The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors has authorized the Muscatine County Historic Preservation Commission to apply for a Certified Local Government grant of $21,096 for the survey of a historic district in West Liberty.
The board of supervisors gave its approval during its meeting on Aug. 26 after a presentation by preservation commission member Lynn Pruitt on the “Intensive-Level Historical/Architectural Survey of the North Calhoun Street Potential Residential Historic District, West Liberty, Muscatine County, Iowa.”
“Calhoun Street includes impressive Queen Anne style houses and is infilled with less styled properties of the late-19th century,” the grant application said. “A few houses date from the early-20th century, including American Foursquares and a Tudor Revival house.”
The preservation commission and a consultant to be determined will direct the project that has a total budget of $36,508. The City of West Liberty will provide a cash match of $5,000. In-kind, contribution match will total $10,412.
The preservation commission asked for authorization to apply for the CLG grant following a survey conducted in Wilton and West Liberty.
“The historic preservation commission a year or two ago did a survey of both Wilton and West Liberty historic districts, historic homes in those two cities. Wilton identified two or three,” Pruitt said. “They’ve actually gotten started in doing an intensive survey of those and that project is being handled under their CLG separate from our county ones.”
Preservation commission member William “Bill” Koellner presented to the board of supervisors at its Aug. 19 meeting a completed study the commission launched over a year ago “Survey of Transportation Development in Muscatine County ‘Certified Local Government’ Grant Project.” That survey of transportation development in Muscatine County will be available online at the Muscatine County website.
The preservation commission was awarded a $21,000 CLG grant in fiscal year 2023 to perform the survey of historic transportation facilities in Muscatine County.
Deep Lakes Park project
The board of supervisors reallocated certain funds Muscatine County received from the American Rescue Plan Act of March 11, 2021, to the Conservation Deep Lakes Park Campground project.
The county received $8,286,982 from the American Rescue Plan, allocating $876,475 to the Conservation Deep Lakes Park Water Connection project and $614,375 to the Conservation Deep Lakes Park Sewer Connection on Sept. 19, 2023. Funds of $1,490,850 from those projects were reallocated to the campground project.
Although the original American Rescue Plan funding was approved for running city sewer and water to the park, proceeding with those projects would be more expensive than what funding would allow, said Katie Hammond, director of the Muscatine County Conservation Board, who presented the board of supervisors with a “Deep Lakes Park Campground – Ala Carte Options” cost estimate. Plans now call for installing a well and holding tank for septic.
The approximate cost of city water was $1,245,000. Installation of a well only would cost approximately $100,000. City sewer would cost approximately $851,050 or $974,500 for city sewer with short road. A holding tank would cost approximately $75,000.
Wilton mayor backs EMS county service
The board of supervisors heard a presentation from Wilton Mayor Keith Stanley regarding possible development of countywide emergency medical services with Wilton, Nichols and West Liberty.
Combining services under the county would help pool resources while covering people with an ambulance service, Stanley said.
“Not coming here to ask for a bunch of money. I just wanted to let you know what we’re thinking about,” Stanley said.
In other action, the board approved:
The combined preliminary and final plat of Niemann Acres Subdivision in Muscatine County.
Niemann Acres is a two-lot subdivision at 2720 Isett Ave. in which certain parts of the land were voluntarily severed and annexed between the City of Muscatine and Muscatine County.
“It’s a two-lot subdivision. Where it gets a little cloudy is part of it is in the city and part of it is in the county,” Eric Furnas, Planning, Zoning and Environmental administrator, said. “We don’t know how it happened. The former corporate line and the parcel line went right through the middle of the owner’s house. This has all been resurveyed, land severed, land annexed, so now we have a two-lot subdivision where Lot 1 is in the county and Lot 2 is in the city.”