Floyd County Supervisors hire attorney to help claim allegedly abandoned property

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County supervisors agreed at their regular meeting this week to attempt to acquire a property near Nora Springs that has been the subject of numerous nuisance complaints and is allegedly abandoned.

Duane A. Tesch, the owner of the property at 1539 Rock Grove Lane southeast of Nora Springs, has been the subject of ongoing nuisance complaints by neighbors that led to two enforcement actions by Floyd County in recent years.

County Environmental Health Administrator and Zoning Administrator Jessy Willadsen asked the supervisors Tuesday to consider hiring legal counsel to take court action to claim the property.

He said the Floyd County Board of Health, to whom Willadsen reports for part of his duties, had recommended that an attorney be hired by the county.

After a lengthy discussion, the board agreed to hire the attorney Willadsen recommended, from the Lynch Dallas law firm in Cedar Rapids.

Willadsen said apparently no one is living in the small house on the property. The septic system and a well are inoperable, and there are reports that there had been a fire there.

“If the county ends up with the property I am sure that house will need to be demolished,” Willadsen said.

In late 2022, county records show, Floyd County issued an abatement order citing junk, debris and unsightly conditions on the property. After the property remained in violation and neighbors renewed complaints in early 2023, the county filed a municipal infraction.

In May 2023, a county magistrate ruled that Tesch had violated the county’s nuisance ordinance, fined him and ordered him to clean up the property by later that month.

When he did not to comply, the county hired a contractor to remove abandoned vehicles, appliances, brush, tires, trash and other materials. The cleanup cost was assessed to Tesch’s property taxes.

By October 2023, neighbor complaints about the Nora Springs property resumed. The county filed a nuisance violation, held a trial, and received a ruling that Tesch had 30 days to clean up the property “to the county’s satisfaction.”

When that deadline passed without compliance, the county awarded a cleanup contract, with the cost again added to Tesch’s property taxes.

County records show there is a special assessment against the property of $9,529, consisting of $8,505 in a 2024 tax assessment for the cleanup that took place in 2023, plus $1,024 in interest and fees.

Another $4,600 special assessment will be added to the property’s taxes this year for the latest cleanup.

County officials have said that neighboring properties have suffered a decline in value due to an ongoing nuisance. The county assessor at one point reported a collective reduction of about $109,000 in assessed value for four neighboring parcels.

Tesch has consistently challenged the county’s actions and, last month, filed three small claims court cases against the county in Floyd County District Court, alleging that valuable property was removed during the county cleanup actions.

The first claim says the county wrongfully removed stacked, split firewood; the second claim says the south half of a hydroponics garden was wrongfully removed; and the third claim says about 2,000 wooden pallets and the north half of a hydroponics garden were wrongfully removed during the cleanup efforts.

Each of the three petitions by Tesch seeks $6,500, the maximum that can be sought in a small claims court action.

Willadsen said he has pictures that show the condition of the property before the cleanups and he does not see items of value that Tesch claims were there.

Floyd County Attorney Todd Prichard last Friday, May 2, filed motions for the court to dismiss each of Tesch’s small claims suits, arguing that the materials had been removed under a court order authorizing abatement of a nuisance.

Willadsen said the small claims suits should not affect the county’s decision whether to claim the property as abandoned.

He said the county could wait for the property to go on a county tax sale if the special assessments remain unpaid, but that process could take several years.

He asked the supervisors to approve hiring attorney Steven Leidinger of the Lynch Dallas law firm in Cedar Rapids to begin court action to claim title to the property as abandoned.

Supervisor Gloria Carr asked if a local attorney could handle the case, but Supervisor Chair Dennis Keifer said they needed someone who specializes in this area.

Willadsen said Leidinger had been recommended to him by Cerro Gordo County officials as someone they had used and who has experience in this type of litigation.

He also said he had talked with County Attorney Prichard, who said he was OK with hiring an outside attorney for this.

“He said that it is a very tedious process and so it is time-consuming,” Willadsen said.

Supervisor Boyd Campbell, who had not been a board member when previous county actions against Tesch had taken place, wondered if this was something that needed to be started immediately, or if it could be delayed a week so he could go see the property for himself.

Jen Solomon, who works for the zoning department and the Board of Health and who was listening to the meeting remotely, told Campbell that the property had been an ongoing issue for years, and that the county still receives complaints regularly about the state of the property.

Carr said the abandonment is new, but the nuisance issues had been discussed multiple times.

“OK, I give up,” Campbell said. “I’ll make the motion that we go ahead and hire this attorney from Cedar Rapids and get this ball rolling.”

The motion passed unanimously.

According to a contract Willadsen presented the board, the law firm will charge $275 per hour for shareholders (including Leidinger), $250 an hour for associates and $150 an hour for paralegals and legal assistants, plus expenses.