The main entrance to the closed Iowa Juvenile Home / State Training School for Girls in Toledo. The Juvenile Home was in operation from 1920 to January, 2014, when it was ordered closed by then-Governor Terry Branstad an Human Services Director Charles Palmer. -Chronicle file photo

Toledo Police and Public Works departments are expected to soon assume responsibility for security and some of the ongoing plant operations of the Iowa Juvenile Home / State Training School for Girls. Closed since January, 2014, the campus has had some security coverage provided by Securitas Security Services USA, according to Matt Highland, public information officer for the Iowa Department of Human Services. The annual cost of services is $49,608 and that contract will expire June 30, 2020, Highland told The Chronicle.

The Toledo City Council approved the contract for up to five years of protection at a charge to the State of Iowa of $50,000 for each fiscal year beginning July 1. The 10-page agreement is in the process of being signed by the State for services beginning July 1, 2020, Highland reported.

Voting in favor were members Joe Boll, Duane Pansegrau, Cathy Cook and Darvin Graham who met in a Zoom internet meeting and at the Toledo Fire Station with social distancing in place. Member Jeremy Cremeans was absent.

Under it, the 27-acre campus will be checked on a seven-day-per-week basis with what are termed “security rounds rotating between 1st, 2nd (and) 3rd shifts” with coverage on all three by the police department.

It provides for a wide range of provisions ranging from checking on the geo-thermal system to, yes, even flushing toilets.

Monitoring of lawn mowing and snow removal and the emergency generator system and a walk-through of buildings to make sure all are secure are among the duties included.

Mayor Brian Sokol said Police Chief Nathan Shepard, Public Works Director Kendall Jordan and City Attorney Mike Marques have been involved in negotiating the protection plan. He said he believed the agreement is a “win-win” for both the state and the city.

Junk Vehicles

Revision of the city’s junk vehicle ordinance to more clearly define conditions which allow for classification of vehicles which can be subject to action was approved on 1st reading of the ordinance amendment by the council Monday night on a 4-0 vote. With no public comment received or heard, the council waived 2nd and 3rd readings and passed the revisions.

Changes include elimination of wording defining a junk vehicle as “any vehicle (which is) legally be placed in storage or unlicensed.”

It now defines vehicles considered “junk” to include lack of current registration, a laundry list of missing or broken parts, “has become a habitat for any animals(s) or by of insects, cannot be moved under its own power or not used as an operating vehicle for 30 or more days or constitutes a threat to public safety or health due to its condition.

The changes are aimed ta easing the process of requiring vehicles to be removed from property which meet the definitions.

In other business the council:

set a public hearing for May 11 to hear comment on amendment of the current fiscal year budget to include spending of Federal Emergency Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs money received which was not include in the orignal budget in an overall amount of about $36,000. Among items for which money was then spent were to repair frost boils in streets and a all-terrain vehicle for the fire department.