Iowa City firm expresses interest in county property

By MEGAN COOPER

Mt. Pleasant News

Mt. Pleasant may be gaining an endodontic clinic in the near future.

Kiley Miller, executive vice-president of Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance, told the Henry County Board of Supervisors during its regular meeting Tuesday morning, ?Endodontics Specialists L.L.C. from Iowa City is looking to purchase two acres of land on the south side of East Washington Street in the Crossroads Park addition.?

If the clinic came to Mt. Pleasant it would offer oral surgery, such as root canals. ?The builders are also discussing adding apartments above the office. They need to know if it?s something they can do and if there is a need,? Miller told the board.

The board was interested in the sale and the board is also authorized to sell this land whenever it needs to, as it is owned by the county and has been for sale for more than a year.

?The only issue I see is that if they purchase the two acres of land they are looking at, it will leave a strip of land between their office (the clinic) and Community First Credit Union that will be unusable because it won?t be big enough,? Miller informed the board. ?My recommendation to you would be to either, have them bump up their request to 2.8 acres or find somewhere else. I don?t think they should split the current lot.?

Marc Lindeen, vice-chairman of the board, stated, ?I think we need to discuss this further, but I can say something more needs to be done.?

?I think they should go with the 2.8 acres,? added chairman Gary See.

The board decided to allow Miller to contact the realtor and to let them they were interested in the sale and that further discussion needed to take place before anything final was decided.

Henry County Engineer Jake Hotchkiss discussed the snowmobile route. ?We have finally come to an agreement and I have the contract approved by the attorney. Now, it is up to the Ridgeblasters club to sign the contract and present it to you (the board) for final approval,? Hotchkiss said.

Lindeen was concerned about the time element that was not on the contract. ?Are we going to add times they can ride?? He asked Hotchkiss.

Hotchkiss responded, ?No, because if we do that then we have to create a resolution and have that passed. I think we should leave it up to the club. The club is essentially telling us this route is a good thing and I say they have to prove it. They need to know that they are representing themselves and they know what times they should ride. If they choose to be disruptive or what not, then we don?t have to go into contract with them next year.?

He added, ?I understand that it may not be someone in the club who violates the contract, but we will deal with that as it comes. Basically, it?s up to the club to prove to the county it was a good idea to do this. We just won?t know what happens until we try.?

In other news, the engineer is now ready to fill the vacant mechanics position. He will be posting more information on that later this week.

John Pullis, executive director of Henry County Conservation, told the board during his monthly update, ?Friends of Conservation has raised enough money to possibly build a third cabin. They are interested in doing so and this time, it would have to be handicap accessible. It would change the floor plan, but it?s something we would have to do. Also, the prices have gone up, so we will just have to see where we go from here.?

Greg Moeller, board member, discussed an issue that has come up concerning the Substance Abuse Coalition. ?After Sept. 30, 2015, the coalition will no longer have any grant money. They have applied for the past two years and haven?t received any. They will try again, but if they don?t, then we have to see what will happen. The coalition may not exist after that because there may not be money to fund it.?

The coalition is responsible for programs like Moms Off Meth, Dads Against Drugs, and Vigil for Loss Promise, various carnivals and much more. ?We could possibly do fund-raisers to get money to keep it going, but we just don?t know yet. We are discussing what we can do.?

The Henry County Board of Supervisors will meet again Thursday, Nov. 21, at 9 a.m. in the boardroom at the courthouse.