MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
FEBRUARY 15, 2001
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chairperson Lehman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:30 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.
Joanne Hora: SENIOR CENTER UPDATE
Lehman: Business from Al Monsanto, regarding the Senior Center update. I believe we have Joanne Hora here today. OK.
Senior Center Commission Member Joanne Hora: Good morning. Thank you for letting me come today. I know I updated you last month about the center has completed their portion of the fund drive for the skywalk. That has been completed. Then, we went to the City Council and they have awarded the bid to McComas Lacina, so they will start construction. I just want to formally thank the entire community for their support and the donations that they awarded the center during our drive. It was outstanding, the community, how they supported and came forth and helped us raise this $120,000. Our next job will be trying to come up with a way to thank the community, whether it be some way like Mercer Park has done, or Mercy Hospital, we will be putting together something for that. There is ongoing discussion about the proposed parking recommendations for the new ramp. We hope to make the final recommendations to the Commission next week at our meeting. The center’s accreditation process the final phase was completed. Again, we had huge community support in putting all of that together. It just is amazing. This community is awesome. The staff now has a task of compiling all of that information and then putting that together so that we can submit that. There was a social gathering winter mixer they had on February 7th. That was by the Senior Center and the Johnson County Task Force on Aging. It was just a social gathering to celebrate the season. I, unfortunately, could not attend, so I can’t tell you what a success it was. Then, the Early Bird Café, I invite you all to stop down on either the first or the third Wednesday, or both of them, of every month and it’s from 8:30 to 9:45 in the Senior Center lobby. It has been reported that participation has improved and it’s kind of a social thing. There are light refreshments there and I think people are enjoying that gathering. That’s kind of what is happening. Any questions?
Lehman: Pat, I think, might have attended the winter mixer, I believe.
Hora: Did you attend?
Harney: Yes, I did. That was a very nice event. It wasn’t real well attended. However, it was very, very good.
Hora: I don’t remember what the weather was.
Harney: It was cold, but it wasn’t too bad.
Lehman: I know the ramp is taking shape. I know everybody is hoping to see that completed and the skywalk.
Hora: Yes. That will be nice.
Thompson: Do they know when the skywalk will be finished yet?
Hora: No not really. They don’t really know when the ramp will even be open. I think they have said the fall of 2001. But, is that early fall or late fall.
Lehman: Everyone is looking very positively forward to that.
Hora: Yes. So, that will be very nice. OK.
Lehman: Any other questions for Joanne?
Hora: Thank you very much.
Stutsman: Good report. Thank you.
CONSERVATION DIRECTOR HARRY GRAVES: CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT/REPORT/UPDATE
Lehman: The next item for discussion will be Business from Harry Graves, Conservation Director, newly appointed Conservation Director for Johnson County, welcome, Harry.
Conservation Director Harry Graves: Good morning all of you, I’m glad I have the opportunity to speak with you. I’ve been in Johnson County since the 16th of January now. We’ve accomplished a number of goals that I’ve set here early on. We’re in the process of a rules rewrite and update. Our rules and regulations are in need of an update and we’ve been working with the County Attorney’s Office to bring those up to date. The Conservation Board will be reviewing them at their regular meeting a week from tonight. We’ve done quite a lot of cleanup, fix up, paint up in our shop and office and have that in a good state of repair now, I feel. We’ve had crews working on Timber Stand improvement in our forest area there. Of course, we are still trying to heal from the wind storms of 1998 at Kent Park. We have removed a lot of wind damage and material there and offered firewood to the public from that.
Stutsman: Is that free?
Graves: That’s free and that has received quite a little play as you might have imagined with the increase in energy prices this year. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some stumps removed and get started on mounting a reforestation plan in that area. We have some weed eradication to do in advance of that. Things are moving along on that. Unfortunately, the loss of those trees would take a great deal of time to recover from. But, we are on the road to recovery there and we’re pleased about that. I spent about 2 days with staff members, getting employees input, as the new man on the totem pole here, to get their thoughts on our operation and what we might do to better serve the public, which is what we’re all about. We had an excellent session there and I think that that will be very helpful in our delivery of service to the public here in Johnson County. We’re working on long-range planning. You don’t know where you’re going, as all of you know, without a road map. So, we’ll be bringing our long-range plans into focus and up to date as to where we’re going to be with the Conservation Board in 5 years. Our educational programming, we’re doing environmental educational programming through the education center at Kent Park. Our Naturalist, Kristen Goldsmith has a program scheduled every week through May here. I’ve brought a couple here and I can bring a lot more of these and would like to post these Nationalist Environmental Education schedules around the Courthouse.
Lehman: Would you want to highlight any of those?
Graves: Sure.
Lehman: Your education center is fairly new and available to the public.
Graves: Yes. We’ve got a lot of good programs coming up. We just had a night hike the other day.
Stutsman: How did that go?
Graves: It went well. It was a little bit cool. We didn’t have a big turnout for it, but it was well received. We’ll do some more of those as spring comes along. They’re always very popular. A full moon hike, we’ll call in some owls and see what does go thump in the night and give people a little more understanding of the natural environment. We’ve got a fly tying program coming up March 3rd. We’ll have people from the Hawkeye Fishing Club, the Fly-Fishing Club there to come and give individuals a taste of how to tie flies. Now this is a wonderful club. I’ve worked with them in the development of fish habitat a lot over the years. These are died in the wool trout fishermen. For a $5 fee to defray the cost of materials, you can come and learn how to tie a fly, a grizzly, or a hackle or something like that and make you a better angler. We’ll be doing a hands-on training for kindergarten through high school teachers, an education workshop on the 10th of March. On the 11th we’ll be doing a wild turkey hunting seminar, a how-to thing with the Iowa City Chapter of the wild turkey federation. Of course, turkey hunting is a relatively new thing to Iowa in the last 20 years. That is, there was about a 100-year lapse there in turkey hunting. Conservationists have effectively brought the turkey back to Iowa. Of course, they’re a very common ubiquitous bird now. But I remember as youth going to the historical building in Des Moines. It had 2 turkeys in a glass case about the size of this table reputed to be the last turkeys taken in the State of Iowa around 1910. I never dreamed at that time that I would ever have the opportunity to see wild turkey or to hunt wild turkey in Iowa. Now, they’re a ubiquitous bird. I think that’s a great victory for conservation and that’s a good program. So, we encourage people to come out. We’ll be doing a night kids program again on the 13th on adaptation regarding nocturnal animals and how animals are adapted to being night or day animals. They’ll be a bike race on the 25th out at Kent Park, which I think is the 3rd year for that and the Park roads will be closed in the mornings for that event. So, we have programs throughout March, April and May scheduled on the sheet that I have given you here. We’ll be providing educational programs throughout the year and we’re here to work with any group that would like our services. We’ll post some of these in the Courthouse and hope to see some of you out for some of our programs. Some other things that we have going on, we’ll be seeking an Ameri-Corps Grant for an Assistant Naturalist person. We have, as you are aware I believe, in our budget line item for intern naturalist. The Ameri-Corps program gives us an opportunity to get considerable bang for our dollar there and we may be able to secure a person to work 1700 hours through the Ameri-Corps program for basically the same contribution on our part as we would for a summer intern. That program requires 10 Ameri-Corps enrollees. So, we’re working with a consortium of surrounding counties in this district. County conservation boards are set up in districts, as is ISAC and this is of course district 6. We’re working with other environmental education programs to hopefully get a block of 10 Ameri-Corps volunteers to work on this program. So, we’re excited about that. We’re having a meeting with the area counties to work on that tomorrow. We’ll be starting very shortly on the repair and some pruning and maintenance in some of our outlying areas that are in need of that. Like everyone, I think we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring, some sunshine and hope for a new season here. The County Conservation Board and the County Conservation Director are here to serve you and to work with you folks and we welcome the opportunity to do that. I thank you for your time.
Lehman: Harry, do you have phone number that you give out that people might have more questions on upcoming activities?
Graves: Yes I do. We’re at 645-2315.
Lehman: OK.
Stutsman: When you were talking about the turkeys, Harry, I couldn’t help but think we used to say that about deer, too.
Graves: Yes. I remember my cousin shot a deer in the first deer season in 1953. Eating that meat was as exotic as eating a giraffe. Now, they’re everywhere. That’s a Conservation Victory that in some corners may be looked on as overdone.
Stutsman: Harry, I’m sorry. I wanted to ask you, too. The education center, I know usage of that has been pretty restrictive. Are there any changes in that policy?
Graves: We plan to broaden the use base of that so that it is more accessible to the public. We’ll be doing some visioning and long range planning with the Conservation Board very shortly and that’s one of the topics to be addressed. But, obviously it needs to be made more accessible to the public and we aim to do that.
Neuzil: That was kind of what I was going to get on. I had a phone call in regards to a couple of questions. One was in regards to an information center, things of that nature, out at Kent Park. What is the status of that? Did we used to have an information person there?
Graves: You have a naturalist there and an environmental educator, and Kristen Goldsmith. You also have someone, in the person myself who does a great deal of that. The education center at Kent Park seems to have been utilized more for lectures and programs. I come from an environment where we have a center that also provided some displays, which I think is something that we might consider as well to make that more accessible.
Neuzil: Then would that be open all of the time?
Graves: It would be open on a less restricted basis.
Neuzil: OK.
Graves: Yes.
Neuzil: Then, as far as, they had a couple of other questions. One was a brochure about Kent Park. That was brought up to me. Is that something that needs to be part of the plan?
Graves: That is something that is in the works as we speak. That is correct.
Neuzil: Excellent.
Graves: Our brochures are non-existent our out of date and we are doing an update on that now and hopefully we will be able to print that material the same time we do the rules and regulations update.
Neuzil: The Iowa City Coralville Convention Visitor’s Bureau would love to have some of those.
Graves: We plan to be there with a box of those at the Visitor’s Bureau and also at the opening of the new rest area facility on Interstate 80.
Neuzil: One other question had to do with the phones, the accessibility of phones out at Kent Park.
Graves: There is a phone accessible to the public in the campground. Otherwise, there is a phone in the Operations Center and in the office at the Nature Center. Education Center, I use the term nature center interchangeably with that. It is available for emergency use, it’s in the office.
Neuzil: OK.
Graves: It sounds like the availability of pay phones may decrease nationally here in the news, I see. But, we will try to provide the public with accurate communication.
Neuzil: Yes that was their concern. They like to use the facility. They’re just afraid if something happens, then they know where to go for a phone.
Graves: We’re also as a staff in need of additional cell phones so that we can better serve the public.
Neuzil: Great.
Graves: I think the cell phone has probably led to the demise of the payphone it looks like on a national basis. But, as I say, we’re there to serve the public and we’ll assist them in any way that we can.
Neuzil: Thank you.
Graves: OK. Thank you folks.
Lehman: I know I wanted to ask you about increasing property and stuff. You have people that sometimes donate or have talked about donating or selling less intensive purpose agricultural land, wetlands and stuff like that. Are they able to contact you or do they go through your Board?
Graves: They certainly are able to contact me and I would encourage people to do that. Certainly, in an urbanized area the size of Johnson County, it’s vitally important that we preserve the remnants of the natural environment that do exist. I’ve been contacted and had some conversations with the Johnson County Heritage Trust folks, who are also interested in land preservation. I worked for many years with the Iowa National Heritage Foundation from Des Moines. We do have a fair inventory of properties in Johnson County of interest that we’re always interested in working with landowners who may want to set something aside for future generations.
Lehman: OK. Question Bob Welsh?
Welsh: Is Mr. Graves going to introduce to people?
Lehman: Yes I’m sorry. Maybe give us a little background about where he is from.
Graves: Yes, excuse me. I’m Harry Graves and I’m the Director of the Johnson County Conservation Board. I come here from Buchanan County, where I served as Conservation Director for 18 years. Prior to that I was in Decatur County for 11 years. So, I’ve been in the conservation field quite awhile. Long enough that I believe I like it very well and I think we’re providing a valuable service to the public. I appreciate the opportunity to be here and look forward to assisting any of you that we possible can and working for the betterment of Johnson County.
Lehman: Thank you very much Harry.
Graves: Thank you.
Lehman: It sounds like our Conservation Department is going to continue in very capable hands.
BUDGET COORDINATOR JEFF HORNE: MONTHLY REPORT FOR JANUARY, 2001
Lehman: All right. Next item is Business from Jeff Horne, Budget Coordinator. This is a monthly report of our budget for the year January 2001, Jeff.
Budget Coordinator Jeff Horne: Good morning.
Stutsman: Morning.
Horne: Through January, the departments are doing a good job of staying within budget. They are running quite a bit under and we’re leaving ourselves some room, so the financial condition in the County is very good right now. I’m going to briefly go down some departments where we have some areas of note to talk about. Ambulance is running slightly overdue to higher fuel costs, that hits many of our departments, and some overtime for their personnel. The Medical Examiner is running slightly over budget. We’ve had a large increase in autopsies the last couple of months. That’s one of those things that’s hard to predict and account for. Some months we won’t have very many, other months we’ll have quite a few. Hopefully, that will even itself out as the year goes on. SEATS is running 6% ahead of their budget currently, due to 3 items mainly. Motor vehicle repair, maintenance and fuel, then office rent. The motor vehicle repair has basically been spent for the year and for office rent as well, what was budgeted at the beginning of the year, due to the large increase we have at the Coralville location from the Iowa City Airport location. Physical Plant is showing it’s under budget, but we amended for jail repairs and that’s not reflecting that we’re having some increases in line items due to the hard winter that we’re having. Many small line items, such as mop service and rug service and snow removal really hit their ceilings this year. The County budgeted approximately $20,000 for natural gas this year and 65% of it has been expended already. Hopefully, that will even out and we’re not on too bad of a course there as the worst months are just about behind us here and we can hope that will even itself out by the time the Fiscal Year ends. Revenues are showing under right now quite a bit because we amended into the budget for Planning and Zoning, an increase in revenues for the new Building Inspection unit. We expect that to increase as the year goes on and to level out our revenues very well. Veterans’ Affairs is continuing to run over budget due to the increased demand for rent assistance. I feel pretty good about the effect that this is leveling off somewhat though from the increases we’ve had in prior months and it’s getting more in line with where it should be. So, Leo has instituted some caps and perhaps some of those are starting to take effect there. Nutrition is running 3% over budget. This is due mainly to the raw food costs, which are running 17% over budget for the year. That basically winds up with the departments right now. As I said, most of the departments are doing pretty well keeping them in line. I don’t feel there are any large items that are really particularly out of where they should be.
Stutsman: Jeff, these departments that are running over are you working with them?
Horne: Yes I am, on an ongoing basis.
Stutsman: I’m concerned with SEATS when they’ve expended their whole rent budget. How is that going to be made up?
Horne: Right. We’re trying. I’ve talked with Lisa about it and hopefully we’re going to try as best we can to make it up within her current line items and work with it this year.
Stutsman: OK.
Horne: We didn’t know when this was budgeted for how much difference there would be at Coralville from the Airport when this was originally done. So, we’re trying to adjust to that as the year goes on.
Thompson: There is $100,000 in Space Needs that will cover some of those moving costs.
Horne: Yes we did talk.
Thompson: When that’s been amended into her budget, will it be?
Horne: Yes it will be a lot better. Lisa was here yesterday and met with us about another issue and at that time she also told that she was going to have that to me very shortly.
Stutsman: It was quite a bit less than what she had anticipated.
Horne: Yes that’s right, the cost for the move.
Stutsman: OK.
Horne: For the Fiscal Year 2002 budget, we completed our work sessions for the 2002 budget. We set a public hearing earlier today for March 6, at 5:30 p.m. for the public to come in and voice their concerns to the Board of Supervisors about the budget for next year. I’m going to formulate and executive summary to accompany the budget for the Board of Supervisors. I’m taking input from the Board and the priorities and goals they would like me to set forth in that document. I’ve a couple of notes here. We can expect higher than normal natural gas bills through the rest of this winter. This has already been widely talked about in many venues. I’m going to be attending the Government Finance Officers Association meeting in Philadelphia from May 31st to June 5th. I’ll be taking seminars and things in like forecasting and negotiation skills, and getting updates on e-government performance measurement and cash management. I will also be attending a grant writing seminar at Kirkwood on April 11th and 12th. I wanted finally to note that the State of Iowa has been reported as experiencing a slow tax collections and is possibly facing a State budget shortfall. It is likely to affect areas such human services, corrections and public safety. So, that is something that we will want to watch going forward and how that will affect our County.
Stutsman: Great report Jeff.
Lehman: Anyone have any questions for Jeff? That kind of highlights government as well as the public as far as a very harsh winter. We do have a contract for electricity. I think we’re in our 5th year of a 6-year contract, but we can’t control the volume.
Horne: Step increases or step changes.
Stutsman: I just have a comment that I think the Board needs to think about for a future discussion. This grant writing seminar, I think when you emailed the Board about wanting to go this, I wrote back saying your time. I think the Board doesn’t have a clear picture yet what your role is as far as grant writing. My concern is that you not become the grant writer for the County and all of your time be spent on that. So, I think at some time the Board needs to discuss how we’re going to use your skills and address, like, do we prioritize grants and things. Harry mentioned a grant for Ameri-Corps. What kind of role do you have in that? So just for information, I think at some time the Board needs to address that.
Lehman: Any other discussion with Jeff? Good report Jeff.
Horne: Thank you.
Lehman: Thank you.