A view of the John Deere dealership located at 1702 E. 5th Street in Tama. The current grounds are landlocked by surrounding businesses and Business Hwy 30. News Herald Photo/Allison Graham

Monday morning the Tama County Board of Supervisors met with a Joe Mattingly, rural Toledo, and his attorney, Steve Kenkel, Toledo, along with several representatives of Van Wall John Deere, to discuss the rezoning of some farm land located north of Toledo for a new John Deere Implement location.

For many years the John Deere store has been in Tama on East 5th Street (U.S. Highway 30 – now Business 30). On Jan. 17, 2014, Van Wall Equipment, a regional John Deere dealer group headquartered in Perry, Iowa, announced the acquisition of four additional John Deere dealer locations. These new locations include Tama, Marshalltown and Grinnell with the acquisition of Southard Implement, and Oskaloosa with the acquisition of Drost Equipment.

On Monday, Van Wall representatives told the supervisors the store is landlocked on all sides, no room for expansion on the east, south or west, and the Highway on the north.

Steve Kenkel, attorney for Mattingly, told supervisors that Joe Mattingly, representing his parents, Sam and Sarah Mattingly, would like to rezone a plot of 20 acres of farm ground on the Mattingly farm from agricultural to commercial. The reason for the rezoning would be to sell this land to the VanWall John Deere Dealership in Tama. The Van Wall representative told supervisors that there is no room to put used machinery on display, or room for another building for storage, and several other reasons for expansion. As we all know the size of farm machinery twenty years ago and the size of farm machinery are quite different.

Van Wall reprsentatives said they would like to purchase 20 acres of ground from the Mattinglys as this would be more centrally located to the county, and John Deere dealers are limited in the areas they can have a dealership. This ground would satisfy all requirements.

Jerry Witte, Tama County Assessor, stated on March 25, 2015, the Zoning Commission met at a public hearing to discuss a zoning change of twenty acres from Agricultural to Commercial. This site is located at the southeast corner of U.S. Highway 63 and County Highway E29, property owners being Sam and Sarah Mattingly. There was presentation by the prospective buyer and developer of the property. Many questions were asked. There was no opposition from the public. The Zoning Commission Board recommended the request by a 2-1 vote to allow the request.

VanWall John Deere claims their biggest concern for the area of relocation is safety. He claims the drive for the old store is not sufficient to safely turn in to with the size of today’s machinery. At the new location there would be wide shoulders to give better access to the store. S

Supervisors Dan Anderson, Kendall Jordan and Larry Vest discussed the request and voted unanimously to allow this zoning to take place.

In other business the supervisors:

-approved a transfer of property from Tama County to the City of Traer. Several years ago Tama County became owners of several lots in Traer on the 500 block between Second and Third Streets in Traer. Tama County is willing to transfer this property to the City of Traer, and the City of Traer will pay for all the paper work required for the transfer.

– The Zoning Commission had met for this request on March 25 for a public hearing to discuss an Anhydrous storage place for two 30,000 gallon tanks, and retail sales on a property know as Midway and owned by Mid-Iowa Coop. The site was preapproved by an IDALS inspector and is over 750 feet from the nearest structure, off site, which is a requirement. After a short presentation by the owner there w as no opposition from the public. The Zoning Board recommended by a 3 – 0 vote to allow the request. Supervisors agreed and voted 3-0 to allow the tanks to be placed.

-Skip Lowe with Bernie Lowe and Associates Inc. Insurance, was present to give an update on Tama County’s health insurance standings. Lowe also had information on what changes might be for the coming year. Tama County is self funded. At the present time it looks like the administration fee for the health component will increase by a maximum of four percent over the July 1, 2015 administrative fee . The guarantee is effective for the July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017 rating period. This guarantee does not apply to any other components such as network access fee, operating margin, reinsurance fees (individual and/or aggregate), vendor fees, or PBM administrative fees and other PBM fees.

-Auditor Laura Kopsa presented a folder of Business Property Tax Credit Claims to be reviewed and asked supervisors to approve the review.

-A utility permit was approved for overhead line work to be done in Highland Township.

-County Engineer Lyle Brehm says they are contracting gravel hauling and this is going good. Supervisor Dan Anderson asked if Brehm knew when the dust control companies would start their work. Brehm says usually Jericho starts about the middle of May , but does not have any dates for the other companies who do this work. The county will be busy preparing the roads to be ready for the dust control treatment.

Claims for the past week approved, came totaled $98,516.