The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors has set a public hearing, 9 a.m., Monday, Feb. 3, on the updated comprehensive plan.
Supervisors voted Jan. 13 for the hearing to be held at the board’s office at the Muscatine County Administration Building, 414 E. Third St., Muscatine.
“We continue to move along in the comp plan update process. The Zoning Commission held their public hearing in December, and they’ve reviewed the draft,” said Eric Furnas, Planning, Zoning and Environmental administrator. “We didn’t receive any public comment on it, so they’ve recommended the draft as is to your board for approval.”
State law requires that a public hearing be held, Furnas said.
“As the board of supervisors, you can do several things. You can take the recommendation of the Zoning Commission as it stands for the language as it is proposed. You can subtract or add things to it at the end of the public hearing.”
The board reviewed several items during its meeting on Jan. 13, including proposed fiscal year 2025-2026 budget requests from offices such as the Muscatine Area Geographic Information Consortium or MAGIC, County Attorney and County Auditor; a special use permit granted by the Muscatine County Board of Adjustment on Jan. 3 and one additional application for a vacancy on the Muscatine County Conservation Board.
Budget reviews
The board reviewed several proposed fiscal year 2025-2026 budget requests, including MAGIC, County Attorney and County Auditor.
Muscatine County residents can access property information and maps online free through MAGIC. It is a partnership between the City of Muscatine, Muscatine County, and Muscatine Power and Water, according to its website. The cities of Wilton and West Liberty are affiliate members.
Mark Yerington, MAGIC Geographic Information Systems manager, said that among goals for 2025 include transitioning into the new software ArcGIS Pro at all partners. ArcGIS desktop software has been used in the past.
“There’s no added cost or anything for that. It’s just software’s evolving, and you have to stay up with the times,” Yerington said. “We’ll be working on a parcel conversion this year as well, so that’s compatible with that software. The geometry of the parcels will be converted to a new data model.”
The Attorney’s Office is the chief prosecutor and chief law enforcement officer in the county.
“My budget essentially stayed the same for this next year, beyond wages,” County Attorney Jim Barry said. “I’m no longer, as I think I’ve reported in the past, keeping forfeiture monies. All those monies are going to be going back to law enforcement, not my office.
“We’ll continue to pay my share of fine collection monies. We’ll continue to pay that, and I think we’re about $20,000 in that account now, and as soon as we reach another point, we’ll make another transfer to the general fund.”
The Auditor’s Office serves as the clerk to the board of supervisors and the commissioner of elections.
“My biggest item that is an increase is voting machines and equipment,” County Auditor Tibe Vander Linden said.
The 58 election laptops must be updated to Windows 11. Fifty laptops are used at the polls, six are used for training and two are backups.
“We’ve tried to upgrade what we have to Windows 11. It’s not compatible to do that,” Vander Linden said. “In the budget, I’m asking for a total of 39,000. That doesn’t cover all 58 because $6,600 is still in my current budget.”
Vander Linden said she is working with Bill Riley, Information Technology director, to get quotes to at least order 8 to 10 laptops to spend the money in the budget now.
Special use permit
The board reviewed a special use permit granted on Jan. 3 by the Muscatine County Board of Adjustment.
K&R LLC – Kevin Phillips and Jayme Hazen requested a special use permit to build a handicapped-accessible home on the 4-77-1W tract of Sweetland Road. The land, which has approximately 8.10 acres and is zoned A-1 Agricultural, has been family land for generations. The permit would allow for the building of a wheelchair-accessible home for a 12-year-old relative.
“Allowing us to build on land already owned by our family will save our family tens of thousands of dollars that we can then put back into the home for costly specialty modifications needed for Lukas,” Jayme Hazen said in the application. “Our current home has become an obstacle as we do not have adequate space to adapt our bathroom. It has become almost impossible to safely bathe our son in our current situation. We are in an urgent need to build.”
Conservation Board application
The board reviewed one additional application for a vacancy on the Muscatine County Conservation Board to fill a vacancy for a five-year term ending Dec. 31, 2029. The applicant is Nicole Watson, who is employed at Availity LLC. Watson’s previous volunteer work includes the Des Moines Rowing Club.
Applicants presented at the board’s Jan. 6 meeting were Dakoatah Jacobs, who is an environmental scientist with Terracon Consultants Inc. and has a bachelor’s degree in environmental science with a double minor in conservation and natural resources; Mark Roberts, who is retired as conservation education coordinator/naturalist for Clinton County Conservation; Jeff Snyder, who spent over 25 years in the parks and recreation and conservation fields before retirement; and Julie Plummer, who is retired from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Iowa Waste Exchange Program, after serving as an area resource specialist for 24 years.
“Looks like we’ve got a lot of folks who are interested in that position, and that’s always a great thing to have,” Chairperson Nathan Mather said. “I imagine we’ll take action on that next week.”
In other action, the board approved:
The re-appointment of Dr. Robert Weis as the Muscatine County Medical Examiner for a two-year term ending Dec. 31, 2026.
The re-appointment of Muscatine County Medical Examiner Investigator for a two-year term ending Dec. 31, 2026: Tom Summitt, chief medical examiner investigator; Susan Garrett, Todd Heck, Julia Hilbert, Richard Hines, Joshua Rudolph and Tashia Wheeler.