T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Marshall County Engineer Paul Geilenfeldt and Sheriff Joel Phillips discuss the potential vacation of a portion of Canfield Avenue just south of Highway 330 as Supervisor Kevin Goodman looks on during Wednesday morning’s regular meeting.

During Wednesday morning’s regular meeting, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors and County Engineer Paul Geilenfeldt kicked off discussions with Derrick Meyer, a rural Rhodes resident who lives just south of Highway 330 on Canfield Avenue, about potentially vacating a portion of the gravel road.

Geilenfeldt explained that the portion of road in question is “essentially a driveway” and said Meyer has had issues with drivers along the well-traveled diagonal highway pulling off and committing various criminal acts — theft and attempting to break into his house, to name a few.

“We’ve done vacations similar to this, but if you look at Meyer’s parcel that is where the house is there, vacating Canfield landlocks that parcel. So we’re trying to come up with a solution where he still has full access to his property,” Geilenfeldt said.

The goal, Geilenfeldt added, would be to start the vacation where Canfield leaves the state right-of-way, but title searches will likely be necessary to make official determinations on the ownership. He asked Auditor/Recorder Nan Benson to find out if there is any legal reason the vacation won’t work.

Last month, a particularly troubling sequence of events transpired and required Meyer to hold a would-be intruder, 20-year-old Prince Jallah of Marshalltown, at gunpoint, leg sweep him three times and fire a warning shot. According to court records, Jallah was charged with second degree attempted burglary, a Class D felony, third degree burglary of a motor vehicle, an aggravated misdemeanor, fourth degree theft, fourth degree criminal mischief and possession of a controlled substance first offense, all serious misdemeanors, after allegedly walking from Des Moines, entering an unoccupied vehicle on the property, sleeping in it and urinating in it, attempting to break into the house and attempting to steal a handgun magazine and about $500 worth of tools. Jallah is set to be arraigned on Aug. 22.

Meyer then approached the speaking podium and provided further details about that situation and other problems he’s encountered.

“I had to hold him at gunpoint and he kept advancing, coming at me. I had to fire a shot. (It’s) the closest I’ve ever come to shooting someone,” he said. “This is an ongoing thing. Yesterday, somebody stopped and defecated on the road. They’re coming down in there, checking out, see what’s… They’re coming all the way up into our garage all hours of the night. For the safety of me and my family, I would like to gate it closer out to the road.”

Meyer said he has called Sheriff Joel Phillips several times and that in addition to using the area as a restroom, there are tires and bags of trash in the ditch. Board Chairwoman Carol Hibbs clarified with Meyer that he planned to gate off the area around his house.

“I would like to gate it as close to the road as possible to keep people off of there if it works,” he said.

After further discussing the logistics of determining the property and right-of-way ownership, Geilenfeldt told the board he was not seeking any action yet but wanted them to be aware of it.

Supervisor Jarret Heil said the proposed solution seemed practical, and the next steps would require the board to work through “red tape” while “dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s.” Benson commended Meyer for taking proactive steps to work with other nearby landowners and address a “very scary” situation.

“These guys, they think it’s a bathroom. I mean, it’s constant. They’re throwing stuff, and we picked up 21 bags of garbage,” Meyer said.

He also noted that he would be equipped to handle snow removal after the vacation. In response to a question from Hibbs about law enforcement issues, Phillips then stepped forward and described the situation as “frustrating.”

“I wish I had the answer to why people end up where they do and why they do things that they shouldn’t be doing, but I can’t answer that,” the sheriff said. “I wouldn’t have a job if I did know those answers.”

He gave his endorsement on the vacation as long as all of the affected landowners continue to have access to their land. Meyer then added that a week after the Jallah incident, another individual trespassed onto their property and “scoped things out.”

“It’s just getting to the point (where) it’s a safety issue,” Meyer said.

The board ultimately took no action but did not express any objections to the vacation at some point in the future.

Plans and specs for downsized sheriff’s office/jail project approved

About eight months after the first round of bids came in well above the engineer’s estimate, the supervisors unanimously voted to move forward with a new set of plans and specifications for the proposed improvements at the sheriff’s office/jail facility along Highway 30 between Marshalltown and State Center.

Buildings and Grounds Director Lucas Baedke told the board the project had been “scaled back some” with hopes of securing more favorable bids and utilizing approximately $2.1 million in remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

“We’re pretty confident that bids are gonna come in where we want to see them, and this is just fulfilling our obligations,” Baedke said.

A pre-bid meeting was held Tuesday with approximately 10 contractors in attendance, most of them new ones who were not involved in the last round. After the meeting, Phillips broke down the changes in the plans in more detail during an interview with the T-R.

“The scope has been reduced considerably. It’s still gonna be the window replacement. There are some alternates from the original bid. It was all the windows and the administrative portion of the building. That included the below grade, and then as part of the alternates, we removed replacing the stairwells on the east and west ends of the building and also that below grade replacement,” he said. “So that’s gonna be an alternate. As far as the booking/courtroom area within the jail facility, that is still the same with the addition of two behavioral health cells and the splitting of another booking cell and then the video courtroom. That’s still in the scope of the work, and then the jail HVAC system, that’s also in the scope of the work to be replaced.”

The engineer’s estimate, he added, is under $2 million this time, as it was “thoroughly explained” to contractors that the county has approximately $2.1 million to spend for the first phase.

“Hopefully it was clear enough that we’ll be able to meet those bid requirements, and we’ll find out here (soon),” Phillips said.

A hard deadline has not yet been set for submitting and opening bids, but Phillips hopes to have them by the end of September.

In other business, the board:

Approved the consent agenda as listed.

Approved the Region 6 Housing Trust Fund 2026 application cash contribution in the amount of $49,191. Marty Wymore of Region 6 explained that the trust fund has contributed over $1.5 million to housing improvements and new construction projects in Marshall County, and there are currently 72 local owner-occupied households on a waiting list. Roof repairs are the most common projects, according to Wymore.

Approved the purchase of a 2025 Land Pride AP-SC6072 mulcher from Central Iowa Farm Store for $14,250 and a 2025 OrangeLine SU-35-14BK4RG utility trailer, also from Central Iowa Farm Store, for $2,950.

Approved the purchase of a 2025 Bandit Intimidator 18XP Chipper from Rexco Equipment in Cedar Rapids for $75,481.60.

Approved the Iowa Department of Transportation agreement for the County-State Traffic Engineering Program (C-STEP) project, which will secure $200,000 in state funding for improvements at the intersection of Highway 30 and Binford Avenue in conjunction with the expansion of Marshall Ridge Farms.

Approved the Tyler Technologies memorandum of understanding and end user agreement from Nov. 3, 2025 to Nov. 2, 2026.

During the public comment period, heard from Mark Wyant about road conditions near his rural residence south of Marshalltown and welcomed new part-time emergency management assistant Matt Vogeler, who was introduced by Emergency Management Coordinator Kim Elder.

Marshall County Emergency Management Coordinator Kim Elder, back, introduced her new assistant, Matt Vogeler, front, during the public comment period of last Wednesday’s board of supervisors meeting.