MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
JULY 10, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Johnson County Food Alliance Representative James Nisely: Request for Funding for Buy Fresh/Buy Local Directory and Field to Family Event........................................................................................................ 1
County Engineer Greg Parker: Dust Control on Blain Cemetery Road........................................ 2
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 8:10 p.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan.
Stutsman said she wanted to apologize to Johnson County Local Food Alliance Representative James Nisely for him having to come to the meeting because she thought everyone had agreed to it and decided on it. She said she doesn't understand where the confusion is coming from. R. Sullivan said he was under the same impression and somewhere between County staff and the Board of Supervisors there was a breakdown in the communication because several Board members thought this was already budgeted. Stutsman said the fact that the logo is in there sends a clear message that the Board had approved it. R. Sullivan said somehow in the notes it got lost and M. Sullivan said his understanding was that the Board had talked about it and Nisely came in a couple of times with the last time being on December 13, 2008 during the budget process. He said nothing formal was decided during the budget meeting or in a formal meeting and that was the reason for bringing it back. R. Sullivan asked if there was no formal action taken. M. Sullivan said he could not find in the minutes where the Board had made a formal decision. M. Sullivan said the Board had talked about doing it but they did not take formal action. Meyers said he thought money had been set aside with that intention and R. Sullivan asked if it was $3,000. M. Sullivan and Neuzil said yes, and R. Sullivan said everyone is remembering the same thing. Stutsman said the Board could have worked this out internally and R. Sullivan said maybe things could be made easy by assuming that Nisely is here to get the $3,000. He asked M. Sullivan if there is a pot of money where the $3,000 could come from and M. Sullivan said yes.
Nisely said the Johnson County Local Food Alliance is a group of farmers, food businesses, consumers, and related organizations who wish to increase the use and consumption of local sustainably produced food products in Johnson County and surrounding counties. He said the Johnson County Local Food Alliances has numerous events throughout the year, including a project to develop and disseminate a buy local and buy fresh directory that identifies local area farmer’s markets, restaurants and food businesses that have pledged to support locally-produced foods, and farmers who have pledged to try to grow more sustainable food. Nisely said the directory helps people find local and sustainable food in the community. He said the Field to Family event has it's seventh edition this year in September. Nisely said there will be more events spread out among all the weekends in September, including the Culinary Walk in which restaurants provide samplings of food made from local ingredients. He said other events include a market fair with Johnson County Public Health, a book reading, a Permaculture tour, local food preservation classes hosted by New Pioneer Co-Op, and several farm tours. R. Sullivan said he had a piece of pizza downtown the other day with tomatoes on it that had been grown at a local farm. The Board thanked Nisely for the presentation.
County Engineer Greg Parker said Johnson County has a Safety Dust Control Program that applies to roads that meet or exceed 150 vehicles of average daily traffic. Secondary Roads only puts down dust control or calcium chloride on roads that meet or exceed an average daily traffic count of 300. Parker said the spot locations are at hills, intersections, residences, or possibly horizontal curves. Parker said when a road meets, achieves, or exceeds the average daily traffic count of 300 vehicles, his department puts down the same dust control as a solid application from the section of the roadway. He said regarding Blain Cemetery Road which is south of Seneca to Amana Road, the Johnson County Department of Transportation (DOT) recounts all County roads as is done every four years. Parker said his department received the count from the DOT in 2007 and reevaluated it because things change including development. He said typically there is more development on the County roads which could possibly increase traffic.
Parker said his department looks at those roads that were not on the Safety Dust Control Program before (i.e. had an average daily traffic count of less than 150 vehicles) and roads that met the 150-vehicle guideline, which included Blain Cemetery Road. He said his department recounts those roads to make sure that the count the DOT reached is correct. Parker said the count by his staff for Blain Cemetery Road was 112 vehicles per day, even though his staff uses the same factors that the DOT uses. He said the counts are gathered by little small units that are buried in the road, which were out there for three days on Blain Cemetery Road. Parker said his department tries to be somewhat secretive where the units are located because they don't want people to drive back and forth over the units so the count will benefit the road and include it in the Safety Dust Control Program. He said his department does a northbound count and a southbound count and that is how they came up with an average daily traffic count of 112 vehicles.
Parker said Blain Cemetery Road should not have been included based on past practice activities, but staff members had a copy of one of the working maps and it did not have the correct sections shown. He said every spring a letter is sent to everybody explaining to them that they are in the Safety Dust Control Program and what will happen. Parker said in this instance a letter was sent out to the residents on Blain Cemetery Road which was an oversight by his staff. He said his staff caught it before they put down the Safety Dust Control application and sent out a letter to the residents explaining that they are very sorry, but things like this do happen and must be corrected.
R. Sullivan said it is now July and the Safety Dust Control application is usually done in June. Parker agreed. R. Sullivan said he is assuming that the contractor has already gone through and laid down the first Safety Dust Control application. Parker said his department actually just completed their Safety Dust Control application for the County this week. He said the last two roads his department had to do were Deer Creek and Wapsi and they were completed the previous day. Parker said he doesn't remember the date of the letter sent to the Blain Cemetery Road residents, but because of his department's oversight they offered to include the Blain Cemetery Road residents in the Johnson County Safety Dust Control Program if they filled out a permit.
Stutsman asked Parker when he had realized that he had sent the wrong letter out. Parker said several weeks ago even though the Safety Dust Control application should have been applied some 45 days ago. He said his department is about 60 days behind schedule on everything and they did not notice until they sat down and looked at the list of roads to give to the contractor. Parker said that is when his staff brought it to his attention and he decided the recourse was to send a letter out to residents stating they could still pay for dust control but it was his department's error because they used the wrong map.
Stutsman asked how much it would cost to include Blain Cemetery Road in the Safety Dust Control Program. Parker said he did not bring the cost with him to the meeting. Meyers asked how long Blain Cemetery Road is and Parker said he did not know but it was probably between 1-1.5 miles. R. Sullivan Parker what it would cost roughly for the Safety Dust Control application to about a mile of road. Parker said his department's Safety Dust Control application consists of putting down 3/10's of a gallon per foot and their application cost per gallon is about 86 cents. He said his department does a minimum application of about 150 feet in front of the residences so the cost comes out to about 75 cents per square foot, maybe even $1. R. Sullivan said the real reason this item is on the agenda is because of the members of the public in the audience. Meyers asked Parker if the average daily traffic count came to 112 vehicles per day with just 28 houses, and Parker said that is what the count was with 51 southbound vehicles per day and 61 northbound vehicles per day. He said that is factual information and not an estimate.
Ty Bennett said there is something wrong with the traffic count from those three days; he doesn't know where all the other vehicles went. Bennett said there is a minimum of 2-4 cars per household and everyone makes at least two or three trips per day. He said he and the other residents were notified about the mistake a while back. Bennett said he asked a Secondary Roads employee when Blain Cemetery Road was going to get its Safety Dust Control application and the employee said the road wasn't on the list for the County's Safety Dust Control Program. Bennett said he told the employee that he got a letter, then the employee ended up calling Parker, then he himself talked to Parker and it came to light that that somebody had made a mistake reading their map. He said it is too bad because there are a whole lot of families and kids that were really looking forward to this because there are some people out there who can't afford Safety Dust Control applications. Bennett said safety and dust control are major concerns of his particularly when it is dry outside. He said he when goes into town every day he meets three or four vehicles between his house and 120th Street. Bennett said he doesn't like air conditioning in his vehicle, but if he wants air conditioning on hot days he has to use it going down the gravel roads because it is just solid dust. He said he certainly had hopes that the Safety Dust Control application would be done this year.
Ginny Snitker said she lives at 1552 Blain Cemetery Road and something Bennett forgot to mention is that their road gets a lot of traffic from mushroom hunters and game hunters who come to use the improved shooting range. She said with 28 houses on a one-mile stretch of road in addition to all the visiting hunters she just cannot buy that average daily traffic count. Snitker said even County trucks are using it right now to take wood down there to burn it by the reservoir. Bennett said they get an awful lot of gravel trucks up and down the road. Snitker agreed. She said she imagines the drivers don't like Green Castle Road because of its steep hill.
R. Sullivan said the Board has talked at length about improving some of the County's gravel roads to chip-seal surfaces and the #2 road on the list is Green Castle Road. He said they are still hopeful that someday that will happen but the combination of weather conditions (e.g. bad winter, flood-laden summer, etc.) have put the County a good year behind where they hoped they would be. Snitker said she doesn't understand how the 2006 count totaled 150 vehicles and asked Parker if that was an estimate by the DOT. Parker said it was. He said there were roads that were not on the program, and if there are within even ten vehicles of that DOT 150 number his department will go out and recount to make sure the road at least meets or exceeds that number.
Alvin Vondracek said he lives on Blain Cemetery Road and spent this past weekend driving around gravel roads and even some that the map says have an average daily traffic count of 150 vehicles. He said they did not look like Blain Cemetery Road which looks beat because it has chuckholes, tracks, and enough traffic to run the gravel off of it. Vondracek said the other gravel roads he drove on were nice; gravel was spread all over them and there were no chuckholes. He said if Blain Cemetery Road does not have the right traffic than he does not think the right people are taking care of it.
R. Sullivan said clearly folks got a letter they should not have received and now would like to see dust control put down. Harney asked if having Amana Road closed due to flooding has made a big difference in traffic going north instead of to Amana Road and Highway 965. Bill Keating said the residents are getting all the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) traffic. Snitker agreed and said even now with Amana Road open Blain Cemetery Road is still getting a lot of DNR traffic. Dave Dvorak said he has been out on Blain Cemetery Road for 20 years and he can't believe how much DNR traffic it is getting. He said the road is in tough shape and the traffic is definitely out there. Dvorak said there are certain places on the roads where you have to watch out, particularly around hills, mailboxes, and driveways. He said it is definitely a problem.
Parker said he is very sorry that the letter went out but his department has had phone calls from residents of other roads where they have had the count but his department has to explain to them the same reasoning and information. He said his department has added roads to the list of roads on the Safety Dust Control Program and they have also dropped roads from the program because they no longer made the count. Parker said it is difficult, but the program is set up the way that it is, and unfortunately the minimum required average daily traffic count to make the program is 150 vehicles. He said it is a program that costs the County several hundred thousand dollars to do. Parker said it certainly does cost those who pay for the dust control as well because it is a personal expense out of their own pockets. He said he understands and appreciates the comments and again he is very apologetic for the action that was sent out. Parker said this is something that does take place every four years. He said the Safety Dust Control Program application is County-wide and the dollar amount is something like $250,000.
Bill Keating said he lives at 1536 Blain Cemetery Road and has lived there for about 31 years. He said it has gotten pretty dusty some years but this year the road is getting about as bad as it has ever been. Keating said with added traffic like the DNR vehicles coming through the road is terrible right now. He said the boils in the road are terrible and exist where they haven't been before. Keating said he understands that they have had very heavy rains this year but the curves are getting especially bad. He said his house is over 150 years old and is right by the hillcrest and he has a very hard time getting out of his driveway because of the condition of the road. Keating said with all the dust it is an accident just waiting to happen. He said he thinks there is a lot of traffic not being counted like businessmen, horse people, and others because there are definitely more than 150 vehicles driven on Blain Cemetery Road per day. Keating said once he was at a neighbor's house and counted six vehicles going by in ten minutes. He said he knows Parker is trying to save the County some money but several houses have been added to Blain Cemetery Road since he moved there 31 years ago. Keating repeated that he hopes the Board reconsiders oiling or watering the road.
Parker said he thinks Keating brings up a great point and he appreciates his comment about the driveway location because it is something that the County is trying to correct. He said if Keating has an interest in relocating the driveway to a safer location he should come into the office and fill out a permit. Parker said though Keating will have to pay for it, his staff will be glad to help find a new location for the driveway that is safer. Stutsman asked if the Safety Dust Control Program is a solid application or just for in front of the homes. Parker said the roads that have daily traffic counts of 150-299 vehicles per day get spot locations. He said the roads that have daily traffic counts of 300 or greater would get solid applications. Parker said typically the applications are from intersection to intersection because that is where the traffic disperses.
Bennett said he doesn’t know if he stressed the safety issue enough. He said there are a lot of curves and hills; it’s a bad scene out there because with all the dust out there you can't see what's coming at you. Bennett said secondly Green Castle Road and Blain Cemetery Road are done out to Seneca Road. Parker agreed. Bennett said there are nine or ten houses on Green Castle Road but nothing on Blain Cemetery Road until you almost get to Seneca Road. He said there is a half-mile of Blain Cemetery Road with nothing on it except for the two houses by Seneca Road. Bennett said the Blain Cemetery Road residents can't get dust control on a mile stretch of road with 28 houses on it. He said anything that could be done would really be appreciated.
Stutsman said she feels the County made a mistake and the County needs to honor what it said it was going to do. She said she wants the counts to be done again this year; the County made an error and needs to stand behind what it did. Meyers said that is the way he feels about it too; he keeps looking at the 28 houses and 112 vehicles per day and is having a hard time computing it. He said maybe for some reason like the flooding there is extra traffic on the road right now and it is creating a problem that might not exist next year. Parker said there may have been some increased traffic on Blain Cemetery Road because of bridges that were closed or unavailable. Meyers asked how much effort it takes to do a traffic count. Parker said he has to send someone out to put the counters on the road and then go back and pull them back out after three days. Stutsman said she is not questioning the traffic count; she feels that if the counter said it, it is accurate. She said she is basing her decision on the fact that County staff made a mistake and needs to do the Safety Dust Control application, at least for this year. Harney said he was out on Blain Cemetery Road and he agrees; it is very dusty and the dust was so thick he could not even see the cars in front or behind him. He said his problem is that the same issue exists for individuals on Wapsi Road and he does not know how the County adjusts for one road and not the other. Harney said he agrees that the County made a mistake but he doesn't know if they should do spot dust control in front of the homes or do the entire road. He just said he has a hard time approving the Safety Dust Control application on one road and not the others. Meyers said he is a little confused by Harney's comment about Wapsi. Harney said the gravel trucks leaving the quarry go north towards West Branch and residents there have been complaining about the dust for three or four years. Parker said his department also has Seneca Road, which is a branch of Green Castle Road and the DOT count there was 150 but his department's count was 140-something which didn't meet the 150-vehicle requirement. Parker said it was a mistake but it was just a letter that was sent out.
R. Sullivan said he tends to agree with Stutsman and Meyers; it's hard for him to understand how 28 houses could generate 112 cars. He said he would like to see Blain Cemetery Road recounted before next year's Safety Dust Control Program, and it kind of sounds like Seneca Road needs to be recounted. R. Sullivan said maybe the numbers are mixed up. Meyers agreed and said it's something he can't get his head around. R. Sullivan said if the Board is going to base their decision on numbers they would have to feel pretty confident in their numbers. He said he doesn't feel confident in the numbers so he is interested in providing the Safety Dust Control application for just this one season. Stutsman said the other compromise is that the County could pay for one Safety Dust Control application and the residents could pay for the second application. Parker said the Secondary Roads Department will probably start applying the second application a little later than normal because they just completed the first application. R. Sullivan said Stutsman's suggestion sounds pretty good to him and Meyers agreed. R. Sullivan said he would like to see the counts double-checked by the Secondary Roads Department before next year's Safety Dust Control Program. He repeated the County will pay for the first application and the residents will pay for the second application if they are interested. Parker said OK, only for this year.
Parker asked if the recount was just for Blain Cemetery Road and R. Sullivan said he would like to see Seneca Road recounted too. Parker if said both road counts are 150 vehicle trips per day they are out until the next counts are performed which would not be until 2010. Stutsman asked if the County had already told Seneca Road residents they would perform a Safety Dust Control application and Parker said no, his staff did not because their traffic count is less than 150 vehicles per day. He said he would recount but not now because it would not be a good time with all the recent flooding activity. R. Sullivan agreed and said as long as it is before next February.
Adjourned at 8:55 p.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By John Deeth, Recording Secretary