Washington County, city at odds on Orchard Hill

WASHINGTON — Washington Mayor Jaron Rosien told Washington County Supervisors Tuesday morning that he had concerns about plans to relocate several offices from the county courthouse to a proposed new facility at Orchard Hill.

Rosien said the move would constitute a “disinvestment” in the downtown area.

“As a downtown business owner, I see many individuals that walk through the downtown to do their business, as well as many employees housed in the courthouse that leave to do their business downtown at the bank, at the assessor’s, at title and guarantee, other lawyers’ offices,” he said. “This plan, I believe, will be an inconvenience for your people here and for our citizens, which are our customers.”

Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said he worried that line of thinking was too “Washington-centric,” citing residents from elsewhere in the county who would drive to the office either way.

“Yeah, it’s handy for the dozens of people that are in Washington that use it, but there are also hundreds of people from Riverside, Brighton, Kalona, other places that, if we moved out to Orchard Hill, wouldn’t be concerned,” he said. “When you’re looking at the county as a whole, there’s 15,000 people versus 7,000, roughly, that we have to think about.”

Rosien said he had other concerns beyond municipal interests, saying the proposal traded off with better uses of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

“As a taxpayer, my fourth concern is that use of ARPA funds misses better opportunities,” he said. “While it seems great that you wouldn’t have to bond as much money to do the project, there are other things that other departments could use the money for that would improve both the county and region.”

Seward said ARPA money was likely the only way to acquire a new administrative building in the foreseeable future, citing similar plans that failed in the last four decades for lack of funding.

“It all boils down to, ‘Yeah, we need to do something, but we don’t have the money to do it,’” he said. “We are given, without us asking for it, almost $4.4 million to do something with, and now, the [money] is not the issue. Because we don’t have to take tax money from our local property tax asking to do it. We’ve thought a lot about this, and how it benefits the county as a whole.”

Rosien had other complaints unrelated to municipal interests, but which the supervisors did not directly respond to.

For one, he cited an arguably hazardous intersection on the way to Orchard Hill, where he was involved in a car-totaling accident last year.

“The DOT reports over a dozen incidents there in the last 10 years, with over a third of them having personal injuries, (and) at least one fatality,” he said.

Additionally, the mayor alluded to complaints from county department leaders about the relocation. Some officials have voiced concerns about the proposed facility’s space, break rooms and parking at previous work sessions.

“As an elected official that listens to input, I’m concerned that the significant majority of people that you’re moving, or people that are already there, are opposed to the plan and that they are being ignored,” Rosien said. “Many of these practical concerns have already been mentioned, so I won’t get into them.”

For now, the county appears poised to keep moving forward. Later in the meeting, Supervisors voted unanimously to set a Dec. 7 date to interview four architects and hire one to continue developing the facility plan.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com