Engineered Building Design wins Safety Award

Congratulations to Engineered Building Design L.C. of Washington, Iowa for being honored for implementing safety programs that reduce workplace injuries!  Here is the press release from the Iowa-Illinois Safety Council:

April 23, 2010

Engineered Building Design L.C. of Washington, IA was awarded an Incident Rate Excellence award from the Iowa-Illinois Safety Council during their 57th Annual Professional Development Conference and Expo held in Dubuque, Iowa, April 21-23, 2010. The award was presented for outstanding achievement in accident prevention during the 2009 calendar year.

Engineered Building Design L.C. was one of over 170 businesses, industries and government agencies in Illinois and Iowa to receive an award for promoting active safety programs and reducing OSHA recordable injuries among their employees. To qualify for this award, applicants had to demonstrate an incident rate lower than the national average for their specific industry.

Iowa-Illinois Safety Council is a Chapter of the National Safety Council and is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to protecting life and promoting health. The mission of the Council is to educate society to adopt safety, health and environmental practices and to provide high quality, value added training and services.

For additional information contact Tern Simmons, Iowa-Illinois Safety Council 515-276-4724(Des Moines area) or 800-568-2495 ext 225 or Terri@iisc.org

Successful IDOT Public Input Meeting on Hwy 1/92 junction

About 20 local stakeholders attended an Iowa DOT informal Public Information Meeting at the Washington Library on Thursday evening (April 29, 2010). There were about 10 IDOT staffers there representing design, safety, right-of-way, public relations, and planning. The IDOT had three different conceptual plans that were discussed with attendees.

It was great to see that IDOT staff showed up with the purpose of listening, discussing and making changes to the conceptual plans. People felt good when they left the meeting, and that they had an impact on the planning process and were taken seriously.

Concept Plan #3

IDOT Engineer, Pete Tollenaere told the crowd that they would come back in a few months to update the group and get more input on a refined concept plan. The IDOT is expecting the City of Washington to financially participate in the construction cost of improvements to this intersection.

Tollenaere said that the IDOT is scheduled in 2012 to do a paving project on Hwy 92/Madison Street and Hwy 1/92 around the west side of Washington, continuing north two miles to the junction of Hwy 1/92 & G-36. The paving project would include paved shoulders on the section of Hwy 1/92 on the west side of Washington. The IDOT and City have already begun discussions about planning for that project.

Improvements to the Hwy 1/92 junction in Washington could take place in 2012 or 2013.

Wind Energy Special Tax Valuations

The Washington County Board of Supervisors is considering whether the County should adopt an ordinance, outlined in Iowa state code, to provide a special valuation for wind turbines that are primarily used to generate electricity onto the electric grid.

They call this "wind energy conversion property," and it is considered separately from small wind turbines located on some area farms that are used to power on-site hog or turkey buildings. The current state code that outlines what the County can do is Section 427B.26.

Although each Iowa County is given powers to assign an "assessed value" and to all types of property in the County, the State has many modifiers to this assessed value in order to arrive at a "taxable valuation."

These modifications are in the form of residential rollbacks, homestead exemptions, industrial exemptions, ag rollbacks, enterprise zones (which Washington County isn't eligible for), and various utility replacement taxes. All of these modifiers are intended to balance and manage the incidence of property tax collections by local governments, and/or to create incentives for development. One big modification made by the Iowa Legislature in the early 1990s was to exempt business machinery and equipment from any property tax.

Most people are familiar with the residential (and ag) rollback, which this year means that the taxable value of a residential home is slightly less than half of the assessed value.

For FY 2009, Washington County's rural (unincorporated) taxable value was $467,559,476, which includes all property, including gas and electric utility property. The taxable value of the incorporated cities adds another $391,015,990 for a total County taxable value of $858,575,466. These figures include the value of TIF districts. This information is from the Iowa State Association of Counties' County Budget Summaries web site.

The state code (Section 427B.26) concerning special valuations for "wind energy conversion property" means that County government can choose to assign the State's special valuation method to a wind farm. This special valuation caps the taxable value at 30% of the total installed cost of the wind farm. Similar to the widely used industrial tax exemption, there is a seven year period of tiered valuation adjustments that go from 0% to the final 30%. No wind farm has been built in Iowa that was not covered by this special valuation ordinance by the host County.

Since the installed cost per wind turbine is around $2 million, the 30% final value could be up to $600,000.  Trade Wind Energy is developing the Long Creek Wind Farm project to build over 325 1.5 megawatt turbines in rural Washington County. The 30% special taxable valuation could be up to $195 million. The current rural taxable valuation is $467 million. The proposed wind farm project could represent as much as 42% of the total existing valuation, and it doesn't require ongoing services from the County (or other local government bodies like schools).

The broad implications of this much added taxable value in Washington County are staggering. The best way to lower property taxes (or slow their increase) is to grow the tax base. The proposed Long Creek Wind Farm covers a broad east-to-west area through the north central part of the County. It covers significant portions of four school districts; Highland, Washington, Mid-Prairie, and Keota. The implications on education and our schools is one of the most exciting facets of the project.

Trade Wind representatives have also indicated that payments to property owners for leasing their land and wind rights would be about $1 million annually. That is significant in and of itself.

Trade Wind Energy is the only wind farm developer working in Washington County for the past two years and has wind development contracts with many property owners. It is important to note that Trade Wind is working to develop another project around Grinnell, Iowa in Poweshiek County.


There are a number of important points, such as road improvements required for installation of the turbines, that the County and Trade Wind need to work out over the next year. However, without some clear indication to Trade Wind Energy from the County that it will adopt the ordinance for Iowa Special Valuation for Wind Conversion Property in the next year, the Long Creek Wind Farm project could easily be shelved and never built. That would be a shame, because it really is the biggest project to ever be considered in Washington County.

IDOT Info Meeting on Hwy 1/92 - April 29 from 5-7pm

The Iowa DOT is hosting a "Public Information Meeting" concerning a proposal to make improvements to the Highway 92/1 intersection in Washington (at George's BP and Autozone).  The meeting will be Thursday, April 29 from 5:00 to 7:00pm at the Washington Public Library upstairs meeting room.

There is no formal presentation from the IDOT staff, although they will have information on their proposal to view.  You can just drop by and visit one on one with IDOT staff about the proposed project and give them your feedback.

Mark it on your calendar.  There is no need to RSVP.

It is great that the Iowa DOT is working to make safety and traffic flow improvements to facilities in Washington.



View Hwy 1/92 junction in a larger map

April 8, 2010


Washington Chamber of Commerce
205 West Main Street
Washington, IA 52353

Ref. No.: Washington County, STPN-92-9(104)--2J-92

Dear Sir/Madam:

You are invited to attend a Public Information Meeting on April 29, 2010, between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m., in the State Bank Room, Washington Public Library, 115 West Washington, Washington, IA, to discuss possible alternativies for improving the south IA 92/IA 1 intersection near the west edge of Washington. Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) staff will be available during this time to answer questions regarding the proposal.

No formal presentation will be made; however, details of the proposed improvement will be discussed at the meeting. General information regarding the proposal is available from Pete Tollenaere, Assistant District 5 Engineer, Iowa DOT, P.O. Box 587, 307 W. Briggs, Fairfield, IA, 52556-0587, telephone 800-766-4368 or 641-472-4171.

To view information concerning this project please access the following Web site: http://www.iowadot.gov/pim.

Sincerely,

Luella Funnell
Location and Environment

Washington County, March 2010 Labor Force and Unemployment Data

Washington County's Labor Force is back on the increase.  From February to March, the County's Labor Force increased by 100 to 12,400. This is a typical pattern as Spring rolls around.

The number of unemployed persons remained the same between February and March at 800.

With the slightly growing labor force, the unemployment rate increased from 6.7% to 6.8% in March.

Across Iowa, 75 Counties had increased labor force numbers. The State's total Labor Force increased by 2,900 to 1,685,100.


 46 Counties also had an increase in the number of people unemployed.  Only 33 Counties had a falling unemployment rate.

In the Iowa City MSA (Johnson and Washington Counties), the Labor Force increased by 500 to 93,100. The unemployment rate for the metro increased to 5.1% with a total of 4,700 people unemployed.

Mar2010 Labor Force Data for Iowa Counties

Washington County taxes - how do we compare?

Its safe to say that no one wants to pay too much in taxes. But how do property taxes in Washington County compare against the other 98 counties in Iowa?

First, it is important to know that although County Treasurers collect Iowan's property tax, it isn't all the County's to keep.  Only a portion of your property tax bill is for the County.

Washington County has particularly low property taxes, especially in the rural, unincorporated areas. Of the 99 Counties in Iowa, Washington County's rural levy of $2.85 is the 74th highest.  This levy pays for secondary roads and other services only for rural property owners. 

The "countywide" levy of $7.77 is the 20th highest rate in the state. This levy covers a broader range of services, including mental health services, public health, veterans services, county attorney, and other services that are for the benefit of the entire county, not just the rural area.

Combined, the total Washington County levy is $10.62, which ranks 36th in Iowa.

This information comes from the Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC)'s County Budget Summaries web page.

All in all, Washington County has pretty affordable county taxes.
FY 2009 Iowa County Tax Levy Rates

Washington School receives $1.9 million for energy improvements

The Washington Community School District has received several funding awards, totaling $1,938,000 towards $2.5 million in energy improvements at Stewart Elementary.

In January 2010, the School District completed a energy audit and improvement plan on Stewart Elementary in order to make the project "shovel ready."  The basic framework for the energy improvements was completed in a district-wide facility improvement plan in 2009 that totaled $35 million, including the construction of a new high school building. A new high school is expected to be completed in 2012, paid for with sales tax revenues.

In November, 2009, the School District received a $200,000 grant award from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation to use as local match toward state and federal funding sources for energy improvements.

In late February, the City of Washington and School District received short notice through the Washington Economic Development Group about the March 5 deadline for the Iowa Office of Energy Independence's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG).  The City agreed to be the applicant on behalf of the School.  Interim School Superintendent, David Sextro, and Curriculum Director, Veta Thode completed the on-line grant submission with just minutes to spare before the 4pm deadline that Friday.

The EECBG is a federal Dept. of Energy program administered in Iowa by the OEI. This special round of funding came from the  American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

After two weeks of discussion and answering questions with the OEI, school district business manager, Jeff Dieleman learned March 22nd that the project had been awarded $1 million grant in EECBG funds, the largest award in the state.

In addition, the OEI has awarded the school district $738,000 in special financing through the BEST program (formerly the Iowa Energy Bank). This state bond allows the energy cost saved by implementing energy efficiency technologies and renewable energy options to pay for improvements. "Money and energy saved is an investment in Iowa’s buildings."

David Sextro, Mayor Sandra Johnson, and Ed Raber of the Washington Economic Development Group were excited to be able to publicly announce the huge grant award later that evening to the 230 community leaders at the Annual Dinner of the Chamber of Commerce, Washington Economic Development Group, and Main Street Washington.

The School District plans to pay the balance of the project cost with sales tax revenues rather than property tax.

The planned improvements at Stewart Elementary include:

• Replacing the aging boiler system with a closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling system.  Most of the existing school is not currently air conditioned.
• Replace windows with new energy efficient models.
• Replace lighting with energy efficient models.

Stewart Elementary was built in 1934 as a federal PWA project. It serves the PreK-3 grade levels for the Washington School District.  Principal Rhoda Harris supervises the over 450 students that attend Stewart.

In February, Ted Stewart was recognized by KCRG Channel 9 as one of their "9 Who Care," which annually honors exemplary volunteers in Eastern Iowa.  Mr. Stewart helps 2nd and 3rd graders at Stewart with math each day.  Mr. Stewart's father donated the land to the school district for an elementary school, and Stewart Elementary is named after him.

The students at Stewart Elementary are the big winners.