MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
JUNE 18, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Board of Supervisors: Mandatory Evacuation Ordinance........................................................... 1
Board of Supervisors: Mandatory Curfew Ordinance................................................................ 2
Board of Supervisors: Open/Closed Status of County Buildings.................................................. 3
Board of Supervisors: Work Status of County Employees.......................................................... 6
Board of Supervisors: Flood Updates....................................................................................... 8
Board of Supervisors: Flood Response..................................................................................... 9
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia: Department of Elder Affairs Contract Amendment for the Livable Community for Successful Aging Initiative......................................................................................... 16
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia: Introduction of Aging Specialist Diana Preschel........ 17
Conservation Director Harry Graves: Adoption of Ballot Language for Conservation Bond Referendum 17
Conservation Director Harry Graves: Setting Date for Conservation Bond Referendum............ 18
Reports and Inquiries from the Board of Supervisors............................................................... 19
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order at the Iowa City Public Library at 10:37 a.m. Members present were: Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan; absent: Pat Harney.
County Attorney Janet Lyness said the Mandatory Evacuation Ordinance was adopted to amend the Code of Ordinances for Johnson County to allow the Chairperson to sign a mandatory order of evacuation if necessary. She said this was done at the request of the County Sheriff because of the need to evacuate certain areas under floodwater where rising water was going to damage the buildings or because there would not be emergency access. The ordinance was adopted to allow the Chairperson to sign the mandatory order of evacuation. Lyness said it involved looking towards the safety, health, and welfare of the people living in the flooded area.
R. Sullivan said he invoked the Mandatory Evacuation Ordinance a few times over the last week and asked County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek to fill people in. Pulkrabek said the Mandatory Evacuation Ordinance was used in several different areas; areas that the Sheriff's Department couldn't respond to in emergencies such as the Izaak Walton League area. He said his department tried to get notices to residents in the Sand Road and Highway 22 areas but had some difficulty. Pulkrabek said the Sheriff’s Department did deliver the voluntary notices around the north end of Sand Road and Hills Blacktop area via door-to-door and phone calling. Additional areas that became mandatory evacuation areas were north along Highway 965, for example the southern end of Curtis Bridge Road, and the Cottage Reserve area. Pulkrabek said Cottage Reserve was under mandatory evacuation not because the houses were affected but because emergency responders and emergency vehicles would not have been able to travel on the road.
Pulkrabek said the Sheriff’s Department expected the floodwater to come up higher than it ultimately did. He said they tried to be proactive and anticipate what issues might arise. Pulkrabek said many residents received voluntary evacuation notices to inform them that the area could be a potential mandatory evacuation area. He said many of those did not become mandatory evacuations. R. Sullivan asked if there are any mandatory evacuations currently in effect. Pulkrabek said yes, the Izaak Walton League. He said the Sheriff’s Department can't get in there because of the boating ban. Pulkrabek said most of the evacuations have been removed and the areas have returned to normal. Meyers asked if Cottage Reserve is open. Pulkrabek said Cottage Reserve opened June 17, 2008 after getting the okay from County Engineer Greg Parker. He said unfortunately they were working with the National Guard who helped them secure that, but once they closed the road and after the evacuation, people continued to take down the road signs and barriers so they had to post a sentry there.
R. Sullivan said obviously the idea of a mandatory evacuation where someone is forced to leave a home or a business is pretty severe. He said it is not something the Board ever wanted to do and it was something they were hoping they would not have to do. R. Sullivan said pretty severe circumstances called for it in this case and he is pleased that residents and business owners were allowed back as quickly as they were. He said there might be a little bit of grumbling but the Board needed to think ahead. Pulkrabek said the problems were the unpredictable weather, like the rain when none was forecasted, and that no one knew what the floodwater level would come up to. He said Hills was a potential mandatory evacuation area because Highway 218 was projected as being underwater. Pulkrabek said a lot of people will say the evacuations were not necessary but there was no way to predict the floodwater or weather and his department had to do what they thought was best. R. Sullivan said he thinks everyone involved took into consideration the real serious concerns about civil liberties.
Lyness said the Mandatory Curfew Ordinance is similar to the Mandatory Evacuation Ordinance because of the need to act quickly on an emergency basis. She said the City of Coralville and the City of Iowa City both enacted mandatory curfews under a mayoral proclamation. Lyness said there wasn't a specific ordinance to cover it which was why an ordinance needed to be passed. She said the purpose of the Mandatory Curfew Ordinance is the protection of the safety and well being of peoples who might be living or working close to the floodwaters. Lyness said she is sure everyone has seen pictures of people in the floodwater, having been pulled in because the river was moving so swiftly.
R. Sullivan asked Pulkrabek to talk about the implementation of the Mandatory Curfew Ordinance. Pulkrabek said his department has limited resources such as boats to rescue people and he knows people continue to violate the curfew and boating ban. He said the curfew states that people should not be within 100 yards of a flood affected area, especially after dark. Pulkrabek said the curfew helped to keep onlookers out of the area; it was something necessary. He said it helped having Johnson County being consistent and similarly run as the City of Iowa City and the City and Coralville. Pulkrabek it sounds like the City of Iowa City may start releasing specific neighborhoods for reentry but not reoccupation. He said he encourages the Board to extend the Mandatory Curfew Ordinance and asked Lyness if she has spoken with the Iowa City City Attorney or Coralville City Attorney. Lyness said no, she has not but she thinks the County will want to be consistent with what the City of Iowa City and the City of Coralville are doing.
Meyers said once the water goes down and people are faced with the option of reentry but not reoccupation it will become more of a City of Iowa City and City of Coralville issue. He said that means those neighborhoods will not be under Pulkrabek's jurisdiction. Pulkrabek said the affected neighborhoods he is talking about are the Izaak Walton League and the Riverfront Estates area off of Stewart Road. He said those are areas where people want to get into their residences but his department also wants to keep out people at night who don't own property there or have any business in the area. Pulkrabek said part of the problem is that the needs of the City of Iowa City and the City of Coralville are different than the needs of Johnson County.
Lyness said she wants to make it clear that both the Mandatory Evacuation Ordinance and the Mandatory Curfew Ordinance only apply to the unincorporated areas of Johnson County, so the County's ordinances don't affect anything going on within the boundaries of Iowa City or Coralville. Stutsman asked if the Board needs to hold a meeting to put the Mandatory Curfew Ordinance into effect. Lyness said the ordinance provides the authorization for the Chairperson to sign a mandatory curfew. Stutsman said she hopes for the sake of communication that an email will always be sent out to the other Board members in case they get calls from people.
R. Sullivan his intention based on the recommendation of the County Attorney and County Sheriff is to continue to mirror what the City of Iowa City and the City of Coralville are doing. He said he plans on signing the authorization in a few hours to extend the mandatory curfew. Lyness said the City of Iowa City's ordinance is an indefinite one and she recommends that for Johnson County because there is already a meeting scheduled for today. R. Sullivan said he supposes the Board could just go week by week at each meeting. Pulkrabek asked if the Board could give the Chairperson the authority to lift the curfew based on recommendations. Lyness said yes, it's already in the ordinance.
R. Sullivan said when the Board last met on the previous Thursday they were projecting things could get even worse than they did so County employees took some pretty dramatic precautions in terms of sandbagging and keeping people out of the buildings. Facilities Director Dave Kempf said he wanted to thank everyone who helped because it was a huge effort. He said it was a major undertaking and he felt it needed to be done based on the uncertainties they were facing. Kempf said the water is dropping faster than what was originally anticipated; it is falling at a rate of six inches per day versus the estimated two inches per day. He said the water is out of the north and west drives of the Administration Building, but the roads are still closed and there is quite a ways to go.
Kempf said he thinks it is fine to have County employees back in the building and if the water continues to drop at the current rate the building could be open to the public by the following Monday. He said there is talk of the floodwater not falling to the 100 Year flood range until next Wednesday, which means there will be still be water on Benton Street by the National Armory. Kempf said the water should be gone from the parking lot. County staff are working to clean up the parking lot as the floodwater left a lot of debris. He said it is his intention to leave the sandbags in place for a week or two because the building is in a precarious position where another six inches of rain could bring them back to where they were before. Kempf said fortunately there is less water going into the Coralville Reservoir than what is coming out right now so that puts everyone further and further away from danger. He said just to be on the safe side and because of the amount of effort it took, he believes they should leave the sandbags in place, and they will go around and get all the doors opened up. Kempf said they will leave the majority of the sandbags at the Administration Building, Public Health, and the Ambulance Building. He said that in the coming week they will evaluate when and where they want to dispose of the sandbags.
Stutsman asked if the building will be open to employees but not the public. Kempf said that for the remainder of the week it will be fine to open the building to the employees but not to the public. He explained that currently the roads are closed and the public has no way to get to the building, and they shouldn’t go against the blockades the City put up. Kempf said it would start to cause the City more trouble than what they need. Kempf said that by Monday, June 23, 2008, they should be fine. R. Sullivan said that one big concern, as employees come back, is parking. Kempf said they have very limited parking at the Car Quest building due to the trucks that are over there and the Health and Human Services Building project that is going on. He said if employees do come back it would be helpful to carpool, park offsite, and come in one vehicle. Kempf said there is the Capital Street parking ramp by the Courthouse available to be used, and offsite street parking between the Administration Building and downtown Iowa City. He said there will not be a parking spot for all the employees in the near future. Kempf said it will be awhile before they get the City Carton parking lot back. He said that Monday, June 23, 2008 they will still have limited parking. Kempf explained that if there is any opportunity for staff to ride together, he suggested parking offsite, meeting somewhere, and taking one car.
R. Sullivan asked about the vehicles, such as the Assessor’s, that typically park at the Administration Building. Kempf said that a lot of those vehicles were moved to the County Poor Farm. He said he knows there are vehicles that they have to use and people use on a daily basis, and he is fine with bringing those back. Kempf said he just wants the less used vehicles parked at a different site. He said it is obvious that it will be awhile before they get the Armory parking back for the County vehicles as there is still water in the parking lot. Meyers said that something they need to note is that even if they get the parking lot behind the Administration Building in order, they have to go the wrong way down a one-way street. Kempf said they really don’t want people parking in the parking lot. He said that for the rest of the week they don’t want people parking in that lot. Kempf said they would try to keep the cones in place as much as possible and people shouldn’t move them. He said that it will require a bit of patience, and that they aren’t out of the woods yet. Kempf said they need to be respectful of the closures and barricades that were put in place. Meyers said also because of the traffic circulation problems the City is having, the traffic congestion by Car Quest is pretty significant at times and they need to be careful walking because people aren’t even using stop signs.
Stutsman asked if anyone else has talked about doing a van service for the Chatham Oaks parking lot. R. Sullivan said they were waiting on the Board for today’s meeting to see what the Board would do, so he hasn’t heard from anyone on that. Stutsman asked if they should get the notice out to employees if they want to park on the grass at the asylum and then carpool in. She said perhaps they could offer SEATS vans. Neuzil suggested a designated time. Stutsman agreed, meeting there at 7:45 a.m. R. Sullivan said there is nothing stopping them from offering that, if Kempf agrees, and would just be a matter of getting the word out to employees that it is available. Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan said if they do it, they will need to give an early lead, as traffic coming into town from any direction is very congested at that time in the morning. Meyers said especially anything coming towards the University. He said that he was sure that Pulkrabek has figured out that it is better to go in on I-380 and come in on Highway 1 than trying to go through any parts of the University. M. Sullivan said he could work with Kempf in putting the times together and prepare an email to let employees know that they can go out and park there. He said if they wanted them to park at different sites then he needs to know where the sites will be and he could help put that together as well. Kempf asked if that was something they could start June 19, 2008 or if they need a couple days to set it up. SEATS Director Tom Brase said he would check with Iowa City as well because they have a fixed route that goes out to Chatham Oaks. He said that they could perhaps arrange a shuttle. R. Sullivan said obviously employee parking is going to be an ongoing problem beyond the next two days. He said that even if they get something in place for Monday, June 23, 2008 that would be wonderful. M. Sullivan said if they could do it Monday that would be great because it may be extended to a couple weeks yet. Pulkrabek said he would check but he was pretty sure he could find something. M. Sullivan said for Kempf to call him when he had things organized.
County Recorder Kim Painter asked if there would be any consideration given for potential for the East/West separate staging area. She said she didn’t know how to work it out, perhaps at the Sycamore Mall or something, and how it would happen, but mainly she just wanted to cut down on the number of cars to help with the congestion they are facing. Pulkrabek said if employees wanted to contact their office and let them know how many need rides and what locations, the easier it would be to set it up. County Treasurer Tom Kriz said the Iowa City Post Office has a huge parking lot that is virtually empty next to the Courthouse and he doesn’t know if Kempf had talked with them. He explained they are usually protective of the area but perhaps that would be an option. Kempf said he knew there was a large section of the parking lot blocked off because the way the wall leans and the liability factors, but he would certainly contact them and ask the post office about it.
Stutsman said part of the issue is to alleviate the congestion. Kempf said it was also to alleviate more cars trying to come into the downtown area as well. Assistant Planning and Zoning Administrator R.J. Moore said they might want to think about staggering their hours. He suggested having employees show up at 9 a.m. instead of 8 a.m.
R. Sullivan said they should make sure the Board is on the same page in that employees would come back at the present time and not park anywhere but Car Quest or anywhere under the Administration Building’s control and after that it would be park wherever they can. Stutsman said originally they had told employees the building would be closed through June 18, 2008, but they should change it to voluntary. She was afraid that some people would not get the message, however. Meyers said they should make it the next day June 19, 2008 and then have the building open to the public on June 23, 2008. Kempf said at the Poor Farm he would try to go out there and flag off an area so the employees will know where they should park, since they are starting a project of painting the barns out there. He said the area will be east of the large milk barn. Kempf said they will go out there, put stakes in the ground, and have some flags so it is fairly obvious, and he would communicate with the Chatham Oaks Director to make sure she knows there may be some cars showing up. R. Sullivan said they were focusing on the Administration Building in their discussion, but there are some other buildings and asked Kempf to comment on those.
Kempf said Public Health’s parking is available and they will make sure all their doors are open and just leave the sandbags in place. He said the issue with Public Health is not that it is in the 500 year flood plain, but rather that there is the storm sewer situation in Iowa City being full and any rain in the area would have created a large pond. Pulkrabek said that is what would have created the problem there. He said the employees and public will be able to get in there and they will leave the sandbags there as well. Kempf said with the Ambulance it will be the same thing, with the garage already being open. He said they would do the same with the Fisher Building, but the vast majority of the sandbags will be left in place for a week or so. Kempf said they don’t want to have to put new ones down. Painter asked if people are going to be determining the hours for their individual offices. She said she could see a situation where some people just go back to normal and others go earlier or later as Moore suggested.
Human Resources Administrator Laura Shramek said it would be best for the Board to give direction for all the departments that report to the Board. Shramek said there was a lot of merit as far as the travel, although she doesn’t know how that would work with the SEATS buses as she doesn’t know how many could be on the bus at one time. She said it would be very important to get employees back to work as soon as possible. R. Sullivan said that elected officials run their own offices. Shramek said they did, and that they could determine when they open and their hours of service. Painter said they need to look at the collective bargaining agreement in terms of changing the hours of work. She said her guess would be the union would be receptive to do things to ease congestion and she thought they needed to make sure they did things to work with the unions as well. Painter said the Administration Building is all in the PPME (Public Professional and Maintenance Employees) unit. Shramek said they might be able to save two hours of waiting time on the highway based on starting a half hour later. Stutsman said that a half hour can make a big difference.
Neuzil asked who was coordinating what in regards to what department. Shramek said that employees that are able and available to work have been contacting their Supervisor every day. She said they have been calling or reporting in, and are available in their regular work hours so they can be contacted via phone. R. Sullivan said that is what they have been doing and he assumed that the plan was to have the department heads after the meeting to make the calls they need to decide what needs to be done. He asked if there were any other questions or comments. Stutsman asked if Shramek would be checking with the unions and if that was her role. Shramek responded it would be best if there was one contact. Lyness said department heads need to let Shramek know when they want to have their hours and what would be acceptable so she can communicate that with the union. Shramek said as long as there was a range it would be good, with no more than two hours difference.
R. Sullivan said one other issue that would come up in terms of the work status of County employees, is that a lot of the work people have been doing is reimbursable by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He said that it wouldn’t change what employees are paid, but it is money that could come back in to the County. Stutsman asked if that counted for work done outside of the County, if they sandbagged somewhere else. M. Sullivan said that they wouldn’t be able to claim that as a County with FEMA, but if they are on employee time and they are doing activities related to it, such as Kempf’s job or M. Sullivan’s job, they could claim it. R. Sullivan explained that what he thinks Stutsman was asking was if someone was in Cedar Rapids and couldn’t get to Iowa City, but they worked in Cedar Rapids, would FEMA reimburse. County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said that he asked that at the meeting that morning and the answer was that they need to make a distinction between responding to the flood as opposed to recovering from the situation. M. Sullivan said that FEMA wants that costed out. He said he worked with Emergency Management Coordinator Dave Wilson on that, as they made it pretty clear at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to track that and then he would have Budget Coordinator Rich Claiborne on June 19, 2008 make up a cost account to set up some accounts to track it. R. Sullivan asked if department heads have been keeping close track as far as hours people have spent related to the flood. R. Sullivan said from the indication it looked like they had. County Engineer Greg Parker said the departments should be good and he didn’t think anyone has forgotten anything as they talked about it at the onset about actually going on to the emergency response part of it. Claiborne commented that starting on June 18, 2008 everything would be kept in a separate column. Parker said that as of the morning of June 18, 2008 their conversation with the City, things would be in the recovery aspect of things.
County Auditor Tom Slockett said he wanted to check whether the County can be reimbursed if they paid for employees’ parking in the parking lot because of the flood. R. Sullivan asked if it was FEMA that could reimburse. Parker said they have a litany of things and that they don’t know that they have an answer right away how much it would be because they haven’t gone into the detail with FEMA yet. Parker said that their push in the community is getting people to register with FEMA, and that is really how they want to start.
Slockett said that parking is a major problem. He said that one of the alternatives to people is the parking lot to curb cost. Parker said that he would encourage every department head and elected official to let their employees know if that does happen to keep the receipts to make sure because FEMA won’t do reimbursement without that accounting aspect of that. R. Sullivan said he doesn’t want the employees to get the false impression that it will automatically be reimbursed because they don’t know that. Lyness said that they should make sure that they are encouraging people not to drive as opposed to thinking they will get reimbursed. She said discouraging parking at a parking ramp versus car pooling or taking the bus. M. Sullivan said they would be surprised that there is not a lot of parking in the parking ramps in Iowa City because of the logistical things of people in town. He said things have been a little better since the national media started to move south and migrate as the flooding continues. M. Sullivan said there will be a lot of other vindicators in town where they are going to be staying in hotels and parking in the ramps downtown. He said he didn’t want people to get the false sense that there is ample parking in Iowa City and Coralville when there isn’t. Stutsman asked if parking was not a reimbursable expense from the County. M. Sullivan confirmed this. Pulkrabek said he could give an example of what the Sheriff’s office has incurred since the flood and that is $16,000. He imagined that Parker would rival that. Parker said they had 721 hours of overtime reported. Stutsman said she hoped FEMA would come through.
R. Sullivan said M. Sullivan would give the Board an update in terms of what the flood waters are doing and what the future holds for them. M. Sullivan said the hydrology report as of June 18, 2008 indicates that the reservoir pool level as of June 18 is at 715.7 feet, which is well above the 100 year flood. He said the outflow is 32,400 and the inflow to the reservoir is 25,000 which is a good thing mathematically. M. Sullivan said when they get less water coming in eventually they get it slowed down going out. He said June 25, 2008 is still the target date to get the water off the emergency spillway and that will fall at or below 712 feet, which is a good target date to have. M. Sullivan said they are promising things look better than last week at this time. He said the Iowa City fall at the river is still 32,900, so he said that is still very rapid movement of water and the current is extremely strong. M. Sullivan said the current stage of the river is at 29.5 feet, cresting earlier at 31.5 feet, whereas the flood of 1993 was 28.5, a foot higher than it is now. He said it was rather insidious and will be at a slow drop off before they get below flood stage which is 22 feet.
M. Sullivan said they talked with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and how they discussed what kind of restrictions they may or may not want to place on the sandbags. He said that seemed to be an ongoing question that is starting to come in because the County is starting to be on the recovery phase. M. Sullivan said they are telling people to keep their sandbags where they are at and that they will have an answer from the DNR sometime that day. He said he doesn’t feel they will put a lot of restrictions on the sand and they aren’t concerned about bacteria being in the sand, but they obviously don’t want to use it as play sand.
M. Sullivan gave an update on Iowa City and Coralville, for those who haven’t logged onto the website. He said there is a lot of information on Iowa City and Coralville’s websites, as well as a website that came up earlier last week, called corridorrecovery.com, linking Iowa City, Coralville, Johnson County, and Linn County that is just starting to morph into a lot of information, but all three of those sites have been up and running in the process. M. Sullivan said that Coralville is telling their residents as of the morning of June 18, 2008, that they have been taking photos of the property, so that any residents in Coralville that wants a photo of their property needs to email their address to the City of Coralville or call their office at 319-248-1700. Coralville will link it back and email some photos of the property to the requesters so they can show insurance what things are looking like as of June 18, 2008. He said they are not going to let people back into the areas until the water is down and safe, but reoccupying is a whole other issue, so that is two parts of the recovery phase currently.
M. Sullivan said they should encourage people to contact FEMA. He said they can do that online or they can call their hotline number. M. Sullivan said the cities still have their command centers set up and there is no emergency response issues going on, and the Guard is going to scale back that day, and the Coast Guard is already gone, and most of the national media has left the area, at least the satellites. He said that there are still a lot of correspondents there that contact him late because they like to run their news late. M. Sullivan said other than that they are just waiting for the river to go down. Neuzil asked for confirmation of current and past flood stages. M. Sullivan said just to give a scope of everything, the river was at a highest crest of 31.5 feet, as compared to last year at just a little over 16 feet, so he had never seen anything like that before.
R. Sullivan said there were a couple people he wanted to come up were Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak, Public Health Director Doug Beardsley, Parker, and Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia to discuss a number of areas. He addressed Dvorak that one issue that came up is that people want to go back into structures. R. Sullivan said Cedar Rapids is requiring an inspection before anyone can get in, and asked Dvorak what he would like to do. Dvorak said he has to call Emergency Management Coordinator Dave Wilson to set up a meeting. He said what they would like to do is get law enforcement to go through the houses, the Health Department may want to be involved, and with their department they try to get the electric companies and the gas companies to have inspectors go through with them. Dvorak said they got a call this morning from the gas company wanting to go into a house for them to say okay so they can turn the gas back on. He said it didn’t make any sense to them, and he said that he has Senior Building Inspector Ruben Arsate monitoring the phone currently. Dvorak said they can’t go into a house with six feet of water, as it is illogical, until the water has recessed. He gave the example of a woman falling down to her basement and they don’t want to do that. He said the process will be the same. Dvorak said they will do a preliminary inspection first to determine if people can get back to their homes. He said they could elevate the houses if it is determined later that they want to. Dvorak said, talking to FEMA that morning, they aren’t going to suggest that since it is such an event. He said the key issue is that in a substantially damaged home they don’t want people to move back into. Dvorak said if they do want them to get back into the home, then they will require that the house be elevated so the event doesn’t happen again. He said the process is fairly simple as they have done it in the past, and to support them doing that, when FEMA called the current morning, there are three inspectors for FEMA that could come down and inspect in about two weeks. Dvorak said from the timing he is hearing that may be appropriate to get into the residences in two to three weeks. He said he would evaluate that a little further and then talk to the Board about that too. Dvorak said they would probably recommend that they have three inspectors come in, and that they aren’t available for two weeks. R. Sullivan said that was good to hear that there is potentially some help, as he can see them getting overwhelmed very quickly. Dvorak said he could give a rough estimate unless someone has a better estimate. He said in 1993 they had probably between 40 and 50 homes renovated. Dvorak said since they elevated a lot of the homes, the damage has lessened because of that so their inspections are not going to be that time consuming. He said there are other areas, like Izaak Walton, where one structure was elevated, and the rest were fixed up and then let go.
Wilson said he had a chance to talk to Iowa City Police Chief Sam Hargadine who said the City is using the plan from 1993. Wilson said they are plaquering houses with red placards saying no entry or re-entry. He said it could also be no reoccupation. Pulkrabek said they aren’t allowing re-entry until the road is accessible to the residents, and that is the main guideline because then they can have an emergency response, such as fire ambulance, law enforcement. He said then they will allow individuals to go in to assess the damage. Pulkrabek said as far as the inspection on who is doing inspections, he doesn’t really know anything about that. He said they are already drained and it would be very, very difficult for them to maintain a presence and keep people going to and from the houses, especially an area of concern, such as Riverfront Estates. Pulkrabek said they have people going in and out of their houses. He said they have dispatched a boat down there to increase patrols, but that they just can’t keep that up. Pulkrabek said it was talked about earlier that it is kind of like the speed limit, where it is against the law to drive 60 in a 55, but they can’t go in and do a re-entry. He said they could say that people can’t go in and re-entry on a place because it is dangerous and they may fall through the floor, etc, but that their resources are limited if they can do any type of enforcement on it. Pulkrabek said if the Supervisors, the County, and Zoning is going to request their help on that, he wants the Board to let them know sooner rather than later and give them some specifics on what they want them to do.
Parker said it has been quite an eventful week for the Secondary Road Department. He said they put in about 721 hours of overtime as of midnight Sunday, June 15, 2008. Over a five day period they averaged 2,000 tons of sand hauling into Iowa City, Coralville, Hills, and various locations. Parker said this included a drive to Marengo where they had to go get the sand, which was 56 miles round trip. He said if they calculate that with the trucks they have going, the department did a fantastic job. Parker said they did open Lake McBride Bridge which was opened up the afternoon of June 17, 2008. He said as the Sheriff had mentioned, the residents were allowed to re-enter their homes. Parker said the Highway 965 Bridge will be closed indefinitely until they can get a bridge diving inspection team in to look at the pilings to make sure they don’t have any scouring on the structure. Parker said, effectively, the same thing needs to happen for the Hills Bridge and the Butler Bridge. He said the Butler Bridge is located off North Dubuque Street on Interstate 80. Parker said those two structures have had a phenomenal amount of flows running through it, talking 30,000 cubic feet per second running through the bridges, having the potential problem of scouring issues. He said the issue with that is that they would not want to allow vehicles to travel over those bridges without knowing they are safe and they do not have a scouring problem or they are not exposed pilings on any of the bridges. Parker said they have their bridge inspection team that is monitoring daily and the first available day they can make sure the structures are safe and clear they will open those bridges and allow traffic over them.
Parker said the Sutliff area has staff working on that roadway. He said they had a lot of undermining around the pavement, with the bridge inspected on June 17, 2008. Parker said they are good to go and no concerns for that issue. He said as soon as they have repaired the road damage on Sutliff, they would anticipate that the bridge would be open by June 19, 2008. Parker said there is an access on White Oak, which is directly accessible to Sutliff on the north side that completely washed out that road. He said as part of Sutliff repairs they will include White Oak at the intersection. Parker said he is hoping, if everything lines up, to have that intersection available for traffic by the end of the current week. He said he thinks everyone is aware that because Highway 1 has had some major damage done to it, the last word he heard from the DOT was that it will be two to three weeks before those repairs can be made. He said from a priority standpoint they are trying to get Sutliff Road open so they can get traffic diverted off the gravel road route and to Ely so they can get a paved route, which would relieve some of the pressures they are having.
Stutsman asked when teams would start inspecting the bridges. Parker said their bridge inspection team is dealing with the three structures that includes Hills, the Butler Bridge, and Highway 965. Parker said Highway 965 is due for an underwater inspection anyway, as it is done every three years. Parker said they will keep that closed until they can get a diving inspection team to look at it because it is required as part of bridge inspection. He said there isn’t really a lot of high water flow on the structure and that it is due to the bridge inspection activity and they are going to wait before opening that up to make sure they are covered from a safety standpoint. Parker said that is the most paramount thing he could express. He said that it was his understanding that on the Hills Bridge in 1993 they did open that structure, but when the water went down they discovered exposed piles so they had to close the bridge to repair it. Parker said he didn’t want to take that chance, and make sure they know exactly what they have before the bridge is opened. He said it may be awhile before they get the structure opened.
R. Sullivan asked if folks would be going back to a normal schedule soon. Parker said Maintenance Supervisor Kevin Hackathorn and he discussed they may work some overtime to get the Sutliff area taken care of because that will relieve traffic off the gravel road area. He said he thinks they are now pretty much waiting for the water to go down and trying to assess the damage. Parker said they can’t see everything currently until the waters recede and get the traffic moving. Janelle Rettig said that sometimes they open bridges for pedestrian traffic only. She asked if that was a possibility with the Butler Bridge as it has to do with commuting and encouraging people not to drive. Rettig said it is possible to commute from North Liberty by foot or bicycle. She asked if there is a chance it could happen before they send in diving teams. Parker said it could be a weight issue, but he doesn’t know what is happening underneath the structure and he doesn’t want a similar situation as in Minneapolis. He said he wouldn’t want any foot traffic if that is a possibility. Parker said it completely revolves around a safety issue. Parker said thanks to the Sheriff’s assistance they have blocked off those areas. He said he has seen numerous people on the bridges and he wants to maintain safety and closure until they know for sure. R. Sullivan said they knew Parker’s response has been amazing not only in the number of hours put in, but also that everyone has taken over a little of the Secondary Roads Department, from IS to the National Guard, etc., and he knew that Parker had been very cooperative.
R. Sullivan asked Beardsley if they could talk about some things that may be beyond his reach, but that people would want to know what to do with recovery and what they can throw away, or when, etc. Beardsley said he could help with some of the things mentioned, but that he wanted to let everyone know that they are gearing up with their primary objectives as the water recedes which is getting out to the private well owners. He said that anyone with private water wells in the affected areas can get free test kits through Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), which has some emergency funds to spend for those. Beardsley said their inspectors will be out working with the restaurants as they get into recovery mode and will need an inspection before they are ready to reopen.
Beardsley said they have been getting a lot of calls about concerns people have about going into homes for recovery and contamination issues. He said the primary concern is still one of safety. Beardsley said when looking at the aftermath of hurricanes and other floods that have happened, the experience of drowning is still the number one cause of death for floods. He said after that it is vehicle accidents as cause of death, followed by electrocutions and other safety issues. Beardsley said it is important for the building department's energy companies to get in and make sure there is safety. He said they get a lot of questions about mold. Beardsley said mold is ubiquitous and is everywhere, it just needs a place to grow. He said they have a lot of information on their website as well. Beardsley said questions include if they need a mask to go into the residences. He said it depends on the situation. Beardsley said obviously if there is a lot of mold and dust, they would need one. He said what needs to be thrown away depends on the material. Beardsley said they also have a lot of information online about that as well. He said how it will be disposed he is not sure of. Beardsley said the City would have pick up for the individual residences, however businesses would have to go through their contractors for disposal of damaged items. He said also that there would be a large recycling effort of separating materials that can be recycled.
Rettig asked if Beardsley could mention about how dangerous it is to walk in flood water. Beardsley said the issue is mainly one of safety. He said they don’t know what kind of debris there is in the water or if there would be holes, etc. Beardsley said one instance involved an inspector walking around the outside of the house and fell through in Cedar Rapids. He said they have had a lot of calls and media attention about having a tetanus shot. Beardsley made the comment that anyone should stay current on their tetanus shot anytime. Beardsley said simple exposure to flood waters is not any indication of having to have a tetanus shot. He said if there is a wound, it needs to be medically evaluated and that the tetanus shot up-to-date. Beardsley said flood water by definition is contaminated. He said there is bacteria to any degree in any surface water. Beardsley said this is water that has been running across fields, farm lots, and other areas, so there is more possibility of contamination. He said they don’t really see outbreaks of diseases after floods. Beardsley said the main concern is preparing food, getting contact and ingesting bacteria, and getting diarrhea diseases, etc. He said that in the next couple weeks they will be doing a lot of discussion about vector control mosquitoes, as well as the difference between stagnant pond mosquitoes and flood water mosquitoes. Beardsley said the general message is that as part of the cleanup to make sure that all of the standing water is cleaned up. He said that is the best way to keep mosquitoes away. R. Sullivan said there will be more discussion in the next few days concerning what is an appropriate way and place to dispose of the sand and if they can reuse it. Beardsley said obviously sand has not been contaminated by flood waters can be reused. He has some opinions about sand that has been in the flood waters, but there are people doing evaluations and they will try to distribute that as much as they can.
SEATS Director Tom Brase said they are back to normal running paratransit routes. He said he strongly encourages those that use paratransit, if they cross the river, to use the fixed route to avoid using the vehicles across the river from east to west. Brase said their services will get delayed if they have to use the bridge and cross the river, with all the traffic. Brase said he appreciates any trips people don’t have to take to keep the service going as best and normal as possible.
Ambulance Director Steve Spenler said their call volume during the flooding was a little above average but that they weren’t overwhelmed. He said because of the threat of not having bridge access between east and west, they staged a truck at Kinnick stadium so they would have two ambulances on the west side and two on the east. Spenler said they would continue to staff that truck until June 20, 2008. He said they are up to normal staffing, their office is open, and they have an additional staff truck on the west side of town. Spenler said he certainly appreciates the University Athletic Department's cooperation in allowing them that space.
County Assessor Bill Greazel said he is getting calls from individuals wanting to know when he can come look at their property. Greazel said the statutory assessment date is January 1, 2009, so they really don’t need to know the status of the property until that date. Greazel said they don’t need to take pictures of their property, they will come out and take pictures for them before January 1, 2009. He said, secondly, they had pictures taken June 16, 2008, with high resolution photos flown of all the flood affected areas. Greazel said they had Pictronomy, their vendor for oblique photography. He said that for those people wanting north, south, east, and west pictures of their property within ten to fifteen days, that would be available on their website. Greazel said they are high resolution, they are very good photos, and they don’t need to be concerned about getting good photos of their property if they are in the flood affected areas from south of Iowa City to the Coralville reservoir. He said the other thing is they have a statutory deadline of July 1, 2008 for homestead applications of the 2008 year. Greazel said if at all possible try to do that online. He explained to go to the Johnson County website, print out the form, and sign and mail it to them as long as the postmark date is before July 1, 2008.
Social Worker II Dave Moran said he had one quick thing to mention dealing with flood recovery firms, as his area was dry. He said a word of caution to people is if they want money up front, they need to check with the Better Business Bureau. Moran said there is no such thing as a FEMA approved recovery company. He said FEMA doesn’t do that and to be leery if they use those terms. Moran said flooding it brings out the worst and best in people. R. Sullivan said there have already been three or four attempts at scams over the phone and in person. M. Sullivan said if someone claims to be from FEMA they need to ask for an ID. Lyness added that she has heard of phone calls of people calling asking for personal identification information, and that people should be aware that FEMA would not be calling. R. Sullivan said another scam is showing up as an “inspector” and stealing jewelry, etc.
M. Sullivan said that as the flood events got started early on, he said the County made the decision to go ahead and contract with a company called Code Red, reverse 911 company. He said it is very similar to what the Iowa City school districts uses. M. Sullivan said the company went into the white pages and voter registration public pages to contact, and they had a pool of 60,000 residents registered in the County area already registered not by themselves but with the database they have created in the public domain. He said they implemented the system when they were doing the mandatory evacuation orders. M. Sullivan said other than the press releases, they weren’t sure about the status of power in the area at the time. He said they did call backs for the mandatory evacuation similar to the City's. M. Sullivan said they talked about it and felt they did well, but that there has been some phone calls that have come in since that time, and the company went through and redialed those numbers that were called initially. He said it was a reminder that if they got that phone call they are already registered. M. Sullivan said it is legitimate and it is called Code Red. He said that is a part of the agreement the County has with them, to check the system, because in the end they want all businesses and all residents to be registered. M. Sullivan said there is no cost to them, none of the information given to them, which just includes name, address, and phone number, and does not include social security numbers or financial information. He said that for those who have received a voice message over the last three or four days means they have been registered and they shouldn't have to worry about it. M. Sullivan said they would only use the system in the future in any critical emergency. He said whenever there are thunderstorm watches or tornado warnings, the system won't be activated. He said if there is another protracted event, such as another flood or chemical spill in which people would be directly affected, they can do emergency call backs immediately. M. Sullivan said it can be given to your home phone or your cell phone. He said he wants people to have their plan in place and be ready to go.
Neuzil said he received two calls at home from residents regarding tax abatements. He said at the current time he doesn't anticipate going through that process. Neuzil said he wasn't sure in 1993 if there was that kind of situation, and he doesn't anticipate them having tax abatements for residents that can't use their homes. He said they would be working with FEMA and the entities to help them out, but that that is something to be aware of if everyone gets calls about that. R. Sullivan added they certainly will touch base with the County Treasurer about that topic.
Social Services Coordinator Amy Correia said the Johnson County Social Services worked over the weekend of June 14-15, 2008 to get people signed up for FEMA. She said that through Social Services staff and social work volunteers, they assisted over fifty households to sign up online or over the telephone. Correia said the United Way flood relief fund is up and running. They had a meeting on June 16, 2008 to get it all squared away. Correia said they have case advocates that are available beginning June 17, 2008, and they already have appointments filled. She said information about the fund can be found on the County website under Assistance and Recovery, and to make an appointment to call 351-0140 to make an appointment at the Crisis Center. Correia said there are currently two County staff assisting with that effort. She said that as they determine the volume of people that will need help. She said this is patterned after the tornado relief fund two years ago that operated a year after the tornado with the Crisis Center. Correia said the General Assistance employees will be helping with the effort. She said it will also be a nice integration in that those folks that are eligible for general assistance that can be assisted by general assistance but may need help with additional help but can’t be helped by general assistance based on their experience. Correia explained that can be integrated, making it easy for those in that they won’t have to go to different buildings and appointments, etc. to get them the help that they need. She said those case advocates will be identifying needs and then signing up individuals and households for all of the federal assistance available, like FEMA and Red Cross assistance as they come into the recovery phase. Correia said they are trying to make sure that all programs in the State and Federal programs folks are getting access to. She said the 911 North Governor building has been opened. Correia said the Linn County Department of Human Services was evacuated last Monday so they had all their calls forwarded to the Iowa City office. She said that the usual volume of calls in Linn County DHS is about 1,500 calls a day, which is compounded because there are many people calling about food assistance and other needs. Correia said they are taking those calls with their staff as well as two people answering the phone. She said it could get congested so if people are having trouble getting through she advised just be patient and continue trying to get through. Correia said they are potentially relocating the offices in Linn County in the next few days so they will see the call volume receding. She said the main information is about the disaster flood recovery. Correia said the United Way is working to gear up a volunteer action center, and she would give the information to the Board as soon as she got it from them. She said there are people already wanting to volunteer in recovery but she wasn’t sure what the volunteers could do through the recovery stage quite yet.
Stutsman asked what people could do if they wanted to contribute to the flood relief effort. Correia responded if they wanted to direct funds to the United Way of the County they could put flood relief in the memo. R. Sullivan said that Correia might want to mention that charities didn’t want water or clothing, they were just taking cash donations. Correia said if people want to make donations of items to the Crisis Center, that could include personal hygiene items, diapers, and baby formula. She said Goodwill and the Salvation Army are providing clothing vouchers, and they will be able to provide vouchers for household items to rebuild homes.
Correia said the Department of Elder Affairs Contract Amendment for the Livable Community for Successful Aging Initiative is one entered into by the Board with Elders Affairs last year for $50,000. She said it was a special appropriation that was made by the legislature by Senator Bob Dvorsky and local advocacy on Bob Welsh's part. Correia said that the County was awarded $50,000. She said the bill would be for one year and it all had to be spent in Fiscal Year 2008. Correia said they aren't able to spend all the dollars in 2008 due to various reasons. She said there will be about $23,000 that will be unexpended as of June 30, 2008. Correia said there was action taken in the legislature to allow those dollars to be carried over for an additional one year period. She said the original contract did not include any type of extension so they do have a contract amendment from the Department of Elder Affairs that includes allowing them to carry over the dollars, extending the contract for an additional full year for 2009. Correia said that changes two other dates that they were contracted to related to reporting. She said those are the changes in that amendment. Correia said that extends the contract into Fiscal year 2009 for the full year, and then they will be able to spend the $23,000 for the Livable Communities Initiative and then two reporting dates are then extended. She said those are all fine with the initiative. Stutsman if the original $50,000 is appropriated every year. Correia responded it was a one time deal. The Board agreed to put the contract on a future formal agenda for approval.
Correia said Aging Specialist Diana Preschel started a little before Memorial Day part-time and now she is full-time. Preschel said she is from Pennsylvania but she has been in Iowa City for about eight years. Correia said she got her Master's in Public Health from the University of Iowa, worked at Health Iowa, and the Riverside Casino in Wellman. Correia said she also is a certified Health Specialist, so she has a lot of experience and credentials.
Conservation Director Harry Graves said that with the ballot language, Bonding Attorney Bob Josten in an email dated June 2, 2008, thanked the Board for giving him the time to review the proposed bond referendum ballot language. Josten continued that he had concluded his review and believes the language is consistent with State law as set out in Section 331.442 of the Code of Iowa. Josten said to please let him know when they are ready to have the Board take action and set the date for the election so he can prepare the proper form of resolution including the ballot language for the Board. Graves said it is his understanding that a copy is in the works currently. Graves read that Josten wrote that the County of Johnson, State of Iowa, shall be authorized to acquire and develop lands with public access provided, to be managed by the County Conservation Board in order to protect the water quality in the rivers, lakes, and streams. Graves continued that Josten said in addition it will preserve forests to improve air quality and protect natural areas and wildlife habitats from development. Josten said they will also provide for parks and trails at a cost not exceeding $20 million, and issue its general obligation bonds not exceeding $20 million for that purpose. He said all expenditures will be subject to an independent audit. Graves said that is the way it will read on the ballot.
Neuzil said one thing that is missing is the time table for getting the $20 million. He said it was nowhere to be seen and was curious as others had been asking about it. Neuzil said it was his assumption that it was a million dollars a year for 20 years. Graves said that would be a simple way to break it down but that basically the bonds would be issued when requisitions are tendered by the Conservation Board then the County Treasurer would settle the bond. Graves said it would be two years or three years before any use of the bond funds comes to the floor or something comes up early on. Neuzil said he wasn't looking at the use within 20 years, it was more if they could get $20 million would it be over 20 years. Graves said it was his understanding that the payback on it is over 20 years based on the 27 cents taxable evaluation formula. He said the funding would be available upon requisition. Neuzil said it was those kinds of questions that he knew would come up. He asked if when they tax for $20 million, would that include the cost associated with the interest of the bond. Graves said the interest of the bonds does not accrue until such times as they are sold after a requisition is made. He said the revenue from the interest of the bonds would go to the County Treasurer. Neuzil asked if it would come out of the $20 million. He asked if they would have outside money pay for interest or things of that nature. Graves responded yes. Neuzil asked if that is something that needs to be added in terms of the date or a time table. Graves said it would be very difficult to forecast a time table when a particular purchase would be made. Neuzil said he was just talking about the time table of the $20 million of the taxing period, and how long it would take. Graves said that if the proposal is adopted for the November election, then it would take affect in FY11. Neuzil asked if it would last until 2031. Graves said that was his understanding.
Graves said that was a good point by Neuzil and that there will be a series of public meetings and that is certainly something that can be addressed. He said in the words of Josten, keeping it simple, is that they have been involved in over 3,000 of them. Stutsman asked that if they adopt the language then they can't change the ballot language. She said public meetings kind of sounded like that. Graves said that the public meetings simply are to take public input and make them aware of the prospect, and to hear their thoughts. Stutsman said she agrees with Neuzil that she doesn't understand why the 20 years isn't included. Neuzil said it is actually a selling point, as he tells people that they are using $20 million and their eyebrows raise. He continued that once he explains to them it will be over a 20 year period it makes sense because it stretches it out quite a bit and keeps the taxes down. He said that as far as a timetable goes, it is a selling point to think years out like they are, as far as asking people to pay the tax on it. Graves said the information has been put forward in their newsletters and other releases, as they have to talk about it for 20 years. He said the bond attorney did not think it was pertinent to involve it there. Lyness said perhaps they could discuss it with Josten. She said that another thing they could do is when they have the resolution to adopt it they could specify it in the resolution as well. R. Sullivan said Josten is working on the resolution and if they wanted him to put it in they would need to make that contact or discuss if he had a reason for excluding it. Graves said certainly it could be included in the resolution, but if they need to put it in the bond language Josten will have to determine that. Stutsman said it would be interesting to hear Josten's feedback.
R. Sullivan said the date set is November 4, 2008, for the Conservation Bond Referendum. R. Sullivan said obviously that would be part of the resolution as well, so when Josten got the referendum set he would let the Board know about both things. Graves said they have had numerous questions regarding Kent Park and if it was open. He said Kent Park is one of the few campgrounds fortunate enough to be open. Graves said there are a few families camping there that have been impacted by the flood and they are trying to accommodate them any way they can. He said the Hills Access area is completely inundated and the road is closed as Parker stated because of the bridge issue. Graves said River Junction Access is closed, and has been inundated numerous times already. He said the Cedar River crossing has also been inundated as well and not advisable to access. Graves said until the roads are open, they can't even ascertain the extent of damage in Hills, River Junction, or the Cedar River Crossing. He said in the meantime they can't park in all the facilities open to the public. He said there was a boating ban county-wide, but that has been lifted west of 380, which R. Sullivan pointed out. M. Sullivan said that west of 380 and Kent Park, however everything else is still in effect.
Stutsman thanked R. Sullivan for all his work during the flood, above and beyond what he had signed up for when he became Supervisor.
Adjourned at 12:25 p.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Casie Kadlec, Recording Secretary