Floyd County Veterans Memorial Committee wants to add flower beds to courthouse display

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Another conversation about rock occurred at the Floyd County Board of Supervisors meeting Monday morning, but this one was about decorative rock in flower beds, rather than the 100,000 tons of gravel the county spreads on rural roads as was the topic earlier this month.

Joanne Robinson, president of the Floyd County Veterans Memorial Board, requested permission from the supervisors for her group to have installed decorative landscaping around the Veterans Memorial display on the courthouse grounds.

“We’ve been trying to get this done for a couple of years now. We just want to landscape around the memorial out here in front of the courthouse, to make it more aesthetically pleasing,” she said. “We have a proposal from Otto’s Oasis and we need your approval to proceed with that.”

The proposal is to create beds on both sides of the memorial, between the courthouse and the sidewalk, with flowering plants such as rose bushes and hydrangeas, with border blocks to transition from the bed to the existing courthouse lawn, and with pine bark mulch as groundcover.

The cost of the project was estimated at almost $7,000, depending on final materials and labor, but Robinson said the Veterans Memorial Committee would cover the entire cost.

“We have funds available,” she said. “And we will also do the maintenance on this, the upkeep.”

County Auditor Gloria Carr said she was concerned about the use of the pine bark mulch, saying she has seen it used where it blows out of the beds.

“My parents have it. It flies all over the place. It is a real mess,” said Carr, who in her position as county auditor is charged by Iowa Code to be responsible for the maintenance and repairs of the courthouse and grounds, under the direction of the Board of Supervisors.

Robinson said she had the mulch product at her own home “in a windy area” and had no problems with it, but it was apparent she and Carr were not going to agree on the topic.

Carr suggested using river rock as the groundcover, because that is already being used in other locations on the courthouse grounds and wouldn’t blow around.

John Howe, the courthouse custodian and groundskeeper, said his preference would also be for rock, adding that he blows leaves off the courthouse hardscapes onto the lawn to be mulched by mowing, and he is concerned the bark would be blown around also.

Robinson said she would inquire about the price of river rock, and might invite Jeff Otto to attend the supervisors meeting to provide more information.

Supervisor Chair Mark Kuhn said the discussion was important to the board because the Veterans Memorial is an important part of the courthouse.

“We have in the past held Memorial Day services out there. It’s a great meeting place and I think the idea would really enhance the entire area. Perhaps it just needs a little more discussion,” he said.

Robinson asked that the discussion be back as an agenda item for the next meeting of the board, Monday morning March 27.

Also at the meeting Monday morning:

• The board learned that there were three applications for the position of appointed county attorney by the deadline last Friday – current Assistant Floyd County Attorney Randall Tilton, attorney Todd Prichard of Charles City, and Mason City attorney Brendon Moe. The position is now vacant because former County Attorney Rachel Ginbey resigned to take a similar position in Hancock County.

The supervisors are tentatively planning on interviewing all three candidates at the regular meeting next Monday if they are all available, although that meeting is likely to begin early, at 8:30 a.m., because Tilton may have a court case that morning.

The Iowa Open Meetings Law allows public bodies to conduct some personnel evaluations in closed session, including for hiring purposes, but Kuhn has said he would prefer the process be open.

Carr said neither Tilton nor Prichard requested that their interviews be closed, but Moe said he would like a closed session.

The person being evaluated must request a closed session in order for it to be closed, but the board is not required to close a meeting even if requested, if the board chooses not to.

Iowa Code Chapter 21, the Iowa Open Meeting Law, states, “Nothing in this section requires a governmental body to hold a closed session to discuss or act upon any matter.”

• Heard an update from Supervisor Dennis Keifer regarding the proposal to move staff from the Floyd County office of the Iowa Department of Human Services, currently located in a county-owned building at 1206 S. Main St., to space on the second floor of the courthouse, made available by moving offices within the courthouse as part of the ongoing updating project.

Keifer said the DHS was concerned there would not be enough room for individual offices for 18 DHS staff, and he said they would draw up a pros and cons list regarding the move.

County officials have advocated for the move because it would utilize available space in the courthouse and would allow the county to sell the building on South Main Street, as well as stopping the utilities and maintenance costs for that building.