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No decisions on Floyd County collection site restroom situation

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County supervisors again discussed but took no action on a request to provide indoor restroom facilities at a county solid waste collection site near the fairgrounds.

And it looks more and more likely that even if a change is made, it won’t happen before this winter.

Charles City CPA Scott Andrews has almost single-handedly taken up the cause of getting an indoor restroom at the collection site, saying requiring the person who works there to use an outdoor porta-potty, especially in the winter, is “cruel and inhumane.”

Andrews requested to again be on the agenda for the Tuesday regular board meeting this week, and although he had to leave before that agenda item came up, a statement he had prepared was read to the board.

He estimated the cost of locating a portable office trailer with restroom facilities or building a new building on the site, located on Floyd County Fairgrounds property east of the fairgrounds on Packard Avenue, would run about $60,000, and could still be done this fall if action is taken quickly.

Andrews suggested that the supervisors use some of the $3 million in American Rescue Plan COVID-19 funding that will be available to the county for the project, noting that’s only about 2% of the total funds available.

But supervisors again said too little is yet known about how the ARP funds can be spent to commit them to a project, and they wondered if the matter is even a concern to the employee who works there.

County Engineer Dusten Rolando, who supervises the county collection site, said the employee, Karen Smith, has told him that she knew about the situation when she took the job, knew the restroom facility was an outdoor portable toilet, and she said any complaints about the situation “are not coming from me.”

Supervisor Doug Kamm said the property where the collection site is located isn’t owned by the county, so before any permanent structure was built there that would need to be addressed.

Supervisor Roy Schwickerath said one way to begin to address the situation might be to work a lunch period into the schedule when the employee could leave the site.

And Supervisor Linda Tjaden said she would contact Smith to talk further about the situation.

Also at the workshop and regular board meetings this week:

• Conservation Director Adam Sears said there was about $12,206 damage to county park facilities in the Aug. 27 storms, including downed trees that needed to be removed, trail erosion at the Fossil and Prairie Park that had to be fixed, picnic tables lost to flooding and other damage.

• The board discussed the new county law enforcement center project and noted the current goal is to have everything finished with the new building, including final inspections, by Oct. 4.

A concern on the courthouse update part of the project is that, because of delays in the LEC construction, work on the courthouse is being done much later in the year than originally planned for.

Part of the project includes removing the old courthouse radiators and piping so that the building can be heated and cooled with the new HVAC system in the LEC, meaning there may be no heat in the building for awhile as winter nears.

Brian Shindelar, site superintendent for the Samuels Group, the project construction manager, said they are looking at temporary heating options.

County Auditor Gloria Carr said that, because some of the LEC project delays were caused by materials production slowdowns caused by the pandemic, the cost of temporary heating may be covered under COVID funds.

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