Lee County, FM may have averted lawsuit

LEE COUNTY – It would seem that an agreement in principal has been reached regarding the county’s pending lawsuit against the city over drainage on 302^nd Avenue near Gethsemane Cemetery.
At Monday’s Lee County Board of Supervisor’s meeting, Supervisor Tom Schulz revealed that in communication with board chairman Garry Seyb he had informal meetings with Fort Madison Mayor Matt Mohrfeld regarding the situation with the parties trying to avert potential litigation.
Supervisors voted in July to file a lawsuit against the city for failing to respond to specified complaints from Lee County Attorney Ross Braden regarding the situation.
County officials claim the construction of the PORT trail didn’t address issues regarding drainage around the street just south of Rodeo Park on the city’s north side. The city claims Lee County Engineer Ben Hull signed off on the design and the city did their diligence in addressing the issue.
Mayor Matt Mohrfeld said Monday the issue has not been in front of the Fort Madison City Council and is still in the hands of city staff. He characterized the agreement as a draft proposal.
Schulz also said the agreement still needs to be reviewed by elected officials on both sides, but he said it would appear any lawsuits have been sidestepped at this point.
“With the consent of our county engineer, county attorney and the knowledge of our board chairman I had some internal meetings with Fort Madison Mayor Matt Mohrfeld regarding the trail drainage issue on 302^nd Avenue,” Schulz said.
He said through those negotiations the city has agreed in principle to take over routine maintenance of the road as well as doing some paving along some driveways.
“That agreement has been put on their agenda for the next meeting. We’ll have to have the complete 28E in front of us and we’ll have to approve it as well,” Schulz said.

“But I think the idea of counties suing cities within their own county is not a great idea to start with, but something we were pushed into. I’m really happy to announce that everybody has come to a tentative agreement.”
County officials contend that Iowa code would require the city to annex the road into the city regardless because of PORT trail, which is on city property, abuts the roadway.
In an unrelated issue, the board removed an agenda item to approve construction bids for the Lee County Health Department/EMS facility.
Additional requirements from the USDA Rural Development office were submitted to Carl A. Nelson last week that could put additional language in contractor agreements.
Ryan Harris, the manager of the project for Carl A. Nelson, said this would give contractors some time to look over the added language and see how it fits their bids that were accepted last week. The board was going to approve those bids at Monday’s meeting. In the event a contractor with a winning bid would not be able to accept the added language, the second lowest bidder could be awarded the contract, if they are okay with the new terms, without having to rebid the project.
“I was a little bummed when I heard that this morning, but I just want to make sure we’re doing this right,” Seyb said.
Supervisors will take up the issue again at the Aug. 26^th meeting.