After weeks of discussion, Allen County commissioners signed on to Iola’s Neighborhood Revitalization Plan.
The county will keep its tiered rebate reimbursement plan, while the three other participating entities will change theirs.
That was a point of contention week after week, starting when Gregg Hutton, codes enforcement officer for Iola, asked for the change.
The city’s hope is to boost housing construction by offering a full, 100% rebate for 10 years. The program works by rebating property taxes for homeowners who make improvements; the rebate applies only to the amount of taxes that were added because of those improvements. All participating entities — the city, the county, the school district and Allen Community College — offer the rebate.
If someone builds a house, that tax rebate is significant.
Under the previous agreement, new taxes were forgiven at 100% for the first six years, then slowly dropped by 20% increments over the remainder of the 10 years.
County commissioners want to keep that tiered system, even if it meant leaving the city’s program and going it alone.
Instead, the city was able to modify its agreement in a way that accommodates the county’s wishes.
Commissioners approved the revised agreement on Tuesday. City Council members, after a brief discussion about the county’s resistance, approved the same pact Monday evening.
JASON TREGO, emergency management director, showed off the county’s new First Net box, which will allow first responders to continue to have cell phone service if there is a problem with public cell services.
The box provides a dedicated cellular line for first responders, and can be taken to a community during an emergency outage. An example is a tornado that wipes out a cell tower.
“The idea is you can take this and throw it in the back of a patrol truck or ambulance, and you can provide internet cell phone service to people in remote areas,” he said.
Trego said a cell phone will work within 100 yards of the box. When connected, it can reach 26 miles.
Up to 30 devices can connect to the machine.
IN OTHER news, commissioners:
• Learned construction to rebuild the runway at the Allen County Regional Airport continues, but weather has caused delays. Rain slowed work on Monday and Tuesday.
• Approved a request by Road and Bridge Director Mark Griffith to attend a budgeting and finance class in El Dorado in January.
