LINN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
CEDAR RAPIDS, LINN COUNTY, IOWA
TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2023 9:00 A.M.
(These are the minutes in their entirety. Archived minutes can be found at www.linncounty.org).
The Board met in session at the Linn County Jean Oxley Public Service Center. Present: Chairperson Zumbach, Vice Chairperson Rogers and Supervisor Running-Marquardt. Board members voting “AYE” unless otherwise noted.
The Board heard updates from the following Department Heads:
David Thielen, LCCS Executive Dir. – budget update; General Assistance: policy changes approved; overflow shelter will be closing March 31st; Juvenile Detention: 17-19 youth per day (utilizing four pods); licensing took place two weeks ago; working on school lunch audit; camera replacement will be online soon; Access Center: celebrated its second anniversary two weeks ago; now have part time chemical dependency expert on site; working to open withdrawal management program; outreach to communities outside of Linn County; Director attended NAMI day on the hill; May is Mental Health Awareness month; Options: work is ongoing to redo doors; ECI/Decat: RFP for next years contracts were sent out; Home Health: another staff retirement (trying to restructure).
Dennis Goemaat, Conservation Dir. – various park, bike and campground projects; Bird Preserve concept design has been developed; Wanatee mountain bike trails; Wickiup Hill education staff held special programming during spring break; target date for campground opening is April 7th (overnight temperatures need to improve); discussing with four Linn County communities to determine how to connect a trail to their communities (long range project).
Pramod Dwivedi, Health Department Dir. – feels that the Mental Health Access Center is a wonderful and needed facility; complete profile of the health status of Linn County residents is in the process of being updated; began meetings for Friends of Linn County Public Health; final draft of strategic plan; Preventing Violence Affecting Young Lives partnership continues; food safety; one childhood lead case investigated; nuisance hoarding case in Palo; septic permits; seven air quality construction permits; four current enforcement and investigations taking place; discussed legislation and regionalization; providing guidance to Corpus Christi-Nueces County Health District; red thread Covid-19 commemoration.
Dustin Peterson, Veterans Affairs Dir. – budget update; updated county Emergency Assistance Policy; services to veterans; claims for benefits (84); 40% increase in customers seeking federal benefits in February, 2023 compared to February, 2022; Veterans Craft Fair in July; distributed last emailed newsletter; three Veteran Service Officers attended District 2 meeting in Dubuque; fully transitioned to Evolv software; 3,134 Linn County veterans received federal benefits.
Phil Lowder, IT Dir. — budget update; one staff vacancy; finished phase 1 of Office365 rollout; phase 2 of SharePoint and group folder sharing; set up blocking feature; HelpDesk sent out email regarding email quarantining; network reconfiguration project; potential issue with phone chargeback fee increased; patch Tuesday statistics.
Tamara Marcus, Sustainability Dir. – final meeting for life cycle cost for Renewable Energy Committee tonight and then final statements ready by the end of March; San Juan Wilderness Trek still accepting applications; Earth month series starts Saturday; held lunch and learn for CSA program; working on internal greenhouse gas inventory; EV (electric vehicle) week for county employees; energy efficiency block grant awarded to Linn County; community gardens across Linn County.
Adjournment at 10:31 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
JOEL D. MILLER, Linn County Auditor
By: Amanda Hoy, Executive Assistant
APPROVED BY:
LOUIS J. ZUMBACH, Chairperson
Board of Supervisors
Published in the MVL Sun, April 6, 2023.