T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY From left to right, Marshall County Supervisors Steve Salasek, Dave Thompson and Bill Patten listen as Marty Wymore of Region 6 Resource Partners discusses the Green Mountain sanitary sewer project during Tuesday morning’s regular meeting, which was held at the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office administrative building.

Citing mounting frustration with the United States Department of Agriculture and — as a result — an inability to complete the project within the previously established timeline, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to terminate a funding agreement that would have provided $126,000 in federal grants toward the installation of a new sanitary sewer system in the unincorporated community of Green Mountain during Tuesday morning’s regular meeting.

Supervisor Bill Patten, who has been the county’s point person on the project, explained the situation and said two years ago, rural water contractors were ready to move dirt once the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding was secured. After the 2020 presidential election and a change in USDA leadership, however, progress slowed to almost a complete halt.

“(The USDA representative) started asking for things that needed to be supplied by Rural Water, and he kept saying no and telling Rural Water that what they were doing was not right,” Patten said. “It’s ridiculous. I’m upset. Dave’s upset. Steve’s upset, and what we’re going to have to do is rescind the grant we already applied for several years ago and then redo it.”

The USDA, according to Patten, also stipulated that Rural Water needed to rent its equipment even though it already owned what was needed. Because the original grant award required the project to be completed by May 1, 2023, and the Iowa Regional Utilities Association still does not have the go ahead from USDA Rural Development to put it out to bid, both the supervisors and staff at the Iowa Economic Development Authority do not believe it will be possible to finish it in time.

Marshall County purchased the land necessary for the project, and the USDA was scheduled to provide at least $1,390,620 toward it. The total estimated cost, according to Kristie Wildung of the IRUA, is $1,827,360, and the residents of Green Mountain would absorb the remaining expense not covered by grant funding through their utility bills.

“We’re moving full speed ahead working with all the different participants that we need to do to get this thing on track,” Wildung said. “This funding issue will get resolved, hopefully very shortly, and then we’ll move forward, which is what we’ve all been waiting for.”

If the issues with the USDA persist, Patten suggested involving Gov. Kim Reynolds, the state’s legislative delegation and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who is himself a former governor of Iowa.

“I’m upset about this. It’s not right, and it’s not fair to the community that we’re trying to help,” Patten said. “I just want the community up there to realize we’re not backing out on this thing. This is just something we have to work with here for just a little while.”

Board Chairman Dave Thompson called the situation “the most ridiculous thing I have ever dealt with” during his 12 years in public office and compared the USDA’s demands to forcing an individual who owns a car to rent a separate one to drive to work each day.

“This is literally beyond the pale of a government bureaucrat with the United States government, and we’re going to work hard to reapply for this through Region 6 with Marty Wymore and see if we can get this taken care of,” Thompson said. “Hopefully common sense will prevail, and we will get back on track.”

Wymore then briefly addressed the board via Zoom and walked through some of the potential next steps before a motion from Patten to adopt the resolution terminating the agreement carried unanimously. The USDA Rural Development Office in Des Moines did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Marshall County Emergency Management Director Kim Elder provided the latest update on the tornado siren project and the funding situation, reporting that it will now break down as 90 percent federal and 10 percent state with no local dollars. It also means, however, that the amount of the federal award will decrease from $429,000 to about $379,000, and the complete project — which is estimated to cost just shy of $734,000 — will be split into two phases.

Elder said the first round of funding should cover nine new sirens in incorporated communities, and the “backbone” infrastructure to ensure they communicate with each other, which includes three digital repeaters, software and hardware.

“It’s promising. It sounds good and actually in the long run probably will be great for us. It’s just waiting a little later for those unincorporated sirens,” Elder said.

IN OTHER BUSINESS, the board:

• Recognized service awards for Tamara Krough, Armando Estrada, Peter Hutzel and Joseph McMillen.

• Approved extensions to law enforcement agreements between the sheriff’s office and the following cities through June 30, 2023, with costs in parentheses: Albion ($13,100), Clemons ($3,875), Ferguson ($3,187.50), Haverhill ($4,175), Laurel ($7,175), Le Grand ($25,175), Liscomb ($7,175), Gilman ($13,350 pending receipt), Rhodes ($10,050) and St. Anthony ($2,487.50).

• Approved a Title VI non-discrimination agreement.

• Approved a business associate agreement with Springbuk Inc. relating to HIPPA matters concerning the county’s self-funded health plan.

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Contact Robert Maharry at

641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.