Board of Supervisors holds pair of meetings within past week due to Memorial Day holiday

by Bob Beach

Due to the Memorial Day holiday Monday, May 28, the regular meeting of the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors for last week was held Tuesday, May 29. The Board met again on its regular meeting day and time Monday, June 4.

TUESDAY, MAY 29
During the Board’s meeting Tuesday, May 29, Allamakee County Engineer Brian Ridenour presented the Board with bids received for the replacement of the bridge over Bear Creek on Bear Creek Drive. The low bid of $586,684.92 was submitted by Iowa Bridge and Culvert of Washington, IA. Ridenour said that the bid is significantly lower than his own estimate of $699,930.53 and the Board voted to accept the bid on his recommendation. Ridenour said construction is expected to begin in late July or August. Also bidding on the project were Brennan Construction Co. ($707,078.55) and Minnowa Construction, Inc. ($800,921.60).
Also last Tuesday, the Board held a public hearing on an amendment to the County’s budget for fiscal year 2012. Hearing no comments from the public and having received no written comments prior to the hearing, the Board approved the budget as amended, with an ending balance of $1,780,644.

MONDAY, JUNE 4
Monday, June 4, the Board met with Ron Balmer of IIW Engineering of Dubuque to discuss options for updating the heating and cooling system within the courthouse. Balmer said that his firm could conduct a feasibility study for around $3,000 to assess the needs of courthouse, the resources available to pay for those needs and the most effective use of those resources.
He said that several options could be explored, such as keeping the current system in place and replacing units as they fail, replacing the current system with larger cooling units on the roof, or a geothermal system. Allamakee County Engineer Brian Ridenour said that he had been in contact with another engineering firm that would like to give a presentation to the Board next week.
The Board also met with Allamakee County Zoning Administrator Tom Blake, who asked the Board to set public hearing dates to consider requests for zoning changes by Waukon Feed Ranch from Agricultural to Commercial to allow for fuel dispensing, and by William Reed for a change from Residential to Agricultural for the purpose of used implement sales. The Board scheduled both hearings for Monday, June 25, with the hearing for Waukon Feed Ranch beginning at 9:30 a.m. and the hearing for Reed at 9:40 a.m.
In other business, the Board signed a budget amendment appropriation resolution for fiscal year 2012, a formality to authorize department heads to amend their budgets as approved by the Board last week.