Board of Supervisors approves agreement to take over care and control of Makee Manor

by Bob Beach

During its regular meeting Monday, May 20, the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met with Makee Manor Administrator Jan Ellingston and Makee Manor Board President Stan Straate to finalize an agreement to transfer care and control of the facility to the County. After some discussion, Straate agreed to the terms of the agreement. A separate rental agreement for office space and document storage will be finalized at a later date.
The Board also met with Sheriff Clark Mellick and Chief Jail Inspector Delbert Longley of the Iowa Department of Corrections to discuss preliminary plans to convert a portion of the Makee Manor facility to a jail and dispatch center. Longley said that he had looked over the plans and determined that the proposed facility would not be extremely user friendly and would require more staff than a state-of-the-art facility. He also noted that the requirement for a 500-square foot exercise area with an 18-foot ceiling would be difficult to accommodate and that there would be no room for expansion should the need arise. He also said that in his experience, it is generally not cost effective to modify an existing building for use as a jail, but would not speculate about whether that would turn out to be true in this case. Following the meeting, the Board toured the Makee Manor facility with Mellick and Longley.
The Board also met with Bruce Palmborg, representing Lansing Main Street Matters, who presented the Board with a subcontract for a consultant to help prepare a nomination of downtown Lansing to the National Registry of Historic Places. Palmborg said that if the nomination is approved, downtown Lansing businesses would be eligible for federal and state tax credits and that Lansing inclusion on the registry would promote tourism. The Board approved the contract.
In other business, the Board approved the contracts and bonds with Bruening Rock Products for the resurfacing of County gravel roads and signed a 28E agreement with County Social Services for mental health and developmental disabilities services. The Board approved a conservation easement for Charles Jackman and approved an increase in the mileage reimbursement rate for service of civil papers from the current rate of 40.5 cents per mile to the maximum allowable rate set by the Internal Revenue Service, which is currently 56.5 cents per mile. The Board also set June 10 at 9:30 a.m. as the date and time to open bids for a concrete box culvert south of Volney.