Commissioners lend a hand to Coyote Flats
By Matt Smith – Clinton Herald, Iowa (TNS)
The small Johnson County town of Coyote Flats having lost its city hall turned to the Johnson County Commissioners Court on Dec. 20 to receive help.
“A few years back they bought a portable building for their city hall but that property recently sold and so they sold their building and so for now are without a city hall or place to hold their meetings,” Johnson County Precinct 4 Commissioner Larry Woolley said.
Residents of the population 289 city, according to 2023 U.S. Census numbers, turned to Woolley for help in finding an alternative city business site.
“They wanted to know if they could meet at the [Precinct 4 Maintenance Facility], which I don’t see a problem with,” Woolley said. “It’s a county building that serves a public purpose including for the people of that city.”
The rest of the court agreed and approved the request.
The Coyote Flats City Council will for now meet at 6:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at the Pct. 4 facility.
“There’s no cost really other than the hour or two they’ll be there each month,” Woolley said.
The arrangement is temporary, Woolley added.
“The developer of a subdivision going in out there will include a community center that they’ll be able to use and that should be ready in six month or so,” Woolley said.
Coyote Flats lies east of Cleburne and south of Keene. It includes portions of County Road 415, CR 417A and Farm-to-Market Road 2415. Residents living in the area voted to incorporate into a town in 2014 in order to stave off annexation threats from other county cities.
Commissioners during that same meeting approved an interlocal agreement between the county and Briaroaks whereby county workers will clean and clear ditches along several Briaroaks streets.
”These smaller towns don’t have the equipment to do these things so they approached me about helping out,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Mike White said.
The assistance comes at no cost to the county.
”They will compensate us on this so it’s at their cost, not ours,” White said.
Commissioners voted also to reject a bid for renovation and remodel of the county’s Juvenile Justice System building. The project included parking lot work as well and renovation of a vehicle processing center for the adjacent Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
County leaders projected the costs at about half a million. The sole bid submitted totaled $1.8 million.
”We expected the bids might be a little over but we didn’t expect them to come in at more than three times our estimate,” County Judge Chris Boedeker said. “That was shocking to all to say the least.”
All three projects are needed and will still happen, Boedeker said.
”We’ll move forward but we have to go back to the drawing board for now,” Boedeker said. “We’re probably going to look at these as smaller, individual projects.”
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