US Senator Chuck Grassley heard from Jones County constituents at a town hall meeting on July 5. People spilled out of the community room at Jones County courthouse as Grassley took questions.

One of the topics on the minds of several people was federal benefits, and more specifically denied benefits.

One couple asked for Grassley’s help in securing military insurance benefits for their daughter. The girl has a medical condition in which her jaw grows abnormally. Though doctors have indicated this to be a medical, not cosmetic, condition, military insurance will not approve procedures needed.

Presentations at the regular session of the Anamosa City Council meeting on July 10 created some friction between business owners and those present. Business owner, Debra Henson requested legal locations where she could place signs advertising her business. Per Anamosa City ordinance, signs can only be placed in a C2 industrial district or M1 and M2 portions of the city. (Zoning map available for viewing at City Hall). These locations must have the property owner’s permission to place a sign. Temporary signs are not allowed on Main Street, residential areas or any other city property unless approved by the city council. Dan McNamara, a business owner in competition with Mrs. Henson, requested to place signs in the city’s right of way (R.O.W.). His request was denied per the standing city ordinance.

Two public hearings were held both without public comment:

A. Completion of the wastewater treatment plant study for $40,000. This study will be paid for by a State Revolving Loan (SRF) and disbursement agreement at zero percent interest for three years.

B. Adoption of the city’s 2006 Comprehensive Plan with two minor street name changes.

A public hearing date was set for the next council meeting, July 24 at 7:00 p.m. for the annexation of Grant Ridge Estates. An additional public hearing will be held on August 14 at 7 p.m. regarding the sale of city land to Keith D. and Marilou K. Vernon. This property is adjacent to the alley North of Main Street between Huber and Davis Streets. Action regarding the preliminary and final plats of Caspers Second Addition will be held at the next council meeting.

Items approved at Monday nights meeting are as follows:

• First Reading of ordinance amending alcohol consumption and intoxication ordinance (Chapter 45 of the City Code) to coincide with section 123.47 of the code of Iowa. This amendment is in regards to wording changes “of legal age”.

• The acceptance of a donation from John and Jill Parham of seven acres of land located adjacent to Remley Woods Park.

• Resolution approving the site plan for The Anamosa Care Center assisted living addition.

• Authorization for City Administrator to work with Aquila regarding the reduction of franchise fees for natural gas services $0.00. This will be added to a future agenda for a public hearing.

• $208,417.00 for Anamosa’s new Fire Dept. pumper truck.

• Improvements for the Lawrence Community Center with discussion regarding fence vs. permanent barricade at Pratt and Walnut streets to prevent a vehicle leaving the roadway.

• Second reading of ordinance requiring the City to review plats of survey within corporate limits and within two miles of corporate limits. Thus expediting the processes.

• Seal coat bid awarded to Prairie Road Builders not to exceed $40,000 for street seal coating project.

• Amendment for the engineering agreements for the Hwy 64 East water main and sanitary sewer extension project to reflect $2,248.00 for the re-survey and an estimate of $1,500.00 for the plat easements.

City Administrator Pat Callahan stated that the timetable for the proposed improvements to the wastewater treatment plant project would be tabled pending more research and discussion. Brian Jensen of Donahue & Associates spoke to the board as a specialist in wastewater treatment facilities. His recommendation was to delay new construction of the proposed seven to nine million-dollar project. While Jensen agrees that maintenance and repairs of approximately one million dollars are necessary, the current plant is more than adequate to accommodate Anamosa’s wastewater needs. The facility continues to meet the MPS permit requirements. He suggested that the City Council and Public Works take a different look at what is already in place prior to incurring such a large debt.

The City Administrator’s report reflected a 1 p.m. meeting with Alliant Energy and city Public Works Director Larry Driscoll to be held on July 11 regarding the electric franchise renewal. The quarterly update on completion of City Council goals and objectives is available at City Hall for public viewing.

During Monday night’s meeting, Council adjourned for a forty-five minute closed session with property owners of the East Side urban renewal area. Council approved the City of Anamosa to make an offer to the property owners as discussed in closed session. The amounts and terms of the offer were not revealed to the public.

In 2001 several non-profit wildlife groups, including Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Whitetails Unlimited and the National Wild Turkey Federation, purchased a 201 acre piece of land between Hale and Wyoming. This land was to become the Hale Wildlife Area.

Now, five years later, with a $38,557 grant from the Iowa Habitat Stamp Program and a $5,000 donation from Cargill, a prairie is being reconstructed at the site. The project isn’t stopping at just prairie, but work is being done to ponds and wetlands as well.

‘The ponds that were here were in really bad shape from siltation and the dams were eroded badly,” said Jones County Conservation Director Larry Gullet, who added that the land would be maintained as a fishing and hunting area.

Each of the existing ponds were between 1 1/2-2 acres in size, and the Jones County Conservation is in the process of dredging the ponds, rebuilding dams and restocking the ponds. Two new ponds will also be constructed on the site.

Trees that had to be removed in the wildlife area were placed in the ponds as cover for the fish, and upstream from each pond wetlands have been built.

“They collect the water and filter nutrients out before reaching the pond, improving the water quality,” gullet explained. “It also adds diversity to the landscape, which is attractive to the wildlife.

On a sunny July day, Gullett was joined by Jones County Supervisor, Joe Cruise. Cruise and Gullett toured the wildlife area and Gullett explained the changes taking place. Cruise was curious about the land because he previously farmed land adjacent to the property.

Cruise said the Jones County board of Supervisors support the project on the county owned land.

“We support what they’re doing, but it is not funded by taxpayer dollars or the county,” he said.

Instead, some of the projects are funded by renting 75 acres of farmland for row crops. The money from the rent is used to buy seed, trees, shrubs and any other items that may be needed, but have no funding. The farm crops also help to break up the brome roots, which had taken over the area.

So far about 55-60 acres of land have been seeded with native prairie plants, which came from Al and Dan Seed Company in Winterset. The mixture is both grasses and flowering plants including; prairie sage, butterfly plant, partridge pea, compass plant, light purple coneflower, mountain mint, gray-headed coneflower, little bluestem, side oats gramma, prairie dropseed, big bluestem, Indian grass and rough dropseed.

Gullett said there is still a lot of work to be done to the area, including seeding another 100 acres of prairie and finishing the ponds. They hope that the ponds will have an eight-foot depth in at least 60% of their area.

“If it wasn’t for these wildlife organizations in Jones County, this would never happen,” said Cruise, who praised their efforts.

In addition to the ponds and prairie seeding, Jones County Conservation is also seeding sorghum and switchgrass to help prevent erosion while they work on the other projects. The sorghum also provides food plots for wildlife on the land.

Gullett said the 40-50 year plan for the wildlife area is for people to come out and see the prairie as it would have looked 200 years ago.

“It’s very nice. If you’re an outdoorsman at all, you’re missing out by not coming out here,” Gullett concluded.

Gullett said Jones County Conservation continues to write grants to help fund the project. Private donations as well as memorials can be designated to be used for the Hale Wildlife Area.

For more information on the Hale Wildlife Area, or to make a donation, contact Gullett at 563-487-3541.

The Anamosa Journal-Eureka is pleased to announce the winners of the online contest for Great Jones County Fair admission tickets.

The newspaper gave away three sets of admission tickets in conjunction with the Great Jones County Fair.
The winners are; Kristy Frasher, Anamosa, Bill Langdon, Anamosa and Brad Lasack, Oxford Junction.

There were 132 entries in the contest, which began the first week of June.