Following last week’s work session when all three options for relocating county administrative offices were reviewed, Washington County Supervisors Tuesday unanimously voted for Option B, the least costly, to date, of the three.  The formal motion also authorized both Encite of Washington and Carl A.Nelson of Burlington to proceed to the design stage or, as supervisor Marcus Fedler said, “the nuts and bolts” of the project.  Luke Leyden of Encite and Ryan Harris of Nelson Company discussed the three options in detail during the June 5 work session.  

Option B utilizes space in the downtown county courthouse, as well as buildings 2 and 3 in the county-owned Orchard Hill site at Lexington Blvd. near the county jail, sheriff’s office and the new Communications/Emergency Management Center.  However, during the public comment segment, Marisa Reisen, County Emergency Management Director, referring to the relocation of offices, called the plan to also use the Center’s conference room as the supervisors’ office and meetings space “a very bad idea.”   Currently, other than for county personnel, admission to the center is by request only (via by appointment, buzzer and identification) to limit possible problems with the department’s main responsibility to handle emergencies.   Reisen also noted that residents’ concerns about using the room have been raised as well.  

Option B will have the assessor, recorder, treasurer, county attorney, auditor, GSI and outreach offices in the courthouse, and going to Orchard Hill’s Building 2 and 3 will be Public Health, Mental Health, Environmental Health, Veterans Affairs, IT, and DOC.  The supervisors are to use the large conference room in the Emergency Center, at the Orchard Hill site.

In other business, the board:

Acknowledged the report from Lynn Whaley of WEMIGA, the recycling and solid waste contractor for the county, learning there was a loss when a “food friend” and employee of the service died.  The report also noted that solid waste tonnage going to a landfill was down by five tons and recycling percentage went from 81 percent to 97 percent.  Whaley noted that in some cases, county residents have had a non-county resident employee delivering waste to the county operation and asked if some form of ID card could be provided.  The facility is restricted to county resident use.

Unanimously approved a five-year 28E Agreement with PAWS & More for animal shelter services for the county that included setting fees using PAWS’ standard fee schedule.  Services include shelter and trap, neuter, release with an annual, detailed invoice provided to the county each July.  The county will be notified each January of any fee changes that will go into effect the following year.  For fiscal 2023-24, boarding transportation is $30,156, increasing to $32,706 in fiscal 2027-28. The county also will receive an annual fiscal report no later than November 1 of each year.  PAWS is currently in the process of building a new facility for which it has received several grants, including $20,000 from the City of Washington.

Approved personnel changes for Brett Houston, Washington County jailer, full-time, to $21.50 hourly, effective June 23; for Scott L. Hesser, equipment operator, $25.91 hourly, effective June 19; Hogan Miller, Washington County Ambulance paramedic from full-time EMT to full-time paramedic, raised from $23.19 to $26.63 hourly, effective June 1; and Scott M. Gerot, full-time equipment operator, $21.92 hourly, effective June 28.

Approved having the Iowa State Association of County Auditors  (ISAC) Information Technology (ICIT) conduct a survey of the county’s information technology and provide a full report, at a total cost of $3,000.  ICIT began assessments to Iowa counties in 2011 done by an eight member team from eight counties.   The assessments involve review of hardware, software, infrastructure, security, and all form of operations.    The board also approved a Hold Harmless Agreement as part of the contract.