County updates land‑use agreements and unveils rainwater‑harvesting plan at Historic Poor Farm

County staff presented both short‑term amendments to land‑use agreements at the Historic Poor Farm and a broader plan to install rainwater‑harvesting systems intended to reduce irrigation demand and serve as a demonstration site.

Jason Rimm of Iowa Valley RC&D summarized amendments to eight on‑site agreements, including a request to reduce acreage for one tenant and to expand acreage for another. Rimm said the changes mainly reallocate small quarter‑acre parcels among existing growers.

Rimm and Elsa DeWalt, local food and farm manager, then described a state‑funded initiative to design rainwater‑harvesting systems at the farm. "We wanna harvest rainwater for the micro irrigation system on the farm, to reduce the peak demand on our wells," Rimm said. He told supervisors the project began under a Farmer‑to‑Farmer grant administered with the Iowa DNR and that RDG (an architecture/design firm) and Confluence Design were hired to develop standards and site designs.

Rimm said the project will produce three scaled designs (small/medium/large), test water‑quality considerations for irrigation of fruits and vegetables, and produce off‑the‑shelf designs for farmers. He said the grant includes roughly $75,000 toward on‑site engineering and that the county intends to offer small grants (about $5,000 each) for other Iowa farmers to implement the small‑scale designs.

Technical details presented to the board included a plan to collect roof runoff from the cultivation station and a high tunnel, an underground storage tank concept sized at roughly 20,000 gallons, and an estimated collection of about 6,900 gallons from a typical rain event on the two roof surfaces used in calculations. Rimm gave an example calculation: irrigating a quarter‑acre during June could require roughly 50,000 gallons for the month (about 1,700 gallons per day), underscoring that harvested rainwater is meant to supplement, not replace, well water.

Rimm said the county intends to bury tanks to reduce algae growth and manage temperature and to prioritize roof‑collected water (rather than parking‑lot runoff) for quality reasons. The project includes plans for a 2026 field day at the farm to showcase rainwater harvesting to farmers, designers and public officials.

Supervisors asked about capacity limits, tenant interest and whether the project would require additional site planning with the City of Iowa City for larger developments. DeWalt said staff are developing site‑planning materials (including equipment storage) and rental policies for the farm’s kitchen and public rentals. No formal board action was taken; staff said the agreements would come forward for formal approval at the next meeting.