Hearing set on hog confinement application in Floyd County

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A public hearing will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 27, for a new hog confinement facility being proposed for Floyd County.

The facility, consisting of two 2,500-head deep pit finishing buildings, would be owned by Lancer LLC, which has its principal office location listed as Cresco. The application is for section 26 of Ulster Township, northwest of Charles City.

The Floyd County Board of Supervisors approved setting the public hearing date and time during a special meeting held Monday morning.

The public hearing will be held at 9:15 a.m. on Aug. 27.

Also at the meeting Monday:

• The board received an update on the law enforcement center and courthouse update project from Supervisor Linda Tjaden and County Auditor Gloria Carr.

Tjaden said she is continuing to work on the possibility that all the offices of the courthouse will be relocated out of the building while work is being done, including installing all new windows, sprinkler system and heating and cooling system.

She said 500 N. Grand Ave., the former middle school building, continues to look like the best temporary relocation option, and she is working with school Superintendent Mike Fisher and with Shawn Foutch, the new owner of the older front part of the building that he plans to renovate into apartments in the next several years.

“At some point we need to give you numbers to react to,” Tjaden told her fellow supervisors regarding the costs to relocate and what it would save in construction costs.

“I don’t have those numbers yet,” she said. “I don’t want to take this lightly. It’s a huge undertaking.”

Sid Samuels, the owner of The Samuels Group, the project construction manager, has estimated that several months could be cut from the length of the construction project if work crews can have unlimited access to the courthouse and don’t have to work around county staff and the public still using the offices, including the district courtroom.

Bids for the site grading, demolition and utilities work package are due by 2 p.m. Thursday, when they will be tabulated. Those bids will be considered by the Board of Supervisors at its meeting Monday, Aug. 12.

The major construction bid package will be let after that.

• The board reviewed county insurance rates for the next fiscal year. The total county property damage, liability and worker compensation cost, after an expected dividend is received, will increase more than 15.4%, from the current $284,482 to $328,387.

Much of that increase is due to increased liability costs while the law enforcement center project is underway.

• The board also set a public hearing for 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13, for property easements for utilities connected with the law enforcement center project.