County seeks to continue 28E for engineer
OTTUMWA — With budget season now over, the Wapello County Board of Supervisors will return to more regular business.
The board is expected to renew a 28E agreement Tuesday with Appanoose County for shared use of engineer Brad Skinner, who will be paid 60% of a $172,411 salary by Wapello County starting July 1.
The counties first entered into a 28E for the position last year after the resignation of Jeff Skalberg, and the county's subsequent inability to hire an engineer on its own. It's a difficult position to fill, leading to more counties entering into such an agreement across the state as graduating engineers tend to veer toward the private sector.
Both counties will also be responsible for Skinner's benefits, including FICA, IPERS and workers' compensation. Part of Skinner's role also is to find a successor for Wapello County.
Also during the meeting, the county will approve the five-year secondary roads program, which includes building a new road (172nd Avenue) as Canadian Pacific Kansas City railroad closed the crossing at 87th Street. There also are various bridge and culvert replacement projects on the docket in fiscal year 2026.
The county also is expected to conclude the second reading of an EMS ordinance that will eventually create an advisory committee to assess the needs of the service in Wapello County.
Also, there will be continued discussion about the county possibly taking over the utility costs on the Wabash pedestrian bridge, which the county owns.
The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. in the third-floor courtroom/board room of the courthouse.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Miami Herald
General Atomics Demonstrates PFAS Destruction System for Minnesota Congresswoman, State and Local Officials
PERSES System Delivered to Lake Elmo Facility to Destroy PFAS Waste SAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESS Newswire / June 9, 2025 / General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced today that Minnesota Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) and other members of state and local government attended a real-time demonstration of the complete destruction of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) waste streams using GA-EMS' PERSES™ waste destruction system at a site located in Lake Elmo, MN on Friday, May 30. The PERSES system is on-site at the Lake Elmo facility for a four-week period to demonstrate the system's industrial-scale capabilities to destroy a wide variety of PFAS and PFAS contaminated waste. The PERSES system will be shipped to other suitable test sites for additional on-site PFAS destruction testing and demonstrations. "This is an exciting day as we learn how to break down the toxic chemical bond of PFAS. Through Department of Defense investment and private-sector innovation, General Atomics has achieved an extraordinary scientific breakthrough by completing a successful PFAS remediation in a controlled setting," said Congresswoman McCollum. "But there's still work to be done. Now, we must focus on scaling this technology so that it can be a solution for communities and military installations at large to eliminate the threat of PFAS pollution." GA-EMS is conducting the on-site demonstrations under a contract award by Bay West LLC, an environmental and remediation company leading a research program funded by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) to deliver, install, and operate PERSES for multiple project demonstrations to destroy PFAS and PFAS contaminated waste. "We are extremely pleased to be working with Bay West and ERDC in welcoming Congresswoman McCollum, state, regional and local officials to witness the effectiveness of PERSES in the destruction of PFAS," said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. "On-site demonstrations such as this bring the power of PERSES directly into a community to demonstrate in person the system's capabilities to safely and efficiently eliminate PFAS from a broad range of waste media including landfill leachate, biosolid "sludge", soils and sediment, firefighting foam, and granular activated carbon and resin beads from filtration treatment systems. PERSES is the most effective tool in the waste remediation toolkit that can help bring an end to the forever cycle of PFAS contamination." PERSES utilizes GA-EMS' proven industrial Supercritical Water Oxidation (iSCWO) technology which has been in commercial use for more than a decade to effectively destroy PFAS and more than 200 hazardous and non-hazardous types of waste with 99.99% and greater efficiency. In a single process, PERSES destroys PFAS and PFAS waste with co-contaminants leaving behind only water, salts, and carbon dioxide which can be safely released into the environment with no post-treatment requirement. Bay West is a nationally recognized environmental consulting and remediation company headquartered in St. Paul, MN that provides solutions to government and commercial enterprises to navigate complex environmental concerns and ongoing remediation challenges. ERDC is an integral component of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and helps solve the nation's most challenging civil and military engineering, geospatial sciences, water resources, and environmental sciences for the Army, DoD, civilian agencies. SOURCE: General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems press release
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
City creating second safe surrender site, cutting taxes for some small businesses
Jun. 6—MORGANTOWN — The city of Morgantown is taking advantage of a recent change in state code to create the city's second safe surrender site. Safe surrender sites are designated locations at which newborns up to 30 days old can be dropped off while maintaining the anonymity of the person surrendering the child. In April 2024, Morgantown opened West Virginia's second Safe Haven Baby Box at the Norwood Fire Station. Earlier this year, the West Virginia Legislature expanded the allowable surrender sites beyond fire departments to include police departments, sheriff's departments and EMS facilities. In response, the city of Morgantown is looking to add the Morgantown Public Safety Building — home of the Morgantown Police Department — as a designated site. Unlike the Norwood setup, which includes dedicated infrastructure known as a "baby box, " built directly into the fire station, a baby dropped at the Public Safety Building will be handed to a police officer. "The police department, who is there 24-7, feel comfortable that they would be able to have policy and procedures to follow state code and be able to accept an infant less than 30 days old and get it to the nearest hospital facility, " Assistant City Manager Emily Muzzarelli said. "It likely would go to the police supervisor ... but it still requires the same anonymity. The person does not have to give their name or any information should they not want to." Morgantown City Council recently passed the first reading of an ordinance creating a new section of code pertaining to the safe surrender sites. Safe surrender guidelines were previously under the city's fire code as fire stations were the only allowable locations under the law as it was passed by the West Virginia Legislature in 2023. In other business, council has passed on first reading amendments to the city's business license and business and occupation tax provisions. During its most recent session, the Legislature passed House Bill 2451, which eliminates the need for municipal business licensure as well as business and occupation tax liability for some businesses. City Attorney Ryan Simonton explained that in order to be eligible for the business license exemption, a business must be a sole proprietorship or independent contractor ; cannot have a permanent physical location within the city ; and must generate annual revenue below $2, 500. In order to be exempt from business and occupation tax liability, a business must generate gross annual revenue below $2, 500. Business and occupation taxes — or B &O taxes — are taxes charged by municipalities on business activity within the city. "If they have $2, 501 in revenue, they do have to pay taxes on that full amount, " he said. If adopted upon second reading on June 17, the changes will take effect at the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
City creating second safe surrender site, cutting taxes for some small businesses
Jun. 6—MORGANTOWN — The city of Morgantown is taking advantage of a recent change in state code to create the city's second safe surrender site. Safe surrender sites are designated locations at which newborns up to 30 days old can be dropped off while maintaining the anonymity of the person surrendering the child. In April 2024, Morgantown opened West Virginia's second Safe Haven Baby Box at the Norwood Fire Station. Earlier this year, the West Virginia Legislature expanded the allowable surrender sites beyond fire departments to include police departments, sheriff's departments and EMS facilities. In response, the city of Morgantown is looking to add the Morgantown Public Safety Building — home of the Morgantown Police Department — as a designated site. Unlike the Norwood setup, which includes dedicated infrastructure known as a "baby box, " built directly into the fire station, a baby dropped at the Public Safety Building will be handed to a police officer. "The police department, who is there 24-7, feel comfortable that they would be able to have policy and procedures to follow state code and be able to accept an infant less than 30 days old and get it to the nearest hospital facility, " Assistant City Manager Emily Muzzarelli said. "It likely would go to the police supervisor ... but it still requires the same anonymity. The person does not have to give their name or any information should they not want to." Morgantown City Council recently passed the first reading of an ordinance creating a new section of code pertaining to the safe surrender sites. Safe surrender guidelines were previously under the city's fire code as fire stations were the only allowable locations under the law as it was passed by the West Virginia Legislature in 2023. In other business, council has passed on first reading amendments to the city's business license and business and occupation tax provisions. During its most recent session, the Legislature passed House Bill 2451, which eliminates the need for municipal business licensure as well as business and occupation tax liability for some businesses. City Attorney Ryan Simonton explained that in order to be eligible for the business license exemption, a business must be a sole proprietorship or independent contractor ; cannot have a permanent physical location within the city ; and must generate annual revenue below $2, 500. In order to be exempt from business and occupation tax liability, a business must generate gross annual revenue below $2, 500. Business and occupation taxes — or B &O taxes — are taxes charged by municipalities on business activity within the city. "If they have $2, 501 in revenue, they do have to pay taxes on that full amount, " he said. If adopted upon second reading on June 17, the changes will take effect at the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.
