Supervisors take a road trip to Hillsboro

By STEPH TAHTINEN

Mt. Pleasant News

HILLSBORO ? Tuesday night, the supervisors traveled to Hillsboro for their monthly night meeting and met with six residents of Hillsboro to answer their questions.

One area of concern expressed by residents were problems with dealing with roads, specifically a culvert on the Henry-Van Buren County Line Road. One citizen commented that it ?just doesn?t look right,? and others agreed that the culvert was too high. There was concern that there was going to be a pond on the Van Buren County side of the road before the water was high enough to go through the culvert.

Because this road is between the two counties, it was uncertain who installed the culvert and who would be in charge of fixing it. The supervisors noted they would mention the culvert to County Engineer Bill Belzer, who was unable to attend Tuesday night?s meeting due to another commitment. Belzer often attends these monthly meetings with the supervisors as questions about roads frequently come up.

In other questions, Mayor Jim Tomson asked whether the county had come to any solution for the rural garbage service, which the supervisors had just finalized earlier that morning.

?Really you?ll see very little change,? said Supervisor Chairman Marc Lindeen. All four outlying collection sites in the county will remain as they are, and the central site will be at the Emergency Management Building in Mt. Pleasant.

Supervisor Vice Chairman Kent White also informed the group that work will begin soon on a house in Hillsboro that has been approved for work by Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission through the Great River Regional Housing Trust Fund.

This fund provides funding assistance for home improvement projects to those who need it. There are certain qualifications that must be met in order to qualify.

This is an ongoing process in Southeast Iowa, and Tomson asked about how to apply for the assistance. County Auditor Shelly Barber replied that she no longer has applications in her office, but those interested could contact her office and she could get them in touch with the commission.

Tuesday night?s meeting was one in a series of public forums the supervisors have held in the smaller communities around the county. They have made an effort to visit a different area of the county once a month to give residents a chance to meet with the board at a place and time more convenient to them. These meetings are held at night to help accommodate those who cannot make it to their regularly held meetings during the day. The supervisors plan to continue holding these meetings in the future.

?We?ve already formed a schedule,? said White.

The supervisors encourage department heads to attend the meetings so that if there are questions for a specific department, they can be asked directly to the department and possibly receive an immediate answer, rather than requiring a message to be relayed.