CONTRIBUTED PHOTO An important step was taken Tuesday for the Green Mountain wastewater treatment facility project when the Marshall County Board of Supervisors set Oct. 29 as public hearing date for a Community Development Block Grant application of $126,000 to help fund the project.

After more than 10 years of work, the village of Green Mountain is one giant step closer to having a wastewater treatment facility.

But one more hurdle remains.

The Marshall County Board of Supervisors set 9:05 a.m., Oct. 29. in the Great Western Bank Conference Room as time, date and place for a public hearing for the Green Mountain Community Development Block Grant wastewater treatment facility application.

Meeting in regular session Tuesday, supervisors voted unanimously to hold the hearing, a requirement before the application requesting $126,000 can be submitted to the Iowa Economic Development Authority in Des Moines on Jan. 1.

The county is sponsoring the application because Green Mountain is an unincorporated village.

“I am happy to see this (project) come up,” supervisor Dave Thompson said. “Because it means all the people have signed off on the dotted line. Otherwise, no application for federal funds could be submitted.”

The CDBG is a federally-funded program for public works among other projects, and managed by IEDA.

Thompson said Marty Wymore, director of Region VI Resource Partners in Marshalltown, had worked with necessary stakeholders – including the Central Iowa Water Association – to get their support.

“All land and easements have been secured,” Wymore said. “The United States Department of Agriculture rural development grants and loans have been approved too. The final piece is to get approval of the CDBG. That is limited to $1,000 per person in Green Mountain or $126,000.”

Wymore said he expects IEDA to make a decision by mid-March.

If approved, some construction activity could start in the later part of 2020, but most of the work would be done in 2021.

The veteran director said his office has been involved since 2010, and he knows county officials had been discussing the need for wastewater treatment before then, since individual households, the school and others are using septic systems.

Wymore said CIWA has taken the lead on the project and speculated they will own and manage the wastewater treatment facility.

In other action, supervisors unanimously approved the county’s recently completed General Safety Manual.

Auditor/Recorder Nan Benson said department heads took the process of formulating the manual seriously.

“They passed the manual around to employees,” she said. “And attendance was good at all meetings.”

“The development and review of the safety manual has been important,” Thompson said. “We had some near misses in the secondary road department. The manual will show our insurer – EMC – we are serious about safety. Insurance companies will raise rates if they do not think a customer is taking safety seriously … this shows we are.”

The next regular supervisors meeting is 9:05 a.m. Oct. 29.

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Contact Mike Donahey

at 641-753-6611 or

mdonahey@timesrepublican.com