[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