Waste permit work will cost county $4,190

By STEPH TAHTINEN

Mt. Pleasant News

Tuesday morning, the Henry County Board of Supervisors approved paying Barker Lemar out of West Des Moines $4,190 to do the work to acquire a permit for a Citizens? Convenience Center.

?We have to have a permit to do trash,? said Marc Lindeen, supervisor chairman.

Supervisor Vice Chairman Kent White questioned the cost.

?Is it that challenging?? he asked. He was told by Lindeen and County Auditor Shelly Barber that there is a lot of technical information involved.

The permit will be in Henry County?s name.

?The advantage of this is in the future we won?t be left holding the bag,? said Supervisor Gary See. The permit for the transfer station that closed in October had been held Whaley Waste Systems, which left the county without a permit.

However, in order to get the permit, the county will need to decide on a permanent site. Currently, the county has been using the Emergency Management Building for a central location. However, they need to decide whether to keep it at this site or move it to a new location, which may require the county to purchase some property.

The supervisors are welcoming any input from the public as to the location of the permanent site, and they will be discussing a permanent site location at their Thursday meeting at 10:15 a.m.

In other business, the board has chosen to revise its agenda procedures to allow for a scheduled time for public comments.

?We?re giving a person a time where they know they can talk to us,? said Lindeen.

Previously, the supervisors agenda has contained scheduled agenda items with time for open forum in between the listed agenda items. To address the board in open forum, the public had to wait its turn at an unscheduled agenda time. This meant that occasionally a person would have to wait for an hour or more until an unscheduled time.

To make it more convenient for the public, the supervisors have decided to set a specific time at the beginning of their agenda for public comments.

?Public comments is a little more appropriate (than public forum),? said White, as it is a time for the public to comment without action being taken by the supervisors.

Of course, if there is an open time between agenda items, i.e. and agenda item finishes early and there is 15 minutes until the next scheduled agenda item, the public will still be able to speak to the supervisors.

The supervisors will also be adding time for supervisor sub-committee and meeting updates, which was the suggestion of White.

?We could discuss an item from the exorbitant amount of committees we sit on,? explained White. All three supervisors sit on various committees throughout the county, and this would be a chance to update each other on what is happening in those committees.

There will also be a time to discuss other county business that may come up. This will be an opportunity for either department heads or any other county employees to bring concerns to the supervisors.

Finally, once the meeting has adjourned for the day, there will be one supervisor present in the office until noon in order to provide more opportunity for the public to speak with a supervisor.