recognize who the speaker is and let them uh finish. And let's as a

[4:01] speaker, let's be mindful of everybody's time. We have a lot of sub topics to

[4:04] cover. I'm sure there's lots of things we're going to hear from you guys. So,

[4:07] as we as we go through this, let's just uh be respectful of of that. So, with

[4:12] that, we're going to start with Connie and I guess Ross is going to give an

[4:16] update. Sorry, Ross. Ross is going to give an update from the city of Anthony

[4:19] and then BBC wants to take up stuff that's going on. So, I'll turn to you

[4:22] guys. Thank you. As Mark said, my name is Ross

[4:27] Baldwin. I am on the city council. County Westfall here is on the city

[4:32] council as well. Our mayor couldn't be here in county as she is the mayor pro

[4:36] Tim. There is only two of us here. So, the city of Anthony does not have a

[4:40] quorum going right now. But, uh, I just want to thank the Woodbury County

[4:44] Supervisors and the rest of the elected officials um for coming to Anthe and

[4:48] seeing our town. As you guys see, we're very proud of Anthe. We're very proud of

[4:53] the businesses and the amount of work and money that has been put into AMP,

[4:58] especially over the last handful of years. It's it's been a tremendous

[5:01] amount. And I'm just going to do a a quick little highlight of where Amp's at

[5:05] today. And one thing I do want to highlight is the businesses that we

[5:10] have. And I'll be honest, as I went down this list, it surprised me even how many

[5:16] businesses there is in Anthem and on Main Street for a town of less than 500

[5:21] people. So starting from the the west end of Main Street, we have the Anthony

[5:25] Mini Mart, the Woodbury County hay auction, Binhan feed lot, which is at

[5:30] the old Anthony elevator that they renovated, the Rustic Boutique, Shelley

[5:34] Dandenburg, United Bank of Iowa, Maine and Miller, Happy Hanks Barbecue, which

[5:40] Lorie Hanky, she also works out of that building, which is next to our building.

[5:44] She works for carparts.com and has for several years. The Fireside Steakhouse

[5:49] and Lounge, the Fireside Meat Market, John Stewart Associates, which we

[5:53] toured, I'm a part of that company, Katie Cloud and Home, 1846 Jerky

[5:59] Company, Jeremy and Christy Bowman, Ida Chiropractic, Jay Ly, Steve Alers, SA

[6:05] Commodities, the Rimson Farmers Co-op, Lincoln Studio 101, Rhese Cochran, which

[6:11] is another building that's been completely re renovated in the last few

[6:14] years. JK Insurance, Jennifer Okonnell and Kelly Cook. And then the Anthony

[6:20] Vvent Center down here at the end. And you can look around and see the amount

[6:24] of work and money that's been put into the event center. And that's came from

[6:27] grants and big private donations. One other business that is on Main Street

[6:32] that I left out is Little Saloon, and it's it's currently underway of being

[6:36] renovated and opened back up. And that's a that's another business that the city

[6:40] of Anon is is supporting. and Pinebridge Parlor which is next to

[6:46] the little saliva. The off street businesses is the Anthen service center,

[6:52] Collins Agency, Kurt Pollson Auctions, Nutrian, the Shooting Shop, the Anon

[6:58] Veterary Clinic, Amy Cloud Photography, Little Solutions, Anon Metal Works, and

[7:04] the Anthem Community Golf Club. These are all the businesses in Anthem. It it

[7:08] it's over 25 businesses, which is nothing short of amazing in my opinion.

[7:13] And a lot of the I mean these are thriving businesses and continuing to

[7:17] grow. Another thing we have obviously is the Anon Elementary School. It's K

[7:23] through eight. So the Anon Elementary is there, but it's also the middle school

[7:26] from Maple Valley and Anthony. And it's obviously the largest employer in the

[7:31] town of Anthem. And it this is it's vital for our community.

[7:36] We also have a very active Anthem Community Fire Department. Um we've got

[7:41] several fire members of the fire department. I'm the assistant chief.

[7:44] Chad guy stand up. Chad Meyer, he's the chief of the Anthem Fire Department.

[7:49] Ryan Jacobson, he's our secretary and is Grant here, treasure, but Rick Baldwin

[7:55] and Nathan Ledwick, they're also on the Anthem Fire Department and they're

[7:58] present as well. We also have the Anon Rescue Squad, which is very active. I

[8:03] did see Don and Julie. They are here right over here. Um,

[8:09] we have the Anthonoto Rec Ball Committee and very active as well. This last year,

[8:14] if you drive down by our ballpark, we just got a new cover put over top of it

[8:18] and and one company that I or not company, but one organization I didn't

[8:22] list, but they are on Main Street is the Anthem Legion Post 389. And they are

[8:27] very active. And so there's coffee there every morning at the Legion, but the

[8:32] Legion was behind that cover that got put over top of the grand stand down

[8:37] here this last year. And the Legion applied for a grant through MER and MR

[8:41] awarded the grant. And we've got this beautiful structure down there now

[8:44] covering the grandstands. As well as there's churches in this

[8:48] town. I I believe there's the Methodist Lutheran Church of Christ and the

[8:53] Catholic Church. Four churches in Anthem and all very active.

[8:58] And then another really cool it it's it's essentially a business is the

[9:04] Maidenbound Market that Amy's a part of. Um her and her sister Katie and as well

[9:08] as Kayla too are a part of that. And the Maidenbound Market is held every fall

[9:13] down here. And I don't you guys probably draw between Friday and Saturday 5,000

[9:18] people to the town of An. And if you've never been to it, come out. It's a

[9:23] fantastic event and they're they're and showcasing

[9:27] people that uh vendors that hand make all their own goods and so it's a

[9:32] wonderful event. So that's just a a highlight of all of the things that are

[9:36] going for amp and it's exciting and and I really feel like you can you can see

[9:41] why as you tour Main Street and you see everything that's going on you you get

[9:45] the a feeling of why we have such a strong sense of pride in the town of

[9:48] Anthony. It's uh there's a lot happening for a town of our size in my opinion.

[9:54] Some of the highlights from the the city of An recently that I would like to

[9:59] bring up is within the last few years we've completed our first phase of our

[10:03] underground electrical project. And essentially that is the the main line

[10:08] coming in from that main line is all underground. And if you go down the

[10:14] north side of Main Street behind all those businesses in that alley that is

[10:18] all now underground and it was it was a nightmare I mean before that. So this

[10:22] has been expensive but it it is a much needed upgrade and something that we're

[10:28] hoping to continue to build off of for the long-term reliability of our town.

[10:33] We within the last few years we completely revamped our water tower. Our

[10:38] water tower needed a lot of work and that's something that we got done here a

[10:42] few years ago and the water tower is now on annual maintenance schedule but it

[10:47] was sand blasted the outside the inside some of it was brought more up to code

[10:51] to today's code and that our our water infrastructure here in Athen is in very

[10:57] good shape. Another thing that we have done is the intersections here on D38.

[11:03] This one right out here by the event center and then down by the old fire

[11:07] station where Kurt Pollson's auction store is. Both of those intersections

[11:12] needed a tremendous amount of work. We have a lot of a lot of traffic that

[11:15] comes through. It's a farm to market road D38 is. And they were we we spent a

[11:22] lot of money on it as the city, but it's 8 in of concrete with Rebar. And so it's

[11:26] it's we're we're proud of it and it's a much better experience as you come

[11:30] through Anthony. The next two big projects that we've got

[11:36] going on today is we are in the process of updating our lift station down here

[11:41] behind the boat. Our lift station is extremely outdated. I don't even know

[11:46] the year, but we it was that infrastructure of the lift station was

[11:51] exposed of of how close to critical failure we are during the flood that

[11:56] happened. And we were able to keep that lift station going and running during

[12:00] the flood, but there's a lot of work that needs to be done to that. And

[12:03] there's a couple grants that are out there for that that we are exploring.

[12:07] There's uh one that is a $500,000 grant and there's another $500,000 grant. That

[12:13] lift station project is obviously going to be well over a million dollars, but

[12:17] it is it's something for the the long-term viability of the town of Anon.

[12:21] We desperately need a new lift station. The other project that we have been

[12:26] exploring, and this is going to be a a few project, is we're exploring a new

[12:31] housing development. So, where the fire station sits on the corner of Highway

[12:34] 31, there's a cornfield there, and we are exploring a new housing development

[12:39] there. West Gate, which was our previous housing development, is is completely

[12:44] full now. Um the last lot was actually just sold within the last couple of

[12:48] months. So, a lot of exciting stuff going on in Anthem. Um the city of

[12:53] Anthem, we've got a great staff right now. Jeff Collins is here. He's the city

[12:57] superintendent. Him and Mike um Mike Gumball, they work hard. Um we're we're

[13:03] very happy with where we're at today. I would say when you think about the

[13:08] biggest risk for the city of Anthony, it's the same as every other small town.

[13:11] The biggest risk is aging infrastructure and the cost of everything. And that is

[13:16] where um you think about the support from the

[13:21] county that you guys have always given an there's no question. Um I've been

[13:26] I've been part of organizations that are on the receiving end of that support. So

[13:29] I'm not just saying that because they're sitting here. Woodbury County

[13:32] supervisors have been very supportive for the town of Bama. I my first job out

[13:36] of college was working at the grain elevator south of town and that grain

[13:39] elevator was part of tax incremental financing which was through Woodbury

[13:43] County. So the county has been extremely supportive. The thing though for us in

[13:48] these small towns is is with the cost of everything and the aging infrastructure

[13:52] is it is vital the support from our our local, our city, our state, county and

[13:58] federal government. it. We we can't continue to do these projects without

[14:02] these types of grants that we're talking about. Uh I talked about the electrical

[14:05] project, the the lift station. These grants are extremely vital and the

[14:10] support is vital, but that that's the same for every small town. I know

[14:14] there's other representatives from small towns and we're all in the same boat out

[14:18] here, but the biggest thing is we all just keep working together and

[14:21] collaborate and come up with good ideas and keep moving forward. That's all I

[14:25] have. If anyone's got any questions, I'll be around all night. But Amy

[14:29] McFarland is here with the AC/DC and I would like Amy just to give a couple

[14:33] highlights from the AC/DC and who they are and what they do. Thank you.

[14:45] So ACC stands for Anthony Community Development Corporation and we are a

[14:50] group of about 10 volunteers. Uh we do small community projects, but we're the

[14:55] ones that make the fun happen in Anthe. Our main goal is to provide family

[15:00] friendly activities and things for, you know, people that want to raise a family

[15:05] here and want to stay here or want to move here because of the great things

[15:08] that we have going on. So, uh, sorry. I grew up in this town and, uh,

[15:18] it was the best life as a child growing up in the '9s and all the things that we

[15:22] had to do. And, uh, my goal and the the goal of the board is to

[15:29] give these kids in this town that same life that we had. So, um, through

[15:33] donations, through fundraising, we have annual events that we put on every year

[15:38] for the kids. Everything from the Christmas carnival to our annual town

[15:42] celebration of kids day. I think last year was our 100th year celebration. And

[15:46] how many people do you still came into town for that? I mean there was hundreds

[15:49] of people here. Um the carnival comes, we have concerts, we have food. It's

[15:55] just an amazing thing. Um that's probably our biggest celebration of the

[15:58] year. And then just other smaller things that we're doing throughout the year for

[16:01] the kids. Uh, as far as projects go, we try to devote a good $10,000 worth of

[16:08] money every year to a project that needs to be taken care of and added. So, um,

[16:13] for example, last year the bathrooms down were a site and they just were not

[16:20] maybe a favorite place for the ladies to go. And so we were able to take that

[16:24] money and have those bathrooms completely redone and help an rack ball

[16:29] out and uh just make them cleaner, nicer, more efficient. Uh this year

[16:35] we're going to focus more of of our money on more projects down there at the

[16:38] ball field. You know, we want to have that facility nice and welcoming and

[16:43] just be a place where those kids can thrive. So everything from just renewing

[16:47] the dugouts to uh adding a shade onto the structure that the legion had put

[16:54] on. So those hot early or late May days when that sun's coming through, you

[17:00] know, give it some shade. Um we do little things. Had the light poles in

[17:05] Hampton. They were hot green and we had them painted black. We buy the flags for

[17:09] Main Street. And then another project that we're really proud of just making

[17:12] Main Street pretty is we buy huge flower pots that we have put on Main Street

[17:16] every year um through donations. We do $50 sponsorships and people just they're

[17:21] fighting those sponsorships but then take care of those flower pots every

[17:26] year. If you haven't been to Aen in the summer in the last three years, it's

[17:29] just beautiful. We get so many compliments on that and um just doing

[17:34] little things like that to help town out, you know. So, uh,

[17:40] just our our main thing is we want you to come and visit, enjoy your time here,

[17:45] bring your families. We're a welcoming community. We love seeing people come in

[17:50] from other places. Support our businesses, shop small. I think that's

[17:56] just been such a I don't want to say trendy thing last five years, but it's

[18:00] important. And these people in this town care and they break their backs to make

[18:04] this town great. So just really proud to be a part of this town and this group of

[18:09] people who just want to make the a great place to be. So

[18:14] thank you.

[18:21] All right. Well, thank you for that update from both of you. Really great.

[18:24] Appreciate that. Um, next on the agenda is an update from our county engineer,

[18:29] Laura Severs. and I know that she's got some things prepared to put up on the

[18:32] wall, but I will turn the uh microphone over to her and she can tell you about

[18:36] some of the projects that we have going on in the county, what it what you could

[18:40] expect to see at this year. And then I'm sure she would love to uh field

[18:44] questions. I'm sure you have questions and comments. All

[19:01] right. How many people thought about the road,

[19:06] the pavement that they drove on on their way here tonight?

[19:11] The actual road, the actual pavement. Sometimes we think about those things

[19:17] and sometimes we don't. Um, and honestly, if you're not thinking about

[19:22] the road you're driving on, I think that that means that we're good.

[19:29] So, let me ask you something else.

[19:38] How many of you drove on a county on your way here tonight?

[19:44] Yeah, we have a lot in Woodberry. Um, our system is quite big here in uh

[19:51] with that 1300 miles of roadway, 300 bridges.

[19:58] It's a busy system that uh we we spend a lot of time keeping in good and safe

[20:06] condition. And I always love showing this to people

[20:12] in uh that's not is it is a nice quiet roadway system. We like to kind of do

[20:21] our work, you know, out of the spotlight. We like taking care of the

[20:25] roads that only a couple people need to get to and from places

[20:30] because those roads still need to be taken care of and those roads, you know,

[20:35] um are vital for a lot of people.

[20:40] Um did anybody fuel up a vehicle this?

[20:47] Well, thank you. You contributed to secondary roads uh the road use tax

[20:52] fund. uh you know has state and federal taxes on that fuel that you fueled up

[20:58] with and uh that's the major contributor to our budget and you'll be happy to

[21:04] know that it took me what three slides to get to talk about money. Uh I would

[21:10] say probably every time I talk to the board it's something about money. Um

[21:14] it's it's a big system. It takes a lot of dollars. So, I just want everyone to

[21:19] understand that your taxes that you're paying at the pump really do come back

[21:23] to here to Woodbury. Um, but then also the pennies that you

[21:27] pay at a register and help pay for our own.

[21:32] Um, we get a little bit of property tax funds and then we also do get some tax

[21:39] increment tip fun that helps with the gravel road project.

[21:46] And then that money helps, but then it really also helps if we get some state

[21:51] funding. We get two million for our farm to market roads every year. We get a

[21:57] million for the highway uh bridge funds, which a highway bridge fund has to just

[22:01] have a whole bunch of requirements on those bridges that then we qualify for

[22:06] that kind of. And then we're also always applying for grants, right? If you can

[22:11] do a project with grant money, it just extends all your money for all the other

[22:16] things you also need to be doing. So, we do appreciate grants and we'll uh we'll

[22:21] jump through every single federal group that's required uh to get that money.

[22:26] We'll do all the paperwork, right? So, yeah.

[22:34] So, if you're familiar with the D3A project,

[22:41] I thought it was an amazing project. Uh, it turned out really great. Um, but

[22:47] again, it costs money. So, we had a whole bunch of money I just talked

[22:51] about, but for some reason, that money comes in and comes out. Like, there's

[22:56] never never stopping too long, you know. Um

[23:01] it was a 10 10 million project and it cost you know $3.7 million to do. So

[23:10] that's a lot of dollars that went out for that. Um but let's think of asphalt

[23:14] project you see one you know 37.

[23:22] Um, how many can you think of another road

[23:26] that we probably need to be doing? No one.

[23:32] » Oh, well, yes, there there is always roads

[23:35] that need to be done. Um, it is just a process of trying to figure out can we

[23:40] get extra money for that road and if we can then we're going to jump through

[23:44] those hoops and wait that time to do those roads. But otherwise, you know, it

[23:47] is just trying to find the worlds that, you know, really need to be taken care

[23:52] of because safe is the priority. Um, yeah, like I said, it that project

[24:01] turned out really good. Um, it's an award winner in my book. So,

[24:07] I'm really appreciative of the, you know, construction staff that was out

[24:10] there. The contractor did a good job when he was there and not broke down.

[24:15] But um it was a good time.

[24:22] Uh we also did a concrete road project that was K45

[24:30] and concrete projects to cost a little bit more. That was a seven mile project.

[24:36] So now we're at you know 470,000 but to do um just a concrete overlay.

[24:43] you know, that's not taking out the whole road. That's really just a little

[24:47] bit of concrete on top of it. But it does last a little bit longer. So, if we

[24:52] can find the upfront cost to those projects,

[24:56] but um again, I think there's another great

[25:01] project.

[25:09] » Oh, yeah. We have to talk about bridges. So bridges are really costly. Um if you

[25:16] see a bridge project coming up in your area or if you know one that was

[25:20] recently done, it's usually almost near that million dollar mark. Um I'll say

[25:27] $250 per square foot. And you know what a square foot is. A dinner plate, you

[25:33] know, is something of that size. Paper is a little bit smaller than that, but

[25:38] um yeah, it it adds up quick. And that's

[25:41] just the construction cost, right? That's not talking about the inspection

[25:45] that we do on bridges. That's not talking about the maintenance on bridges

[25:49] and have 300 of them, right? Uh the money uh comes and goes out of that

[25:55] highway bridge fund quite quickly. Um in our county probably need to be doing

[26:01] five bridges a year. So five, you know, times a million,

[26:07] right? So um we go through a lot of bridge private trying to find. We use

[26:13] some local money to do some bridges that don't qualify for this funding, but um

[26:19] yeah. Anyone know a bridge that needs to be done?

[26:24] It's a great audience.

[26:28] Thank you.

[26:35] All right. So, we also have some big equipment out there that takes care of

[26:38] our roads. Uh, we have 21 motorbraider routes for our over 900 miles of gravel

[26:45] road. Um, I think that uh motor graders should be replaced about every 10 years,

[26:53] you know. So, um, if we can find enough funding to do that, we haven't, but, um,

[27:00] if we can get back to that type of rotation, then some big expenses happen

[27:05] after a moderator gets 10 years old. And so, that's what I'm trying to avoid

[27:12] because they cost a lot to repair. They cost a lot to replace. But yeah, so

[27:19] $460,000 is um probably what we're going to see

[27:23] on the motor graders we buy this year.

[27:30] And then we have our snow plow and gravel trucks. They're uh the truck

[27:34] alone is, you know, 300,000. And then uh we're trying to put trailers

[27:40] behind them now. Um if we put a truck with a trailer out on the road, we're

[27:45] now hauling almost as much gravel semi. Uh so again, just trying to get that

[27:52] gravel improvement project um you know, fulfilled and that time that we said

[27:58] that we would get that project done. So that's our goal uh is to try to put

[28:04] anytime we buy a new truck is trailer to gravel up behind it.

[28:15] Oh yeah. So we should talk about that. The gravel road improvement project um

[28:20] is a saving grace I think to the Perry County roads. I don't know how secondary

[28:27] roads would be doing right now um without you know $4 million over the

[28:34] last years buying a majority of the gravel that goes on the roads.

[28:40] I'm sure there's a lot of counties that would appreciate having a program like

[28:45] this. Um, so the foresight of the board at the time to do a project like that,

[28:50] the continued support of allowing me to spend a little bit more money on

[28:54] equipment to keep this project going. Um, just really shows how much I think

[29:00] the board understands uh that gravel road system is vital to county. So, I

[29:07] really appreciate it. Uh we have it looks like over 500 miles we've already

[29:11] done. Uh and we have 194 miles to just get a first lift down. You can't put it

[29:18] all down at once. Um and those are the two sections that um my big goal, you

[29:24] know, if we're not going to have winter anymore. Let's start hauling gravel,

[29:28] right? So, uh maybe we get it all done. I thought it'd be a big shot, but um it

[29:36] it's going to be helpful having some trucks with trailers. Uh you know, we

[29:40] only have a couple semiis. So, I really I really think that um the people who

[29:47] have the ground wall have really appreciated it and the ones who don't

[29:52] know that they don't have it yet because they fall and that's I understand that

[29:57] you know the project years now and they want to be the priority next and we're

[30:02] going to try to get to that.

[30:06] Yeah. But again, an amazing program. and I appreciate um that we have that those

[30:12] funds.

[30:16] So, we can also talk about what we're planning on for the next two summers.

[30:21] The reason why I'd like to say that sometimes projects don't

[30:26] take the next summer to get done. Um so, what I'm going to show you might change.

[30:33] That's why I say propose. You'll never I'll never guarantee anything. I never

[30:38] know when the contractor is going to show up. Uh they'll tell us we're going

[30:42] to show up next Monday and they show up three months from now. So, um we try to

[30:47] incentivize them to get them here, but kind of at their mercy of when they show

[30:53] up. So, all right. So, it's probably really

[31:00] small, but um we have some farmable market funding for D38. I'm gonna ask

[31:07] the board if we can add L27. I feel like we have enough farm to market funding to

[31:13] do that project. Um the orange spots are bridges that we're going to be replacing

[31:20] over the next two summers. The yellow is uh just cracking taking

[31:26] care of that asphalt that uh kind of need continual repair. And then the two

[31:32] blues are um two bridges qualified for federal funds. So we went and applied

[31:39] for them and we were supposed to know last March giving them uh that funding.

[31:45] Um I think the government shut down twice since then and we still don't

[31:51] know. So it's a waiting game. We really hope that they are. There two bridges

[31:55] outside. Um these two bridges are big bridges. Uh

[32:01] each bridge we thought would cost about 1.8 million. The federal government

[32:05] would be paying 80% of that. Um and some of the conversations I have with the

[32:10] board is they were nowhere on our 5year schedule to get done. Uh are they a

[32:15] priority to me right now? No. But if I can get one and a half million for a

[32:22] bridge for free from the feds, I will jump through every hoop because that

[32:26] pushes all of the projects forward. I say um we do have to usually you'll have

[32:31] to do a 20% match. Uh and we're willing to do that um to spend a little money to

[32:36] get a lot of. So um again, I'm always appreciative of the board really

[32:42] understands always go after that free money, get it. Um but a lot of numbers

[32:51] um here and a lot of good projects coming.

[32:55] But I'll ask you um what questions do you have about roads and bridges?

[33:06] » Yeah, >> thank you for the overview, Laura. My

[33:09] name is Kim Alexander. I farm down from Smithwood in a very steep part of the

[33:13] hills, one mile from Monom County. And my question is, it's my understanding

[33:19] that Monomomen County is like the third poorest county in the whole state of

[33:23] Iowa. Yet, they can afford a good white rock on their road, which lasts much

[33:29] longer. Does a much better job than this uh red blow sand. That's what we call it

[33:34] out where I'm at that we have to bring out every year. Does a very poor job of

[33:39] holding up, especially when the frost goes out in the spring. Why can't we get

[33:43] some decent gravel down there? Some rock, white rock.

[33:47] » Yeah, I I I do see that there are some counties that do that. Um the cost of

[33:54] gravel is really what it is. Uh I think they're spending I thought are they

[34:02] spending $12 a ton where we're spending six. So half price um gravel. Uh, with

[34:09] that, I think they're going, how far over are they going to get that? They're

[34:13] not getting it in their county. Manona doesn't have it in their county.

[34:18] » I'm not sure where they get roads in county.

[34:24] » Yeah, I think they drive like over 50 miles one way to go get it. And so we

[34:30] just have so many miles to cover that um we can't

[34:41] So sad. >> I I I drive the gravel road. I think

[34:46] that our gravel is doing pretty good on our road. I guess you'd have to show me

[34:52] a road that's failed. Well, I tell you what, next spring when

[34:57] the frost goes out, um, which it's it's already past it now, but when when we

[35:02] get a rainy spell, come on out and I will give you a guided tour of the roads

[35:07] of William Township down there. >> I'll do that.

[35:16] » We're going to get some moisture sometime, right? So, it's going to come.

[35:18] Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah.

[35:24] I'll call Tim out here. So, what I appreciate is what what Mark talked

[35:28] about is is local government being present, right? Accountability. So, I

[35:34] have the ability if I have an issue, I just text him. He probably hates it and

[35:38] he doesn't want people to know that. But we had an issue at 5:00 one night. Tree

[35:44] went down over the ground by my house. I sent him a text and he said, "Hey, I

[35:48] happen to have a guy driving down from a job. I'll go there and take care of." I

[35:51] just think we don't understand or appreciate

[35:55] what these local guys do. They're in the communities. They're present and we're

[35:59] able to communicate with them. So, I just want to encourage more of them. I

[36:03] want to make sure all the residents understand, hey, if you're out on a

[36:06] gravel road or secondary road, you got direct access to these guys. I

[36:11] personally appreciate

[36:20] » you.

[36:24] My mother-in-law passed away.

[36:33] » What was that phone number?

[36:45] Um, you know,

[36:50] people ask me for a year and a half now, how are they

[36:54] going,

[36:58] you know, I think the staff in Woodberry County, uh, the whole county is great.

[37:05] Uh, our department is way awesome. So, because we have people like that, right?

[37:11] » I I think we're a really good team. I I really do. You You do have four foremen

[37:17] that are very responsive. They'll respond to a fire department that needs

[37:21] assistance. They'll, you know, they're friends with everyone in the sheriff's

[37:26] department, you know. So, I mean, it's it's a good teamwork. And when you come

[37:32] from DOT that was in everyone was in their own little silo yet we're all in

[37:36] the same building, you know. Um I can really appreciate how we all work

[37:41] together and how you can call somebody directly and if we can't get to you

[37:45] right away, we'll get to you, you know, when we can't get to you. So yeah,

[37:50] thanks for that comment. >> Yeah.

[37:58] appreciates. >> Oh, thank you.

[38:09] » It's funny like I think the foreman have heard it a lot from me, but they they

[38:14] come up with really good ideas, you know, construction staff, we do a lot of

[38:18] the meetings, too. Uh we come up with really good ideas and I tell them, "Let

[38:23] me try to find the one. let me see if I can find a line, you know. So, so that's

[38:27] what we're trying to do. We're really trying to uh get some good equipment,

[38:32] get some good tools out there, try to help help these roads out as much as we

[38:38] can, right? So, we appreciate the taxpayers that paid for us to do

[38:44] this good job. Thank you. >> Yeah.

[38:48] » Um I I'm sure you guys have looked at this, but a lot of these 10

[38:57] smaller bridges on some of these gravel roads,

[39:01] » right? >> I'm assuming they're

[39:06] » um some coverts are uh once you get to a big enough then

[39:11] probably the same as a bridge. Uh so one of the things I look at when I'm looking

[39:16] at whether we should put in a bridge or a culvert obviously um a culbert if we

[39:21] can we will. Um if we can't maybe it's because you know that stream bed keeps

[39:26] eroding away and so what's eventually going to happen is underneath a covert

[39:29] floor you're going to have erosion where a bridge you don't have that. Another

[39:34] thing we might look at when we're looking at bridge versus covert is is we

[39:39] actually get that highway bridge funds based on the square footage of every

[39:43] bridge in your county. Um once we switch it to a culbert we no

[39:48] longer get funds for it. So then any continual maintenance, you know, you

[39:53] want to not think about your lifetime, maybe you want to think about the next

[39:56] next generation, you know, we now know that that structure no longer will be

[40:01] funded and that's only coming out of our pocket. So, always things like that. But

[40:06] I I >> love

[40:26] that in your area.

[40:29] Oh,

[40:40] » anything else? >> I feel the bed.

[40:49] » Anything else? >> And I would piggyback off of something

[40:54] Laura said about our staff. um whether it's our foreman or any of our

[40:59] employees, they many of them are taxpayers too and they call me or other

[41:05] supervisors with ideas on how we can save money, cut costs, but then they

[41:11] also are looking out when when they're dealing with suppliers in the county, if

[41:15] they feel that that supplier is maybe taking advantage of us because we are a

[41:19] public entity that they have no problem saying, you know what, we shouldn't do

[41:22] business with these guys anymore because it is not worth it's not the the bang is

[41:26] not there for the buck. And so, um, I've been very impressed in my time on the

[41:30] board of the guys really being concerned about how we're spending the money in

[41:34] the feedback that they give us and and we try to listen not every idea is

[41:39] something that we can, you know, that we can move forward with, but we always

[41:43] encourage that because we we want to find ways to be cost-ffective and

[41:46] efficient, and we appreciate that those guys are are wanting to do that, too.

[41:51] So, I I would like to say that Any other questions for for Laura?

[42:00] Oh, thanks Laura,

[42:13] our past engineer. He told us when he was going to retire. He gave us a it was

[42:18] over a year advanced notice. And so the board created a basically a second

[42:24] engineer position. When you're a county this large, you can't just bring an

[42:27] engineer off the street and expect them to run this thing day one. It's just not

[42:31] possible. And so Mark gave us advanced notice. We created another position. And

[42:36] it was you started in October, Laura. >> September.

[42:41] » It was almost 10 months before we could hire somebody. And I think we had two

[42:47] people in that 10 months that we had applicants that we interviewed. So, um,

[42:52] there's not a lot of folks that want to work for counties and and do this type

[42:57] of work. We're very thankful that we that we have Laura as someone that has

[43:00] grown up here in the area her entire life. Um, but, uh, it's a lot of

[43:05] counties are struggling and so we're very thankful that Mark worked with us

[43:09] and gave us the timeline of when he was going to retire and that uh, we were

[43:12] able to snag more. So, um, and we we're seeing this with other positions across

[43:16] the county, and we'll probably talk about some of those, uh, later. But

[43:20] moving on here, we'll, uh, I'm going to turn over to Drew Ber, who is our

[43:24] emergency services director. So, those that maybe wonder what is emergency

[43:28] services, they are based out of Climbing Hill, and Matthew is the only supervisor

[43:33] currently on the board that really brought this brought this forward. They

[43:38] provide 247 uh paramedic and EMT um help to any of the volunteer departments of

[43:43] the county. That was something that uh rural constituents especially probably

[43:48] 101 15 years ago that really demanded that they wanted this help and and

[43:53] Matthew at that time was instrumental um getting that done. And so as a board

[43:58] we've been very supportive of the work that we do and and I personally interact

[44:02] with a lot of our volunteers across the county. And so we're gonna have Drew

[44:06] give a little update and we'll talk about some of the stuff that we have

[44:08] going on there.

[44:12] » Thank you. As I mentioned before, we're a 247 service. For some of you who may

[44:18] not be aware how our works, we have what's called a duty crew on typically

[44:24] consist of a paramedic EMT that works 247 out of the climate hill building.

[44:29] We're based out there. That's the most centrally located area for us to respond

[44:34] from. Get them coverage to all points of the county. Uh

[44:39] most people have them response area. Remember, we can be different areas,

[44:44] different times, different problems. The big problem we're having right now is is

[44:48] just the call is increasing. Last year we ran over,200 calls for EMS

[44:54] about 97 fire related calls. Now our main function, main mission is EMS.

[44:59] That's our main part. That's our bread and butter. We do provide support

[45:03] services to the voluntary fire departments by means of portal air

[45:07] system lighting tube setup and also some grass

[45:13] suppression activities as well. Our whole main function is support any

[45:19] agency or fire in the county. We're not here to take over fire runners control

[45:23] forum. We're here to provide support and function for services they may not be

[45:27] able to have. A lot of departments do not have paramedics

[45:32] and it's counted for now there's only five if I remember correctly that are a

[45:36] what's called provisional paramedic and depress one for you guys here. What that

[45:41] means is if there's a paramedic in town that day he or she will act as a medic

[45:48] to the gy ambulance and go. If they're not there, the service resource back to

[45:53] the basic level, which is not a big deal. It's common for everybody to have

[45:56] a basic level care service. With that being said, if they have a

[46:01] patient they feel is in need of advanced life skills or services or medications,

[46:07] that's when our service calls in to support them. We will either go to the

[46:13] community, the town, where it may be. We even meet them sometimes halfway at that

[46:18] time and meet up our medic and crew will get in and see what needs to be done.

[46:22] What do we need to provide to the service? What help do they need?

[46:26] Sometimes they didn't need our ENT. That's fine. EMTT truck jumps in. The

[46:31] paramedic gets back another truck goes back at service and another call. If

[46:36] that's the other way around, if they need a paramedic, the paramedic will

[46:38] leave the unit, jump in with the ambulance and do the transport. Um,

[46:43] we've had questions before go at the county. You know, only what's at the

[46:48] county is if we're supporting a Woodbury County based handbook service. Okay.

[46:54] Now, people say, well, what about King? Well, they come into our county system

[46:59] and do the same thing. We have no regist.

[47:07] We're there to help. uh along with that we've been known to transport outside

[47:12] with the other service for example obviously Danbury I'll use again example

[47:16] base location they have opportunity to go to either city Ottawa and ID so our

[47:25] crew again will go with them provide support and care for county resident to

[47:30] that facility as needed um biggest priority and also now is

[47:35] we're getting more opportunities where sometime to the tank powers. The EMT

[47:41] shortage is starting to hit pretty hard. As you guys know, very well living here.

[47:45] A lot of people that used to be here 20 years ago, 30 years ago, live in town,

[47:49] work the elevator. They work the lumber yard, work the implement dealer.

[47:53] Unfortunately, we all know a lot of people, you guys have to travel sous

[47:57] city road or police department available. quite

[48:03] sometimes we run in situation where the services do not have the manpower.

[48:09] So again if we fall into support their needs with times of services all they

[48:14] have is a driver that shows up and they tell us all they have is the driver

[48:19] we'll work with them we'll say we'll meet you on scene at that time my crew

[48:22] will jump in with their ambulance and still provide the care that they need to

[48:26] get into the hospital. Uh, I made a book with my crews. I have no problem parking

[48:31] a truck. If that service needs both portions in that unit to transport, go

[48:37] for it. Um, we're starting running a little more occasion where we're having

[48:41] dual calls at the same time. Unfortunately, quite often it usually

[48:44] happens where one calls slow and a pushing.

[48:48] So, what the crew will do, they do an assessment to see which call has a

[48:52] higher probability of needing a parameic service.

[48:57] So when that does that they'll determine the work with counselor with the am

[49:01] service that determine where they need to go.

[49:05] um myself as being a paramedic there are sometimes in the daytime not busy

[49:09] meetings there are things I don't jump in the ring we can go and also it's just

[49:12] the department's hit by rings already busy

[49:16] um something we're kind of looking down the road the last year and a half been

[49:20] monitoring is a number of times that we run into a situation where a department

[49:26] cannot respond center typically go to three pages they call it page at the

[49:31] department three times wait a little bit and and they'll bump over the next

[49:36] adjoining district three pages again and they don't respond then they bump the

[49:41] next adjoining department till they get somebody. So it's getting to be a hard

[49:46] deal tight deal discuss with the board about this a little bit. We're trying to

[49:51] do some planning ahead of time to see what we can do. Um, obviously this year

[49:56] in the budget system not put in for additional staff, obviously a lot of

[50:00] money, so we got to wait and see how this works out, but we're trying to find

[50:04] ways to work with it as they're working with us, try to do the best we can to

[50:09] provide you the best care we can. Um, any question, please speak up.

[50:23] Well,

[50:27] we won't let Drew out Betty, but um earlier this past fall, I had a call

[50:34] from a constituent um west of Odo, south of Mobile, that was

[50:39] an elderly woman that became ill, fainted, and needed care. Um, and Drew

[50:46] just talked about paging. They could do multiple pages. So, they dialed 911. It

[50:51] was in Odo's district. Nobody from ODOT was available. So, went back to the comm

[50:56] center. They paged Danbury. Danbury, I believe, was on another call. They

[51:00] couldn't come. So, I went back to the comm center. They end up paging Mobile.

[51:04] Mobile, I think, was just coming back from a call, but it was uh one

[51:08] individual from Mobile that drove all the way down there. And albeit he's a

[51:13] great guy, but he's in his 70s. And so it was almost 40 minutes before someone

[51:20] got to this individual to provide new care. And it's a very real situation

[51:25] that we're dealing with in Ro parts of the county where Mentioned there's

[51:29] multiple calls at the same time and we're already covering, our staff is

[51:33] already covering for the lack of volunteers at one place and now we have

[51:36] a call in another place where there's nobody else either. And so the board has

[51:40] been tasked with a really tough thing here in that uh we understand that the

[51:46] value of life and being able to support these departments, but we also don't

[51:51] want to pass on any, you know, fiscal burdens, financial burdens on to

[51:55] taxpayers that don't want that. Um but through this budget process, we do have

[52:00] a request for emergency services to add more staff. Um and and we can look at

[52:05] that in a myriad of ways. It could be staff that is on 24/7 365 like we have

[52:10] currently. It could be staff that maybe just works 12-hour days during the five

[52:15] work days because it seems that as you mentioned a lot of our volunteers work

[52:19] in Sous City or other communities that they're home at night or they're home on

[52:22] the weekend. So, there's different ways that we can try to modify this to try to

[52:27] lessen the financial burden, but we really want to hear from you guys

[52:30] because um this board and and prior boards have taken taxation very very

[52:36] seriously. I see Matthew wants to make a comment, but uh tonight, not doesn't

[52:41] have to be tonight, but we'd like to have some input. I see Matthew wants to

[52:44] make a comment, so I'll turn it over to him for just a little bit.

[52:48] » Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Drew. and and I just want to provide some, you

[52:52] know, perspective on what he deals with and what his department deals with. You

[52:57] know, as the rest of the state debates whether rural EMS is an essential

[53:02] service, this board is taking the opinion that it is an essential service.

[53:07] And one of the reasons it's hard to budget for this department specifically

[53:12] is we have this balancing this it's it's a it's a balance. You you

[53:19] don't want to overfund staff, not just for the tax spending reason, but because

[53:26] we depend upon volunteers and we so value those those people and we need

[53:32] those people to stick around. And if we if we just come in with an army of

[53:36] staff, you know, then we don't have that cohesion going on. and and we find that

[53:41] our communities are great at at fundraising, at at getting ambulances,

[53:47] at doing things like that, but where the county really comes in is with the

[53:50] paramedic side and when we decided we need to focus on paramedics, not just

[53:55] EMTs and we took that priority. So, and also in the past we split off um

[54:02] emergency management as a you know that is required by law and so you know

[54:07] splitting that has allowed our EMA coordinator Mike Montino does a great

[54:12] job responding to emergencies and and you know dealing with the federal uh

[54:17] hoops to jump through and we have Drew here with our county services. It's

[54:21] worked out very well and so uh we do need to hear from you on this. Although

[54:27] my working assumption is that we are going to keep being as close to 24/7 as

[54:33] we can possibly be um juggling everything else we have going on because

[54:37] this is one of those non-mandated uh services that we get hit uh by the

[54:43] state on when they complain about, you know, our spending. you know, this

[54:48] is one of those extracurricular activities that, you know, according to

[54:52] the state that we fund. So, >> and and so along those lines, we're

[54:58] watching, you know, the state legislature has talked about capping

[55:01] county budgets with legislation and that would be really detrimental because this

[55:05] is not an essential service as the state. I think most people would agree

[55:09] that when they dial 911 and they need a paramedic or an ambulance that they want

[55:13] one to show up, but the state does not deem that as essential. So, um, we have

[55:18] been watching. It's been very hard to plan. Um, as they're talking about all

[55:22] different kinds of legislative fixes that would affect this department. Um,

[55:26] but thankfully the state two years ago, they did make a legal pathway where

[55:31] voters in the county can pass a referendum that would make it an

[55:35] essential service. For a bunch of us over here, we know that Ida County did

[55:38] that two years ago and is now an essential service there. And so we've

[55:42] met with their director. We've had Dave and Drew and I we've talked about that

[55:47] process, but um that's kind of a last resort deal. And so we're going to try

[55:51] to continue to operate as we can um with the with the income and the revenue that

[55:57] we have. Um, but we would like to hear from you as far as the level of service

[56:01] that we have and if you'd like to see that expanded. Um, because we we

[56:05] absolutely value life and the responsiveness and and the volunteers

[56:10] and work they do, but we also want to be very very mindful of any taxation

[56:14] burdens that we put on them. So, uh, whether it's tonight or the days and

[56:18] weeks that follow as we work through the budget, I would encourage you to think

[56:20] about that and please reach out all five of us and just and let us know what what

[56:25] you what you think and what you'd like to to see done. So, Drew, anything else

[56:29] on on that? Any questions about EMS or volunteer? I know we have several

[56:34] volunteer firefighters in the crowd if you guys have questions or comments, but

[56:37] uh, yes. >> Well, it's absolutely an issue. It's not

[56:42] just a hard required many more hours.

[56:52] I'd say almost as far as twice as much volunteer.

[56:57] Um, as far as there's going to be a line in the sand someday where men like

[57:03] myself, Ross, Bren, we won't be around.

[57:10] There'll be nothing offered or else I'll have to make something

[57:14] offer. We go for nothing. All right.

[57:28] 30 years coming up next. I've been a full-time

[57:34] is there's going to come a time volunteer.

[57:38] I don't know what kind of consent I say fathers

[57:44] father

[57:50] I probably won't be around but hopefully we can find something

[57:55] has a place and

[58:02] we can do that also so you know hopefully if they find some

[58:08] something. Thank you. Appreciate that.

[58:13] » Yes, >> obviously heard the data. So, anything

[58:18] you can do to gather historical data of response time, how that's changing,

[58:24] number of times you show up on a call that doesn't have the adequate level of

[58:28] of care, that would help the taxpayer. So me personally as a taxpayer I think

[58:33] funding care for life is number one over top of education or anything else.

[58:39] That's just my personal opinion. But I don't think we do a good enough job with

[58:42] the data. So I think you got to show the taxpayer how the quality of care is

[58:46] going down how the response time is going down for EMS and don't don't leave

[58:52] with the data. Let that tell the taxpayer

[58:56] how they should respond. I just want to say I agree with Kevin. I

[59:02] was thinking about that too. And um as a an person my entire life and having

[59:08] these wonderful people staying with a couple of family meer

[59:15] I would be willing more to pay taxes on anything like that. of that data. Maybe

[59:21] get some state officials out here, drive these roads, see how far it is for them

[59:27] to respond um our community. I don't know. I just I just know that if it

[59:33] wasn't for these guys, we would not have people in our lives. So, it's much

[59:39] too much. I just real quick

[59:44] Monday through Friday say

[59:50] it's Ross and me on firing major breath two or three fire.

[59:59] So from what I've heard down it's the same if not worse

[1:00:07] a little better towards sleep a little worse when you get up. So I just EMS I

[1:00:13] don't

[1:00:16] have the burnout factor certain part see we've done well before

[1:00:22] I remember and I got on a number two we call at one time and then things went

[1:00:29] dry for a while but it's yeah there's going to have to be something like

[1:00:37] I wish I had all these to bring up a problem for both.

[1:00:42] » No, we this is good. I mean, this is information that we want to know and

[1:00:46] that we could take to other constituents too across the county that don't realize

[1:00:49] the issues that you guys and everybody else is facing. So, thank you very much.

[1:00:55] Any other comments or questions about >> D?

[1:01:06] Anthony. So I see both sides and I will tell you

[1:01:11] um annually from Anthony we write about right about 50 to 60 calls a year and

[1:01:19] last year in 2025 there was 12 instances where our was able to respond and have a

[1:01:24] driver and there was nobody to take care of the patient and break that. Now it's

[1:01:31] not wrong to do it through the state and everything so we can still manage our

[1:01:35] paperwork and that however that's happening all over it's happening

[1:01:41] you know it's not I'm not anybody but I know that us I think

[1:01:48] people say two to three times a week we're getting double dispatch and our

[1:01:53] response time out is less than three minutes on average for climb the hill

[1:01:59] Um, as far as Hampton or any of the others, it's all we're all we're all

[1:02:04] we're all struggling. But it's not unusual for 20 minutes wait. I have, you

[1:02:10] know, Wall-E and they're they're both professionals. They're 24 hours on the

[1:02:15] same ship. And I have people that have between Anthony and Dandre that come to

[1:02:19] get my not

[1:02:23] whatever. Um, I know that out of the,51 calls that Woodbury County had last

[1:02:30] year, I know that 241 were there, they were there by safe. Everything in EMS

[1:02:38] starts EMTTs. You know, EMT can help a paramedic in a lot of ways, but 241

[1:02:43] times is actual where medication was provided. There was some type of extra

[1:02:47] duty that is above and beyond EMT level. And that is the balance that they're

[1:02:53] talking about. If you have a lot of time, I believe it's worth the

[1:02:57] investment, but I listen to it every day. Um, I'm we can get you as much

[1:03:02] information as you need and it's hard to get comfort only because if you're

[1:03:07] listening to it, what happens if you can pull data from record, but the problem

[1:03:12] happens is let's say Van is dispatched and we go down to Van and we have a guy

[1:03:16] get in the truck. They're going to be bigger than the patient used to be. The

[1:03:21] next person gets dispatched. We say it's mobile. We don't get dispatched because

[1:03:25] we're already busy. So there's no I mean there's nothing in their system

[1:03:31] that's able to pinpoint those numbers unless we like

[1:03:36] walk through every call that we're hearing. So but we do listen. I know

[1:03:41] that probably a month ago we had three. We had three calls in Anthony all within

[1:03:48] 15 minutes at the clinic here in three of them. So we had Anthony Fctionville

[1:03:54] and Amber all respond and this is all within 15 minutes. So, and I'm I'm a

[1:03:59] true believer you don't know what you don't know. But if you have any

[1:04:02] questions, feel free to follow through with yourself and you know we're happy

[1:04:07] to talk.

[1:04:12] Thank you. Any other questions or comments on on AMS?

[1:04:18] All right. Then we will move on to Treasure BR. She's gonna give us a

[1:04:23] little update on Anthony Courthouse and whatever else the treasur's office has

[1:04:27] got going on. >> Thank you.

[1:04:30] » Okay, so my stuff is not going to be nearly as exciting as secondary roads or

[1:04:34] life. So I apologize late so I'll try to be really quick. Um,

[1:04:40] so I'm team B County treasurer. For those of you who don't know what the

[1:04:46] treasur's office do, there's about four major items that we actually handle. We

[1:04:50] do uh motor vehicle services which is a state level service that we provide for

[1:04:55] our community. So every person here has a car, right? Everybody drives. No. No.

[1:05:02] So you all know that you come to our office to get your license plate and

[1:05:05] your stickers and title transfers and all that fun stuff. So we do about $36

[1:05:10] million a year for the state. Um we keep about 3% of that. So we keep just over

[1:05:18] dollars a year. Um, and that actually provides it allows us to cover the

[1:05:24] services that we provide. Plus, this year we are uh to the good couple

[1:05:29] hundred,000, which is nice to know. Um, the other thing that we do is DNR

[1:05:33] services. Uh, we are the only county in the entire state of Iowa that does DNR

[1:05:38] services for all the hunters out there or people have boats, ATVs, snowmobiles.

[1:05:43] Um, you do that as well through the treasurer's office. And then the fun,

[1:05:48] the absolute funnest part of our job that everybody loves is our tax

[1:05:53] collection, right? Because we're the tax collector. Um, so you just write that

[1:05:58] check out to us a year. We love it. It started, right? We're in our second uh

[1:06:02] payment cycle right now. So for all of you who don't know, the second payment

[1:06:07] is due in March. It is the link on March 31st. And yes, penalties start April

[1:06:14] 1st. And the answer is always yes. She will pay the penalty. Um I believe

[1:06:19] supervisor Bender knows this. Come to our office at least once. I know

[1:06:25] I can raise my hand more than once. Um to admit it, but I do

[1:06:31] forget.

[1:06:35] » Doesn't matter. Once it's late, just wait till the next one.

[1:06:46] So everything that we do obviously that's

[1:06:49] the biggest one. Um I do want to take a moment because we are take talking about

[1:06:53] taxes though is my tax deputy Janet Shrimpy who is sitting right here. Stand

[1:06:58] up. Everybody knows Janet right anybody who's been coming to the Anon office

[1:07:04] knows Janet.

[1:07:10] you know, she came in as a tax deputy after probably 20 years or so of working

[1:07:16] uh the counter. She had thrown in that job. She had six

[1:07:20] months to learn it before the long-term um her predecessor retired and said,

[1:07:26] "I'm out of here." She did she's done a great job. you know, the county actually

[1:07:31] updated their accounting system and so Janet got the the pleasure of learning

[1:07:35] all that as well. So, she's done a wonderful job. Um, I know you guys all

[1:07:39] love her. If you want to see her, just drive into Sous City because I'm not

[1:07:43] letting her back to an

[1:07:50] what the county treasurer does is what I refer to as cash management investment.

[1:07:55] So, we do actually receive all the money All incoming dollar bills for the

[1:07:59] county, they come through our office. Um, all outgoing. We leave that to the

[1:08:05] auditor. She gets to pay all the bills. We just like to collect all the money.

[1:08:09] Um, and then we do the investment. So, when we invest, we invest not just the

[1:08:13] reserves that we have in our county, but also any excess cash that we have. So,

[1:08:18] we know we have high revenue streams in September and March, but we don't pay it

[1:08:24] off that fast. We kind of draw down. So, we're always kind of watching how much

[1:08:28] money we actually have and how much cash we have to make sure that we're as much

[1:08:31] interest on that money as we can. Um, so we've got a very robust uh strategy,

[1:08:38] investment strategy where we're actually investing money on a monthly basis. We

[1:08:42] have it, we keep it going. Um, it's a constant constant thing. Um, in terms of

[1:08:49] numbers, because I am a numbers person, you know, we do a lot of business. Uh,

[1:08:55] motor vehicles are bread and butter. The Anthen office itself for anybody doesn't

[1:09:00] know puts, you know, Anon is obviously the smackdown of our county, right? So,

[1:09:05] it puts the Chargers's office within 25 minutes from pretty much anybody in our

[1:09:10] county. We have nobody in our county should have to drive any more than 25

[1:09:15] minutes either coming into Sous City or Anthony because that's what this office

[1:09:19] and our political core health provides for our community is so everybody can

[1:09:23] you know if you need to come in talk to somebody

[1:09:26] I don't think Ry's here I'll have to talk to her about that I know you guys

[1:09:31] all know everybody who comes to the office knows Randy W she's one she's

[1:09:37] been great she's been out there for about five years now going on six

[1:09:41] um she handles that office herself. Now, some things that you don't know in that

[1:09:46] office. We do over 10,000 transactions a year.

[1:09:51] You know, Woodbury County has 55,000 parcels that we push out tax statements

[1:09:56] on, right? About just under 8,000 of them actually get paid and processed.

[1:10:02] So for everybody who comes in, I think we show we saw about 1,500 people come

[1:10:06] through the office um to pay taxes in the last year. That's a lot. So

[1:10:12] obviously I don't think we have that many people. We might have that many

[1:10:14] people in the office. I think some of you

[1:10:18] I think some people like to come in twice. I don't know. Maybe does the post

[1:10:22] office sell a good coffee or something? I don't

[1:10:26] know. Maybe Mark comes in a few times too. Um, but anyway, we I we do quite a

[1:10:33] bit of service to the community in the Anen office. So, for us, it's a very

[1:10:37] important place to have. It's not something I know I have people say to

[1:10:41] me, are we going to close that office? No, we're not going to close that

[1:10:45] office. In fact, if I have to say about it, we're going to keep it.

[1:10:55] I will say I am ask a couple of times.

[1:11:02] We need a little paint on the outside. >> If it wasn't for a freight elevator this

[1:11:06] year, we would have done the freight elevator had more importance

[1:11:12] over painting that we would like to update it. We have we do have it on our

[1:11:17] list. Take a look at some flooring inside place as well. Um but yeah, we

[1:11:24] want to we want to revitalize that building just like everything else. I

[1:11:28] think you guys have done a wonderful job. We don't want it to be the eyesore

[1:11:31] that you can see down the street. And for

[1:11:34] anybody questioning about the um flag pole, we do have the flag pole. I just

[1:11:40] need to get it installed. It was delivered before frost, but it was

[1:11:44] delivered after frost got the ground. Um and I didn't realize we weren't going to

[1:11:49] have a winter and that frost is going to come up so early. So, a little negligent

[1:11:53] on scheduling the installation, but it will go out. I promise. Um I don't know

[1:12:00] what else I can tell you guys other than the fact that um you know we we really

[1:12:06] enjoy working out here. Um we work really hard to be able to uh increase

[1:12:11] our staff uh within our our resources in terms of backing up

[1:12:16] Brandy because we know that she likes to take vacation every now. Um, so we've

[1:12:20] really been able to develop um a really hardworking staff um that enjoys working

[1:12:25] with the community and serving the community. They're great group of people

[1:12:29] to work with. Um so I'm going to end with thank you everybody for writing the

[1:12:34] checkout. You do not have to just put my name. Please put it if you want. But we

[1:12:41] look forward to serving you in the future. Thanks.

[1:12:49] Thanks, Stephen. Well, one thing she, you know, she said when she was talking

[1:12:52] about the investments is that that she takes that part very seriously because

[1:12:56] every dollar she makes on those investments is a dollar that we don't

[1:13:00] have to tax the people we were counting. And so she takes that very very

[1:13:04] seriously, works very hard at that. And we as a taxpayer, as a supervisor, I'm

[1:13:09] very appreciative of of all the work that you do and trying to get every the

[1:13:14] most bang for bucks. I I really do appreciate that, you know. So, um, next

[1:13:19] on the list, we have Auditor Michelle Scamp, and she's got a number of things

[1:13:23] to talk about, but this 2026 is election year, and it's kind of there's quite a

[1:13:27] few local and and statewide races that are going to happen. So, we'll let

[1:13:31] Michelle talk about some of them. >> Thank you. And thank you all for hosting

[1:13:37] this event. It's been really great um being here and hearing some of your

[1:13:41] concerns that you have um you know and some of your questions and comments that

[1:13:44] you have regarding the county offices. So I am the Woodbury County not only

[1:13:49] auditor but auditor recorder. So I don't know if you're aware but there's only

[1:13:53] two counties in the state of Iowa who have an elected auditor recorder.

[1:13:58] Woodbury County has been saving money for about the last 30 years because we

[1:14:02] do not have an elected recorder. So we don't have that position to fund. So, I

[1:14:06] think that's a great thing for Woodbury. Marshall County is the other county. Um,

[1:14:11] so my office has four different functions. One of them is the recorder's

[1:14:15] office, which is where you would record your deeds, the vitals, uh, where you

[1:14:19] get your marriage certificates, and so forth. Uh, Tina also has part of the

[1:14:24] recorder duties that she does in the treasurer's office. So, we're very

[1:14:27] unique when it comes to running our auditor and recorder offices and and the

[1:14:32] treasurer, too. So, we're very proud to have that. um in in our area. So, one of

[1:14:38] the things that I've asked the board for this year is to allow me to cross

[1:14:42] trainin the vitals and the recorder staff. There's three members that do

[1:14:47] recording documents, three members that would provide you with your vital

[1:14:51] documents that you need when you come in. And I'd like to see all those six

[1:14:55] individuals cross trainined that will help them to take vacations um when we

[1:14:59] have time off. So we have the the staff there to serve the public when it's

[1:15:04] needed. Um the other area we have is a finance side. We have three individuals

[1:15:10] on the finance side. Um and they basically do the payroll and pay all of

[1:15:15] the bills of the county. Uh we also have elections which you're all aware of. We

[1:15:19] have elections every year. Um, and we do have a need for precinct election

[1:15:24] officials in the in the county. Sous City's pretty much covered, but anything

[1:15:29] outside of Sous City, it's kind of tough to get people to volunteer to do this. I

[1:15:34] say volunteer, but it's really a paid position and it's a long day on election

[1:15:38] day, and we really need people. Is anybody in here a PEO or precinct

[1:15:43] election? Okay, let's give them a hand.

[1:15:52] So, if any of you are interested, I do have some of the forms here that you can

[1:15:56] fill out that we can get you on file. Doesn't guarantee that you're going to

[1:15:59] work that day, but um we do have a lot of people who who just love doing it.

[1:16:04] They get to see the people that live in their neighborhoods um and they just

[1:16:08] really enjoy that day to go out. We have a training u that you come u we come to

[1:16:13] climbing hill and we do training for the rural areas for the precinct election

[1:16:17] officials and then in sous city we also have that at western Iowa tech. So in

[1:16:22] regards to the elections this year we have a first election coming up on June

[1:16:27] 2nd. Uh if any of you have been following I did create a Woodbury County

[1:16:32] uh auditor recorder and commissioner of elections Facebook page if you want to

[1:16:37] follow that. We're trying to post relevant stuff related to the election.

[1:16:42] Um, what is a primary? There's a lot of people in our population that don't

[1:16:46] understand what a primary is. A primary is an election where you have to vote

[1:16:50] based on a party. So, you choose the party you're going to vote for. And what

[1:16:54] you're doing is you're choosing which candidate in that party is going to run

[1:16:58] in the November election. So, that's what's coming up on June 2nd. So, um, if

[1:17:03] you check out the the Facebook page, it tells you which offices are going to be

[1:17:08] on that ballot. Uh, and then right now is a filing period for individuals who

[1:17:13] want to run for office.

[1:17:18] Townships are also elected, township, uh, clerks and township trustees. That's

[1:17:23] another area that we have a really hard time getting people interested in in

[1:17:27] filing for office. I do have some uh affidavit for candidacy if anybody's

[1:17:33] interested in running for office for a township. Um I have those here if

[1:17:38] anybody wants to pick those up.

[1:17:44] Um the other thing I wanted to talk about is a new area of the office that

[1:17:48] I've asked the board to fund would be uh having one new individual that will be a

[1:17:53] real estate deputy. In the auditor's office, the role of real estate is um it

[1:17:58] goes throughout the entire year. So, individuals will bring a deed in and

[1:18:04] then that information gets uh right now it's in the recorder's office. Um so,

[1:18:10] that process starts, the splits are done in the recorder's office. If there's a

[1:18:14] parcel that gets split and and the new parcels get created on GIS and so forth.

[1:18:20] So having a new real estate deputy will help streamline the process. Another

[1:18:25] role, we actually have about two full-time people that only do real

[1:18:30] estate, but then there's three other individuals that parts of their job do

[1:18:35] pieces of that real estate, which is producing the tax role, certifying that

[1:18:39] tax role to the treasurer. And something you're going to see quite a few things

[1:18:44] coming in your mail in March. One of them is the uh the maximum tax

[1:18:52] mailer. You may have seen that the last two years. This will be the third year.

[1:18:56] And I wanted to explain that a little bit.

[1:19:00] I'm sorry I don't have a slide for you.

[1:19:06] But you might recall seeing something come in your mail with two two sides to

[1:19:12] the document. And you're going to be seeing this. It has to be postmarked by

[1:19:17] March 15th. We're actually pulling the data tomorrow morning to send to to make

[1:19:21] create these mailers. And what these mailers are that you're going to see it

[1:19:27] it has your city, your school, and the county and the maximum amount of dollars

[1:19:33] and the tax levy that they currently have in their budgets. That doesn't mean

[1:19:38] that that maximum amount is going to be the amount that's actually adopted

[1:19:42] because they have until April 30th still to make changes. So those numbers might

[1:19:46] lower. If you live in a rural area, the bottom of that is going to be blank.

[1:19:52] What this is doing is it's also telling you when their public meetings are going

[1:19:57] to be to discuss that maximum dollar amount. And so you have an opportunity

[1:20:01] to look at your city, look at your school, look at the county, and decide

[1:20:05] if you want to come to those meetings to express any concerns that you have about

[1:20:08] their budgets. The back of the document gives you some comparisons of a $100,000

[1:20:16] residents versus $110,000 residents and how these levies are going to affect

[1:20:22] that that valuation.

[1:20:26] So, if you have any questions, if you ever want to have a estimate on your

[1:20:31] taxes, my office can do that. Um, you know, there's a a lot of different

[1:20:35] things that go into that. So, in March, you're going to receive this notice from

[1:20:41] from an envelope that's from the Woodbury County Auditor's Office. It'll

[1:20:45] have my name on it. You're also going to receive an assessment notice from the

[1:20:49] Woodbury County Assessor, not me. Don't blame me. That one's not from me.

[1:20:54] So, they said that those are going out on the 13th. So, you're going to have an

[1:20:58] assessment notice. Now, just keep in mind, you don't want to apply those

[1:21:02] dollar amounts to my statement because those dollar amounts on your assessment

[1:21:07] notice will not be taxed until the next year. So, you're going to have to go

[1:21:12] back to your mailer that you got last March. And those are the values that

[1:21:16] we're talking about when we send the mailer out here.

[1:21:20] So, those are two items you're going to get in your mailboxes in the next few

[1:21:24] weeks. And then the third one is going to be an elections postcard. If any of

[1:21:29] you are a active voter, you would have received those from me last year. Um,

[1:21:35] and this will be coming out that'll show your polling location and information

[1:21:40] regarding the uh the primary, which will be on June 2nd.

[1:21:45] Does anybody have any questions about the auditor recorder's office?

[1:21:53] All right, feel free to give me a call anytime and hopefully you'll follow our

[1:21:57] uh Facebook site. >> Thanks.

[1:22:04] » The audles we talked about earlier, but then they

[1:22:08] make sure that we're following along with Iowa code and all the work that we

[1:22:13] do and she clerks a lot of our meetings and takes notes and keeps us in line.

[1:22:16] So, we appreciate that. And since she was talking about the budget and the tax

[1:22:20] mailing, uh, we kind of go to that right now and I'll introduce our new budget

[1:22:24] director here in a little bit. But you may be asking like why why this mailing

[1:22:28] of of maximum tax asking that if that's not where our budget's going to be.

[1:22:32] Well, it used to be that the board would work on their budgets up until the April

[1:22:37] 30th deadline when they decided what point the budget was going to be. Then

[1:22:41] they would have a public hearing and then the public could come and see what

[1:22:44] those numbers were. the state legislature a couple years ago, they

[1:22:47] decided, "No, we need to have advanced notice of what your budget might be."

[1:22:52] So, they have a cut off date and we cannot raise the levy after that date.

[1:22:57] So, now we're required to mail something out that's halfway through the budget

[1:23:01] process of what our budget might be. And so, because we're a big enough county

[1:23:05] and we're still processing through the budget and we're going to be for the

[1:23:08] rest of March and the rest of April, we simply plug in the max. It's never been

[1:23:12] the max. that's never going to be anywhere close to the max, but because

[1:23:15] we now have these new constraints that the state has put on us. That's just how

[1:23:19] we respond to it. So, I last year I had a lot of calls. People were frustrated

[1:23:24] like why why the heck are you sending me this? It doesn't tell us the

[1:23:26] information. Well, unfortunately, we're required by law to do that. Now, the the

[1:23:31] hearing date is a great thing. You guys will be able to see when those public

[1:23:34] hearings will be, and you can, you know, come to the board meetings and discuss

[1:23:37] that. But uh the rest of the information isn't really too relevant, but that's

[1:23:41] just what we have to deal with. Um if any of you have dealt with Liberty

[1:23:45] County for many many years, we had a budget director by the name of Dennis

[1:23:48] Butler who had been there how many years now?

[1:23:51] » 47 47. >> 47 years. And he was really instrumental

[1:23:56] in helping a lot of our small town clerks and our our mayors and our

[1:23:59] councils dissect their budgets. He was never more than a phone call away. He

[1:24:03] was kind of our liaison to the city of Sous City. um he he did a great job and

[1:24:07] so he he passed away from cancer unfortunately and left us with really

[1:24:12] big shoes to fill. So that first and of course you know he passed away at the

[1:24:16] end of the year right as we're going into a budget process. And so um

[1:24:20] Michelle Scaff who was newly elected got the honor of not only learning her her

[1:24:24] new position as the auditor but also our budget director. And so she had a really

[1:24:28] grueling five six months there working through that and we're very very

[1:24:31] appreciative of that. But um it did lead us to a new budget director, Ryan

[1:24:35] Ericson, who is here tonight. And and Ryan has been really great. I would say

[1:24:39] this is kind of his first true budget year because last year, I think he

[1:24:42] started in January and we were already doing budgets. So February. Yeah. So he

[1:24:47] uh really kind of was baptized by fire last year. So this is really his first

[1:24:51] budget year. Uh he's doing a remarkable job. And Ryan, just like Dennis, is a is

[1:24:56] a is a a point of contact if any of our real communities have questions about

[1:25:02] their budgets or things of that nature that we can still talk to Ryan or you

[1:25:06] can still talk to Michelle. We're more than happy to help. We're all in the

[1:25:09] same we're all in the same boat. But Ryan's going to talk a little bit about

[1:25:12] the the levy rate, how to introduce himself, and then he's got some

[1:25:16] information about Woodbury County as a whole as far as taxation. He's going to

[1:25:19] show a a website that you can kind of compare Woodbury County with some other

[1:25:23] counties or with the state. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Ryan and

[1:25:28] we'll let him talk about some of those.

[1:25:35] » Yeah, decided to put me on the spot tonight. So, thank you, Mark.

[1:25:39] » You're welcome. But uh as we were talking earlier right now Laura has the

[1:25:45] what was discussed at the last budget hearing which you can see you know

[1:25:50] there's three different options. The one on the left it says what the max rate is

[1:25:56] and that was the state of Iowa has limited the general basic which funds

[1:26:03] most of the items in the government to the 3.70.

[1:26:09] So Woodbury County cannot go above that limit. general supplement is there in to

[1:26:16] help fund the general basic services and then stuff like uh EMS comes out of

[1:26:23] general supplement and in order to right now as they stated the budget isn't

[1:26:30] final but we received everything in and if we left the budget as is the rate

[1:26:38] would be the 2.79387.

[1:26:42] So that's the max levy that will be allowed in the mail.

[1:26:47] And you can see the what is the next column over is what the rate was last

[1:26:53] year. So everybody will get a statement and it will say yeah potentially your

[1:26:59] taxes could go up. So when that happens make sure you call Mark and complain

[1:27:07] because he really appreciates those phone calls.

[1:27:11] And then debt service uh is the various items that mostly are the debt taken for

[1:27:19] CIP projects. And then you know stuff like the gravel

[1:27:24] road was actually funded with tax increment financing which you know helps

[1:27:31] reduce the debt service levy. And then the bottom number there, rural basic,

[1:27:37] you can see it's a pretty significant difference between last year. So those

[1:27:41] who are in the rural areas are going to get a real shocker in that letter. It's

[1:27:46] going to say like a nearly 20% potential increase. But again, that is set. So

[1:27:53] then we can we're not going to go at that level, but you can't go above it.

[1:28:01] So it's just you know to

[1:28:06] you know set the max level. So then if necessary you could go to that level

[1:28:13] but last year you can see it was a 2.41 41. And right now, the budget that was

[1:28:21] currently received, that third column would say if we would have a zero rural

[1:28:27] basic budget, which mainly in rural basic, it's like

[1:28:31] the sheriff, rural patrol, the landfill, and

[1:28:37] the funding from secondary roads that it's property tax related comes from

[1:28:41] rural basic. So those are the main services out of rural basic. So if we

[1:28:46] were to produce a zero budget without making any cuts to the expenditures,

[1:28:52] the the basic rate would have to be that 2.48.

[1:28:57] And then I think I'll add Do you want to bring up the other spreadsheet?

[1:29:08] This here is uh an example that Michelle had mentioned earlier about this is only

[1:29:14] the county rates that if you have there's three separate levels. You have

[1:29:22] what your assessed value is. Then the state applies a roll back percentage

[1:29:28] and then that becomes your taxable value.

[1:29:32] And then that taxable value has a levy rate applied to it. So you can see what

[1:29:38] this the mailer has the assumption that your assessed value will go from 100,000

[1:29:43] to 110. So it's assuming a 10% increase in your assessed value. But the state

[1:29:52] has we'll say reduced the roll back which means that there's less taxable

[1:29:58] value as a percentage. So even though your house went from 100,000 to 110,000,

[1:30:06] the taxable value has actually gone from 47 to 48,000.

[1:30:12] And that's where the last year's taxes by just the county

[1:30:18] only on $100,000 is $337.

[1:30:23] If we were to go with the max rate assuming and then everybody's situation

[1:30:29] will be different because everybody's assessed value will change at a

[1:30:34] different level and that's where you and they're not here you can complain to

[1:30:38] either the county assessor or if you live in the city of Sous City you can

[1:30:43] complain to him but then uh it would show if for those that live in a a city

[1:30:51] the rate would go from 337 to $358. So that would be an increase of over 6%.

[1:31:00] If the board decides to leave the levy at the same rate, the increase based on

[1:31:07] a 10% increase in your assessed value would be three just over 3% increase.

[1:31:14] And if you could scroll down a little, for those that live in the rural, this

[1:31:20] is where that shocker could be. If we went to the max level, it would increase

[1:31:25] your taxes by 22%. But if it was left at the same level as

[1:31:31] last year, the increase would be just over 3%.

[1:31:36] And that's where the board in years past has always strived to keep the level the

[1:31:42] tax levy at the same rate. By keeping it at the same rate still will have a small

[1:31:49] increase in the overall percentage that is paid which I'm going the last bring

[1:31:54] up the the slide. The last thing I'll show is there is a

[1:32:00] the taxpayers for Iowa for taxpayer relief

[1:32:06] has uh produced reports of every county and most cities in the state and

[1:32:12] Woodbury How?

[1:32:30] » Yeah.

[1:32:43] But this will show you what they compare is over the last 20 years the inflation

[1:32:49] rate plus the population growth and compares it to the property tax

[1:32:57] uh revenue increase.

[1:33:09] But when we talk about your figuring your property tax bill, it's there's

[1:33:14] three parts of the equation. So there's your assessment and that's based on what

[1:33:18] are the values of land or property. What is it trading on the public market? What

[1:33:24] are people buying and selling homes or land for? That's where the assessment

[1:33:27] comes from. The roll back is set by the state. That would be the percent of what

[1:33:32] your the value of your home or land what it's actually taxed at. So, as Ryan

[1:33:37] said, the state actually lowered the roll back this year, which is a good

[1:33:40] thing for all of us. Um, but they control that. And then the third part of

[1:33:44] that is the levy rate, and that's what the county sets or if you live in a town

[1:33:47] or a city, that's what the city sets or your school district. And so, the levy

[1:33:52] rate can do three things. It can go up, it can go down, or it can stay the same.

[1:33:57] um 12 years in Woodbury County, the levy has never gone up. And I I don't think

[1:34:03] you could find a county in the state where they've done that for one or two

[1:34:07] years, let alone 12. And so we would like to do that the same again this

[1:34:12] year. Um something that uh I know Matthew wants to go out on a good note

[1:34:17] in that regard because that's really I guess you're you've been in office 12

[1:34:21] years, correct? So, um, that's something that he's worked very hard on in his

[1:34:25] years as a supervisor. But, um, a lot of people have questions about the roll

[1:34:29] back or about assessments, and those are two things that we have absolutely no

[1:34:32] control over. They're not in our wheelhouse. The only thing that this

[1:34:35] body controls is the the levy rate. >> So, what this graph with that, as I

[1:34:42] said, is from the Iowa for taxpayer relief website. So, I don't credit for

[1:34:48] it, but what it is saying that The inflation over the last 10 years is

[1:34:54] 34.3%. Population growth for Woodbury County is

[1:34:58] 4.6%. So what they are saying a reasonable tax

[1:35:04] growth would be about 38.9%. Over the last 10 years, Woodbury County

[1:35:11] property tax growth has been 35 12%. And they're considering that reasonable. And

[1:35:17] you can go to this website and look up, you know, I looked up Pulk County and

[1:35:23] theirs was a lot higher. Blackhawk County, which is probably similar to us,

[1:35:28] was reasonable as well. So, it's kind of you

[1:35:34] hear a lot of uh complaints about property tax growth and there there's

[1:35:40] really, you know, there's a three, you have the city, the school, and the

[1:35:44] county. And for most residents, city and the school are the biggest parts of it.

[1:35:53] And unfortunately, when I looked at the city of Sous City, it was very highly

[1:35:58] unreasonable.

[1:36:01] » So I didn't look at any other like mobile or anything like that.

[1:36:06] So that's what I have. any any

[1:36:18] Ryan is instrumental. We we have 430 employees. It's a large budget and and

[1:36:24] he is looking over all those dollars and he is helping us plan and and look at

[1:36:28] our financials going forward. He has a tough job and he's done a great job and

[1:36:32] he's never more than a phone call away for any of us and he's he's he loves his

[1:36:38] spreadsheets. he loves Excel and so which has actually been really great for

[1:36:41] us because he can break things down and really um dive into the numbers and

[1:36:46] that's very helpful for all of us. So thank you Ryan. But while we're on the

[1:36:50] budget, are there any questions or comments from you guys about I don't if

[1:36:53] you've been following the budget process at all. Are there any questions or

[1:36:56] comments about the the county budget or the um where our expenditures are? Any

[1:37:02] any of those types of questions? We could definitely field some of those.

[1:37:08] I would say in large part we're just like you guys. Uh inflation hits the

[1:37:12] same stuff that we're paying. Insurance is a huge is a huge expense for us. Um

[1:37:17] that we have no control over and a lot of the insurance is 7 8 10% increases

[1:37:23] year-over-year just like everybody else. Um there seems to be no end in sight on

[1:37:28] the insurance. Um as Laura talked about our equipment for secondary roads. Um we

[1:37:34] hired our own mechanic this year which has already uh paid for itself but uh

[1:37:39] repairs extremely expensive and so we're looking for ways to minimize you know

[1:37:44] that line item. So we're we're trying new things and and we're we're really

[1:37:48] evaluating every expense that we have but u just like anybody else inflation

[1:37:52] plays a huge huge part in that as well. >> Yeah. Uh, one thing that ITR doesn't

[1:38:00] include and you don't see from those graphs is uh, reserves. And Woodbury

[1:38:05] County has taken a very prudent approach to uh, targeting our 20% reserve level

[1:38:10] and not really trying to build up a nest egg so to speak. When we talked about

[1:38:16] Blackhawk being okay, I think the last time I looked at Blackhawk, their

[1:38:20] reserves several years ago was like 65%. Or something insane like that. So, you

[1:38:28] know, we don't want to do that. We want to use our reserves to avoid a tax rate

[1:38:33] increase. And so, we've been we've been proud to do that. That doesn't show up

[1:38:37] in these numbers, but it's something that you have to you have to plan for

[1:38:41] ideologically. Like, we don't want to be um banking any unspent funds. And so, we

[1:38:48] don't this year, like we have in previous years, we're very likely going

[1:38:51] to use a large portion of reserves to balance the budget. And that's not

[1:38:56] cutting in and cutting down our reserve necessarily because they get built up

[1:39:00] every year by unspent funds or or staff that wasn't hired and things like that.

[1:39:05] And so, you know, we're playing this balancing game again where we are trying

[1:39:09] to be responsible and have a predictable tax rate for our business community. You

[1:39:14] know, none of this yo-yo effect that that scares businesses off.

[1:39:21] » Any other questions about the uh about the budget?

[1:39:25] So on the next thing here is to talk about the law enforcement center which

[1:39:28] we kind of have two different law enforcement center activities going on

[1:39:32] in the county and then have a public safety update which Chad Sheen is out of

[1:39:36] town so he couldn't be here tonight but send his regards but I'll maybe let

[1:39:40] county attorney Lumis he can give us an update on the attorney's office and as

[1:39:44] James likes to say stop. So sorry I took your line James but

[1:39:49] okay you can say it again. >> You're going to trademark that.

[1:39:52] » No I said it wasn't. Oh, yes. Okay. Okay. Um, so if you if you've been down

[1:39:57] to the courthouse, you've seen that the the old jail is a pile of rubble. Um,

[1:40:02] they lever construction, got the bid on that project, new came in about half of

[1:40:08] what we had what our estimates were. Um, we had, I think, 23 entities come and

[1:40:16] let them look at that for a walk through and I think we had about half of them

[1:40:20] submit bids. We had bids from multiple states. So it was uh which is great for

[1:40:25] the taxpayer. I mean we want to have bids because it's competitive and and

[1:40:28] that's how it ended up coming in about half of of our estimate. So that project

[1:40:32] is slated to be um the demolition is slated to be done by the end of March

[1:40:36] and uh talking with our building services director yesterday um Liber

[1:40:40] says that they are right on right on schedule. So um and I can't believe how

[1:40:45] much that building has disappeared in the last week, but they've really been

[1:40:49] getting after it. and the new law enforcement center. Um, I'm happy to

[1:40:53] report um on behalf of Chad and Chad has done an incredible job out there. Um,

[1:40:58] but Matthew and the prior board when they pushed this bond referendum for the

[1:41:03] new jail, the idea was that if they overbuilt it, we could house federal

[1:41:08] inmates and the revenue from those federal inmates would pay the bond so

[1:41:11] that the taxpayers of Woodbury County never have to pay for the built the

[1:41:16] facility. And so we needed roughly 110 inmates in there year round to pay for

[1:41:23] that. And Chad has been keeping that level somewhere around 140 or 150. And

[1:41:29] so not only are we well above uh the level of payment of bonds that's out of

[1:41:34] the hook of taxpayers, uh we actually had some money um be inflated or entered

[1:41:40] into our budget that helps all of you, you know, covers operational expenses in

[1:41:44] the county and takes the burden off of you guys. So um we're very very happy

[1:41:50] with how Chad is managing that situation. One of the other things that

[1:41:53] we have seen working with HR is that in the old facility we had almost an

[1:41:58] impossible time keeping correctional officers. Um that old facility was very

[1:42:04] unsafe for our cos and for inmates. It was uh it was uh hot, it was smelly, it

[1:42:11] was just it was not a good place to work. And the turnover that we had there

[1:42:16] was it it was extremely frustrating the staff because you had people that maybe

[1:42:20] last three months and then quit and when you've got 80 90 people and you have

[1:42:25] constant turnover it was a struggle. Uh we had roughly six seven open positions

[1:42:30] all the time that we could never fill. We couldn't get applicants and I'm happy

[1:42:34] to report that I think we're down one one we're down one now with that staff.

[1:42:40] the turnover has practically stopped. We are attracting um senior correctional

[1:42:45] officers with experience from other facilities in both instate and out of

[1:42:49] state. So we're making excellent hires. Um and that was one of the intentions

[1:42:54] also of the board at that time was they recognized that this facility was was a

[1:42:59] detriment to us trying to maintain a staff. And so we're very happy to see

[1:43:04] that that is working. Um those guys are getting a workout. It's a huge facility.

[1:43:08] I don't know if any of you any of you walk through there when we had the open

[1:43:12] house and any couple of you did. Is it a small Is it a small facility? No. Those

[1:43:18] guys are walking miles every day. I mean, it it is every shift. It is a huge

[1:43:22] huge facility. Um and our building services staff, they've got their work

[1:43:26] cut out for them, taking care of it. But the safety features that we that you

[1:43:31] guys built into that system back then is really paying off. Our cos much safer.

[1:43:36] the interactions with the cos and inmates is much better. It's all around

[1:43:40] it's it's been a dent positive. We were able to resolve the final HBAC issues

[1:43:46] back in January and which I obviously a round of applause for that, but uh you

[1:43:51] know thankfully we've got that behind us. We can't comment on the litigation

[1:43:57] that was talked about in the Sous City Journal um from the the contractor of

[1:44:01] the facility, but uh just know that the county has done everything that we can

[1:44:06] to build the case. You know, in this instant, we are like the home the home

[1:44:11] builder. We are the we own the house. We hired a professional to build it. We

[1:44:15] hired a professional to design it. They've cast our checks. We've just

[1:44:18] written the checks and they didn't deliver the product that they were

[1:44:21] supposed to. And so thankfully our team has built an incredible case as we've

[1:44:26] gone about this and all the document collection, everything that we've done.

[1:44:29] I'm very proud of our of our legal team. Supervisor Binger and I sat in on

[1:44:34] mediation in November and it was really kind of the first time that we got to

[1:44:37] see our side get to tell it side of the story and and really just kind of throw

[1:44:41] all of our evidence down on the table. And it was a it was a really great

[1:44:45] thing. And so we're we're in a very good position. we've done the work that we

[1:44:48] needed to do to make sure that we can try to recoup some of this and and we

[1:44:53] absolutely, you know, we want to settle. We don't want this, you know, drawn out

[1:44:56] in court forever and ever. Amen. But the fact remains that we paid the people of

[1:45:00] Woodbury County paid good money to professionals that should have delivered

[1:45:04] us a really good building and it is a good building, but it took way too long

[1:45:08] to get there. And so, by no means are we going to just let that slide. And so um

[1:45:13] and I think a former supervisor said we could write a book about some of the

[1:45:17] stories and some of the things that happened in that building during

[1:45:19] construction and most people would think it was fiction. And u it's it's sad kind

[1:45:24] of the the level of craftsmanship that went into some of this stuff and and

[1:45:28] especially the design we had by the time the project was over we had five

[1:45:32] different engineers that were working on that project and that you just can't uh

[1:45:36] sustain a project like that. I think we also had five project managers and I

[1:45:40] think the last four were under the age of like 26 with you know almost no

[1:45:44] experience and so a lot of struggle on that project but thankfully the I think

[1:45:49] the horse is behind us and we've got that building leveled now and Chad has

[1:45:53] done a great job like I said getting the federal inmates in there and so our our

[1:45:56] budget is in a much better position this year than a year ago when we were short

[1:46:00] that that revenue and and just had the stress and everything else going on. So,

[1:46:05] um, brighter days ahead for sure and we're happy that some of that stuff is

[1:46:09] behind us and again, we're we're fighting for all of you and and try to

[1:46:13] protect every every dollar that's been spent. So, I'll try to recoup what we

[1:46:17] shouldn't have spent. But with that, I think I will let if unless you you want

[1:46:22] to say something, James, about the attorney's office. I know you guys have

[1:46:25] had some staffing issues and we can just talk about a little bit on the sheriff's

[1:46:29] office and some of how you guys interact. Have you

[1:46:35] Well, thank you. Good evening everyone. My name is James Lewis. I'm the Woodbury

[1:46:39] County Attorney. I'm just completing my first term in the county attorney's

[1:46:43] office. I want to thank the board for putting this on. It's always great to be

[1:46:47] able to connect with the people out in the county. I I think it's a real focus

[1:46:51] that if you're in service and you're in public service, it's important to stay

[1:46:54] connected and communicate with those out in the county. I've certainly tried to

[1:46:58] do that for my position. So, I want to thank the board for putting this

[1:47:00] together. I also want to thank the city of Anon for hosting uh this event. It's

[1:47:05] a very great turnout. I'm so appreciative of being able to be a part

[1:47:09] of it. So, uh as Mark indicated, one of the challenges faced by my office

[1:47:14] throughout the first term that I've had is getting the open positions filled and

[1:47:19] I want to thank the board of supervisors. They did tremendous job and

[1:47:22] helping that effort. We are only one short down. Uh, so I'm really looking

[1:47:27] forward to having a full staff and I anticipate having that completely filled

[1:47:31] up by uh September of this year. >> And so you were down how many at one

[1:47:35] point? >> At one point in time we were down eight

[1:47:37] attorneys and so that was a heavy load to carry for for those that were in the

[1:47:41] office. And so that's why I'm so appreciative to the board for their

[1:47:44] assistance in in getting that effort made to getting those positions filled.

[1:47:50] Uh, as you might expect, one of the focal points of the county attorney's

[1:47:53] office is to stay engaged and communicate with law enforcement. I

[1:47:56] think that we have a great uh, relationship with the Woodbury County

[1:48:00] Sheriff's Department. Chan does a tremendous job uh, and we have a

[1:48:04] tremendous relationship in working together. What I've really tried and

[1:48:08] strived to do is to understand that what we do uh, as a county office is we serve

[1:48:14] all the county. Usually the focal point becomes Sous City. Uh, as you can

[1:48:18] imagine, that's where most of the matters that I address take place is in

[1:48:23] Sous City, but I've really tried to make it a focal point to serve all of

[1:48:27] Woodbury County, and I've gone out to all the communities in Woodbury County

[1:48:31] repeatedly throughout my first term. So, I want you to know that I' I've done my

[1:48:36] best to try to stay connected if there are issues, concerns, or problems that

[1:48:39] your communities have because they're all different. uh to uh let your city

[1:48:45] supervisors and your mayors know because I go to those meetings and if there's

[1:48:49] issues or problems or concerns that you have, please make them aware of it so

[1:48:53] that they can make them known to me. I want our office to be responsive to uh

[1:48:58] the concerns that you have. I know the deputies do a great job. Uh they are

[1:49:03] probably serving uh most of the towns. There's only a couple towns that have

[1:49:07] their own law enforcement agency now. Uh so they do a tremendous job in serving

[1:49:11] the community and keeping us safe. Uh and that's what I'm tasked with doing.

[1:49:15] I've done my very best to do that and I'll keep doing that. Uh if anyone has

[1:49:19] any questions for me about my office and what we're doing or the relationship

[1:49:23] that we have with the various law enforcement agencies, we've got a number

[1:49:27] of them that we work with. Sous City Police Department, Sergeant L Police

[1:49:30] Department, Mobile also has their own police department. uh work in

[1:49:35] conjunction with all of them again with the effort to make sure that we're

[1:49:39] responsive, that we're doing our best to hold criminals accountable. Yes, I do

[1:49:43] call them criminals because that's what they are. They don't deserve pugs or

[1:49:47] pats on the back or counseling sessions. They need to be prosecuted. They need to

[1:49:52] be punished for what they did. That's my job and that's what I try to do every

[1:49:56] day. I think that's what people expect of our office and that's what I've

[1:50:00] really tried to do. But if you have any concerns or comments, I'd be happy to

[1:50:04] answer them now. Or if you want to talk to me afterward, I'd be happy to uh take

[1:50:09] them up with you after that. So if there's anyone that has anything, feel

[1:50:13] free. If not, I know it's getting late. My wife is hungry and she wants to go

[1:50:17] get a steak. So So if there aren't any, that's perfectly

[1:50:22] fine. But if you want to catch me afterward, go ahead and feel free to do

[1:50:25] so. So thank you so much again, Anthony, for hosting. I appreciate it. turn it

[1:50:30] back over to Mark.

[1:50:37] » That is everything on our agenda, but if there are items that you would like to

[1:50:41] ask questions about or talk about, now's your chance. Any anything is up. If any

[1:50:46] of the supervisors want to add anything to, we can certainly do that. But, uh, I

[1:50:50] don't want to stand between anybody here in a state dinner because that's where

[1:50:54] that's where I'm going, too. So, but uh um I I really wanted to reserve time so

[1:50:59] that if you guys have questions or comments, what are we doing good? What

[1:51:03] are we doing bad? Um any of that. So, if you want, now's now is your uh now is

[1:51:08] your chance. So, don't all raise your hand if you want. So, um our meetings at

[1:51:12] 4:30 Tuesday afternoon um in the courthouse. You if you can't make it,

[1:51:17] everyone is streamed live on on YouTube and then those are cataloges. You can go

[1:51:21] back after the fact and watch it. Um, I think at least three of us up here,

[1:51:26] supervisors have Facebook pages that we are constantly sharing information and

[1:51:30] trying to update the the public about things that are going on. And at times

[1:51:34] we will definitely ask for input, say, "Hey, this is, you know, an issue that's

[1:51:37] come up. What do you tell us what you think?" And um, our phone numbers and

[1:51:41] emails are all on the county website for all five of us. And I think that all of

[1:51:45] us have been very responsive to the people that call or text us and and have

[1:51:49] concerns. and uh we we definitely want to hear from you because it makes our

[1:51:53] job easier when we have the information to do our job to dating something.

[1:51:59] » Yeah. So, I guess yeah, thanks for pointing that out, Mark. My Facebook

[1:52:03] page probably isn't very updated, but um if anybody has anything that they need

[1:52:08] to call me about, they definitely can. I will answer my phone or leave me a

[1:52:12] message. I'll get back to you. I try to do all of our department heads, our

[1:52:17] elected officials. I talk to all of them and I appreciate them and being the

[1:52:23] knowledgeable people about what they do so I can reach out to them and find out

[1:52:27] answers if I need them. So if anybody needs something, you know, I like to try

[1:52:32] to start at the lowest level, especially secondary roads, you can start with our

[1:52:37] district ads and stuff like that. Advance that up. You know, people can

[1:52:42] reach out to me as well. So, and I I usually start with that and they're very

[1:52:46] responsive and I appreciate everything that all of our department heads and

[1:52:50] elected officials do to to help me out in my first year of doing this as well.

[1:52:56] So, that's all I got.

[1:53:01] » You guys are just quiet bunch tonight at Len two years ago. It was like that

[1:53:06] was like a three-hour meeting, but that's okay. That's that's

[1:53:13] the turbines >> that was so Matthew brought up a good

[1:53:17] point. So a good memory I guess two years ago but um in December I don't

[1:53:22] know this was on the news so this might be old news to some of you share this

[1:53:26] here because we heard a lot from constituents but in December when Dan

[1:53:30] was still chairman he got a call uh the last wind turbine project of Woodbury

[1:53:34] County has been cancelled and so they're apparently no wind project.

[1:53:40] Thank you. And uh that doesn't happen. We get calls of supervisors from other

[1:53:46] county supervisors and zoning directors all the time and they said how what was

[1:53:51] different about Woodbury County? And I I at least tell them that people showed

[1:53:55] up. And if it not had not been for folks showing up to meetings, calling us,

[1:54:00] emailing us, you know, signing petitions, door knockocking, um that was

[1:54:05] that was the people in action. So that really is what direct correlation to how

[1:54:10] involved people in the county are and are willing to shape the way that their

[1:54:14] future is. So as a board I think that we will always you know have an open mind

[1:54:18] and listen but it makes a huge difference when you guys put together a

[1:54:21] movement and show up and and demand change. So we pat yourselves on the back

[1:54:27] for that. So other otherwise if there's no other business we'll let you guys

[1:54:32] hopefully go over the fireside need. If not thank you so much for coming. will

[1:54:35] be here for

[1:54:40] two

2026-03-05 Special Anthon Townhall Meeting

Transcript