Tama County Administration Building, 104 W State St., Toledo, Iowa. -- File photo

The usual constellation of civic minded citizens could be seen enjoying the prosaic discourse of the supervisors meeting that kicks off every week. As per usual with the annual meeting of the supervisors, Tama County Engineer Ben Daleske was up first to give his report. They’ve been spot rocking, as well as hauling rock to 275th West of Hwy 63 and on Q & R Avenue West of Clutier. A culvert on N Ave just North of E29 has been finished and they are currently working on a culvert on 280th Street just West of Hwy 21. They will start the tear down of the old shop this week. Two utility permits were approved.

The supervisors approved a resolution regarding litigation with Salt Creek Wind and procedural matters regarding the Tama County Board of Adjustment. Supervisor Chairman Mark Doland spoke about this matter at length before its approval.

“This is a resolution that we worked with our attorneys on, for outside counsel. Just a couple of comments on the outset, there was a board of adjustment meeting that was scheduled at the end of February, we weren’t, unaware of why that was canceled, had different reasons why that I had heard, and they were conflicting. Who cancelled it, and why and what attorney had advised to cancel, and those kind of things. So, I never did quite have the understanding of why it was canceled. We worked with our attorney, the county attorney, to understand it a little bit better. And through our lawsuits that (are) going on with Salt Creek Wind, we were able to review some documentation. Within the documentation, there was a letter that was sent to the board of adjustment, and whoever their attorney is, asking for them to meet by the end of March. And we certainly were in favor of them meeting before March and or before the end of March to have that resolved, and nobody knew that they were in favor of that,” he said. “So, this is kind of a resolution saying Salt Creek Wind’s in favor of them meeting before the end of March, we’re in favor of them meeting before the end of March, why isn’t it happening? So we’re trying to stay independent of all of what the board of adjustment is doing, but we want to have an understanding and a clarification where we’re at because we’re in a lawsuit, and we have conflicting opinions about what’s going on within the board of adjustment. Can we move forward? Can they move forward? We’re being asked if a moratorium applies to this current project. We want to know if this issue is resolved and when it is going to be resolved before we can issue our opinion on, if it applies, and still. This resolution hopefully will clarify our position on where we stand as far as what this board of adjustment needs to do. We think that they need to have a meeting. We are not going to tell them how they should decide, that’s up to them, but we think that they should also comply with the request from Salt Creek Wind to meet and decide on the previous action that was asked of them to be taken.”

The second and third public hearings to repeal ordinance VI.5(6.5), the wind energy conversion assessment ordinance were set for April 22nd and 23rd at 8 am. The first public hearing to repeal this ordinance will be held on April 21st at 9:30 am.

The Sheriff’s Quarterly report was approved.

During council updates, Supervisor Heather Knebel talked about her recent meeting with the Heartland Risk Pool. Knebel, who is the Tama County Supervisors trustee on the Risk Pool board, reported that the board approved giving $25,000 to Tama County to use for outside legal counsel for the current litigation the Tama County Supervisors are engaged in with Salt Creek Wind.

Claims totaling $296,041.04 were approved.