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Supervisors review departmental budgets, ARPA allocations and health‑insurance changes
Summary
At a Kossuth County budget workshop, supervisors reviewed department budget worksheets, confirmed ARPA commitments including a $70,000 community‑liaison allocation to the sheriff’s office, checked conservation fund balances after a $309,183.04 donation, and approved multiple updates to health‑insurance and wage figures across departments.
Kossuth County supervisors spent substantial time reviewing department budget worksheets, reconciling multiple revised versions, and confirming several allocations and policy items that will affect the FY2026 budget.
Conservation and donations: Staff identified $309,183.04 recorded in December as a donation from the Rod Schmidt estate to the conservation fund; board members clarified that those funds typically support land purchase and related conservation activity. The conservation fund’s projected ending balance after planned spending was discussed at roughly $480,000.
ARPA and specific expenditures: Supervisors confirmed ARPA commitments that remain on the books: a sheriff’s office community‑liaison position funded with $70,000 in ARPA dollars (a pilot appointment the region helped support), ARPA money for ambulance assistance, and smaller ARPA allocations for a building roof and related items. Staff said those ARPA allocations are already budgeted and that contracts were in place for some items.
Health insurance and wages: Staff reported systematic changes to health‑insurance amounts on updated worksheets for many departments (nature center, custodians, IT, sheriff, deputies, transfer station). The board discussed applying a general 4% wage/benefit adjustment in some worksheets and noted multiple line‑item reconciliations remain in progress. Supervisors also directed staff to account for requested changes such as deputy pay adjustments and to keep wage and benefit changes consistent across departments.
Other departmental items: The board reviewed election budget protections under Iowa code, the cost of property‑tax mailers, REAP fund balances, planning and zoning fee adjustments, mental‑health advocate staffing shared with neighboring counties (board instructed staff to budget roughly a third of the position cost at $30,000 pending firm numbers from the regional partner), the transfer station budget (board agreed to remove a $5,000 WEX line deemed unlikely to be used), and warehouse/utility mechanics for a new emergency management building (discussion about rent, utilities, and responsibility for repairs).
Wrap‑up: Supervisors compiled a short list of follow‑up tasks — add the grandstand line item ($50,000), revisit ambulance and 911 items next week, reallocate WEX funds, and incorporate updated TIF projections and departmental insurance numbers. The meeting ended with a unanimous voice vote to adjourn.
