Chairperson Thompson called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 1:30 p.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.

Assistant County Engineer Al Miller said they came in with a preliminary 5-Year Road Program in November and since then a couple of changes were made. He said a straw poll was taken at the last meeting to remove the Sharon Center Road grading and paving project from the 5 Year Road Program. Miller said they also received guidance to revise their budget, which they have done. Miller presented a plan for Fiscal Year 2003 which correlates to the budget they turned in. He said the 7 projects correspond to the budget numbers they turned on, depending on approval. Miller said that as for future years and the program, he doesn’t believe they are to the point where they have a priority system involved in putting those projects in some type of order. He said they aren’t going to have something agreed upon by the April 15th deadline to prioritize those future projects. Miller suggested considering the Fiscal Year 03 projects for their submittal they need to turn in in April. For the following years, he said, they could either leave what they have or modify them to turn in by April.

Miller said they discussed a road project for calendar year 04, but currently there aren’t funds to purchase right-of-way for a large project and they don’t really know what the project would be. He said a year and a half from now they aren’t going to have a major road project. He said they have some structures they could build in that year, depending on what the budgeting requirements are going to be. Miller said they are looking for guidance on budget numbers for future years. Neuzil said that to guide them they still need to submit a 5 Year Road Plan. County Engineer Mike Gardner said that in order to complete a 5 Year Road Plan they need to know how much money they will have to spend. Stutsman asked what sort of balance they have had in the past. Gardner said the FY 2000 budget was $2.1 million, FY 99 was around $1.1 million and 2001 was $2.4 million. Gardner said he doesn’t have 2002 with him, but thinks it was about $1.8 million. Gardner said their FY03 request is just under $1 million. Miller said that would be the expenditures. Miller said there are 2 projects listed which have a total of about $460,000 in revenues coming back from federal funds, which helped them to cut their budget. He said that over the last 3 or 4 years they have been spending down their carryover balance and it is now down to the point where it’s at a minimum to cover expenses in the summer until the taxes come in.

Lehman asked if would be wasting everyone’s time to put something on the 5-Year Road Plan that they know they cannot accomplish. He asked if they have to be more realistic in years ‘03, ‘04 and ‘05, or if they could put something on there so they could submit it. Gardner said they could put on whatever they want. Lehman said the first couple of years need to be realistic since the funds aren’t there. Miller said 03 is the most important part of the program right now. Neuzil asked if they want direction on what the Board thinks the list should look like in the next 5 years. Gardner said that is an option. Miller said he doesn’t think that could be done by April, realistically, and have 100% agreement. Lehman said they need to be close on ‘03 and ‘04. Neuzil said it is going to be hard to get all 5 of the Board to agree on this. Stutsman said they’ve agreed in the past. Miller added that unless the Board wants to give some guidance on taking any of the projects that are currently on the program off, besides Sharon Center Road, they are going to be working towards the design on all of those, with the current year the highest priority. Harney said they need to complete the projects that have been started. Miller said they are going to let two projects in April, unless changes need to be made there. Stutsman asked if there is agreement about what is listed on the Five Year Road program for ‘03. Thompson asked if they reduced the right-of-way cost from $250,000 to $157,000. Miller said yes. Thompson asked if they lumped together some culverts. Miller said yes. Neuzil asked if this submittal is within their ‘03 budget. Gardner and Miller said yes. Miller added that the Board hasn’t approved it yet though. Miller said they are going to finish the wetland mitigation at Kent Park before the end of the Fiscal Year. Thompson asked what happened to Racine Avenue. Miller said it is going to be done by the end of the Fiscal Year. Neuzil said this list probably keeps them busy. Miller said they are also going to be designing future projects.

Miller said that if the Board gives him a guide for their local funds, he knows what their Farm to Market and Federal funds are and he can put the projects into order for the Board. Stutsman asked Budget Coordinator Jeff Horne what the Board could afford to be put in. He said there is a range in the Code of what they can transfer from local funding. He said it is set in the valuations. Harney said they have been running $2.1, $1.1, $2.4, $1.8 million. Harney said $1.5 million probably wouldn’t be out of line. Gardner said they have to remember that the figures Harney speaks of are in part from spending down their carryover balance in order to get to that level. Horne said Secondary Roads always starts their budget season assuming the General Fund transferred at a maximum and the Rural Fund transferred at a minimum. He said they usually have leeway. Thompson asked what it would be if they did the maximum from both funds. Horne said right now their transfer is $2,259,237 from the rural fund and they can take that up to about $2.8. Thompson asked what the maximum transfer is from the General Fund. Horne said it’s about $650,000. He said that right now it’s at $466,165. Horne said they also get money from the Road Construction Escrow.

Thompson asked if the $2.6 million is for the whole operating budget and the $.9 is for road building. Gardner said that he submits a budget total to the Board and what he anticipates getting from the Road Use Tax Money. Thompson asked if the Road Use Tax Money has to wait until a future year if the Board doesn’t give them their share of money. Gardner said the money is still there, but he would have to cut his expenditures back. Lehman said that if the Board limits what they give him then he has to limit his dollars. Thompson said she is trying to make a connection between the $2.7 million that Horne mentioned and the $.9 million that Gardner said he has in the 03 budget. Gardner said the $.9 is just one part of their expenses, the construction part of it. Thompson said the $2.7 is for their whole budget and of that $.9 is available for road construction. She said the question then is how much do they need to come up with $1.5 million for construction. Miller said that from his perspective they are going to have to come up with $700,000 more this year. Stutsman asked what this would do to taxes on the rural side. Horne said it would raise them substantially. Stutsman said she doesn’t think any of the Board members wants to raise taxes. Neuzil said that if they aren’t spending money on the rural side for roads then where is that money going. Miller said it was coming out of their carryover until this year. Thompson said that if they did the maximum transfer from both funds it would be an additional $725,000 total. Thompson asked what every $.5 million does to the rural fund. Horne said he isn’t sure, but knows there are less than 10 expenditures on the rural side. Lehman asked about the cost of the 7 projects that Secondary Roads is proposing for Fiscal Year 03. Miller said the expenditures are going to be about $900,000 and they get $460,000 back on the revenue side. Thompson asked if there is consensus that these projects are the ones they want to do in 03. Lehman and Stutsman said yes.

Stutsman said they need to decide how much money to put in ‘04. Thompson said the maximum they can come up with is an additional $725,000 based on this year’s valuation. She said they deleted the Sharon Center Road project and asked what the estimate is of the remaining ones in 2004. Neuzil asked if it is realistic as a major road project to take out Sharon Center Road and keep Prairie Du Chien. Miller said they can keep it in ‘04 and it would get built in ‘05. He said they don’t have the money to buy the right-of-way for the project in ‘03. Neuzil said Prairie Du Chien would be an 04/05 project if they took off Sharon Center Road from Kansas Avenue. Miller said that unless the Board wants to re-prioritize the bridge list, he plans to go down the list and put things on the program they can afford in order of priority. Thompson said the local dollars for 2004 are $1.466 million. Miller said that doesn’t include the right of way. Neuzil said he is envisioning taking Sharon Center off and readjusting the rest of the list. Thompson said they would keep what is left after taking Sharon Center off and not move anything up because they cannot afford to. Miller said they would try to juggle funds around to have around $800,000 in expenditures from local funds.

Neuzil said he thinks it is important to give some direction to the people who live on these roads what they can expect in the future. Thompson said that at future meetings they should be looking at the 3rd year out, discussing it thoroughly and talking to the people that live on the roads. Neuzil said Prairie Du Chien looks like the only realistic major project for 04. He said he doesn’t think they are going to be able to afford more than that. Lehman said the 04 schedule is going to be tentative but it gives Secondary Roads something to turn in and target their efforts towards. Neuzil asked if they should start the Newport project or finish Sand Road in 05. Stutsman said she is in favor of this. Harney said he would like to see Prairie Du Chien and Newport stay together if they are going to include any projections for development in that area. Neuzil said they do stay together in the sense of years 06/07 and 07/08 as the 2 major projects for those years.

Thompson asked how much is done on the 2005 projects. Miller said they have survey work on Prairie Du Chien and Newport as well as on Sugar Bottom that was requested as part of a feasibility study. He said they have preliminary plans for Prairie Du Chien. Thompson asked what would be done by January. Miller said he plans to lay out the time schedule and benchmarks and get public input in order to be well along with the whole process a year from now. Thompson said they don’t want to get going on a lot of paving projects that they might not be doing. Neuzil suggested keeping those projects on the list, but finishing up the projects in progress. Thompson said she doesn’t think there should be any roads in the North Corridor on the list in 2005 because they would need to be doing work on them prior to getting the feasibility study done. Neuzil said the Prairie Du Chien project is to have it connect to the Reservoir. Stutsman said she is comfortable leaving Prairie Du Chien on. Miller said everything with Sand Road is eligible for STP funds and they are looking for another project to request additional federal funds for. Lehman said this at least gives them a target to shoot for.

Neuzil said the projects he has for 02/03 are Mehaffey Road and 180th Street from Cottage Reserve Road to Solon. He said that for 04/05 he has Prairie Du Chien Road from Newport to the Corps of Engineers property. He said that for 05/06 he has Sand Road from 480th Street to Iowa City. He said 06/07 is Newport Road from Sugar Bottom to Highway 1. Miller said that in working on the feasibility study there needs to be agreement on all of the roads that are going to be involved and the actual areas involved. He said he would look at some cost estimates, property and environmental impacts and get realistic numbers for right-of-way costs for each one. Thompson said this makes the local asking $516,000 in 04 and $700,000 in 05. Neuzil said when there is a better picture of where everything is then they could add projects. Thompson asked Miller if he is going to redo the document and bring it in again. Miller said he will redo the document and it is up to the Board how many more meetings they want to have. Stutsman said that eventually it needs to be on the Board’s formal agenda. Miller said it has to be done by April 15th. Neuzil said this at least gives the community some direction for the next 5 years. Thompson asked if they plan to replace the Sharon Center Bridge. Miller said it will eventually be replaced.

Lehman asked if there are certain places Secondary Roads could spend money on signs. Gardner said they need to be careful and have countywide consistency. Gardner said if they want to start putting signs on curves on all roads then they should set a policy stating that all curves of a certain degree angle will have signs. He said the only reason there are Chevrons on the paved roads now is from a federal program in the 80’s that funded putting these up, but the County is responsible for replacing any that are damaged. Stutsman said she would like to know how much money it would cost before setting a policy. Lehman said the degree angle would need to be set first to know how much money they are talking about. Thompson asked how much a Chevron sign costs. Gardner guessed that counting the post, sign and labor they would cost about $30-50 each. Lehman said it is going to take a lot of manpower to go out and survey for this. Lehman asked if they could look at traffic counts instead of every degree and angle of each road. Gardner said they could set whatever policy they wanted. Thompson asked how long it would be before GIS has traffic counts. Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak said there might be something with GIS that could help Gardner out in the next year or so.

Thompson asked about painting lines on oil roads. Gardner said it is difficult to keep paint on oil roads. Thompson asked if this is another area where if they do one then they have to do all of them. Gardner recommended being consistent Countywide for liability reasons. Stutsman said that would cost a fortune. Gardner said they already pay $40-50,000 a year now to paint the paved road system.

Neuzil asked if Planning and Zoning had any thoughts on the 5 Year Road Plan since they would be most familiar with growth areas in the county. Dvorak said they concur with the projects listed on the 5 Year Road Plan and would entertain looking at Scales Bend Road and Sandy Beach Road in the future too.

Stutsman asked if there is agreement for Harney and her to work with Miller on the feasibility study and work on recommendations for the Chevrons. There was consensus for them to work on this. Lehman said he thinks they should at least start focusing on it. Thompson said that if Newport is moved from Fiscal Year 06 to Fiscal Year 07 then they should plan on having the feasibility study done by the end of 2002. Lehman said they still have to monitor ongoing projects.

Thompson asked if a rural resident would be able to see that their road is going to be worked on in the future by looking at the Roadways Newsletter. Miller said they should be able to. Thompson asked how someone who lives in town would know if they wanted to comment on certain roads. Miller said it is on the web and they also advertise for these types of meetings. Stutsman asked if they talk about the 5-Year Road Plan when they go to JCCOG. Lehman said no. Stutsman said that would be a good discussion. Thompson said they do discuss those roads that they have to share. Thompson said everyone that gets added to the 5 Year Road Plan for 2008 should be notified. Neuzil said they should also have a public meeting. Gardner asked how to know who exactly to notify, the owners of the property or the users. Neuzil said they could send out notices with tax statements.

Tom Carsner said he isn’t clear when Miller is to return the revised 5-Year Road Plan to the Board. Harney said it would be on the web after April 15. Stutsman suggested March 7 for the Informal and March 15 for the Formal. Miller said that is fine. Miller said he could put it on the web as soon as he has it done. Carsner requested citizen involvement when a committee is formed for the North Corridor study. Stutsman said this is something they need to sit down and work out so that when they go through this process next year there would be information they could refer to in making their decisions. Carsner asked what the criteria was for removing Sharon Center Road from the 5-Year Road Plan. Harney said he thinks the main reason is that it isn’t particularly an area for development. He said the road itself is in fairly good shape, too. Stutsman said cost also was a factor. Neuzil said he didn’t think it had enough traffic. Carsner asked if any of the factors the public mentioned were factored into the decision, such as higher speeds, or changing the character of the area. Harney said the biggest reason for him was lack of development in the area. Lehman said that to get the best use of limited dollars, this wasn’t an area of high demand and there is very little land zoned residential right now. Stutsman agreed and added that she had a hard time justifying this project in the same way that she could justify the Newport Road project. Carsner asked what criteria the Board had in moving up Sand Road. Neuzil said he wants the project to be finished. Stutsman agreed. Harney agreed and added that it is also a safety feature for bicyclists and joggers. Stutsman added that with the additional housing going into Lone Tree, most of the people probably work in Iowa City and this gives them a safe road to use besides Highway 6. Carsner thanked the Board.

Don Johnson said he lives in Union Township and he is concerned about the bridge on Rohret Road. He wondered why it isn’t on the 5 Year Road Program. Miller said they are in the process of replacing these bridges. Harney asked when it will be replaced. Miller said they could have it designed and they could do it as soon as they receive funding. Gardner said it is a smaller bridge and probably falls under culverts. He said if it will cost under $50,000 Secondary Roads staff can replace it, and it is on a list with similar structures. Stutsman asked Johnson if he uses the bridge for his machinery and if he is able to cross it. Johnson said he does use it, but any wide machinery has to go around it via Black Diamond Road about 7 miles.

Orville Yoder asked if Black Diamond Road would have an embargo on it. Gardner said yes on the west end of it. Yoder said that getting from Wellman to Oxford with the embargoes is difficult. He said that Black Diamond was put in about 30 years ago and they were under the impression that the west end would be on the 5-Year Road Plan. He said Iowa County said they would pave to the County line if Johnson County would build the road up to the County line. Johnson County said they would and Iowa County paved down to the County line. He said Johnson County went up about 3/4 of a mile and stopped, meaning it’s embargoed every year. He said that about 3 times a year the road is closed from the high water. He asked if there is a chance of getting it on the 5-Year Road Plan sometime. Gardner said it is on the plan for FY 2006.

John Meyer said it seems that originally Sharon Center was to be done due to safety reasons. He said the amount of money spent on signs would be trivial compared to the added safety. He said if a road is unsafe, why is it wrong to put signs on it and not other ones. Meyer added that he feels public information meetings should be advertised better. Stutsman said the newspapers decide where to put advertisements.

Paul Roberts suggested that the Board of Supervisors set a standard so that Sharon Center Road could be upgraded with paint and signs.

Laurie Tulchin pointed out that the crash rate on Sharon Center Road is more than double what Newport Road is yet the Board feels confident to take it off of the 5-Year Road Plan. She agreed that it shouldn’t be on the 5-Year Road Plan. She asked why safety is not an issue in this decision. Lehman said safety is only one of the features and they are trying to come to some sort of blend. Stutsman agreed that safety is one of the considerations and feels that the County has made a commitment to development in the North Corridor. She said that as a Supervisor she feels a responsibility to provide good roads to the number of people in that area; good roads that are compatible with the number of cars on the road. Tulchin said Stutsman made a comment that none of their decisions favor one end of the County or another and everywhere is treated equally. Tulchin said that the people on Sharon Center are allowed an unsafe road but the people in the North Corridor need safe roads. Stutsman said she didn’t say Sharon Center is unsafe. Tulchin said the ratings show it has one of the worst crash rates of all the roads studied. Stutsman said she is trying to provide a good road system for the residents of Johnson County. She said she tries to be fair while looking at where the population is and where there are the most people needing to get from one place to another. Tulchin argued that the North Corridor isn’t a designated growth area. Neuzil said the North Corridor is a designated growth area in the Land Use Plan. Lehman said that just because the term growth area isn’t in there, everyone still knows what that means.

Carsner mentioned that there hasn’t been any development in the area where Dean Oakes had the lawsuit, near Sugar Bottom Road and 210th Street. He asked if anyone has spoke with Oakes about the plans since the lawsuit. He said it would be a pity to do that segment of road if Oakes has no intention of developing that land. Stutsman said Oakes has thus far made no plans to develop it, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t sell it tomorrow. The next person buying it could develop it immediately, Stutsman said. She said the Board publicly said it was unsafe and they have to upgrade it or else they face a lot of liability. Carsner said they took a road off of the 5-Year Road Plan that is unsafe. He said the next accident on Sharon Center might be a lawsuit. He said these arguments aren’t consistent. Lehman said they had to remove it for priority reasons. Carsner said they’re going to have to start throwing out their criteria. Neuzil said they might do that and it might just be what they think is best as Supervisors. Lehman said he doesn’t think it would hurt to contact Dean Oakes. Stutsman said she thinks the issue is that they are going to have to upgrade that road with the escrow money or else they would lose the money and it would totally then have to be at the County’s expense. Carsner asked if they could consult with County Attorney J. Patrick White and see about that and report back. Stutsman said sure. Thompson said it was the courts that said they had to do this.

Jim Murphy said in defense of taking Sharon Center Road off the 5 Year Road Program, it is a low traffic count road. He said he feels safer on that road than on Highway 1. He said you can’t control the speed people go and there are a lot of curves that could use signage. He said that considering the traffic count and the area it serves it was a good decision to take it off of the program.

Adjourned at 3:12 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary