• Senior Center Commission Member Al Monsanto: Senior Center Update

• County Engineer Mike Gardner: Setting Bid Letting Date for 2003 Safety Program (Calcium Chloride Application to Portions of Johnson County Rock Surfaced Roads); and Bid Letting/Notice to Bidders for Seed and Fertilizer to Be Purchased in 2003

• Ambulance Director Steve Spenler: 28E Agreement with the City of Coralville to Locate Ambulance at the Central Fire Station

• Reports (Stutsman): Attended JCCOG Rural Policy Board Meeting; and Attended Kiwanis Meeting

• Reports (Lehman): Attended Fincore Meeting; and Attended JCCOG Rural Policy Board Meeting

• Reports (Thompson): Attended MECCA Board Meeting; and Attended Budget Work Session

• Reports (Neuzil): Attended Farm Bureau Meeting; Appointed to CRIS Board of Directors; and Traveled to Las Vegas

• Reports (Harney): Attended Meeting with City of Iowa City Officials; Attended Meeting with League of Women Voters Representatives; Attended Sixth Judicial District Board of Directors Meeting; Attended Farm Bureau Meeting; and Attended Johnson County Historical Preservation Commission Meeting

• Irene E. Murphy: Concerns with Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities Services

• Johnson County Task Force on Aging Member Eve Casserly: Upcoming Meeting on Senior Center Issues

Chairperson Harney called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:16 a.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Mike Lehman, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.

Harney: We’ll open the informal session of January 30, 2003. The first item is business from Al Monsanto, update on the Senior Center.

Senior Center Commission Member Al Monsanto: The main concerns that we’ve had in our meetings, is of course the budget. We started out with a public discussion. There were several citizens asking mainly are we going to put a fee on the Senior Center. We got to that a little later. Jay Honohan brought us up to date with the lease problem with the Nutrition Program. The main problem is that going to a different agency the utensils and cooking stuff are there were left to us and we want to make sure that they stay in the Senior Center’s possession. We reviewed the plan that’s for changing FY 04 funding. Here again we’re planning on maybe, this is all going to go before the City Council, charging $50 a year for Iowa City residents and $75 for out of Iowa City, rural residents. This of course would just be put up before them. We’re planning a special meeting on January 27th with the City Council in their budget meeting. Again too it came up, they want to change the name of the Senior Center. Of course his suggestion of Geezers Palace didn’t go over very good. Basically that was it. I imagine that meeting has taken place for the budget with the City Council. Here again, as I said, our main concern is we’re just trying to get the budget stabled out so we can make it. Thank you.

Harney: Thank you Al.

Neuzil: In fact, on February 3rd, is when the Board will be discussing the Senior Center budget in our budget deliberations.

Harney: The next item is business from the County Engineer, Mike Gardner.

County Engineer Mike Gardner: Good morning.

Neuzil: Good morning, Mike.

Thompson: I always feel like spring is coming when you show up with the seed bid and the calcium chloride.

Gardner: I’m a little earlier this year than I normally am, but maybe spring will come earlier that way too.

Neuzil: We’ll find out February 2nd.

Stutsman: Ground Hog Day.

Gardner: The first item is for bid letting for our calcium chloride, the safety program this year. In the past we’ve just done this with quotes. This year I’m going to go ahead and go through the formal bidding process. It’s gotten to be large enough that I think that’s going to be the best way for us to go. Just as a little background, our safety program was implemented, I think, 3 years ago. What we’re doing now is applying calcium on the roads that are carrying 150 vehicles a day or more. We’re doing that at the end of bridges, the bridge approaches. We set her on each residential driveway in the County, at intersections and in areas where there’s limited visibility due to hills or horizontal curves. So we spray that. We also do solid on any road that’s carrying 300 or more vehicles per day. In addition to that, the Board has in the past has directed us to do all of Amana road including the portion that’s less than 150 vehicles, all of 140th Street between Ely Road and Sandy Beech Road including that area that’s less than 150. Sioux Avenue and Napoleon, we do those solid from Highway 6 down to the City’s entrance to the sewer plant. So I’m anticipating that you want to continue to do that as you have in that past.

Neuzil: Are we still using a lot of cars using the soccer fields for that?

Lehman: Seasonal of course.

Neuzil: Yes, it’s seasonal isn’t.

Stutsman: But it must be helping because we’re not getting calls.

Neuzil: Because we were certainly getting them on Sioux Avenue.

Stutsman: Are there any anticipated additions to the program this year.

Gardner: Not at this point. We did as you know have a traffic count completed last summer by the DOT. We don’t have those results in yet. I anticipate those coming probably late spring or sometime this summer. That’s something I anticipate the numbers are going to be up from the count that was done in ’98. How it’s going to impact this, we won’t know exactly until we see the numbers.

Stutsman: Until we get the bids back and things.

Gardner: Right and the counts.

Stutsman: Yes.

Gardner: We did talk to one of the suppliers. The cost they anticipate is probably going to stay about the same and maybe increase 2 to 3% is kind of what they’re anticipating right now. They’re still not sure, but that’s what they’re anticipating. Last year’s, as you may recall went up, I think, 17%. It’s gone up the last 3 years by numbers more than the 2 to 3% each year.

Thompson: So if the road count would indicate that roads needed to be added, would you add them this year or would they wait 'til next year.

Gardner: That would be up to you, but our policy as it was adopted by the Board states anything over the 150 vehicles, so I guess that would be up to you to determine when you wanted the new counts to take effect.

Stutsman: If that’s what our policy says that we do.

Gardner: Once the information becomes available to us, I would say that…

Harney: When you take the bid on this do you do it per mile or do you have a total mileage that you give them now.

Gardner: Per gallon. They bid it per gallon, but we give them an estimate based on the length of roadway and the application rate that we use.

Harney: So we do need an additional, you have a set price that it would be.

Gardner: Right.

Lehman: Can you just review how the funding is broken down, because you’ll apply the first in this fiscal year and the second… You’ve already budgeted for the first… But there could be an increase there if you get those numbers back, because you apply using Memorial Day and then again…

Gardner: That’s correct. It’s a split across the 2 budget seasons. We’ll take the quotes and I’m shooting for a March 4th bid letting date, so part of it will come out of the FY 03 budget and part of it will come out of the FY 04 budget.

Stutsman: So that’s the date you want us to set, is March 4th.

Gardner: Yes, that’s what I’m hoping for, is March 4th at 10:00 as a letting date.

Thompson: So this would be on for next week.

Gardner: Yes.

Harney: Add that to the next week’s agenda. The next item is bid letting, notice to bidders for seed and fertilizer to be purchased in 2003.

Gardner: I thought we could maybe kill 2 birds with one stone on this and hold a second letting on the same day. Set it for March 4th also and then make it at 10:15, so while we’re down here opening bids, we could do the first one and then do the second one for the seed and fertilizer. Talking to Chris the quantities that he’s anticipating for this year are a little different, but his bottom line, he anticipates being about the same as what we had last year. He’s getting a few different items, but he thinks it’s going to come in about the same as what he anticipates. So I would be in next Thursday asking that we set the bid letting date on that one for March 4th at 10:15.

Harney: Do we have consensus to put that on the agenda. OK. We’ll have it on the agenda for next week. Do you have any other business?

Gardner: Nothing more.

Harney: Thank you.

Gardner: Thanks.

Harney: Next item is business from Steve Spenler the Ambulance Director, reference a 28E agreement with the City of Coralville to locate an ambulance at the central fire station in Coralville.

Lehman: I think our latest one had some revisions done since the original.

Neuzil: Yes.

Harney: Proceed.

Ambulance Director Steve Spenler: OK. What you have before you is a 28E agreement between the County and the City of Coralville, which will allow for us to staff an ambulance at the Coralville Fire Department from 7 in the morning until 11 in the evening, 7 days a week. It’s similar to an agreement we had in 1998. We stayed at the Coralville Fire Department, I think for about 2 years and then moved over to 2000 James Street where we are currently. This will allow us to move back into the Coralville Fire Department. Both Janet Lyness from the County Attorney’s Office and Bob Saunders have reviewed this. Janet’s still working with the Coralville City Attorney Kevin Olson on working on some language. I think Andy has some…

Assistant County Attorney Andy Chappell: I spoke to Janet this morning and she was literally in contact with Kevin this morning too. He hasn’t had it before their Board yet and I think their insurance company has, I got the sense, one or 2 more questions, but he didn’t anticipate it was going to be any problem, the language that we had proposed. Janet was comfortable enough saying that if the Board didn’t mind signing it first, it would certainly be wrapped up by next week was the thought. You can go ahead of put it on your formal next week for signing or if the Board’s more comfortable signing it second and waiting for Coralville to act, probably about 2 weeks. But certainly, we would let you know that it was all right.

Stutsman: I’m assuming that Coralville will sign it, if there were additions or changes…

Chappell: They will have to resign it, there’s no question about that because we’ve proposed some changes. The question is does it matter to you whether you sign it first or second. Either way you’ve both got to sign it and it will be the same documents.

Stutsman: That’s what I was getting at, it will be the same document when we finally both sign it, so I guess it doesn’t…

Spenler: Yes, I know Kevin Olson did present it to the City Council, I think, a couple weeks ago and they did approve it. Since that time though, Janet looked at it and Bob Saunders looked at it and they had some minor changes that they wanted to make. So that’s why there’s a little bit of that confusion with it right now as Andy alluded to, but they’re working on it and it should be approved here shortly.

Chappell: The fact that they’ve signed it before is what gives us a fair amount of confidence that it’s not going to be a big issue.

Harney: I wouldn’t be a problem because if they didn’t, then it’d be null and void.

Thompson: I’d be in favor of putting it on for next week.

Stutsman: Yes, I don’t have a problem with that.

Spenler: It doesn’t really create any change from our current operation out there. It’s just a location change. I think it’s a better facility for us and I think it’s beneficial to have this kind of relationship with the Coralville Fire Department.

Lehman: I had a question on the hours, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. You’re not currently staffing those full hours now, but you wanted to have that window reserved.

Spenler: No, we are currently staffing a truck in Coralville from 7 in the morning until 11 in the evening.

Lehman: OK. I didn’t think you were quite that late.

Spenler: Yes, we are. We have been for a couple of years. We transitioned from some peak hours, I think 11 to 7 when we initially started out there. Maybe about a year later… This was only 5 days a week, then we went to 7 days a week with those hours. Then we transitioned, I think, 2 years ago to 16 hours a day 7 days a week and have been at that level. We’ll continue at that level.

Neuzil: This is great intergovernmental cooperation. No doubt about it. Can you tell us some of the pros and if there’s any cons to this move.

Spenler: I don’t know of any cons. I think the pros are one the relationship with the City of Coralville as maybe they look to establishing a station north of the Interstate. We might want to look at going in with them as far as establishing an ambulance quarters there, which would be ideal for us. A little bit better in cost, granted SEATS is going to have to make up the difference in what we pay now as a sub-leaser. But we currently store an ambulance behind the Ambulance Service and we’ll be able to get rid of that because we are also talking with Chief Dave Standard, he’s agreed to let us keep the ambulance out there 24 hours a day even though we won’t be staffing it obviously. So that will alleviate $150 a month in rent for that. Then just the savings from James Street. So that’s a benefit. It’s just a better facility. We had some problems over in James Street. I think this will take care of that.

Stutsman: You will be paying minimal rent for using the Coralville.

Spenler: Yes, we will.

Stutsman: But that’s not included in the 28E.

Spenler: It’s in the 28E, just that we will agree on a fee. It’s not set.

Neuzil: What are we thinking about right now?

Spenler: $150 a month. Very minimal, just to cover our cost. Then we also pay for any cost associated with setting up; phone line, getting the computer in and on the network, things of that nature. They’ve designated some space for us, so a little bit of painting and remodeling of that.

Neuzil: Great.

Harney: You put a lot of effort into that. The cooperation between Coralville and Johnson County’s working real well. It’s good to see.

Spenler: You bet. I certainly appreciate Chief Dave Stannard and the Coralville Fire Fighters Association for giving us this opportunity. I think it’s going to be a nice relationship. For them having the ambulance there as they continue to respond on some calls out there. Obviously the Coralville Police Department is the primary first responder, but Coralville Fire does respond on some calls. With the ambulance there, their crews can drop in, be more familiar with the ambulance and with the crews. We’ve even given them the opportunity to do a ride along. So they’re going to be more oriented to the ambulance than they were before.

Harney: This will be on the agenda for next week then.

Spenler: OK. Anything else. Thank you.

Stutsman: Thank you.

Harney: Is there any business from the County Attorney?

Chappell: No business.

Harney: Business from the Board of Supervisors, reports. Start Sally?

Stutsman: Sure. A little slower week than it was last week. Attended JCCOG Urbanized Area Policy Board yesterday. I’d been reappointed to that board and I just wondered if the building was on fire, we went through it so fast yesterday I could barely keep up. So they move it right along. Connie Champion will be the Chair this coming year and John Weihe from Coralville will be the Vice-Chair. We approved the budget. One note of information for the Board, I asked how our assessment was determined and they take all the services that JCCOG provides and determine a percentage of the County’s usage of that service and then they multiply it times our population in the unincorporated area. So that’s how they come up with that.

Lehman: It’s based on a prior year?

Stutsman: Right. Jeff Davidson said those percentages were set way back when. They review them periodically and we may be looking at those again because there was some question as to whether the County is using more of the Human Services Coordinator’s time than was reflected in the percentages. So that will be brought up again next time to see if we want to pursue that any further, but that’s basically how that assessment is determined. Let’s see. The other thing of note was Brad Newman will be coming to the Board on February 6th to talk about County contributing in the Waste Tire Production Program. So that will be for discussion then. Then he talked about a new program that they’re going to start, will be an electronics waste collection at the land fill where people, similar to how they handle hazardous waste, will call ahead of time and say they’ve got computers to dispose of. Then they can make an appointment just to make sure that somebody’s there to take the monitors or the computer equipment. There will be a charge. It will be very similar to disposal of appliances. I think what was it Carol, $5 for monitors.

Thompson: I can’t remember.

Stutsman: So there will be a slight charge, but they’re hoping to have that up by the end of January, first of February.

Lehman: It would include like TV sets.

Stutsman: Yes.

Thompson: And the concern and the reason for the program is that lead is inside them and that’s a dangerous chemical to be putting in the landfill.

Stutsman: I guess they did say TV sets would be like $5, a console would be $15. There’s some firm up in Wellford that takes these things and they do some limited recycling on the stuff, what they can. It’s pretty limited, but at least they do what they can to try to recycle. Then this morning at my Kiwanis group, Dick Myers was the speaker. It was just good to hear him talk. He talked about the bipartisan mood in the legislature. He’s really looking forward to getting some things done. Everybody seems to be anxious to work together to solve some issues. He mentioned that there’s lots of new people there and he’s really encouraged by their energy and their enthusiasm and willingness to problem solve. So that was really encouraging. I asked him about REAP funding and where he thought that was going to be. He said they are definitely going to work within their budget this year. Stay tuned for the Governor’s budget proposal, which will be released tomorrow at noon. Then that will give an indication as to where REAP funding might fall in.

Harney: Mike?

Lehman: Carol and I met with the FinCore work group, which is a subsidiary of the FinCore committee. We’re dealing with trying to update our 20 year old financial software. We do have some money set aside in the budget, but it’s not going to be enough yet to purchase any of those that we’ve seen so far. But Monday and Tuesday, we met and demos were given by a 3rd company that we had decided to consider. We had a chance to follow up on Tuesday afternoon to hear input from all the departments that are going to be affected by this. We got to hear from Information Services that will be installing and servicing those. We have many varied opinions and concerns with each of these 3 companies that we’ve talked about. The main FinCore group will be meeting this afternoon to try to get some direction on where we want to, future action timetable. So we’re kind of closing in a little bit on here. Just follow up on the Johnson County Council of Governments, the Rural Policy Board. We touched on a lot of things as Sally had mentioned that concerns urban and rural, but we focus a little bit more on the rural. They discussed the budget. There’s a little bit of an increase on that overall, basically due to cost of living increases, but our portion actually went down a little bit because of the census. As Sally had mentioned it’s based on that. We heard from Linda Severson who is the Johnson County Council of Governments Human Services Planner. She gave a little report of some of the programs that benefit the Rural Policy Board communities such as some workshops and information that she provided for our areas. A brand new one, also touched on some of the things that Sally had been updated on the hazardous waste collection. They are open at the landfill on Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays. They ask that you call ahead at 356-5185. That’s for household cleaners, paint. They want to make sure someone’s there. They have certain employees that are trained to take those items. They’re also able to pick those up. You might be look for a small can of paint or something like that just to do a small project, you are able to sign out for those type of things too.

Stutsman: Mike, what was that phone number again?

Lehman: 356-5185. That’s Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. You touched upon the tire collection. I think Pat talked a little bit about that or informed us when he was a member of the committee about the past 6 years has been fairly successful. The number of tires have dropped a little bit overall Statewide. I think we’re seeing a strong demand here yet. The State is still condoning that practice, but they’re not going to fund it of course. So that’s what we’re going to be asked to discuss. Are we going to subsidize that for the rural portion? Right now it costs about $1.50 to process the disposal of a passenger car tire at the landfill. The suggestion of maybe, rather than trying to do it by the pound, a lot of people don’t understand what a tire might weigh. There’s all different sizes and stuff, so just putting a flat rate of maybe $.75 to the rural residents and we look at maybe picking up the other $.75. That’s something that will need to be considering here. That’s something we’ll probably need to look at when addressing our budget too. We may cap that at a certain dollars too. Brad Newman also discussed the bottle bill where that was going to legislation. It is kind of a victory that nothing’s been done. I think what he said is some people want to get rid of it totally and other people want to increase it. So I think it’s kind of an agreement that nothing’s going to be done with it, so at least we’re not going to loose ground, we’re not going to gain anything. One group wanted to add plastic water bottles and fruit juices and things like that. A lot of the vendors and stuff are really concerned about some of their hazards of having to take these. If they sell them they have to bring them back and give a deposit. There’s a lot of discussion over the exchange of funding. They should be getting reimbursed for handling these products and stuff. That’s still probably up for discussion. I don’t think it’s going to be one of the number one items.

Neuzil: The stores don’t like to bring dirty containers into the… But yet one of the dirtiest items people have is actually money. They don’t have a problem with that.

Lehman: That’s true. The other thing to mention is a lot of these food stores handle flowers and stuff. Well they have insects there and they’re around food items too. We also heard from Doug Elliot, the Director of the East Central Iowa Council of Governments. He reported on projects in his agency that he worked on in the past and some of those concerned us and other items in the County, other communities. That was some of the permanent household, hazardous waste collection facility, waste tire, electronics, fringe area agreements that he’s worked on for Johnson County, site development, review services for Shueyville, the housing rehabilitation programs in Johnson County and Coralville, fringe area agreements with Shueyville and Johnson County. Those are all items that his agency has been part of and we appreciate their participation in that. I guess that’s all I have to comment on today.

Harney: Carol?

Thompson: I had my first meeting with the MECCA Board last Thursday night. There was good news. The finances came out all right for the year. That agency always kind of runs touch and go and right now it’s go. There was also some discussion of the Star Grant, which was part of the funding that I suppose we all read in the newspapers that there was a snafu in Iowa’s application to Federal Government for $4.5 million in Federal funds for housing programs. Some of them were operated by HACAP. It also included a new program for MECCA and then this STAR program that’s been ongoing for half a million dollars per year in Iowa City. The funds were threatened, but later at the JCCOG meeting, Linda Severson mentioned that that’s been resolved. It’s pretty sure that the money will come through for this year, but then there was further discussion that the star money for next year may not be all right and the following year, we’d be required to have a $100,000 cash match from the County, which none of the agencies that are participating have that much money to put in. So probably in that year, we’ll loose that grant. That will be a lot of people who won’t have housing in our community, so it’s something to think about. Yesterday the Board had a good meeting with the Board of Health in our budget sessions. I really appreciated them coming and I know it was good for all of us to hear that the way they’ve organized their financial package to demonstrate to us what they’re doing and make it so we can understand it. I really appreciated that. Also we had the library people, we all in to talk to us about the library budget, which is an ongoing discussion. That’s all I had that wasn’t with the rest of you.

Harney: Thank you. Terrence?

Neuzil: Pat Harney and I, we had the opportunity to go to the Farm Bureau. I know Pat you’ll probably talk a little bit about that. Do you have that on your sheet?

Harney: Yes I do, but go ahead.

Neuzil: We had a very good meeting. A number of the Farm Bureau Board issues like budget, taking money out of potentially the rural side of the budget, unfunded mandates and an issue that we’re going to be coming up this coming month. That is the matrix, dealing with hog farms, those were all things that were discussed with the Farm Bureau. Interesting enough, it seems like the direction I heard from the Farm Bureau would be that they want us to not participate in the master matrix formula. Which means that if a hog farm came into being, it means that Johnson County would not be at the table, so something to think about. We’ll have to hear their arguments for and against. But that issue has to be resolved some time by the end of this coming month for us to be a participant or not by Code. I had the opportunity to become elected to a new Board, this is actually a policy making board that is separate somewhat from County government, but a board that certainly involves County government. That’s the County Rate Information System or CRIS Board of Directors. They appointed me yesterday in Des Moines to serve on that Committee. CRIS is a policy making Board that, basically, after Senate File 69, CRIS replaces the point of services which used to be in place for Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities to help provide cost support and reports to help counties negotiate a fair price. So, I’m going to be serving on that Committee. In addition, I have been appointed to a subcommittee for marketing, because the more counties that are involved with CRIS, the less it is going to cost Johnson County and all of the other counties. So, I thought it was a very, very informative meeting. I brought home the packet of information. I’ll pass that around for everybody to kind of take a look through it, because it’s obviously something that this Board of Supervisors is going to be monitoring closely when we start to set our rates for the providers from the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Department. Besides that, I went to Lost Wages, Nevada and did not lose my wages. So, I was very, very happy to say that I report that I brought home some of their money. So, with that…

Stutsman: All $.25 worth.

Neuzil: Exactly.

Harney: Thank you.

Harney: Last week Mike Sullivan and I met with the city officials from the City of Iowa City. We were discussing the National Guard Armory properties and the sewer issues and so forth. I think we are pretty much on line or on board with what is going on. We’ve come to a good resolve on getting this worked through. That’s moving along. Friday, I also met with Carol Spaziani and Gertrude MacQueen, with the League of Women Voters. We discussed issues about county government and combined municipal and county governments. It was a very good discussion and a lot of good information out there. They are working pretty hard at going through that and looking at the pros and cons. Friday I had the Board of Directors Meeting in Cedar Rapids at the Sixth Judicial District Department of Corrections in Cedar Rapids. A lot of discussion was based on their space needs and services that they can provide better to the communities, Johnson County as well as Cedar Rapids and Linn County areas. Naturally, like always, they are still suffering from the fund cuts that the State had taken. The State had announced yesterday, I think on the news, that they were restoring a lot of the dollars to corrections. However, that does not, that goes to the prisons, that does not affect the Department of Corrections as we see it for parole and probation services. So, they are still in a bind for dollars needed in that particular area. They’ve got a lot of good ideas on how to provide more services. It is going to take some time and some money to work through that. The law enforcement is looking at the interstate compact with other states, when parole and probation offenders move from one state to another back and forth that they can track them better. They’ll have to report in at the parole offices. They’ll pick a state that they move to and the community so that they can track them better so that they can’t move back and forth and avoid their probation guidelines. Also, they talked about several of their budget issues that are going on. As Terrence mentioned, the Farm Bureau, that was a very good meeting, a lot of interest from the Farm Bureau. There were good issues and bad, I guess, as far as the matrix goes, like Terrence was talking. Basically, what this Farm Bureau is saying is that that should fall back on the State regulations as put into place and the counties not get involved. But, there are some issues I think counties need to be concerned about, placement of manure and so forth from the confinements. So, we’ll discuss that and go further and decide what Board wants to go with that. We have a deadline I think to meet if we are going to do anything, as far as participating and having anything to say with the State. But, that can be renewed every year and we could participate later on if the counties want to or if they don’t want to. Last night I attended a meeting at the Johnson County Historic Preservation Commission at the Morse Community Club. The item of discussion there was consideration for designating the Henyon Casper Duffy House and Barn at 2520 Highway 1 NE, to be placed on the register of historic places. That’s owned by Charlie and Joyce Duffy. That house was built in 1845, but it’s really a log cabin, that portion of it. It still has the clay and brick chimney from the log cabin. They had an addition put on that in 1860 and another one in 1911. It’s quite a home out there. The barn, which is also included in this request, is a 3-story with a limestone basement. It’s supported by 20-foot (inaudible) beams which are all running in different directions for a 3-story level. They also have huge logs up there that still have the bark on the trees. I don’t know how they got them clear to the top, but I imagine horses and whatever else during those days. It’s a very good barn. It’s pretty good and it’s in its original state yet except for I think the cupola is the only thing that’s really been replaced on that. That barn in the early years was owned by Bradford Hoskin and he was called Hos because it was a place that they traded horses. People traveling across the State for fresh horses, he was in the business of trading back and forth. It’s really interesting when you get into that. The Historical Preservation Commission saw it as an opportunity to preserve a piece of this history and the good craftsmanship put into those barns and homes. They approved to send it on to the State for approval for the Historic Association. That was my week.

Harney: Next item on the agenda is inquiries and reports from the public. Does anyone have anything they would like to say? Do you want to come forward and give your name, please?

Irene E. Murphy: My name is Irene E. Murphy. I’ve been a resident of Johnson County since November of ’51. Pat Harney mentioned talking to Carol Spaziani.

Harney: Yes.

Murphy: I do not belong to NAMI. I have been to meetings. I have a mentally retarded daughter, 50 years old that was born the 1st of my 10 children that was born in Iowa City. She is 50 years old. I followed the meetings on the television when they had the audit reports from the Auditor. I was interested in the thing what they were going to be finding lacking or not be accounting for. The most recent Board of Supervisors Meeting that I watched I only got in on the tail end of it. There evidently had been a break, and interruption, and then there was a remark about Carol Spaziani was asking the Board of Supervisors to build independent apartments at Chatham Oaks. Do you remember that meeting?

Harney: Yes.

Murphy: I don’t when it was, but I would like to have you follow through with that. Right now we’re in a precarious situation. She was evicted from Capital House. She had had, I understand it to be, a wrong prescription of medicines. After the one doctor had told me what it was she needed to correct, we did it and she went and got better right away. But, she has moved into a new living situation. She’s not really happy with the situation and I definitely am not. I won’t mention the outfit where she went, but there certainly needs to be provisions for the mentally developed people. It doesn’t seem that they are adequately cared for. There was one thing that triggered my coming here. First of all, she spent a little time in the psyche hospital when she had the…in the fall. The social worker there, she signed a stack of papers you had to do for information. The first one was for the Johnson County Social Services. Well, we had a meeting with them and I knew very well that she wasn’t going to be accepted because she had too much money. So, they did turn her down. She does not qualify for County aid. What this outfit is doing now is, we have to spend down her money in order to get the taxpayers to pay for her Medicaid. I think it is a very degrading thing for her to have accomplished what she had, saving that money with my guidance. She is paying dearly for the services that we are getting right now and it’s spending down. I don’t know when we are going to reach the $2,000 limit that she can have, but this is just one story. I don’t know whether… As I say, I haven’t belonged to the NAMI and I did participate in a survey that the University of Iowa, I had arranged through them. It was to give the University some idea of what contribution a family member was making toward the support of their person, their handicapped person. In getting acquainted with this new system, it has enlightened me very much to what my services for the last 11 years would amount to in dollars and cents, for what she is having to pay for her keeping where she is at now. But, I would encourage you to follow up with Spaziani’s request that you… I have a daughter that has a Power of Attorney and she was the one that went and got involved with this outfit. She only talked to them on the phone at Chatham Oaks. She was going to have to live in a dormitory with 7 people and we wanted her to have an individual apartment. So, the way it has turned out, the situation she is in, she has had 3 or 4 other clients from the outfit that she is with imposing on her time and making themselves comfortable in her apartment because she has television and they don’t. It’s just been a mess. I don’t know how we are going to come out. But, I’m not happy. I even went to a lawyer yesterday to make sure that I could get myself appointed to be her official guardian. In the 50 years that I have had her, I have just been a mother to her. She has been under Systems Unlimited. She has been under Life Skills and things like that. But, at this point in time, she is as confused as I am as to what is going on with her. I just would like to have you know, and I will get in touch with Carol sometime and tell her I was just a little… I don’t know whether there was a (inaudible) underneath it and they said they would be back but there was no more… They had said they had a break. There was not more of the program come on. That’s all I knew is that Carol was trying to get Chatham Oaks so that they can have them living in a private apartment and have the services of Chatham Oaks, like the dispensing of the medicines and things like that. So, you have heard from another person that’s interested in something like that happening. The way that Iowa City has turned into really a community of handicapped people that need services and they… I would hate to have my daughter’s life story publicized to the fact that she has too much money that she can’t qualify for the services and she has to make herself indigent in order to do it. That does not sit well with me. You probably aren’t thinking that I know what I am talking about, but I’ve got a cart full of papers there that I can show you what she has been going through just in the last couple of months.

Harney: I certainly understand your concerns. That is a problem when you have to spend down in order to receive the services from the public. They have to have certain guidelines and levels that they set for us.

Lehman: One or 2 of us can visit with you afterwards and maybe bring you up to what you might have missed in that meeting, just what our discussion was with Chatham Oaks and that living arrangement there, if you want to stick around a few minutes.

Murphy: All right. I didn’t know whether this was the… Whether it was going to be later on you were going to have some stuff about the Mental Health and DD, whatever it is.

Harney: We’ll discuss that with you after the meeting. There will be discussion later about that facility near Chatham Oaks on the County Farm.

Murphy: All right.

Harney: Are there any other comments or interest from the public.

Johnson County Task Force on Aging Member Eve Casserly: Do you want me to come up?

Harney: Yes please.

Casserly: Hi. I’m Eve Casserly and I am here as a member of the Johnson County Task Force on Aging and just one very quick thing here. At our February 10th meeting, we are going to be having a program open to the public, of course. Discussion of various alternatives as our group is trying to see them. Various alternatives to how things might be done at the Senior Center. We’re encouraging people to come and participate and share visions and we’ll have several different speakers. I wanted to let you know that that will be occurring.

Harney: Do you have a time on that Eve?

Casserly: 1:30 in the afternoon.

Harney: 1:30.

Casserly: In the assembly room, the dining room.

Harney: Thank you.

Casserly: OK. Thanks.

Harney: Any other inquiries or reports? We adjourn the informal meeting.

Adjourned at 10:05 a.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary