Cleaning up, reaching out

MARENGO — The new Iowa County Conservation Director introduced himself to County Supervisors during their regular meeting April 19.

A native of Altoona, Jacob Slings has been a liaison between the city and the public in Des Moines. Slings sees community engagement as an important part of his new conservation job as well.

“I’m excited to get started,” Slings said.

Supervisor Chris Montross, who has been acting conservation director, took Slings on a tour of the county’s public properties. Supervisor Chairman Kevin Heitshusen asked Slings what he would like to change.

“I think we need to take care of what we already have,” said Slings. “A lot of things … are in a dilapidated state.”

Slings has been cleaning up the park entrance and working on amenities at the campground and nature center. “Things that have kind of been taken for granted,” Slings said.

Slings is taking an inventory of what the county has and what needs work, he said. He has a good group of workers, but he could use some volunteers. “The bodies we can get out the faster we can get there.”

The park has been choked off by brush, Slings said. “Even deer don’t want to go there.” Clearing out some brush will increase use of the park, he said.

Slings has fixed sewer issues that the nature center, he said. For many years, the septic backed up into the basement when a groups of children were there for programs and used the toilet a lot, supervisors said.

The county has a lot of good properties, said Supervisor Alan Schumacher.

“You’ve got a lot of hills,” said Slings, unlike many areas of Iowa.

A map of properties — such as Gateway Park and Preserve in Marengo, Lake Iowa Park southwest of Williamsburg and Butler Timber Reserve Wildlife Area near Millersburg — is available at iowacountyconservation.org.

Becoming familiar to residents and letting them know what the conservation department is doing is an important part of the job, Slings said.

“People want faces to put with people,” Slings said. They want someone who can answer their questions. For example, they want to know where to find morel mushrooms right now.

Slings plans to increase the conservation department’s online presence. When he set up an interview for the position, he went to the county conservation website and found nothing, he said.

He’s already trying to change that.

Slings will be posting events on the website’s calendar and posting on the Facebook page, Lake Iowa Park and Iowa County Conservation.

The Facebook page has more than 5,000 followers, and engagement is good. “Even just the morel picture we put up last week [had over 200 likes],” Slings said.

Slings asked supervisors what they’d like to see from him.

“I want you to fulfill the vision you’ve got,” said Schumacher. “I like that.”

Heitshusen asked Slings to come in quarterly and let supervisors know what’s going on. They don’t want to second guess the County Conservation Board which oversees the department, but they don’t want to be in the dark, Heitshusen said.