Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.

CAMBRIDGE — Henry County's electric contract expires in December, and there is no way of getting around a significant increase in electric rates, consultant Mike Ellis of E-Quantum Consulting told the county board Thursday.

Ellis explained the rate is an individual customer's peak load contribution multiplied times a rate set at auction, and unlike the typical auction, the highest price to clear the market sets the price. Recently at auction, the rate was set at $236.66, up from $5.

Ellis said the county could go to an indexed profit instead of a fixed price. He said this would be optimal if there were a recession with corresponding demand destruction and falling prices.

"It's probably the riskiest thing we can do but probably the cheapest," he said.

The second option would be to do a short-term electric buy.

The third option would be to buy the out-years and blend everything together. Two or three years would be considered long term.

"I think that'll give you a middle option," he said. "The question is in that three-year period, will the economy begin to tank off, and I think it will."

He said cycles usually lasted two to three months, but this one might last longer.

"This one, I think, is going to hurt for a while because there's no one doing anything to alleviate the pain," he said.

County board chairman Kippy Breeden noted the previously announced resignation of board member Kelli Parsons as well as a new resignation — board member Mallisa Sandberg of Cambridge, who took a new job.

Republican and Democratic party chairmen have been contacted to make suggestions to replace the two women. Two Republicans will be named as both were Republican.

"Hopefully by next month we'll have names for the board to accept," Breeden said.

Mark Burton was appointed to be finance committee chairman to take Parsons' place, and Jim Thompson was appointed public safety chairman to take Burton's place on that committee.

Transportation chairman Jeff Ortion said he had been asked why Wolf Road was not painted. He said the county got the paint from the state and the state got it from Texas, and they are having problems in Texas.

"Things are on back order," he said.

Board member Jim Padilla asked why the intersection of Interstate 80 at Atkinson still has no guardrails. Orton said they had tried to use influence with a state senator or representative to no avail.

Board vice chairman Shawn Kendall noted the former Kewanee Boiler 33-acre property in Kewanee municipal limits was coming up for a tax sale again.

"We have been accused of neglecting that site," he said. "We don't have any control over it."

He said following the tax sale, the land would still not be owned by the county but sit in the Henry County Tax Trust "in property purgatory."

County Administrator Erin Knackstedt said the boiler site had changed hands at a tax sale every three years for a long time.

"It's been 'rinse, repeat' for 20 years," she said.

Kendall said there was no action to be taken right now; the matter was simply discussed at the executive committee.

"Our numbers are definitely improving," she said. There is no COVID in the building at present.

— LISA HAMMER/rlhammer15@gmail.com

Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.

SIOUX CITY — As part of its ongoing water conservation efforts, the City of Sioux City is asking the public to voluntarily comply with an odd/…

Long Lines Recreation Center has been an early voting location in Sioux City for 10 years. This year, the League of Women Voters submitted a petition to keep it operating following changes to election laws.

The bill passed with support from every Democrat and 47 Republicans in the U.S. House.

The Board of Supervisors approved up to $115,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding to be used for a 4 percent wage increase to unionized secondary roads employees. This increase is in addition to the union negotiated increase.

New buses could save districts money amid high fuel prices.

On this week’s edition of the On Iowa Politics podcast, ft. the Journal's Jared McNett: Iowa Poll results, US House votes on marriage equality & contraception, Iowa red flag laws, and state campaign fundraising numbers.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller called on the Iowa Legislature to pass laws making it easier for people to test drugs for fentanyl and obtain overdose-reversing medication on Thursday.

Joni Ernst said President Joe Biden's policies had created a "humanitarian crisis" at the southern border.

Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.