The Shelby County Supervisors auctioned off two different pieces of county land this (Tuesday) morning. The two land auctions were held as part of the Supervisors meeting. The first auction was for 145 acres of farm land. John Wingert had the winning bid of $400 per acre. Wingert farmed the ground last year too. The other auction was the county’s 108 acres of solid wasteland and was auctioned to Brandon Wiese for $340 per acre. In other business, the Shelby County Supervisors approved a resolution on the addition of road and bridge projects to the County Urban Renewal Plan. On the same business, the Supervisors approved a Tax Increment Financing Ordinance adding new taxable property for revenue to the county. Shelby County Auditor Marsha Carter informed the supervisors, on which properties are to be added.

“It specifies that we added the Kirkman Farm, Arkfeld Confinement and the properties Arkfeld owned on the road from new 59 to the Confinement. The Farm Service Coop property is spelled out in here.” Supervisor Steve Kenkel explained the reasoning behind the addition of taxable property and the amendment to the renewal plan was for the county to stay out of debt.

“One of the reasons we are doing this is because one-third of the Counties in Iowa are bonding for road and bridge improvements and we want to stay away from that if at all possible. This is an avenue we want to do that. We have road improvements need to be done around the confinement areas and Coop and wouldn’t be done otherwise. We know there will be more wear and tear on it. Dan’s crew has been good about keeping up on the bridge improvements and we need local cost share to do that. This is a way to do that and stay out of debt. It has been a growing trend that more counties are getting in debt and not stay out of it and that’s what we are hoping to do here.”

Carter said this is another avenue for roads and bridges. “We’re giving secondary road the maximum tax money we can give them. Even if the board wanted to raise taxes to put towards secondary roads, we cannot. They are getting the maximum allowed. This is another revenue source to use on roads and bridges.”

The Shelby County Supervisors approved the resolution and ordinance.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)