County roads, annex building top debate at forum

The chamber was full as eight of the nine candidates vying for two open seats on the Jasper County Board of Supervisors participated in the Jasper County League of Women Voters forum on Tuesday.

Democrats Jerry Chandler Jr., Michael Hansen, Pamela Olson and Eric Smith along with Republicans Jeremy Beukema, Jeremy Heaberlin, Brandon Talsma and incumbent Denny Carpenter had a lively discussion on many issues concerning Jasper County. Republican Rhonda Paine was not in attendance.

During the forum, Carpenter announced the county’s engineering firm, Shive-Hattery, had reviewed the annex building foundation and found it is structurally sound and “OK.” With that information, the overall sentiment of the candidates was to retain the building and address the maintenance issues to improve the future of the building.

“I think it would be great if we could keep the building,” Olson said.

County Roads

Always a popular topic throughout the county, the candidates discussed the condition of gravel and farm-to-market roads along with the status of the bridges.

“It is an essential public service that is expected from the county tax payers that we take care of those roads,” Hansen said. “We need to identify those problem areas and those areas that we receives complaints or requests to come out and look at the problem.”

He said the county also must commit to the necessary funding to take care of the roads. Heaberlin suggested partnering with other counties who have been successful in maintaining their roadways. By forming those partnerships, the county could attain additional knowledge on what works best for gravel roads, he said.

Smith would like the county to bring the vehicles and equipment that travel the roads out for testing to see how they affect the gravel and structure to better know how to handle maintenance for the roads. Because the vehicles and equipment have changed drastically in the past few decades with more weight stressing the roads, pinpointing areas of improvement could be beneficial for future work.

With her extended knowledge of the road system in the county due to her 39 years working in the county engineering department, Olson said the treatment of the roads has varied depending on the administration. She said in the past four years, the department has been working to bring more gravel back to the roads and begin shaping them for optimal travel and drainage.

The group also addressed how the county can work with the smaller communities and what benefits the collaboration could bring. A popular idea, first mentioned by Hansen, was for the county to begin looking at combining insurance coverage to create a bigger pool and potentially lower costs.

“I think the idea of being able to pool resources and get cheaper rates is a good idea,” Talsma said. “Also, getting out there and communicating with them and remembering the county consists of a lot more than just Newton.”

Also sharing resources and equipment could benefit the smaller communities who cannot always afford the larger, specialized pieces, Hansen said.

State Backfill

An area where the candidates differed was on the status of the backfill payments from the State of Iowa. Carpenter stated the county has a plan in place to account for the potential $1 million loss without raising property taxes. Talsma, Chandler and Heaberlin concurred with Carpenter, while Olson said it is something the county is going to have to deal with and Smith said it could be “tough.” Hansen said he would work at the state house to advocate for the county.

“This is a really familiar issue for me and I have been keeping up with it for the past couple of months,” Beukema said. “If I sat around and waited for the government to hand out my subsidies, I would be in a world of hurt. I run my business, I plug forward and I think the county should do the same, find alternate, if the state or government is promising you money, you better be cautious if it’s going to be there or not.”

Due to the large number of candidates, there were several questions left on the floor Tuesday night. The candidates were given copies of the additional questions to be informed on the concern of county residents.

Iowa House District 28

Only two of the four Iowa House District 28 candidates were on hand for the forum. Democratic candidates Ann Fields and Zachary Pendroy discussed a variety of issues including  second amendment rights, mental health and the opioid crisis.

House District 28 covers Monroe, Sully and rural southern Jasper County, as well as Knoxville, a large portion of Marion County and Lucas County. The winner of that race in November will replace retiring State Rep. Greg Heartsill, R-Columbia.

To start the conversation, the candidates were asked about their opinion on second amendment rights. Both stated they own guns and agreed stronger background checks are needed to obtain a weapon. Pendroy said he would encourage a review of mental health care in Iowa, with the state currently sitting at number 49 in the nation, as an avenue to address gun violence.

“We have to access mental health care for individuals because more school shooters have mental health care issues,” Pendroy said. “We’ve seen over and over again individuals have mental health care issues and they are not being driven to the resources to help them to be able to cope.”

Fields said she wants to bring back the skilled-based permit testing to better prepare gun owners to use the weapons.

“I think all Americans have the right to own guns, but I think we need better background checks we need to have a skill-based permit program,” Fields said. “When I got my permit, we had a skill-based permit. I had to shoot the gun, I had to be able to handle the gun before I could get the permit.”

The ever-growing opioid crisis is coming to the forefront in many of Iowa’s communities. To address the issue, Fields and Pendroy both believe providing treatment for those in crisis is the path to take. Pendroy went as far as recommending the former Veterans Affairs hospital in Knoxville be converted to a mental health, substance abuse facility.

Republican candidates Jon Thorup and Jon Van Wyk both initially indicated they would join the forum but later declined the invitation citing prior commitments.

Citizens will have the opportunity to vote for the candidate(s) of their choice at the June 5 primary. From there, the top two candidates from each party in the supervisors race will appear on the November ballot, along with one democrat and one republican in the House District 28 contest.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com