County hosts auction, sells property at board meeting

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Henry County?s treasury increased by $3,700 during Thursday morning?s county supervisor meeting due to the sale of county-owned land.

Three tracts of land ? in Mt. Union, Trenton and Winfield ? were sold at auction to the highest bidder. Joe Buffington, county planning and zoning administrator, explained that the land consisted of parcels that were never transferred by deed and therefore, became county property. They were offered for sale at the recent county property tax sale but not purchased.

Two lots in Trenton attracted the most bidding and money during the auction. The original bid was $800 for the lots but the auction sale Thursday enabled the original bidder to raise his/her bid and attract bids from others interested in the property. Kristi R. Brock was the successful bidder at $3,000.

High bid on the Mt. Union lot prior to Thursday was $100 by Robert Scott. However, W. David Becker out-bid Scott at the auction, paying $500 for the lot.

Frank J. Conner?s original bid of $200 withstood any challenges for the lot in Winfield.

?We?ve had them (parcels of property) long enough,? Buffington said following the auction.

The property that sold Thursday was part of 14 parcels offered for sale by the county. The other property was largely ?slivers next to adjacent property,? as described by Buffington, and five of the remaining nine pieces of property were sold prior to Thursday?s auction. The five pieces of lots were all sold to adjacent property owners. The remaining four portions of lots will be on next year?s tax sale.

Thursday?s board meeting also featured the monthly reports from county officers.

County Sheriff Rich McNamee reported that two county patrol cars were the victims of recent car-deer accidents. ?The car-deer accidents are still running high and usually drop off by now. We had two cars that struck deer and one will probably be totaled.?

He also said the person hired for the jail transition program has begun work and will be in Mt. Pleasant next week. She will make visits to Mt. Pleasant weekly as part of her four-county rotation.

Five years ago, the state began a program of issuing gun permits to residents, which expire in five years. Because the expiration date is approaching on many of the permits, the sheriff?s office is renewing as many as 30 to 40 per day.

McNamee also said he will be meeting Dec. 16 with the architect on the county jail expansion project to begin plans on the feasibility study.

Walt Jackson, county emergency management director, said there will be another courthouse security committee meeting Thursday, Dec. 10. Jackson said he, along with McNamee and supervisor Chairman Greg Moeller, recently attended a training exercise at the Des Moines County Courthouse and came away with some useful information.

Jackson said he is pondering the idea of placing air horns in every courthouse office to alert staffers in the event of an incident in the building.

The emergency management director also reported that he will be attending a sports and special events crisis management program, beginning in January. There will be three training sessions, once a month, with one of the sessions at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City; another at Jack Trice Field, in Ames; and the final one in Des Moines. He said he hopes what he learns might be useful in the event of a disturbance at Midwest Old Threshers or at any large county event.

John Pullis, county conservation director, said his staff is doing some upgrades at one of the county campgrounds and also adding new displays at the Oakland Mills Nature Center.

In the final piece of news, Buffington said county building permits continue to run about 10 percent ahead of last year.

Supervisors will meet again at 9 a.m., on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at the courthouse.