MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
APRIL 11, 2008
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 8:17 a.m. Members present were: Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan; absent: Pat Harney.
County Engineer Greg Parker showed some illustrations of roads in need of repair. Parker said that Maintenance Superintendent Kevin Hackathorn and other staff have been with the County for 35 years or more, and have never seen roads in such poor condition. Parker said that construction costs are going up at a considerable paste. He explained that in 2002 Secondary Roads used the same quantities for road sealing and paid $250,000. Parker noted that the prices have doubled to over $500,000 since 2002.
Stutsman said that larger semis and farm equipment are having difficulties with the roads. She noted that large farm equipment is hard on the roads but the equipment is necessary for farming. R. Sullivan said that there were several bad roads that were given from the State to the County and that changed the County 5 Year Road Plan because all the roads needed to be fixed. He noted that all other County roads are less taken care of because the County needs to repair the State roads. Parker explained that four years ago the State passed legislation that donated State roads to the County. He noted that the County receives $250,000 for 10 years for the maintenance of the transferred jurisdiction roads. R. Sullivan said that the County had to install a bridge on one of the State roads at a cost of $1 million. He noted that the money received from the State for 10 years covered half a structure of one road.
Senator Tom Harkin Staff Assistant Tamara Milton asked what the condition of bridges in the county is. She mentioned that Senator Tom Harkin was concerned about the state of the bridges in Iowa. Milton asked if the County had any bridges that had to be closed or weight restricted. Parker said that they weight restricted a bridge the previous day, April 10, 2008. He noted that the County hired a consultant to look at the conditions of the bridges in the county. Parker noted that the consultant determined that one bridge had to be weight restricted 10 times lower than the regular traffic on that bridge. He stated that funding amounts have not been increasing at the pace that the costs are increasing, so they have to prioritize the money based on the areas that are in the highest need.
Neuzil said that the farm community is highly impacted by the road conditions. He pointed out that Green Castle Road Bridge fell in a few years ago and has not been replaced and farmers had to redirect their travel. Stutsman said that the absence of the bridge creates increased mileage due to using alternate routes and cost increases due to the high gas prices.
Harney arrived at 8:29 a.m.
Parker said that Johnson County is unique in that the Coralville Reservoir splits a part of the County and there are very few roads that make the connection. Parker said that from the Green Castle Road area there is only one way to get around. Milton asked if the bridge weight restricted on April 10, 2008 would have an increased age in terms of replacement. Parker said that they did not have time to figure out a plan for that particular bridge. Stutsman said that since the winter has been so tough, they were far above the budget. She noted that the County might not be able to follow up with the Road Plan because of the overreach in the General Fund budget.
Parker stated that the expectations of the traveling public are at an all time high. He said that in the past the roads were built strictly for vehicles and now the roads have to accommodate bikes and buggy vehicles, and therefore bridges need to be constructed wider. R. Sullivan said that Johnson County is one of the few areas in Iowa that is growing population wise. He said that due to the population growth there is a lot of pressure for the County to do residential roads which takes away from doing roads that could service the farm community.
Milton asked how many bridges were closed in Johnson County. Parker said that there are a number of bridges that have weight limits and some bridges that are inspected at increasing rates. Parker noted that the bridges are required to be inspected every two years, but some of them require more frequent inspections. Neuzil said that the cost associated with bridge and road upgrades increases 15% to 20% a year, but taxpayers expect only 3% to 4% increase in taxes for the cost of living. He said that when the road cost goes up 20%, it makes it difficult to keep the taxes low. Neuzil said that there is a big gap between the need for infrastructure and what taxpayers can tolerate. He said fuel and harsh weather conditions make it to difficult to prioritize the use of money. Stutsman said that many people believe that the winter of 2007 was not a fluke and such weather could be expected in the winters to come. She wondered what would be the financial impact of that.
Parker noted that rising fuel costs have led to proportional increases in the price for everything else. Harney said that the Road Use Tax was raised in 1996. He added that for every dollar, the State is taking $.50, the Counties receive $.25 and the cities receive the remaining $.25. Harney said that the $.25 received by the County is not enough to maintain the infrastructure. Parker said that because of the high cost of fuels people are buying more fuel efficient vehicles. He noted that the system is supported by taxes from fuel expenditures. He explained that from 2007 to 2008 the fuel purchases have gone down and therefore the County receives less income to maintain the infrastructure.
R. Sullivan said that Harkin had talked about a stimulus package that would include infrastructure and asked if that continues to be a goal. Neuzil said that when he had a chance to visit with Harkin in Washington D.C., he said he voted for the stimulus package because it would give everyone $600, but noted that investing dollars in infrastructure and creating new jobs and opportunities would make more sense. Milton said that Harkin was concerned that the economic stimulus money would be used to buy products made outside the United States which would not stimulate the economy.
Stutsman said that not all projects are in urban areas and noted that unincorporated rural areas need to have good roads as well to get their products to market. She said that the Board could not sacrifice rural areas for the projects that are happening in the urban areas. Stutsman said that the longer these projects are put off, the worse they will get. R. Sullivan said that based on the feedback received from rural areas the County would try to turn some dirt roads into gravel and some gravel roads into chip seal. He said it would be hard to do that until the County gets more resources back into the system. Parker stated that Johnson County has more rural residents than Linn County and noted that Linn County has twice the population. R. Sullivan said that most counties don't have 20,000 residents and noted that Johnson County has over 21,000 rural residents.
Stutsman said that in rural areas where farming is predominant, there is always at least one individual who works off the farm and needs to get to the urban area. Neuzil said that the trips per day are rising up to almost eight trips a day. Parker said that the Traffic Manual recommends using eight trips a day to calculate the anticipated travel per house. He said that DOT is considering increasing the recommended standard to 12 trips per house because children are still living at home with their parents and houses are bigger and have more drivers.
Hills Mayor Russell Bailey stated that City of Hills has a total budget of $340,000 a year. He noted that they would have to spend a street budget of at least $550,000 to encourage growth in Hills. Bailey said that Hills would like to grow but cannot. Bailey said that they cannot annex properties because they can't put in roads. Hills has a $3,000-$4,000 budget to fix the roads. Bailey said that in 2007 they spent $12,000-$13,000 because of the high damages to the roads. Bailey said that the State should fix the roads and then give them to the County. He said that the State gives the County a certain amount of dollars to take care of the roads, and noted that the cities should also receive some funds. Bailey said that it is important to get corn out from farms, but that families also deserve fire and ambulance service. He noted that providing emergency services is difficult at the moment due to the poor state of the roads. Bailey said that small businesses pay more in taxes and are getting less in return and noted that there needs to be a happy medium to that. He said that in 2009 the County plans on repairing Highway 923 and noted that the cost to the small communities would be very high. Stutsman pointed out Highway 923 was a State road that the County received.
Harney stated he received a massive amount of calls from residents complaining about the state of the roads. He noted that people are complaining that postal services cannot deliver the mail and ambulance and fire services cannot reach their homes. Harney said that people are paying taxes and are entitled to get the same level of services like anyone else.
Bailey said that there were developers interested in building in Hills, but the City could not afford to install the infrastructure. Harney said that all small communities around the county are dealing with similar issues. Bailey said that the Senators should look at ways to help small communities fix their infrastructure so that they do not end up borrowing money from banks to do that. Harney said that the Federal funds for the rail system have decreased and less money is given to the interstate and local system maintenance. Bailey said that Hills applied for money for legal tracts, and noted that there is a minimum of five year waiting period just to be placed on the list of applicants.
Milton asked if the bridge damages were caused by age and wear. Parker said it was a combination of both. He said that tractor trailers and other heavy road machines reduce the life of the structures. Stutsman said that with the price of fuel going up, the equipment would continue to get bigger and there was no return to smaller sized machinery. Stutsman asked if there was a road weight limit for farm equipment. Parker responded that the maximum weight is 80,000 pounds. He noted that the Governor allowed the legislation to increase the level to 96,000 pounds. Parker said when they designed the bridges they used the 80,000 pound limit, and heavier vehicles increased and fastened the damage. He noted that the vehicles are getting bigger in order to reduce the number of trips and therefore the cost, but noted that the damage on the infrastructure is increased. Parker said that most of the Secondary Roads equipment weighs more than 10 tons. He noted that they would have to find alternative routes to avoid and preserve some of the problematic roads and bridges. Stutsman said that school buses also weigh more than 10 tons. Parker said that school buses weigh around 20 tons.
Milton said that all counties share a similar story. Neuzil said he would like this issue to become a Federal Government priority. He said it is an issue that needs to be addressed. R. Sullivan said that the Senator's proposal would be well received in Johnson County.
Adjourned at 9:06 a.m.
______________________________________________________________________
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By:
On the _______ day of _____________________, 2008
By John Deeth, Recording Secretary
Sent to the Board of Supervisors on May 5, 2008 at 10:00 a.m.