Williamsburg Journal Tribune (Newspaper) - December 2, 1982, Williamsburg, Iowa The Williamsburg Journal An MFC Newspaper Treasurers a 84 49 This Week In The JT 56 Pages Moves The Iowa county treasurers office has moved to the north side of the lower or basement level of Ihe Iowa county The move was made although all the work on renova tion of the office area had not been completed by that The move was made then to have a few days to adjust equipment in the new area before the renewal of auto registra tions began December and January iare peak months for the auto license noted Lois deputy The treasurers office will occupy the north part of the building which for many years was the office for the county and later the Iowa county Most of the area has not been used for the last year or The auto division of the treasurers office is located in the center of the north area and will be similar to the on the first floor previously occupied by the Renovation in the drea has included removing the old paneling and redoing red oing woodwork and matching new woodwork to existing where neces been the area painted and woodwork is in he process of being The part of the area on the west s ide was a fireproof vault used by the Iowa county clerk of court for the storage of Those records are now located in several places the attic of the the southeast rooms of the these Records are in the process of being micro but clerk Helen Hartin is a long and tedious process and will take Elevator Work on installation of the elevator the courthouse was completed kite last Wednesday It cannot be used until it has had federal When inspection has been it county V Work on ramp on the south side of the building to give accessibility to the building for those who are handi capped is nearly Concrete work is finished and a brass railing has been The brass railing and sandblasting on the concrete work have been done to keep the new work in harmony with the architec ture of the workers There is no preservative on the brass Lights along the walkway must still ho hooked into the Basement work remains to be com including the woodwork on the south side of the building where the new entrance has been Crews have worked weekends in some particularly to complete the area now occupied by the ers Construction crews worked until 9 and until late Sunday to complete so far as possible before the move began Painting has been done on a sub contract basis by Tim Navara Paint Tim Navara is a brother of Frank The long time treasurers office which has occupied the northwest corner of the first floor for many years will eventually be used by the board of supervisors for an office area instead of the one they now have over the front Work will not be done there until all of the ers office supplies have been moved on completion of the rest of the work on the lower The move Is expected to give the treasurers office more room as well as more room for the board of The county supervisors also heard architect Steve Rohrbach give them a progress report on the remodeling project Tuesday He noted the womens upstairs restroom was almost completed and that tile was being put down in the basement Supervisor Read added they authorized a new small water heater as an old one had rusted Rohrbach added the problems with driving casement down and related delays will cost an additional in said Inside County Care Little Big Game 12 Opinions Family Church Public 10 MFC Property Tax Law Changes There will be in current laws that will become effec tive with the 1983 assessment according to Harry county A partial listing of major property tax legislation enacted by the 1982 session of the General Assembly is listed Homestead and military tax cred its There will be onetime filing for homestead tax provided you do not change It will no longer be necessary to live in the homestead six Applicant must now own and the homes tead July 1 of each Application dates remain from 1 With the deadline of July Onetime filing will be done for mil tax provided you do not sell Application for all homestead and military credits for 1983 must be made in the assessors office to establish a permanent New dates for military service tax exemption This changes the begin ning and ending dates of the Vietnam Conflict for the military service tax exemption from 1964 to and from June 1973 to May Residents of nursing homes and extended care facilities shall be considered as living in their provided the owner does not lease or rent said Industrial equipment fand computer A tax incentive provides for industrial machinery and equipment acquired or leased after used in manufac turing Computers acquired after 1981 are also entitled to the same Personal property tax credit provides for the onetime filing of claims for personal property tax credit and requires the assessor to contact the taxpayer only in those years in which the previous years assessment exceeded the applicable tax Tax free exemption for qualifying land the county board of supervisors to exempt from taxation certain areas which qualify and meet These areas are recreational forest rivers and river and stream and open There are restrictions as to the number of acres that be desig to meet the tax exempt Number and usage of wells This requires assessors in 1983 and 1984 to take an inventory of the number and usage of wells in their jurisdictions and the information to the Iowa Geological Merchants Announce Christmas Activities Christmas activities have begun in Williamsburg following the Thanks giving holiday with the hanging of Christmas decorations around the town Activities will continue throughout December with Santa at the fire Participating Chamber members will be holding individual drawings in their stores 14 and for around in Merchants will be setting their own Christmas season store hours again this Last Hurrah Jay at Williamsburg elementary gets in some swinging during recess ai Willi amsburg elementary school during one of the last nice fall Jay is the son of Carol V Santa will visit with children and hear their requests at the fire station from 5 and will be given bags of candy provided by the Chamber of In the Chamber hopes to arrange for Santa to town each weekend in December to visit merchants stores on Fridays and trees again this at Montross Bin com pany at 304 East Welsh across the street from the Williamsburg Lumber Sales will be from 3 Dec 22 while supplies Hours will be 9 to 6 Monday through Proceeds from the Christmas tree sales will go toward charitable the club undertakes throughout the Council Approves Sewer Improvements The Williamsburg city council accepted the sewer improvements projects on Lakeshore drive and in Evansville at a special meeting Mon day they found they will be short of funds due to other sewer projects the city has since Engineer Bob Howard Green Cedar noted the project was basically com plete except for installing two drive ways and landscaping disturbed areas which the contractor did not do until next spring after the ground settles over the To go ahead with the assessment city attorney Ron Baylor and Frederick advised the council to accept the project as and enter into a supplemental contract for the remainder of the work to be which the council Frederick estimated there was in cleanup still to be done next Councilman Bob Head ley asked about maintenance over the noting there was already a hole at the lower end Frederick said the contractor still had a mainte nance contract on the He said he thought the contractor would cooperate with the city on winter Frederick estimated the final cost of the two projects would be including the in cleanup next spring for Lakeshore drive and for The final cost estimate was higher than the original cost estimate of The Lakeshore project includes in construction in and in fiscal and administrative The final cost on the Evansville project was estimated at including in construction in engineering and in fis cal and administrative Assessments Even though the final cost estimate was close to the there were additional costs assessable to prop erty owners offset by savings to the city on the lift station at the south end of Lakeshore force main and related engineering for which the city had agreed to On the Lakeshore remained in costs assessable to prop erty as the city had presented property owners with a preliminary assessment of it could not be The law doesnt allow raising it once the preliminary assessment is Frederick Frederick noted there were extra construction costs in the Lakeshore project because some lines were not where they were supposed to be and quite a bit ran the wrong Mayor Richard Pugh noted two extra manholes and a number of lines had to be installed Frederick added there was also more engineer ing on that project than they because they had to find where the lines The assessable costs Evans totaled up from the pre liminary assessment of As the council agreed to consider deducting a portion of the cost to give Evansville residents costs compara ble to five years ago when they felt they had been promised a Frederick recommended taking 20 percent off the actual cost figure to bring the final assessment to lower than the preli minary He noted esti mated costs in 1976 had been 20to 25 percent He admitted the 20 percent savings over actual costs was largely on paper as the city couldnt assess them more than the preliminary assessment which was already 15 percent below the actual at the suggestion of Say councilman Jerry Michel moved to set the Evansville assessment at 22 percent less than the actual and less than the preliminary He noted several reasons for that the final assessment would then be the same percentage under actual cost as the Lakeshore and it would be midway between Fredericks esti mates of 20 and 25 percent for 1976 Councilmen approved the 22 percent Frederick noted the additional cost on Evansville was primarily due to additional mainly inspection when the contractor reached a bad stretch of line and a force main that should not have been where it With this the city would have to pick up on the Evans ville as well as on the Lakeshore for Michel noted engi neering had run over the approximately while con struction had run over about the lift station and force main only cost which was lower than the engineers original estimate of Shortfall Because of the lowered bid on the lift the city councilmen thought the engineers original esti mate was therefore agreed to other sewer That is now bringing them up short of Weve already got a said Michel about the additional cost of the improvements when he proposed the higher rollback for Evansville This just raises it by commented councilman Terry City clerk Theresa Phillips Well probably have to sell some GO general obligation Well be about Even though the city is now on the sewer council men defended their action in rizing the other sewer It all had to be commented councilman Terry Pugh added had been left in sewer construction funds from the bond issue to build the sewage treat ment and said it would have been unfair for the city to hold it and not to use that money for con the only purpose it could be put to under That amount has now been spent on sewer line con struction over the past several years and on the lift station and force main in In other the city Extended the maturity date on anticipatory warrants to pay for the Evansville and Lakeshore sewer improvements from 31 to April Heard Pugh tell that Veterans of Wars member Ralph Gar ringer had told him the VFW was interested in installing flagpole holders in front of each business on the square in order to display flags on patriotic occasions and wanted to get input on the Councilmen sug gested such a display of flags might look better around the edge of the city square park rather than in front of each Pugh also suggested one group should be responsible for putting them up and taking them Conroy Center Director Seeks Expanded Program mailings for area their microfilming Jmd seeking small work are the main goals of Karen new director of the Iowa county Developmental We definitely need contract said who has been director of the Conroy center since She noted they are seeking microfilming contracts to records for Marengo Memorial hos pital which the center now Approximately ten clients workon getting documents ready for microfilming by removing staples and putting them in order to be and operating the A staff supervisor also checks each frame of film after it comes back from In their contract clients assemble the items to be staple them stuff them into the label them and sort them by postal After the mailings leave the tal they are ready to have postage applied and be sent to the post the center is looking into applying the postage so the mailing could go directly from the center to the post she The center is currently doing mail ings for a major Iowa county She added if companies have small assembly such as putting one on the center would be interested in contracting this Pettit is a Manchester native and graduated from Manchester high school in and received a bache lor of science degree in 1979 from the University of Her major was elementary education with emphasis in special She went on to receive a masters degree in counseling from the univer sity in Afterward she was a rehabilitation consultant for two firms International where she worked for one and Rehabilitation where she worked for seven her jobs in Minneapolis were with employers to make job modifications to allow per sons injured in work accidents to to their former During the summer of she also was a volunteer at the Wood ward state working with severe and profound mentally retarded During graduate she interned with the United Cerebral Palsy Cedar Rap working at the Delaware county vocational As an she also student taught elemen tary students in the Solon Community Pettit is handicapped hav ing cerebral she Its not an in working in the It doesnt make me more she said working with the handicapped is something one likes or Asked what she liked about working with the she noted each client has set goals to and I like to see progress made on a daily KAREN PETTIT
