By: Jacob Sexton — [email protected]
Dakota City, IA — The Humboldt County Supervisors met once again for their weekly Monday meeting at the Humboldt County court house.
County engineer Ben Loots came before the board to get the fuel quote and contract approved for the 2020 fiscal year which begins on July 1st. W&H Cooperative of Humboldt will once again be the contractor for the county. Loots also mentioned that a fire was put out at Murray Bridge but there was no word on whom or what started it. Some damage was done to the cosmetics of the bridge but repair has already been completed.
Resolution for the new county seal to be put on ballots for the time being was approved in order to be in compliance with the state of Iowa. Amendments to the current law won’t come into effect in time for the next election so the county had to move forward with the new seal.
A guarantee of indebtedness was approved for the new cabins that are being planned to be built in Joe Sheldon Park. Each cabin will have an estimated cost of $60,000 a piece for the materials needed and the loan taken out to help cover the cost is a ten year loan with no interest for the first two years and the county hopes the cabins will go over well enough to have extra funds to pay off the loan sooner than the ten year rate. Estimated time table for the cabins to be built is for them to be ready for use next year and ground to be broken in the coming months.
District 2 member Sandy Loney announced to the supervisors that the board will have to make an eventual decision whether or not they want to appeal a ruling that will combine more counties in the Iowa workforce development districts. Currently there are 16 districts but to cut costs and in an effort to try to centralize districts the state is moving to lower that number to six. However, the county can move to appeal the law by the state but at the cost of funds to move through the process. Loney suggested it would be better to have between eight and nine districts to be a middle ground of the current number and proposed number by the state. Vote and discussion on that move is planned for a later date.
Lastly, District 3 supervisor Rick Pederson gave an update on plans to replace the heating and air unit on the courtroom roof as there now a few more local businesses interested working on the project. More quotes have been given on a plan of action with the project and once more information is gathered a vote will be cast on which option best suits the situation moving forward which is believed to be done within the next two weeks.