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Floyd County board revises mask policy, talks Floyd interchange project

Floyd County board revises mask policy, talks Floyd interchange project
The Floyd County Board of Supervisors revised its mask policy at the courthouse this week.
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County Supervisors revised COVID-19 guidelines for the courthouse at a meeting Tuesday afternoon.

The members of the board voted to remove existing signage requiring people to self-screen for exposure or symptoms of COVID-19 before entering the building, and that had requested that everyone wear a mask or face shield.

The new signs that will take their place state, “Masks are recommended unless you are fully vaccinated. Please follow requirements for specific areas you are visiting.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds last week signed legislation passed by the Iowa Legislature that prevents Iowa schools from requiring face coverings and outlaws cities and counties from requiring face coverings in private enterprises, although businesses may still require masks at their own discretion and the law does not prevent cities and counties from requiring masks on public property.

The supervisors had held a discussion at their workshop meeting Monday regarding signage options, and County Auditor Gloria Carr had created a proposed new sign that the supervisor looked over at their regular meeting Tuesday.

Supervisor Roy Schwickerath made the motion to “remove all existing signage and remove the screening requirement and post new signs, effective immediately.” The measure passed unanimously.

The courtrooms and other court-controlled spaces in the courthouse are under the direction of the Iowa judiciary, and the Iowa Supreme Court recently updated its guidelines from its previous requirement that everyone wear masks in the court-controlled spaces.

The new Iowa court guideline says fully vaccinated persons will not be required to wear masks, but people who are not vaccinated will be required to wear them. People will “provide for their own compliance” in choosing which group they are in.

The supervisors also had a discussion Tuesday with County Engineer Dusten Rolando regarding possible temporary and permanent road changes that will happen when the state Department of Transportation begins work on the Floyd elevated interchange for the Avenue of the Saints.

Rolando said the multi-year, multi-million dollar state project is set for bid-letting this summer, with ramp excavation work to begin this fall and major construction to take place in 2022 and 2023.

The state has planned to close all current grade-level accesses to the highway in the Floyd area once the interchange is in place, and Rolando said that may require building some frontage roads to service existing roads that will be cut off and to avoid land-locking some properties.

He said he is concerned that these very short roads may be turned over to the county, which would mean the county would have to maintain them.

“The only problem is these will be gravel roads,” Rolando said. “Occasionally I would have to get a motor grader there, but that means running a motor grader on four-lane traffic.”

Rolando said he is also concerned that a change in the county’s farm-to-market road through Floyd will result in the county being responsible for a part of the road that is in bad shape and that will become worse because it may become part of the town’s designated truck route.

“I got rid of six blocks and picked up three, and two of them are terrible,” he said.

Supervisor Doug Kamm suggested negotiating with the state that the county will take over the short new frontage roads if the state upgrades the portion of the farm-to-market road.

“I could ask that we have more discussion on it,” Rolando said.

Also at the meeting Tuesday, the supervisors:

• Approved a meetings policy for board meetings, covering when, where and how meetings will be conducted, how agendas will be created and other matters. The policy makes few substantive changes from the way the board operates now, but formalizes those policies.

One possibly significant change is the ability to now use a consent agenda to approve routine, non-controversial actions such as approval of minutes and claims, liquor license renewals, department employee change notifications, etc., in one motion. Any supervisor can request that an item on the consent agenda be moved to the regular agenda for individual discussion as needed.

• Set a public hearing for 1:30 p.m. June 22 regarding a proposed amendment to the urban renewal plan for the Southwest ByPass Urban Renewal Area to change the tax increment financing development incentive for a Cambrex expansion project.

The original incentive was for a property tax rebate to the company over nine years on the increased value of the property, for up to $170,000. But because the project was greatly expanded and it increased the value of the property much more than originally anticipated, the same incentive over nine years on the new property tax would be $625,000, and Cambrex requested that the agreement be revised.

• Renewed a law enforcement agreement with Floyd County towns to provide Sheriff’s Office services. The three-year agreement continues the current terms of $4 per capita per year for the towns of Colwell, Floyd, Marble Rock, Rockford and Rudd, and $25 per hour of actual provided service for Nora Springs.

• Approved a zoning change for property owned by Mark and Rebecca Burke from agricultural to residential.

• Approved a final subdivision plat for Red Cedar Subdivision filed by Thomas and Lorraine Winterink.

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