Supervisors pick appraiser for property purchases

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County supervisors picked an appraiser to come up with a value for two residential properties the county must purchase for its law enforcement center project.

At its regular meeting Tuesday morning, the board selected Rally Appraisal LLC of Cedar Falls to appraise the properties at 101 S. Jackson St. and 111 S. Jackson St.

As Floyd County Assistant Attorney Randall Tilton explained at a supervisors meeting last week, the county needs an appraisal of the properties before it begins negotiating for their purchase.

The county’s initial offer has to be at least as much as the appraisal, but it can offer more, Tilton said, for example to cover relocation expenses and other costs the property owners will have.

Rally Appraisal will charge $400 per property for the appraisals.

The supervisors held off on approving a contract with Prochaska & Associates of Omaha, Nebraska, for architecture services for the law enforcement center and courthouse updates.

Supervisor Linda Tjaden said there were still some questions regarding the contract that Prochaska had proposed. Prochaska had made some contract changes requested by the county, and Tjaden said she wanted the County Attorney’s Office to look over the contract again before the supervisors signed it.

Also at the meeting Tuesday morning, the supervisors:

• Approved rezoning a parcel of land at 2978 210th St., Charles City, from agricultural to residential zoning so Ryan and Jody Welter can construct a home there. Susan Nelson, chairwoman of the county zoning commission, said it was a very simple application and the commission had no objections to the change.
• Agreed to raise the wages of election officials to $9 per hour, from the current $8.25. County Auditor Gloria Carr had given the board information previously showing election officials in 41 other Iowa counties that responded to a survey were paid between $7.25 and $12 per hour.
• Discussed repair expenses in several county drainage districts and approved paying the repair expenses and assessing the costs to district property owners.
• Approved an application from the Patriotic Committee to use courthouse property for a Memorial Day service beginning at 10 a.m. Monday, May 28.