



The agricultural research that will be conducted at the nature center, he suggested, will be valuable. Herbold said he looked at his motion as an opportunity to bring in people and positive things to the county. “Our auctions and stuff raise a lot of money, and that’s where we’re probably going to have to get it to maintain … There is a lot of experimental stuff like geothermal and solar that are kind of built in to that cost.” “I’m sure it will be a continuing fundraising thing,” Herbold said. Herbold is unsure of the costs to maintain the building, but some of the project costs are for short-term maintenance. He did, however, voice against the nature center, particularly the maintenance costs. “We’re kind of in this middle ground of we’ve almost been able to finance Phases 1 and 2 but we can’t quite finance Phases 1 and 2, which then means we’re going to have to do a bond referendum, put it out to a vote to the people and increase the debt service levy to finish building Phase 2 and 3,” Talsma said.Įven though Talsma voted against the motion, he is not necessarily opposed to the conservation projects. It also means the county will have to find another way to fully pay for the project. Which means it will inevitably cost more than a civilian shop building. Talsma said since it is for a government entity it has to meet certain standards and come equipped with a number of features.

While it may seem simple - especially for farmers - to create a simple shop building, it gets a bit complicated. TALSMA CONCERNED WITH NATURE CENTER, ENGINEER SHOP Phase 3: Construct offices onto new shop building for more than $1.6 million.Phase 2: The shop building and fueling area for more than $5.2 million.Keri Van Zante, director of Jasper County Conservation, later told Newton News if this recommendation was approved by the board of supervisors, it would be like “nothing we’ve ever seen before.” Typically, conservation’s way of building things is through years of grant writing, trying to meet goals piece by piece. The recommendation will be brought to the board of supervisors during an upcoming meeting, at which point it will be up to those three elected officials to decide the outcome of the committee’s request. Jasper County Supervisor Brandon Talsma provided the only dissenting vote. “And the remainder would go to pay off whatever we can on the secondary roads office.” “There are matching funds available on the nature center and research park that we want to establish out east of (the sheriff’s office),” Herbold said, noting the center would celebrate all things nature, conservation and agriculture. 7 and requested county conservation get $1.25 million, and that the remaining balance go towards engineer’s office expenditures.Ĭhris Herbold, one of the citizens appointed to the county ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) committee, made the motion to allot conservation $450,000 for bike trail repairs, $400,000 for the environmental education center project and $400,000 for the campgrounds of Mariposa Park.
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The committee making recommendations to the board of supervisors on how to spend its $7.22 million in federal stimulus money convened for the final time on Sept.
