Floyd County OK’s 18 new RV campsites at Tosanak Recreation Area

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Floyd County Board of Supervisors approved spending almost $152,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for 18 RV campsites at the Tosanak Recreation Area, at its meeting this week.

Conservation Director Adam Sears had presented the Tosanak plan, along with a couple of other conservation projects using ARPA funds, in January, when the county Board of Supervisors began discussing potential uses for more than $3 million it received from the federal COVID-19 pandemic relief and economic development program.

Much of that funding is going toward completing the Floyd County Law Enforcement Center and courthouse updates project, but there will be many hundred thousand dollars available for other uses.

The Tosanak project will add electricity, water and sewer and septic lines to create 18 new recreational vehicle campsites at the 400-acre former Boy Scout camp near Marble Rock that the county acquired in 2013.

Supervisor Chair Doug Kamm said he was concerned about spending public funds on something that could be in competition with private enterprise, but Sears said other public and private campsites in the area are being fully used and there is a demand for additional sites.

Sears said he expects that within a couple of years the county will be receiving more than $50,000 annually in camping revenues.

The board agreed to apply $151,900 in county ARPA funds toward the project by a unanimous vote.

The board had previously approved spending a little more than $2,000 in ARPA funds for kitchen and bathroom updates for the Darling Cabin at the Tosanak Recreation Area, and $19,700 for handicapped-accessible improvements at the Fossil and Prairie Park Center near Rockford.

The board Tuesday also approved an additional $390 toward the Darling Cabin project, which had cost a little more than had been expected. County Conservation staff did all the work on the project.

The Conservation Department will also contributed almost $31,000 of its own funds toward the improvements at Tosanak, with 18 each fire rings, picnic tables, site markers and gravel pads.

County Auditor Gloria Carr said at the meeting that the board has awarded $876,766 in ARPA funds so far, for LEC and courthouse expenses and other uses. About $1.5 million of the $3.038 million in ARPA funds has been budgeted toward the LEC and courthouse project.

Also at the meeting Tuesday, the supervisors:

• Discussed the potential dissolution of the Southwest Bypass TIF District board, which includes members from the county and from Charles City. The joint board was established as a means to manage the urban development property that includes land in the city and outside the city limits in the county, but since the time it was formed state law has changed to allow cities to control zoning up to 2 miles outside city limits.

Carr said the joint board increases costs because all legal fees and paperwork have to be done in duplicate for the city and county. The county would still be informed of anything that is going on in the tax increment financing district, just as any taxing body that is affected by a TIF economic development deal would be.

The board agreed it is likely there won’t be a time to make a decision and take action on dissolving the board yet this year, so the three new supervisors will have to handle it after they take office the first of the year.

• Discussed an amendment to the Southwest Bypass TIF District to support an economic development package for a $6.5 million Cambrex expansion project. The development package includes $300,000 from the Iowa Economic Development Authority that has already been approved, a $48,750 forgivable loan from the city of Charles City, a $22,500 forgivable loan from the Charles City Area Economic Development Corp., and $400,000 in a 90% six-year property tax rebate on the added value of the property from the project.