Resident raises issue with placarded home, septic system

Mar. 13—OTTUMWA — The removal of a placard from a derelict dwelling in rural Wapello County led to a back-and-forth between another resident and a Wapello County supervisor during Tuesday's meeting at the courthouse.

Jeff Bosley, who owns property across 205th Avenue from a mobile home, asked supervisor Darren Batterson why a placard was removed when the septic system had not been properly inspected.

Batterson said he'd placed calls to Housing and Urban Development and was waiting for a response, but Bosley wasn't totally satisfied with the answer.

"I spoke to several people in this room regarding property across the street, and it was brought to my attention that there hasn't been a working septic system since 2020," Bosley said. "To this day, there is still no working septic system.

"I don't quite comprehend (why the placard was removed). This has gone on since 2020, so why does everybody else in Wapello County have to abide by the septic laws?"

Batterson said the system was working to his knowledge, but it wasn't until the septic tank was buried that he found out it hadn't passed inspection from either the county or the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

"You asked me to check on it and I put a call into the state, and I was waiting on his information," Batterson said.

Bosley was concerned his property value would decrease, then denied Batterson's recollection that Bosley "wanted the property."

"There's no way I can tell you how it'll effect your property value. How the hell would I tell you that?" Batterson said. "When you filed complaints on these people, our goal as supervisors is not to remove them from their property. Your goal was you want their property. That's what you told me. But it's not going to happen by us. We're not going to kick them off their property.

"I can't tell anyone in here how to live, how to bathe, how to dress or how many times to take a shower. That's not up to us."

County engineer Jeff Skalberg acknowledged the septic tank had been buried without an inspection.

"It's my understanding from the DNR that to be in full compliance, an inspection does need to be done, and it needs to be unburied and looked at before the county can sign off on it," he said. "That would be my level of knowledge with it. It's all DNR code and we have to follow that."

There also was a discussion about the property owners living in a camper on the site, but Bosley said they never stayed there.

Supervisor Brian Morgan asked if a home could no longer be condemned if water is running to a toilet.

"I've been informed that to have running water, you do not have to have water pumped to the house," Skalberg said. "You can be potable. Potable water is an approved source even if you carry it in gallon jugs from the grocery store."

The county does not have an ordinance for placarded properties, but if anyone is in one, it falls on law enforcement, Batterson said.

"We've just let all this slide since 2020," Bosley said.

In other business:

— The county set the maximum property tax levy public hearing for April 2 at 9:30 a.m., which will be one of two meetings that day, auditor Kelly Spurgeon said. There will be a meeting solely for the hearing, and then the regularly scheduled meeting to follow, as part of new guidelines established by the state legislature.

"Once we have that meeting, that locks us into the property tax levies as they're set," Morgan said. "They can go down, but they can't go up over what they are once we have that meeting."

— The county increased what it will pay as far as burial policy. For years, the county has paid about $1,200 to Reece Funeral Home for their services, but now it'll be $1,640 plus increased mileage to adjust for inflation.

"This has been in the works for some time. We hadn't made any changes since 2007, and there's a lot of people being transferred out of Ottumwa Regional Health Center. They're going to Iowa City, Des Moines, and if they pass, it's the county's responsibility," Morgan said. "Reece's have seen several more trips out of town to pick up the deceased, so this really just brings the policy more in line and gets it to a point where Reece's aren't losing money on doing county burials."

— Chad Drury can be reached at cdrury@ottumwacourier.com, and on Twitter @ChadDrury