Firework safety important during Fourth of July
Sexually-oriented business ordinance approved
P&Z approves deck amendment

The Delaware County Board of Supervisors approved the second reading of Ordinance #26 and waived the third reading at the June 19 board meeting, after no opposition was given. The ordinance will now go into effect from the date of its publication in the official newspapers.

The county addressed the library funding issue by describing a letter being sent to the libraries that proposes a four-year tentative contract with an 8 percent annual increase in funding. The funding is broken down for each library. The supervisors stressed that this is tentative and could be affected by state actions.

The board has been very concerned about how county money is being divided among the libraries.
They laid out their proposal for funding distribution in the letter; with Manchester receiving the largest share by far ($20,000 for the 2006-07 fiscal year), Delhi, Earlville, and Hopkinton receiving the same amount ($6,000), slightly less proposed for Colesburg and Edgewood ($4,875 and $4,500 respectfully), and only a small amount proposed for the Dyersville library ($2,500). This addresses the supervisors’ concerns about giving to out-of-county libraries, but recognizes that some Delaware County residents are served by them.

The letter states that the proposed 8 percent annual increases may be up to twice what other areas of funding will receive. This reflects their recognition that libraries are under-funded. The Library Association must now reject or accept the terms drawn up in the letter, or contact the supervisors for further negotiations. All parties involved need to act quickly as the deadline for a contract is July 1.

Several secondary road resolutions were presented and approved by board. The first one concerns the use of demolition materials for riprap on county bridges and culverts. This issue was addressed because some had expressed the thought that the county was doing favors for special people. This resolution allows for using riprap from farmers’ old barn foundations and other structures.

A resolution on speed limit requests gives the county engineer authority to do some investigation into the request and bring the state Department of Transportation (DOT) into it as needed.

The third resolution addresses fence replacement for construction projects. By law the county is required to compensate landowners for damage to their property during road or bridge construction. Fences will be replaced if they replace existing fences that were permanent fences for livestock. The county will join a fence that runs into the replacement right-of-way fence.
Landowners have a choice of three types of fence.

Another resolution affecting landowners is on the destruction of noxious weeds. It mandates that property owners must cut, burn, or otherwise destroy noxious weeds on their lands. The resolution also gives them the dates by which each group of weeds must be destroyed. The various species are placed in four groups, with each group having a destruction deadline between June 15 and July 30. Under this resolution the Weed Commissioner is given authority to take the action necessary and bill it to the owner if they are not complying with the orders.

Project plans for the 310th Avenue Bridge were presented and approved. This bridge, northeast of Petersburg, has been delayed a couple of times. Plans call for replacing the 80’x18’ existing bridge with a 125’x30’ continuous concrete slab bridge.

County Engineer Mark Nahra explained that bridges built now are designed to a higher hydraulic capacity, thus requiring a longer span. Also, due to changes in farming practices, bridges are being overtopped more now during storms, and tend to scour out. The square-faced abutment design that was used in the past is much more susceptible to scour. The new abutment design (spill-through abutment) is more scour resistant. The soil is also set at a more stable 2-1 slope and the pilings are at deeper elevations. The 310th Avenue Bridge is being designed to meet the minimum standards for the 50 and 100-year floods. DOT bid letting is set for September 19.

The supervisors approved an agreement with Options of Linn County for the services they provide to those few Delaware County residents that benefit from being housed in Linn County.

Also a contract for this next fiscal year for public health allocation funds was approved. The amount of $72,918 is the same as last year.

A cigarette permit was awarded to Pizza Place, Inc. in Delhi for July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007.

In construction news, surface work is done on D47 and everything should be completed by the end of the week.

Also, work on the Highway 20 frontage road east of Earlville (219th Street) is now finished.

However, an unforeseen problem came up while trying to placing a rock ford at the 221st Street Bridge. There was too much mud and clay at the site to just place rock there and expect equipment to get through. So the county modified it by setting three 24” culverts in and putting riprap and stone over that.