Report from the 9/15 meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors
MCDC: Keep the door open on development
Agenda item 9 • Update only • No board action
Montgomery County Development Corporation asked supervisors not to slam the door on projects before they are studied.
Ben Lundgren, representing MCDC, and board member Ron Lorenz presented a resolution adopted by the Development Corporation’s own board. The resolution backs economic opportunity, fair competition, and responsible regulation. In practical terms, Lundgren and Lorenz asked the county to look hard at development proposals instead of answering with a blanket moratorium or a quick no.
“Montgomery County’s future depends on being open to opportunities,” Lorenz told the board, according to Schmid. She said she agreed with that point and described the ask as basic good business: be responsible as elected officials, but do not close the door before the facts are in.
Tax suspension approved, tax-sale buyer to be refunded
New Business (a) • Parcel 641227136009000 • Iowa Code 427.9 • Approved 4–1
Supervisors voted 4–1 to suspend taxes on a parcel Schmid believes is in Villisca and to refund the investor who bought the delinquency at tax sale.
The agenda item directed the board to discuss an application for tax suspension on parcel 641227136009000 under Iowa Code 427.9, and to instruct the treasurer to refund the holder of Tax Sale Certificate 2026-152. Code 427.9 is the statute that lets a county suspend taxes when the owner cannot pay — typically after notice tied to human-services eligibility.
Recycling bill: county users, city ratepayers
New Business (b) • Discussion only • Landfill Association meets Sept. 23
Supervisors spent a long stretch of the meeting on a fairness question Supervisor Bryant Amos first raised last week: city households pay for recycling; rural residents have been using the same drop-off without paying that fee.
Schmid said Red Oak residents pay a recycling charge on their city bill — she guessed in the neighborhood of four dollars, though the exact figure was not confirmed in the interview. People who live in the unincorporated county do not pay that charge, but they have been bringing recyclables to the city site. “That isn’t right. So it isn’t fair that you pay and we don’t,” she said.
The Montgomery County Landfill Association receives money back from the landfill each month. That account now holds a little more than $43,000. The association is made up of the mayors plus one county supervisor. It has had trouble gathering a quorum and had not met on this issue before Tuesday’s board discussion.
A meeting is set for Sept. 23. Supervisors want the association to talk about splitting that money back to the cities that operate recycling — Red Oak, Villisca, and Stanton — so rural use can be covered as a paid share instead of a free ride. Schmid put it simply: the county needs to pay its fair share. Once it does, rural residents can keep using the service.
No vote was taken. The board cannot settle the split without the association. Schmid said tracking every user would be possible but cumbersome, which is why the money-on-the-table approach is the path they want the association to consider.
The next regular meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 9 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors meeting room at the courthouse, 105 E. Coolbaugh Street, Red Oak.
