Board of Supervisors approves County Holiday Schedule change on split vote, accepts bids to sell trio of Secondary Roads tandem snow plow trucks

by Joe Moses

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Monday, November 20 to address agenda items including the establishment of a 2018 County Holiday Schedule, considering bids for used Secondary Roads Department tandem snow plow trucks and Department Head Updates.

Chairperson Larry Schellhammer called the meeting to order and the current agenda and the meeting minutes of November 13 were approved. During Public Comment, Executive Director Val Reinke with Allamakee County Economic Development advised the Supervisors that the Allamakee County Housing Study survey is available on the www.allamakeecounty.com website in both a printable version to be returned and as an online survey. Reinke said that the Housing Study is going well and has been promoted in the newspaper and on the radio, with hard copies being distributed to area churches and banks.

Reinke encourages residents of Allamakee County and those who work in Allamakee but reside elsewhere to fill out the survey, which only takes five to six minutes to complete. Reinke also discussed potential future visits by the Supervisors to the Agri Star facility in Postville and Alliant Energy's Lansing plant.

President Chip Lamb of the Allamakee County ATV/UTV Club thanked the Supervisors for their support of the ATV Club and announced that he would be stepping down from the club's president position but would continue his involvement in the club as a member and in a teaching and education role. Lamb discussed the County's ATV Ordinance and that the City of Lansing has not yet adopted an ATV Ordinance. Lamb said that he will continue to seek more local support before revisiting the matter with the Lansing City Council in the future. Lamb advised that ATV signage has been installed in Waukon and New Albin by the ATV Club, with the City of Postville installing its own signage.

The Supervisors moved into the consideration and discussion of the 2018 County Holiday Schedule, discussing the differences between the current schedule used by Allamakee County and the State of Iowa schedule, with Schellhammer and Supervisor Dan Byrnes recommending to remove Presidents Day from the schedule, and adding Martin Luther King Jr. Day to be more in line with the State schedule. Supervisor Dennis Koenig recommended keeping the schedule as is.

On a split vote, the 2018 Holiday Schedule was approved to include Martin Luther King Jr. Day with the removal of Presidents Day. The County Holiday Schedule now includes New Years Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas.

Allamakee County Engineer Brian Ridenour discussed the next agenda item involving the consideration of bids for three used Secondary Roads Department tandem snow plow trucks. Ridenour recommended that bids be considered at or above the scrap metal price paid by Clayton County Recycling. The three snow plow trucks are identified as #551 1994 International 4900, #552 1994 Ford LT8000 and #553 1995 LT8000. Byrnes opened each of the two bid envelopes received individually and read aloud the bids received.

The first envelope was from Rainbow Quarry LLC of Monona with the following bids: #551 - $1,800.00, #552 - $2,500.00 and #553 - $2,500.00. The second envelope was from Andy and Kari Burke of Waukon with the following bids: #551 - $1,877.00, #552 - $1,177.00 and #553 - $1,477.00. The Supervisors approved the highest bids, all above the scrap metal price, for #551 by Burke, $1,877.00, and for #552 and #553 by Rainbow Quarry, each at $2,500.00.

Under Department Head Updates, Ridenour discussed ongoing Union contract negotiations, with the Union making its proposal and the County being next with a counter-proposal, and whether or not Attorney Richard Zahasky should be contacted to be part of the next Supervisors meeting. The Supervisors recommended that Zahasky be present for an anticipated closed session for discussion on the matter.

Ridenour and the Supervisors also discussed making visits to various bridge projects and roads within the county, agreeing to do so following the next Supervisors meeting. Ridenour also discussed the Green Valley Bridge replacement agreement between the City of Waukon and Allamakee County, with each being responsible for half of the remaining 20% cost of the project following State of Iowa funding being used for the other 80% of the project cost. Ridenour indicated the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) has directed that the County letting procedure be followed in this situation.

Allamakee County Auditor Denise Beyer discussed that preparations are being made for absentee voting for the December 5 run-off election for Waukon Mayor and that laptops have arrived for each of the three Supervisors to use. Byrnes commented that the laptops will get rid of some of the printed paperwork and be valuable for other board and committee meetings requiring extensive packets and agendas, allowing the use of digital documents instead of paper.