MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa — Henry County supervisors tabled the awarding of contracts for the construction of the new Henry County law center again at Thursday's meeting, after the agenda item was tabled first at Tuesday's meeting.
"We are not awarding the construction contracts because of litigation," said Henry County Board of Supervisors Chairman Greg Moeller. "We are working on our end of that."
The pending litigation is from Prochaska and Associates, an architecture firm out of Omaha, Nebraska, against the Henry County Board of Supervisors, Midwest Construction Consultants, and Midwest Construction Consultant President John Hansen.
Moeller said two resolutions, one to award the construction contracts and the other the approve the construction contracts and bonds will be tabled until further notice, hopefully within three to four weeks' time.
The board did approve a resolution directing the acceptance of a proposal to purchase $9.1 million worth of general obligation loan notes, and said despite the delay they are able to sell the bonds for the jail project at the same interest rate they had initially anticipated.
In other business, Henry County Planning and Zoning Director Joe Buffington started a conversation with the supervisors about the future enforcement of junk violations in the county.
Buffington said some properties in the county have been acquiring junk, and he has fielded several complaints. While ordinances against these issues already exist, Buffington said the county needs to look for ways to more effectively enforce these ordinances.
To do this, Buffington said the supervisors should discuss whether they want to enforce these junk problems as nuisance violations or zoning violations.
Nuisances can be more subjective, but can also be put against a residents' taxes as a special assessment fee immediately.
Zoning violations are more black and white to determine, but any junk the county hauls away can be charged as a lien against the property, which residents have a much longer time span to pay back. Zoning violations can be given to residents whose properties fit the definition of a junkyard or salvage yard, but do not have the appropriate permit to run a junk or salvage yard.
Buffington said many of the junk problems stem from people in the country who collect a lot of junk on their properties and may not even be aware they are in violation of the law. He said a grace period before strict enforcement may be necessary in these type of situations.
"We need some kind of public awareness, public announcements to make it clear that this kind of stuff isn't legal," said Buffington.
Buffington also talked about offering an incentive to residents to remove their own junk rather than waiting for the county to intervene and haul it away. He said it might be possible to offer money back for the value of the junk, rather than just a bill for service if the county hauls it.
"I think the process is going to be relatively the same," Buffington said, referring to nuisance versus zoning violations. "The difference is how we collect that debt going forward."
