Stutsman: OK, thank you. Business from the Board of Supervisors, discussion action needed regarding voluntary annexation of the Solon Prairie to the City of Solon and 28E Agreement with the City of Solon. Have with us Rod Dunlap from the Conservation Department and Jim Martinek, City Attorney for Solon, to discuss this issue. We had it on the Board’s agenda before, and this is finishing up all those final touches.

Solon City Attorney Jim Martinek: That’s right. I think we’ve made a presentation and gave some handouts to you before. We’ve got a 28E Agreement that we’ve now got worked out. (Inaudible) seems to be happy with it, and it’s a matter of moving forward to annex it (inaudible). (Inaudible).

Lyness: I think the Board is the one who has to sign the 28E Agreement, and I left that file in my office. Do you have your copy?

Martinek: No, I figured you had the original here so I didn’t bring mine.

Lyness: Do you have a copy of the 28E Agreement?

Thompson: We have it in our packet.

Lyness: Do you have it in the packet? Good.

Jordahl: No, we have the Fringe Area Agreement. We do not have the Solon Prairie Agreement.

Stutsman: Jim or Rod, can you briefly explain what we’re doing here what we’re doing with this piece of property?

Martinek: Sure. Well the reason this came about in the first place is because it was discovered that as we were bringing in another tract of land for additional development in town, that bringing that tract in the current configuration with the Solon Prairie remaining in the County would create an island. The State Code does not allow islands to be created (inaudible) not on the City land, within the City’s entirety, so there were a couple of choices. Either we had to change the configuration of the subdivision, or we had to annex in the Solon Prairie. It seemed to make more sense to bring the Solon Prairie in since it was about to be surrounded anyway with development, might just as well protect it with some rules and regulations to preserve the character of that land. So, we talked to the County Attorney’s Office and the Conservation Department, and the 28E Agreement then reflect the attempt to protect that land by allowing burning, not having our weed ordinance, for instance, apply to that particular area, although those are weeds, and try to protect it to the greatest extent possible, with surrounding residential development does occur. So I think it’s basically win-win situation for both parties. If we didn’t have this, we’d simply need to change our configuration and then there would be no protection for the prairie. So I think all in all it’s a pretty good situation for both parties and it allows (inaudible).

Jordahl: You say burning in that explanation there.

Martinek: Yes I did. The prairie’s burned bi-annually, (inaudible) and the 28E Agreement recognizes that and that process can continue.

Lyness: What we’re handing out is actually not the latest edition, and I apologize again. That’s left in my office when I thought I would have a few minutes between that hearing and coming to the Board meeting. Some of the things that we had included on here, we just added to it at our last conservation Board meeting, some other things that the Conservation Board was interested in. Basically, if you look under number 3, the things that are kind of going to be helpful are that the City recognizes the importance of maintaining and preserving the natural prairie contained within the parcel described above. Despite ordinances to the contrary, the City shall allow, on a yearly basis the burning of the prairie, that the property would be exempt from City weed control ordinances, and any future development bordering the prairie. The City shall strive to protect the prairie from run-off, from adjacent development and infiltration of chemical insecticides and pesticides through the implementation of agreements with adjoining developers and other reasonable rules and regulations designed to protect the prairie. We also added to that that they would consult with the Conservation Board regarding any utilization of easements. So that if they’re going to be putting a sewer through a part of the prairie, that they’re going to consult with the Conservation Board to figure out the best placement of that so it would disrupt or hurt the prairie the least. So actually, like Jim says, it probably is really good for the prairie, Rod certainly can speak to this more. If we have it out in the County but surrounded on 7 of 8 sides or something like that, we wouldn’t have any protection like this.

Stutsman: Wouldn’t have a 28E Agreement.

Lyness: Exactly. Solon wouldn’t have to do anything with developers to try to encourage protecting the prairie. Wouldn’t have to really try to work with us in terms of trying to make sure that the prairie is maintained, and Solon seems willing to do that. So, Rod, if you want to speak to the conservation.

Conservation Department Director Rod Dunlap: Well, I’d like to address the resolution that the Conservation Board has adopted, if I may.

Lyness: Please.

Dunlap: The Conservation Board, at their last meeting, adopted a resolution that actually recommends that the Board of Supervisors sign a 28E Agreement under the terms under the terms of the agreement representing Johnson County and the resolution indicating the Board of Supervisors should consider the voluntary annexation. The purpose of the resolution is that the County Conservation Board is the manager. Johnson County is the owner, so this is actually a recommendation from the Conservation Board agreeing with the terms of agreement, the 28E Agreement, and recommending that the Board of Supervisors both sign, agree to that 28E Agreement and voluntary annexation of the property.

Stutsman: But that was going to be my question, you know, if the Conservation Board was comfortable with this arrangement and the resolution tells me that they are.

Dunlap: The resolution addresses that.

Stutsman: OK.

Thompson: Earlier we talked about some kind of a fence around the property so people would know not to go making paths through there and stuff. Did that get discussed?

Dunlap: Well I think that’s a management decision, Carol, by the Conservation Board. At the present time there is farm fence on the perimeter of the property next to the adjacent land. There’s not next to the road. But that’s certainly something that may be considered in the future, but I don’t feel that it should be a part of the 28E Agreement.

Thompson: So if a fence were put up in the future, you would take responsibility for doing that.

Dunlap: Yes, because the County now has taken the responsibility of the fencing adjacent to the ag land.

Thompson: OK.

Jordahl: This is great. This is very, very satisfactory. I certainly want to thank, I don’t know who is responsible for this, Janet, Jim, Rod. Boy, this takes the discussion of our concerns about the prairie and puts it all down on paper. Everybody has signed and sealed and delivered and met and approved. Wow.

Stutsman: There can be no confusion about who was going to do what and things, so I guess I agree too.

Jordahl: Good work everybody. This is great.

Lehman: I have a question on the fence. If that ground, farm land was to be developed, normally we would have a subdivider’s agreement where the developer takes care of the fence. I thought maybe that’s something we would have to consider if that ground is petitioned for rezoning.

Martinek: It is certainly something to be considered if the plat was represented, but we don’t have an anti-fencing law in Solon, so there’s nothing to prevent the Board from putting up a fence if they so desire.

Lehman: I guess sometimes with a change of ownership, somebody may desire a different style fence or something like that too.

Martinek: (Inaudible) style. (Inaudible).

Lehman: OK.

Stutsman: Any other questions or comments? Janet, you’ll get the…

Lyness: I’ll get you the correct one. I’ll send it to you by e-mail today, the corrected version.

Stutsman: OK.

Lyness: Has Solon already approved…

Martinek: Yes.

Lyness: They’ve, OK. So we’ll get the signed copy to you for next week too, for your signature.

Stutsman: Alright, very good.

Martinek: Then we just need the voluntary (inaudible) paragraph or so. I don’t know if you want to do that or if I should do that, but we’ve got people who are just jumping at the bit (inaudible).

Lyness: OK, so if we could have it on the agenda for next…

Stutsman: For next Thursday.

Lyness: Great. Do you want Rod and Jim to be here, or do you have more questions?

Stutsman: The plan with these informal and formal meeting combining is that there shouldn’t need to be any further discussion during the formal meeting, just briefly explaining what the issue is. So, based on that I would say no. That the discussion should be held today and all questions should be asked today and if any other questions arise, people certainly can contact Rod or Jim on their own. If there is additional discussion, I guess I would just say postpone it and put it on informal and get those questions answered just so that we can make sure that formal meeting is for action and to approve what we’ve already thoroughly discussed.

Lyness: I was going to say, when you see what Solon has already sent, if you have any questions, please call me, or Jim would be glad… I’ll offer Jim to take questions for Rod, too.

Stutsman: Is the Board comfortable with saying that neither Jim nor Rod needs to come next week?

Jordahl: Yes, as far as next week. I still have one more question for this week.

Stutsman: Sure. Ask your question (inaudible).

Jordahl: This pertains to the movement that there is, to some extent, to encourage, allow, permit, control, whatever, prairie landscaping around homes in cities. The Board has nothing to say about what Solon chooses to permit or forbid or whatever, but it strikes me that with this prairie being in the middle of town, that there is an opportunity here when people would see it. If the City wanted to encourage or permit some version of prairie landscaping, that the proximity of this prairie and the resources of the Conservation Department might in some way, or Secondary Roads as well, might in some way facilitate that. That could be part of a discussion, but it’s entirely… I just wanted to kind of throw that out there.

Dunlap: Well, (inaudible) beauty being in the eye of the beholder, and I suspect that people are building all the way out there have their own idea of what they want to landscape there. We don’t have a lot of regulation regarding the (inaudible) they have the latitude they need.

Jordahl: I’m just saying we have resources that… One of the focuses of the Conservation Department is education.

Duffy: Sally?

Stutsman: Yes, Charlie?

Duffy: I’m just thinking back. I think we should give credit to the Johnson County Conservation Board. I’m a modest person, but I was on the Board when we got this prairie. The folks that own it, the Solon Gun Club, did have an opportunity to sell that parcel for quite a few dollars. It wasn’t cut in stone, but we kind of negotiated back and forth and probably one of the best things we ever did when we got this natural prairie. If some of the folks want to know where it’s at, you go to Solon, take the first road to the right and you can drive right up to it. There’s a place to park, certain times of the year it’s really beautiful. I just thought I’d throw that in.

Stutsman: Thank you, Charlie. Any other questions, comments? OK. Thank you Rod and thank you Jim.

Dunlap: Thank you.

Stutsman: It’s good work. Good to have that on for final approval next week.

Stutsman: Next item on the agenda is discussion/action needed regarding the Johnson County Scenic Road Ordinance. It’s always hard to judge these meetings and how they will progress. I think that we probably don’t have everybody here. Right. What I would like to do is continue on for the rest of the meeting and then we’ll come back to that. I think I might have said either 10 or 10:30 that we’d get to that. Why don’t we move on to minutes received? We have minutes from the Paratransit Advisory Committee for October 22, 1999 and from the Johnson County Empowerment Board meeting for February 3, 2000. Moving on to reports and inquiries. Well, let’s see, Mike. Why don’t we start with you this morning, if you have any reports or inquiries?

Lehman: Thursday, February 24 I met with the 911 Committee to set up our proposed budget and then we set a date to publish, and a public hearing date is going to be March 13 at 4:00 at the Sheriff’s Department. We got a light agenda, somebody else, get some people from the 911 to come in and explain what those funds are used for, they come from your…charged on your land lines. There will be some discussion in the future of people with cellular phones are now being charged, but that money goes to the State to be used in the future here when we get set up to be reimbursed for taking those calls. Part of that comes from…we have a very populated area, like now, say there’s an accident in the area, we might get 10 calls where in the rural area, we only get one. We’re trying to decide how to appropriate that money for services that are going to be needed. Monday (inaudible) I attended the GIS review of the needs, analysis and implement plan that was provided by Farragut. We kind of reviewed that, and then Wednesday morning, went through and there’s was a little bit more of a clarification and wording, spelling and stuff like that. If someone picked the document up, they’d have less questions when we hire a central coordinator, they would have much more understanding of what the committee had in mind that gets implemented. Let’s see. On Monday evening, along with the other Supervisors, I went to the Child Care and then Charlie and I went to the farm bureau and explained a little bit of the… Had some questions on the budget, what our intent was and how we arrived at some of the taxation levels and stuff. They had a pretty good understanding of the equalization, the rollback and the farm productivity that many of the people do not. That’s something we hope to explain at our budget meeting. Tuesday evening I went to the Snyder Creek Watershed Meeting held at the Moose Lodge, and it was put on by the Johnson County Soil and Water Conservation. It was very interesting, having grown up in that area, farmed that area and still farm that area. It gave a history of how the topography got to where it is now, and kind of reinforced what Jonathan and I heard up at ECICOG in Cedar Rapids last week, that contrary to belief, Iowa was prairie and not timber. It used to get a 3 inch downpour and the water would be absorbed in the soil. Along with farming, with tillage, there’s not the crop residue on top. Farmers tile their land to remove water. Cities have acres of roofs, streets, sidewalks, and their water goes into the storm sewers so it creates a problem for people downstream. I’ll say this, it’s going to be on public access, so I don’t want to ruin the ending of the stuff, but it’s very worthwhile if you get a chance to see that. The other comments they had were USDA, what they used to work was individual farmers on projects. Now what they’re trying to do is work with watersheds where they get everyone to buy into a project so that everyone’s on the same wavelength so they just don’t have an island of someone trying to improve the water quality and stuff like that. Now they’re trying to get a whole watershed and bring everybody into a study and buy into it. The farmers that are possibly getting more water pushed onto their land are able to be financially reimbursed. There’s some wetlands funding and stuff like that, so it is not where they give it up and have nothing in return. They’ll receive benefit as well as improving the water quality for everyone. I believe on Wednesday I went to ECICOG with Lisa Dewey on SEATS. We met with an individual, Joe Fowler and Ron Logsdon from the Iowa City Transit with Jeff Davidson. We discussed our needs for the SEATS. We came up with the idea that we needed roughly 7,000 square feet to house 19 vehicles, office space for 6 employees and accommodations for 19 drivers and 25 parking spaces for the drivers to park vehicles, office and visitors. We’re in the process of kind of looking around, see what might be available. As you know, we need to be out of the SEATS office November of 2001. 18 months disappears pretty fast, we’re hoping to get some ideas and something in place by that time. Also discussed the Ambulance. Mike Sullivan would like to have possibly a satellite location as he has now at the Coralville Fire Station. He has an ambulance out there to try to cut down on his call time. We’re going to get back together here in a month or so to see what kind of research we’ve got to bring together and some ideas. I believe that’s all I have.

Stutsman: OK. Thank you. Busy. Charlie.

Duffy: Well. Things regarding the bank because last Thursday I wasn’t here and I can’t remember missing a meeting unless I was in Des Moines.

Stutsman: I can’t remember you ever missing a meeting either, Charlie.

Duffy: It was just one of those things, I came out pretty good. I had a good physical. Here’s a couple, though. I’d like to mention that last Wednesday I went to the Resource Fair at Roosevelt School, it’s just right up the line on the hill. There were probably Resource people there, I think about 36, 38 different booths. I can’t read them all, but it’s for people in need, families. I’ll just take a few off the top. Here’s a division of vocational rehabilitation services as the Iowa Department of Education. It’s about schooling and services. Here’s one here, Healthy Kids 2000. Here’s an Iowa (Inaudible) Habitat for Humanity that builds houses for folks. I’ve seen this done before. I’ll get a few more. Here’s one. Good will industries and Iowa State University extensions, Area United Action for Youth. There’s too many here to mention, really. We had a meeting at Emergency Management. Jim McGinley was back. He’s been ill and through a serious operation. We’re going to have a special meeting here coming up too. We were talking about the Hazmat Team, and low and behold, there was a large spill of dangerous material in Johnson County last week, and the Hazmat Team was on it just like that, plus the DNR saved a lot of water from being polluted. You probably read that in the paper. This was on Wednesday also, a real good meeting, lasted about an hour and a half, and then I talked to Bob Carpenter about the jail problem down there for quite a while. Outside of that, what Mike mentioned, that’s enough for me.

Stutsman: OK. Carol.

Thompson: Well, last Friday, Jonathan and I, along with Lisa Dewey and Mike Scheer visited the building across the street. I’m not sure of the address, but it’s 800 something South Clinton Street. We looked at building in terms of whether it would be appropriate for SEATS. Judging from what Mike says, it might be a little small, and it would need extensive remodeling, but that property is within all of the maps that the County has drawn of land that we would like to own. I think that’s definitely worth looking at.

Stutsman: Is that building for sale?

Thompson: It’s for lease right now. I think we’re going to put it on the agenda for next week, to have Pat White come in and talk to us about ways we could obtain it. Let’s see. On Monday, Mike and Sally and Jonathan and I all attended the Child Care meeting, where initiatives for child care were discussed. Then on Tuesday morning I went to the Juvenile Justice Providers Group, and they also have a group of initiatives, many of which mesh in with the Child Care initiatives that they’re going to be lobbying legislators about. Tuesday night was the Circle banquet for a group of girls’ programs that is operated through the Juvenile Court Office. It’s a mentoring program in which Sally and I were on the original Steering Committee. They then got a grant from the Iowa Women’s Foundation, and it’s been very gratifying. Janet has worked on the Steering Committee too. Let’s see. Last week was the United Way celebration where they celebrated the fact that they went over their goal in their campaign, so this has been a good week for human services in Johnson County. The Finance work group met this week and we talked about the presentation for the budget and that’ll be passed around. Yesterday morning the Juvenile Crime Prevention Policy Council Work Group met at the County Attorney’s office and we’re making plans for our meeting in April. I think that’s my report.

Stutsman: Good. Sounds like…

Thompson: It’s been a busy week.

Stutsman: No kidding.

Stutsman: Jonathan, do you have a couple things?

Jordahl: Yes. Monday, if folks are interested, the Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management Advisory Committee meets out at Secondary Roads, I believe, at 7:00 Monday the 6th. Carol and I have met with Mike Foster yesterday and discussed items related to the future of the Senior Dining Program, including Mike’s efforts to cultivate the possibility of a site out in Coralville. The Communications Committee meets tomorrow. We’ll be talking about newsletters and I think doing some brainstorming generally. This will be my first meeting as a member of that committee, and I’ve got a lot of pent up ideas that I’m going to be bringing up there. Let me see, where am I? GIS, we had a meeting on the needs assessment presentation, what was that, Monday? We already have decided on going ahead with funding for that for the coming fiscal year, so we’re going to start seeing some implementation of integrated mapping and database information available over the course of the next couple of years, and I’m really grateful that we’ve taken that step. It was part of the recommendation of the Computer Needs Committee that they made 3 or 4 years ago. It’s taken a while to decide that yes, we want to go ahead and spend some money on that, I appreciate the Board’s support for that. Let’s see here. Tuesday evening the 7th there is a meeting at 5:00 here on… It’s got a very long title, but the idea is older subdivisions that have small lots that make it too hard to relocate a septic system after it runs out of its natural life cycle. We need to find some kind of solution for that on a scale that might address the problem subdivision-wide. It says Small Lot Wastewater Provision, something like that, I can’t remember the name of the committee. That same evening, the 7th, Prairie Preview, down at the Montgomery Hall. It’s always a big draw. 7:00 Tuesday evening the 7th of March. Sally, I suppose you’ll talk about the Mental Health public hearing things, remind folks of those. I wanted to make an inquiry, this isn’t too common for us to make an inquiries during reports and inquiries from members of the Board of Supervisors. There was mention made of a child care forum on Friday the 10th of March at 3:30 at that Child Care Governor’s Task Force Report meeting. I didn’t get where that was. Does anybody know? Bob?

Reverend Bob Welsh: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Jordahl: I’m dreaming I guess.

Stutsman: Are we talking about a meeting that’s going on today with (inaudible) was going to speak at that? It’s in Des Moines. I know a lot of child care people…

Welsh: Summit. Child care summit in Des Moines. That’s today and tomorrow.

Jordahl: Today and tomorrow. Maybe that’s it. Well, the thing I have down here says Child Care Forum. I thought maybe it something we were going to develop in Johnson County, but not the case?

Welsh: No.

Jordahl: All right then.

Thompson: What date? March 10?

Jordahl: I had March 10, but, well, I won’t go to it if it’s not happening.

Stutsman: Good plan.

Jordahl: I have here something that we may all have gotten in the mail, but anyway, I got one from the Johnson County Historical Society. There’s a display there that’s been going on since mid-February through March 26, of photographs, kind of a photo essay called From Farm to Subdivision: An Iowa Story. I imagine this is… They’ve got a picture here of The Barn Comes Down. I don’t think Andy can get that from this distance.

Thompson: We went to see that, and it’s fascinating.

Jordahl: That’s at the Johnson County Historical Society Museum in Coralville through March 26. Also, I don’t know if Board members are interested in attending, but I got a notification here on Native Landscaping for Public Officials workshop on March 9 to be conducted in the Museum of Amana History, junction of Highway 151 and 220. This is kind of all day deal here, I think. I don’t know if Board members are interested in attending this, receive notification, or whatever, but I’ll pass that around if you haven’t gotten one. That’ll do me, I guess.

Stutsman: OK. I have a couple of things. I won’t be redundant for things that people have already talked about. One thing I did last Saturday is that I participated on the phone bank for the Variety Club. Obviously, none of my fellow Supervisors heard my challenge. It was 10:00…

Jordahl: Wouldn’t take my call either.

Stutsman: I did get one pledge, and that was a fellow councilperson in Coralville, Dave Jacoby saw me and he pledged $10. I did issue a challenge to my fellow Supervisors. I invited you to come up there with me and nobody took me up on it so the least you could do is you could have called up a pledge.

Jordahl: What a bunch of deadbeats.

Stutsman: I am personally shaming every one of you. It was fun. I was glad I did it. It’s the first time that they’ve included Johnson County officials in that variety telethon, and lots of money’s come back to Johnson County. I would encourage people to take part in that next year if you have the opportunity. It was fun. Had a MECCA Board meeting last Thursday. They showed the plans that they presented to the CDBG, funding for the addition to their building on Southgate. Is that the correct address? Anyway, they’re planning an addition out there and have asked for block grant funding through the CDBG Program. Hope that they will be successful because they have quite an ambitious building project, obviously something that’s really needed. I had not attended a Board meeting for a while, and I’m just totally amazed at the needs in the community for substance abuse treatment. They talked about their residential facility is full, inpatient is full, outpatient is full, and waiting lists. Art Scott, the director, went on to talk about how sick these individuals are, that the staff continues to be almost overwhelmed at how profoundly ill so many of these people are that are coming in for treatment. One thing that did mention, talked a little bit about the opportunity with this new addition to maybe the County using some of that space for some of the people that we have picked up on Saturday at the jail. We just kind of informally talked about that, and Art said he would be definitely interested in maybe talking with the County about that, so I’ll throw that to the Space Needs Committee to see if you want to start a dialogue with Art about that.

Jordahl: Yes, I think I’d like to transfer that as an inquiry to the County Attorney’s office too. There was some discussion last week of this not being possible to do and we need to get chapter and verse on that to see what the flexibility is.

Stutsman: Because part of what they’re adding to the space would be detox rooms and certainly the people that are…

Thompson: Secure?

Stutsman: Yes, secure, and adding additional rooms, so they could have juveniles, they could have females and they could have males in different areas. They’re still in the planning stages of this building project, so now might be a good time to see if there couldn’t be some agreement to work out, to maybe help alleviate some of the jail overcrowding we experience on busy weekends. Jonathan and I attended the Decat Providers meeting to talk about funding and request for proposals for this next year. We generally talked about the reduced funding, how maybe we can address that. For the most part, I think most providers are understanding of the limited funds that are available and are still doubly interested in putting some program proposals forward to the Decat project. With Carol, attended the Circle Group, and I do have to thank the County Attorney’s Office for fantastic desserts. The banquet was wonderful, and they had a wonderful video presentation showing mentors working with the girls. It was great. The County Attorney’s Office does good work when it comes to desserts.

Thompson: The desserts were extraordinary.

Jordahl: I can’t quite track that Circle Group.

Stutsman: Oh, that’s the mentoring project with girls who are in the juvenile probation system, and what they do is match mentors with the girls to kind of give them positive role models and things. It’s a great group, great project. I think we’re going to see some real positive things come out of that. It’s very well defined, very well thought out. They have mentors and they have a very good training program for these mentors. They have an excellent Steering Committee made up of a cross section of women in the community. It all start through the efforts of a couple of the staff at the Juvenile Probation Office. Kelly Vanderworth, is that her last…

Thompson: Vanderworf.

Stutsman: Vanderworf.

Thompson: Jody Gibson.

Stutsman: Jody Gibson. Saw that this was a need for young girls in the community and have done some good matches and it’s really gone well.

Lehman: What type of numbers of participants are you…

Stutsman: Janet, do you have…

Lyness: I think we started out with about 6 or 8. I think there’s probably like 12 matches now, 12 or 15. I actually have to say, because of contract negotiations, I missed that last couple of Steering Committee meetings so I don’t have an official number. We’re doing another training in March, so if anybody’s interested in being a mentor, they could call the Juvenile Court Office and talk to Kelly or Jodie.

Stutsman: It’s one of those good preventive programs that maybe can alleviate some additional problems down the road. With a shoestring budget, they’re getting this accomplished, so it’s great.

Lyness: Great volunteers through the mentors.

Stutsman: Yes. The cross section is what was exciting to see at this group of people. Yes, it was neat. Spoke at Kiwanis Group this morning, talked about the state of the County, gave them an overview of the budget and space needs and some of the issues that we’re dealing with. Empowerment meets tonight at 5:30 at the (inaudible) Center at Mercy Hospital. The Board will be conducting its public hearing on the Johnson County budget on, lets see, Tuesday, March 14 at 5:30 here in the Board room, and we will be certifying that budget at 8:00 on March 15. I hope we have at least 3 Board members here for that. I know it’s the week of spring break, and it’s just…

Jordahl: 8:00 a.m., I understand, on Wednesday the 15th.

Stutsman: Right, to certify that budget, after we have the public input after the public hearing, then we will be certifying the budget the following morning. Wanted to talk again about the public hearings for the MH/MR/DD Managed Care Plan, and those will be on Wednesday, March 8, at 6:30 in the Board room, and also Thursday at 1:30 in afternoon, March 9 here in the Board room. I will be gone all next week. I will be on vacation. That was the only time I could schedule my vacation, so I’m going to unfortunately miss the evening Board meeting and the public hearings. I’ll be anxious to hear people’s input from the Managed Care Plan. I just wanted to let people know that’s why I won’t be attending those meetings. All right. Anything else? Mike.

Lehman: Another foot note on the child care. Bob Welsh, some of the members that suggested that we tie some type of child care provision in with Economic Development. I’ve talked to members of Zoning, they were helping us draft that, and after I explained it to them, they definitely agreed, they were familiar with it. They wished there was something in place, when their kids were younger, that they knew exactly what child care… We also discussed more child education, as child care is not where kids are sitting in front of a TV, it’s where they’re working with programs and learning before they hit our education system. We’re going to try to get some wording in there, some drafting and we hear some requests for Economic Development areas and stuff, we can try to work that in there. That was duly noted, I’ll let Bob know that.

Jordahl: That’s great.

Welsh: Sally, if I may, wanted to mention the public hearing, tell people where they can get copies of the budget and the Management Plan.

Stutsman: OK. The budget is available here at the Board Office or at the Auditor’s Office. Is it also on the web, Carol? I know that there’s a publication in the paper that is a pretty, very, very general summary of the budget, but the detailed spreadsheet is on the web, so people could also get information on that. The spreadsheet is one of those pieces, is a documentation that has a lot of information in it, and it almost requires sitting down with somebody from staff to go through to understand all that’s said. It’s pretty complicated, but I really would encourage anybody to, if you have questions, to contact somebody from the Auditor’s Office, Deana Pillard in this office, or any of the Supervisors, and we’d be happy to answer any questions that people might have, or bring them to the public hearing. That’s what the public hearing is all about, to get your input.

Jordahl: I might add to that, while we’re on the topic of budget information, the Board has been trying for years to improve the presentation of the budget information so that it’ll be more clear to us, to department heads, and to members of the public who are interested in it. If you have suggestions as you look at this of what you would like to see, format, the ways you’d want to see this information, bring it forward, and we’re going to try and make something like that happen.

Stutsman: There was a press release that went out on the public hearing for the Management Plan for Mental Health Developmental Disabilities Services for Fiscal Year 2001. The plan is available at the Johnson County Board of Supervisors’ Office, the Johnson County Auditor’s Office, here in the Administration Building at the Department of Human Services, and also on the Johnson County web site. I think Andy periodically shows that web site address if people are interested in accessing that through the web.

Welsh: As of this morning, it was not on the web site.

Thompson: It will be.

Welsh: Perhaps (inaudible) on the web site it would be open.

?: Is it available in hard copy?

Stutsman: It’s available in hard copy. There will be a charge for copying this. It’s pretty hefty. If you are interested in having a hard copy, we can make a copy at the Board Office for a slight fee.

Thompson: The new version will be going on today or tomorrow.

Peters: Today.

Thompson: She said today.

Stutsman: Right. I think Elaine wanted to present the draft to the Board before you put it on the web site, so that will be put on today.

Thompson: Short break?

Stutsman: I wanted to ask if there’s any reports or inquiries from the public? Bob, I think you’ve already addressed a couple of things. Is there anything else from the public?

Welsh: I think your format’s working well.

Stutsman: Thank you, Bob.

Welsh: You said that you were, the consolidation of the meetings. Just as one person, you’re doing well. When you said you were trying to do it for 6 months and evaluate it, you’ve been doing it for a short time now, but I think it’s working.

Stutsman: Any other reports or inquiries? If not, we’re going to have a short break. We need to set up the room. I understand there’s going to be a presentation from I-SOARR. We will take a short break. I see Joe’s hand, Joe Gjovig.

Gjovig: Just one question. Have you been having difficulties with the roof of the County jail? I’ve been hearing rumors.

Stutsman: That’s a good question. I don’t know. I’ve not heard anything.

Gjovig: You haven’t?

Stutsman: No.

Gjovig: Maybe the rumor was false.

Stutsman: Maybe so.

Jordahl: I think maybe when I took a tour up there with Major Lewis, he indicated there was some problem with water.

Stutsman: It’s a flat roof, and usually, any flat roof in Iowa eventually will have some problems. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some problems, but the Board isn’t aware of any major, major repairs for that roof.

Gjovig: I understood it was leaking.

Stutsman: Yes, well, that very could be.

Jordahl: This roof is.

Duffy: This is the one that leaks in Johnson County.

Jordahl: At least we notice this for sure.

Stutsman: Well, if there are no other reports and inquiries, we’ll take a short break for probably about 5 minutes and come back to finish up our agenda.

Recessed at 10:16 a.m.; reconvened at 10:25 a.m.

(Continued in Part 3)