"It's an Historic Day"

LEE COUNTY – Supervisors called it an historic day for Lee County.
Supervisors on Monday approved bids for construction of a $6.5 million Lee County Health Department/EMS facility in Fort Madison on the former Iowan Motel property.
The county has been trying to get the health department its own facility for several decades and now, with the assistance of about $3.6 million in federal grants, close to $500,000 in funding from the North Lee County Community Foundation, and a million dollars in remaining county ARPA funds, that is now a reality.
That totals close to $5.2 million of the $6.5 million. The county has already paid $350,000 towards site preparation and fees.
The bids came in at close to $4.7 million in construction with the remaining $1.8 million attributed to architect and management fees. Carl A. Nelson Co. out of Burlington is the construction manager with SVPA Architects, Inc. of Donnellson designing the building.
The rest of the funding could come in the form of additional contributions from Lee County residents as part of a fundraising effort that is to be launched by the community foundation to allow all Lee County residents the opportunity to contribute to the project.
Supervisor Chairman Garry Seyb said the county also has about $660,000 in reserve funds from the last fiscal year that the county set aside from speed camera enforcement. The funds were put aside prior to recent legislative action that defined where the funds can be used, so the county can access those funds with a supermajority vote of the board.
Supervisor Matt Pflug questioned whether the board would have to bond for the rest, but Seyb quickly put that to rest.
“We cannot bond for this project at all because of the petition that was filed earlier,” Seyb said.

The Lee County Farm Bureau presented a petition to force the county to put any bonding for the health department on the ballot in front of voters.
“Make no mistake. We will not bond for this project,” Seyb said.
Supervisor Chuck Holmes made the motion to accept the bids and Ron Fedler seconded the motion.
“People need to understand that a supermajority of this funding is state and federal dollars and these are the state and federal dollars you pay in taxes that are finding their way back to Lee County,” Fedler said.
“If we don’t do this project, we have to send that money back and it never comes to this county. That’s why we need to move forward with this as a great project for Lee County.”
Pflug said the county has to continue because of the condition of the LCHD at the former prison property.
“It’s not a good situation where we’re at,” Pflug said. “We don’t know what the future looks like on John Bennett, and the last thing we want to do is get caught short where we’re scrambling. We’ve been working on this for decades.”
Supervisor Tom Schulz reminded the board that the EMS facility is also a vast improvement to county services as part of the new construction.
“This is a very happy day,” said Pflug who represents supervisors on the Lee County Health Board.
“This is an historic day,” Seyb said.