• Johnson County: Senior Center Funding

• Johnson County and North Liberty: Muslim Youth Camps of America

• Johnson County: Joint Legislative Issues and Joint Congressional Legislative Issues

• Iowa City Community School District: Seventeen Year Olds Voting in School Board Elections

• Iowa City Community School District: Bonds

• Iowa City Community School District: Upcoming Educational Conference

• Iowa City: Regional Fire Protection

• Johnson County: Status of Proposed Iowa City Dog Park

• Scheduling Date and Time of Next Meeting

Chairperson Harney called the joint meeting to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 4:05 p.m. Coralville City Council members present were: Henry Herwig, Dave Jacoby, and Tom Gill. Also present: Coralville Mayor Jim Fausett. Iowa City City Council members present were: Steven Kanner, Ernie Lehman, Mike O’Donnell, Irvin Pfab, Dee Vanderhoef, and Ross Wilburn. Iowa City School Board members present: David Franker, Janet Leff, and Lauren Reece. Johnson County Board of Supervisors members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson. North Liberty City Council members present were: Ron Bandy, Matthew Bahl, and William Dorst. Also present: North Liberty Mayor Clair Mekota.

Thompson said at the last joint meeting there was discussion for funding the Senior Center. Since then, Johnson County has tentatively agreed to pay a participation fee for rural residents using the Center, which amounts to about 11% of the Senior Center budget or $70,000 for FY 2004. She said they will write a 28E Agreement to arrange this in the future. Thompson asked if any of the other entities plan to contribute. Iowa City City Council Member Mike O’Donnell asked what period of time the 28E Agreement is for. Thompson said that usually they run from year to year. Neuzil said it is still open for discussion, too. He said the Board has not decided whether to draw it from the Rural Fund or whether it is going to be back to a Block Grant pulled from the General Fund. He said the idea originally was to pull it out of the Rural Fund so that it would be fair to have other communities make a contribution. He said he read in the paper that Coralville is not able to make a contribution at this point and North Liberty has not made a commitment yet either. He asked if it is still going to be a function funded primarily by Iowa City, the County and participation fees. O’Donnell said it is difficult to plan a budget on a yearly basis. He asked for a longer term on the 28E Agreement. Stutsman asked when Iowa City needs information for their budget. O’Donnell said they approve their budget on March 15, but they begin going through the budgets in December and January. Thompson said that the current 28E Agreement is terminating on June 30th, so they need to write a new one. Thompson said a proposed draft 28E states that by November the Senior Center will tell the Board the number of registered participants and the number from the rural area, and then by January 15th they would tell the County the amount of the budget.

Neuzil said that if the other communities aren’t going to step up for whatever reason, then maybe Johnson County should reevaluate whether it should be pulled back out into the General Fund. Iowa City City Council Member Dee Vanderhoef asked if it is possible for the Board to split a certain amount from the Rural Fund and a certain amount from the General Fund. Neuzil said he thinks that there is a potential for that because part of it could be in Block Grant form. He said it gets particular when it comes to pulling money out of the Rural Fund. He said Code requires it to be specific on how to draw from the Rural Fund. Thompson said that the old arrangement where it was a partnership and the County provided that service was fine to come from the General Fund. She said that the Accreditation Committee wanted it to be a participation fee and it didn’t seem fair for the County to tax for a participation fee for people who weren’t going to be able to use it. She further explained that the General Fund taxes everyone in the County, so if they tax in the General Fund to pay for rural residents to participate, it means that everyone is being taxed and only the rural residents receive the benefit. Neuzil asked if at this point for FY 04 that North Liberty and Coralville are not going to participate in this. Coralville Mayor Jim Fausett said they have had comments to continue with the programs they already have rather than taking money from them for the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center. Fausett said Coralville also doesn’t have the funds in the budget to contribute at this point. North Liberty Mayor Claire Mekota said that North Liberty has their own center to pay for.

Iowa City Mayor Ernie Lehman said that it is important for everyone to understand that there is a shortfall in the Senior Center budget. He said there are people working very hard to try to see how those funds could be made up. He said that everyone should be aware of and expecting that there will be user fees for folks living outside of Iowa City. He said nobody really knows the details of how it is going to end up though. Mekota said that they have talked about North Liberty residents bringing back user fee receipts to be reimbursed. He said they haven’t decided on that yet, but have discussed that idea. Harney asked E. Lehman if the user fee would be for things other than Senior Dining. E. Lehman said he doesn’t know and that the Commission would have to work that out. He said they have discussed a number of ideas, but it seems like there would be some sort of user fee. Vanderhoef said the Commission has brought ideas for informational purposes that they are looking at possibly 2 tiers, where a certain amount of the activities would be part of what is paid for by the City and the County currently. She said then there would be additional things that they would have to have a membership to participate in. She said that they still need assistance from the County for basic operation of the Senior Center and some of the standard programs.

Coralville City Council Member Dave Jacoby asked the Board how they arrived at $70,000, since they don’t yet know what funds they are using. Thompson said there are approximately 3,500 registered members of the Center, of which 11% are rural residents. She said that $70,000 is about 11% of the budget.

Harney said Johnson County has forwarded their assessment of the proposed Muslim Youth Camp to the Corps of Engineers, outlying their concerns. Mekota said they have also submitted their objections and concerns. Mekota said they had a joint meeting with some of the County Supervisors and determined that they should get on track to make sure that this project is not done at all because of the amount of money it is going to cost the County and other entities. Neuzil said this is a good example of a situation that brought 2 entities together. He said it has worked well to have Johnson County and North Liberty sit together and talk about this concern. He said that Johnson County identified Land Use compatibility, infrastructure roads and environmental concerns. He said they learned from North Liberty that there isn’t enough water in the area to put out a fire. Mekota said they want to remove 300-400 trees just to build the camp structure. He said this building would be right by the Reservoir, where the boaters could see it and it would be about 3 stories tall with a 36-foot bird tower. Mekota said his concern is that everyone should be treated the same. He said a building like this shouldn’t be built in this remote area. He said it doesn’t matter whether its Muslims or who it is, it is too much for that area. Lehman said they had the same concerns. He said if a developer came to Board and wanted to build houses out there one question would be whether that developer is going to contribute towards the roads in the area. Iowa City City Council Member Steven Kanner asked if anyone has approached the organization to talk to them about some of these issues. Lehman said no, that it isn’t that far along. He said they hope to hear back from the DNR after they view the assessment.

Neuzil said he thinks the message needs to be sent particularly to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the County is going to need some help with infrastructure if they are going to put in a facility that has thousands of people each year participating in it. He said North Liberty doesn’t have the fire truck to handle the facility and the County doesn’t have the roads to handle it. North Liberty City Council Member Matthew Bahl said another issue is that the Fire Chief spoke about the lack of water to put out a particularly large fire there. He said they would be running tanker trucks down a narrow lane, which means they would run into a situation where people would be trapped at the fire sight. He said the County road is also on a blind corner. Bahl said he doesn’t think the actual piece of property itself is suitable to build a road big enough to allow 2-way traffic in an emergency situation. Mekota said that the property is an illusion because they talk about it being 110 acres and only about 15-20 is actually buildable, which is where the Girl Scouts were before. He said that this building could go up and only accommodate about 40-60 parking spots for the staff. He said that everyone else would have to be bussed in and out because there isn’t any room to park. He said the topography of the ground is ravines straight up and down. Kanner asked if they are going to use busses instead of individual cars. Mekota said there is talk about parking the cars in North Liberty and then bussing the people out to the campsite. He said there is also the issue of where to park 2,000 cars to get the people out there. He said it isn’t a thought out plan and it has too many loopholes.

Neuzil said it is also in an area where the County has said they do not have the infrastructure to grow. Mekota said the Comprehensive Plan for this area doesn’t allow for anything like this to be built. He said it has to be amended. Stutsman said the same goes for the County’s Land Use Plan. She said a plan like this would never be approved if it came before the Board of Supervisors. Mekota said the other issue is that they aren’t going to be paying any tax on it and they would only be leasing it for $1.00.

Iowa City City Council Member Irvin Pfab asked if there has been any thought about security, and whose responsibility that would be. Mekota said some would be federal, but the County and North Liberty would respond because they are closest. Lehman said the County now contracts somewhat with patrol up there for the Corps of Engineers. He said that he expects the duties would be expanded.

Kanner said it sounds like there are some valid points that hopefully they are able to work out with the Muslim Camp. He said that a concern of his is a few anti-Muslim statements that he read in the paper. He asked if the County or North Liberty has tried to find any systemic way to work out some of those statements, which he felt were not warranted. North Liberty City Council Member William Dorst said it is just a shame that the word Muslim had to be brought in. He said that regardless of who proposes what is going on out there, it still wouldn’t be proper. Kanner said he knows that isn’t the point, but there were some anti-Muslim statements that he read about in the paper. He said there needs to be a response saying they aren't going to accept that attitude in this area. Dorst said he thinks it is unfortunate that there is talk and possible racial slur like this. He said it is terrible rhetoric. He said he wishes the term Muslim wasn’t involved in this and they could say Youth Camp and not offend anyone. He said nobody needs to play the race card in this issue. Kanner it is out there and there is a Human Rights Commission and he suggested having some programs set up or some ways to formally address the issues being brought up. He said that there is a lot of tension in this, and there are also valid concerns about why this should or shouldn’t be built. Kanner said the Human Rights Commission is pretty sharp and he thinks they would be willing to work with the County or North Liberty in formulating a program to talk about these issues. O’Donnell said he thinks such negative statements have been few and far between. He said the concern is more about the roads, vehicles and fire and police protection. Stutsman said Kanner has a point. She said that anytime they have received comments it has been related to the race issue. She said that none of these remarks have come from the Board of Supervisors. She said that she refers to it as the Youth Camp and she doesn’t care who is building out there because it is the size of the project that she has concerns with. Stutsman said the issue has been brought up and they probably do have a responsibility to address it in some way. She said that if there are resources through the Human Rights Commission then she would be open to ideas or programs. She said even though it isn’t the issue, it keeps coming up and she thinks that people want to make it the issue.

Harney said that at this point what has happened is that the Board of Supervisors and North Liberty have made their point. He said they have brought forward the legitimate issues that need to be addressed. He said that when the Corps of Engineers makes their decision, whatever way they decide, then such issues can be addressed. He said there are going to be remarks made no matter what the group or ethnicity may be, but he thinks they should go forward and see what the Corps of Engineers do and address it thereafter. Bahl said he thinks that from their standpoint they would welcome any proponent of the Camp to come to North Liberty and explain what they want to do and how they would be willing to address these issues. Thompson said they were very willing to do that. She said they came to the Board and were open about sharing their plans. She said the issue right now is the Corps of Engineers and the environmental assessment. She said they asked for public comment and the Board responded to them. She said the Camp people aren’t part of this conversation because it is between the public and the Corps of Engineers. Iowa City City Council Member Ross Wilburn said that at the point where it is resolved with the Corps, if it is going to end up that the Camp would be in place, it would be a good opportunity to invite the Camp members. He said that if there is also going to be a demand for services in North Liberty then a contract with them for services at the Recreation Center might be available. He said that in Iowa City they have an arrangement with the schools for some joint use of rec. facility. He said it might be an opportunity to at least have some income to defray costs. Wilburn said there are going to be comments made, though, unfortunately. He said at that point maybe there could be some positive experience with the Youth Camp folks to let them know that they are welcome in the community and that the negative attitudes are few and far between. E. Lehman said the ball is basically out of Johnson County’s court now. Harney said the deadline for comments has passed.

Neuzil said if the Corps of Engineers says there are too many concerns and the infrastructure is not there, then there is the question of what could be done with that land. He asked what North Liberty has in mind as a potential and is the County involved in that. Mekota said they have discussed this for quite awhile because they wanted to protect the County and North Liberty as far as expenditures. He said that in the past, North Liberty has leased some ground from the Corps for a park. He said they would like to submit a lease of their own with the County and have a park out there. He said they pursued this, but their application was turned away. He said now they are taking the wait and see attitude and possibly might consider submitting an application to do so later. Neuzil asked if this is something that needs to be thought about before the Corps makes their decision. North Liberty City Manager Brian James said the only idea addressed before the Council was the fact that maybe the County and the City should get together and look at a joint program including a park with some sort of low-intensity type use that the current infrastructure would support. He said they then noticed 2 days later in the paper that the Crops and the public had come out saying they wouldn’t be reviewing any more applications until the issue with this group had been settled. Neuzil said he thinks it is going to be difficult for the County to be supportive of anything that will put more traffic on the road.

Bahl asked if there is any other site within the County that might be suitable for a camp of this size and nature. Thompson said the County doesn’t have very many places where there is water and sewer. She said it almost requires that it be in a city. Mekota said that in the rural area along the Reservoir, some of the ground that was divided up for houses had 7 acres per house because of the perk test on the ground for the sewer. He said the farther away from the Reservoir it went the less acres there were per house. He said suddenly those things seem to not pertain anymore, because now they want to put 3,000 people there and they would bring in a sewer system from the south that is supposed to be able to handle this. Mekota said he has such a problem with this because he has lived under these regulations for years with just rented farmland. North Liberty City Council Member Ron Bandy said he has been told that this is a one of a kind project nationally. He asked if it would be reasonable to take on a joint venture in order to have it, even if the Corps says it wouldn’t work. Harney said he thinks there is always that possibility if the County and the Youth Camp group and whomever else saw a spot that would be feasible where they could do something like this. He said he doesn’t really know where that would be. Bandy said that if this could be remedied with joint effort it would be worth looking at. Harney said the County and North Liberty have said that this particular location isn’t good. He said the County doesn’t have the funds to go buy property or to try to put infrastructure in for a facility of this magnitude or for any other group that might want to do that at this point. Lehman said that even if the County could identify a location, the infrastructure would probably have to be paid for by the user. Kanner said this is an economic development issue and they should be speaking with the Visitors and Convention Bureau. He said that this is going to be bringing in a lot of people that are probably going to be spending money in the area. Bandy said he does have thoughts along those lines but he didn’t know how much they wanted to prioritize this with so many other issues on the table to address. He said that he didn’t know whether it would be worthwhile to invest in a joint effort or just let it take its course to see if it is feasible. He said they could look at it as having a lot of opportunity. Harney said they are going to let the Corps go from here and further discussions would come later depending on what materializes.

Neuzil said the Iowa Legislature is in session. He said that some of the Board of Supervisors, along with the City Councils and East Central Iowa Council of Governments got together to discuss some of the issues that they are going to be working on. He said that there are going to be many opportunities to meet with the local legislators. He said that the Johnson County Board of Supervisors is going to have a County legislative day where they meet with the legislators in Des Moines. He said that if there are ways in which to work jointly on certain legislative issues then they need to be communicating this. He said the same goes for congressional issues. Neuzil said that there are a lot of federal issues and a lot of grant money out there. He said they are in a very good position in the State of Iowa with Senator Grassley as the Chief of the Finance Committee. Stutsman said that open dumping was an issue brought up at ISAC. She asked if there are any problems with that in the cities. Mekota said they have a lot of problems with it. Stutsman said there might be legislation coming up that would empower counties and cities to have more authority to deal with this.

Iowa City Community School District Board of Directors Member Lauren Reece said Jeanine Redlinger, who is a teacher at City High, along with some students are here to make a brief presentation. Jeanine Redlinger thanked everyone for the opportunity to speak about this. She said Caroline Mench, a Junior at City High, and another student who is a Senior from City High are here and have researched this issue, taking action to get support for it. Redlinger said this began a year ago when she was approached by a student who said they would like to do something that would make a difference for people their age to give them a voice in what is going on. Redlinger said she heard that Cambridge, MA, had a similar bill brought up by students and it was actually passed by their City government and their School Board to allow 17 year olds to vote in all local elections. She said it currently is in legislation in the State and has to be approved by them before it can take place in Cambridge. Redlinger said she discussed with her students and suggested beginning with the School Board. Redlinger said that democratically the country is in turmoil; less than half of eligible voters do so and youths are much worse at voting than the elderly. Redlinger said that if they could get the youths excited about voting when they are young enough that they are in school learning about government and when they can make it a habit then there might be some improvement to the democracy. Redlinger said campaigns are not directed towards youths or even towards middle-aged persons. She said campaigns are directed towards senior citizens because they are the ones who vote. She said that school boards go a long way to show other politicians that youths do matter and need addressing. Redlinger said she tries to teach her students that it is important to have a voice and to speak out. She said the students say that they aren’t able to do anything serious until they are 18 and by then they are gone in another community. She said that if the youths vote, then their parents would vote, too, and there would be an improvement overall. She said she is going to let the students address why they should be able to vote at 17.

One student said that 17 is a very good age because you are still in high school and still able to make a decision on choices that readily affect a 17 year olds’ every day life. She said that by 17 many have seen a lot and are able to make a valid decision. Another student said that 17 year olds are also the ones who are in the government classes and are involved in things like civic projects and are the ones that are more informed. She said that a lot of senior citizens do not take the time to do research. She said that because the students are involved in these government classes they are informed and are able to make competent decisions. Redlinger asked her students why they should be more empowered than they already are. A student said that a lot of youths don't vote because they feel that it won’t affect them, especially when it comes to larger elections. She said that if they could give them power to start voting on smaller local issues, then they would see that it would make a difference. Redlinger asked why students support this. A student said that they feel the adults that do get to vote do not listen to what they have to say, so they feel that they should be able to say more than just coming to meetings or talking to their parents. She said they would like to be heard.

Redlinger said they were originally told that this could be done with legislation. She said the Secretary of State’s Office changed their mind somewhere during this last year and they are now being told that it has to be an amendment to the State Constitution. She said that this doesn’t mean it can’t be done, but that it has to be passed 2 years in a row. She said this makes it another civics project for her students next year. She said they are at the beginning and are starting to reach out to schools beyond their own. A student asked the group to at least consider this and if there are questions they would be happy to answer them. Lehman said it takes a certain percentage to pass. E. Lehman asked at what age a person could be a School Board Member. Redlinger said 18. Kanner asked how many 17 and 18 year olds there are at City High. A student answered around 400. Kanner said he doesn’t know what the Iowa City City Council would do, but asked if they could give them a formal resolution to consider. Redlinger said the students would put something together.

Stutsman asked if changing the Constitution would just be for school elections. A student said school elections is what they are aiming for presently. Redlinger said they really think that educationally it is appropriate because this is where they are and they probably know a lot more about what is going on in the schools than most of the people in this room do, yet they don’t have a formal say. She said the School Board is excellent about listening to them. A student added that the members of the School Board are excited about this and are helping them out a lot. Stutsman asked how many states have 17-year olds voting. A student answered that Iowa could be the first. Redlinger said that in Massachusetts it is being considered. She added that Bolkcom agreed to sponsor this and the bill was being written up in Des Moines when they found out it needs to be done differently. E. Lehman asked if what is being considered in Massachusetts is for all voting. He said he would think that the voting would be for all elections or none. Redlinger said this was only for Cambridge, not for the entire State. Coralville City Council Member Dave Jacoby said he thinks this is a great project.

Reece said they are in the home stretch of their bond campaign. She thanked the group on behalf of the School Board to use their Councils to support the bond and vote in favor of it. She said that it is really a great boost in the arm to the campaign. She informed everyone that they are all welcome to vote early at the Auditor’s Office and mentioned other satellite locations.

Iowa City Community School District Board Member David Franker said the Iowa City Community School District is hosting a conference on Saturday, March 8th, at City High from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. He said they have invited all public education school districts that lie within Johnson County to attend, as well as Grant Wood AEA representatives, Kirkwood Community College people, University of Iowa folks, State and local federal legislators, the Governor, and all 50 licensed preschool providers in Johnson County to attend the conference. He said the purpose is to get acquainted with education neighbors and to build some networks and trust. He said this way, when changes come, they would be in better shape to work together in structural and financial efficiencies in Johnson County. He said the purpose is not to discuss consolidation, but to discuss communication and avenues for cooperation. Reece added that one of the topics is going to be the 17-year old voting issue. Franker said that anyone is welcome to attend and there is no cost.

Kanner said he put this on the agenda and is passing out a memo from their Fire Chief Andy Rocca regarding this issue. He said that in Iowa City they are talking about ways to save money and deliver services such as fire protection in a more efficient manner. He said the City Council will be having a work session in the near future about the possibility of regionalizing more of their fire protection services for the citizens. He said the City Council has not reached any conclusions yet. Kanner said he wanted to mention this so that the fellow area City Councils would put it on their agendas for discussion, so that this could be moved forward a bit to see if there is any interest on the part of at least 2 or more of the cities and the County to work together in a more efficient fashion.

Kanner highlighted a couple of points in the memo. He said that in May 2000, one of the goals of their City Council was to direct the Fire Department to consider a regional fire protection system. He said in July 2002, it was addressed by the Iowa City Fire Department in the 10-year strategic plan. He said that Rocca notes what a regional approach the fire protection could provide in terms of advantages. He said it could include centralized fire and EMS management, as well as reduced administrative costs, a centralized dispatching and communication network, improved fire and emergency medical capabilities, increased resources and special equipment, unified fire prevention activities and a coordinated approach to training personnel. Kanner suggested they discuss this at their next joint meeting to see if they would like to move forward.

Stutsman asked if he is referring to fire protection only or is he talking about an emergency ambulance service, too. Kanner said they are putting it all on the table. He said they haven’t had their work session yet, but they are going to talk about exactly where they are at and are just putting it into a larger sense to see if this is a good idea. He said it is something that has been talked about among the Council for awhile. Bandy said he thinks a lot of this is already going on. Jacoby agreed. He said that before moving on, a matrix would have to be developed of what is already taking place. He said there are already agreements in place and departments that work very well together and help one another out when needed. He said that they are working on a 28E Agreement with the County in terms of shared space for emergency medical services for quicker response times and training. He said he thinks a lot of what is being proposed or being addressed is already happening. Kanner said he thinks there is talk of going even further to see if there are further benefits. He said this is something that might not happen for years down the road but it would behoove them to see if they could save more money and be more efficient in how they spend their money to protect people in emergencies. Dorst said it is going to be pretty tough to save a lot of money when most of the groups in the county use volunteers. Kanner said he spoke with Rocca and there are places around the country that mix volunteer and professional. He said this is the reason they might want to consider it to see if it is a possibility to mix that. He said he thinks it is possible to consolidate and see if it would work. Stutsman said there are a lot of issues to think through.

Stutsman asked if North Liberty still has a volunteer Fire Department. North Liberty representatives said yes. Stutsman said her only concern with the volunteer fire departments is that as people get busier, who would be there to fight a fire. Stutsman asked if Coralville has problems with this. Jacoby said that they have enough people. Jacoby said he doesn’t think the number of stations would ever be reduced if there would be a joint effort.

Stutsman asked if there is interest to have this on the agenda for next time. Jacoby said he thinks there is interest, but there might have to be more specifics or a proposal of exactly what they are looking at. E. Lehman said one of the things they have all heard a number of times is duplication of services between cities, counties and school districts. He said people say if there was just one provider of a service that perhaps the service would be better and there would be savings. He said he thinks that there is a tremendous amount of support from the public that joint efforts could be more effective than individual efforts. He said he would personally like to see the various entities speak with their volunteers about this. He said that these people might have some pretty good ideas because nobody knows the fire department like those involved in it. Iowa City City Council Member Irvin Pfab suggested the group consider this in a motion that they are interested in this. E. Lehman said it is going to take the individual cities talking to their fire departments. He said that no motion here is going to change anything. Harney added that the rural fire departments fall under the Trustees and it gets more complicated than just a group of people sitting down. He said that there needs to be an agreement where they are going to sit down and discuss it and work through it to a certain goal. Pfab followed up E. Lehman’s comment that he means they would all be interested in looking at what these places have to say.

Lehman said this is in regards to the 40 acre dog park that the Iowa City Council is proposing to have just west of the Iowa City Landfill. He said that the other communities of North Liberty and Coralville might have a request like this as they continue to grow. He said it came to the County’s attention by some concerned cow/calf owners. He said their concerns were what sort of fences would be put up and how their livestock might be bothered by dogs running, barking, or even running along a fence and how the adjoining land owners would be able to conduct their operations. He said he just wanted this awareness to be known. He said he knows the City owns the property and he doesn’t know what the exact use of it is right now. He said the landowners have very grave concerns on the impact of their farm operations. E. Lehman said the City hasn’t done anything yet. Kanner said it isn’t on their Parks and Recreation priority list, nor is it in their Capital Projects. He said they are willing to listen. He said they are thinking that if there is private funding, it is something that they might consider. E. Lehman said this has only come to their City Council a couple of times in the amount of time that he has been on the Council. A woman said that her residence would be the closest one to that site. She said it is a sharp hill and the land is landlocked. She added that her husband works nights, sleeps days and they don’t have air conditioning. She said that they are close enough that they would be able to hear dogs barking. E. Lehman said that if they consider a dog park, and it is a huge if, that would certainly be one of their considerations. Vanderhoef said that this is another one of those projects where if they build it they will come. Mekota said that dogs are able to run free on the DNR ground, which is everything west of 965 to Amana.

The group scheduled their next meeting for Wednesday April 23, 2003 with the location to be determined at a later date.

Adjourned at 5:12 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary