Shawn Bryant, Boone County Supervisor, July 23, 2026

Guest on our program today joined by Sean Bryant, Boone County Supervisor. Thanks for coming in. Thank you for having me, Jim. He is not the chairman of the supervisor. No, I'm the vice chairman this year. The other one's out riding his bicycle. Well, I think he's done. He just did his one day. Yeah. That's okay. That's okay. What a nice day though. It was a nice day. You had a lot of traffic going. That's one of those things where people, as the board, you know something like this is coming. Like one of the first things you get, yes, the engineer who knows the route but can't tell you and he, what's the condition of our roads? Because that's something you have to be concerned about. Yeah. We spent about, I believe over $60,000 repairing the road, the route that was going through Boone County in preparation for Raghbri, fixing the cracks and little potholes and things like that and making it smoother for them. Making this the best you can. Yeah. And he was pretty confident. Yes. Under control. I think it went well. I didn't ride it. I could drive over it. Yeah. I wasn't going to go out there and would send Eric out to do that. Yeah. So let him do that. Anyway, it was nice having them all go through and we had a few people that took, you get that many riders, people are going to fall over and we've had a few of those but, you know, otherwise not too bad this year after the heat. So we got that part done. Well, one of the things that I did want to ask you about and this is something that's been going on for a couple, gosh, a couple years now, you had actually had somebody come in and approach the board about getting names added to the World War II honor display that you have. It's again, for those that come into the courthouse, you walk into the main lobby area, you got all the wooden paneling that's up with all the names on there. It's been there a long time. I don't know all the history on it. I think a lot of it you guys have looked for and tried to find what you could, but it was something that was done a long time ago. And right now there are, you know, how do we add names to it? And then as you take a look at it, you go, you know, we've got some, there's some weathering issues and things that need to be taken care of. So this started really a couple years ago just by somebody asking to get a name at it. Yes, this, this did start a couple years ago by somebody coming in and saying, my, my father is not on this wall. I'd like him added. So we did some research and tried to find the criteria for someone being on the wall. The best we could find is they had to be a resident of Boone County when they left for the war at that time. So they didn't have to leave from Boone County, but they had to be a resident from Boone County and then join the war and leave. So those are the names that are on the wall that we suspect because, you know, the records are not available. So if they can prove that, um, they just need to bring in the records and then we can get their names added to the wall. So then we, I started looking at the condition of the wall and another super, a couple of the supervisors started looking and we were like, okay, this is really faded. The sun has did done some damage. The buffer that you ran across the floor have done some damage at the bottom of the display. It's a very unique display. So we did a lot of research and looking and then we said, okay, how do we get this fixed? Let's see if someone can just touch it up. So I've asked a few people, hey, can you come in and look at it? Would you give us a bid? We got a couple. Uh, and then it wasn't quite right. Wasn't the right way to do things. So,

and then it kind of stalled. Okay. Well, part of it is, yeah, okay. Well, we think we have someone that's willing to do this. And then as they start getting a little closer to, are you going to ever start with it? You know, the more I look at it, the more it's going to take more. Yeah. So we had somebody and we had somebody that said, yeah, no problem. I'll do it at this time. And then it got closer. And then they said, no, I can't, which is fine. So I just, I wrote an RFP and put together a criteria for what we are looking for in restoration of this project. We got the, I got the, the RFP done. I got it posted online yesterday. And so if you, It's on the, on the county website. On the county website. Yep. So you go to the county website and you click, I think it's down at the bottom of the first page on, I think it's bids or something like that. Yeah. There are the, the information's there. Yeah. They can find it. So you can find it. And then you click on there and it brings up the criteria, what we're looking for. You can come into the courthouse and look at it. And if you say, oh yeah, I can do that. And I'll do it for this much. Put together a bid and email it to me and I'll put in with a stack. And then when it's time, you have till, I think August 26th is the deadline to get your bids in. And then once we get all the bids in, we'll take a look and then pick who, who will get the bid. So we are talking about, again, you know, not just adding a couple of names here, but you wanted to have some restoration, redo, get some of the colors brightened. Again, it's taken, it's had a lot of sun fade on it. It's not a total paint over restoration. It's a touch up here and there, brighten some, brighten some spots, you know, make it look a lot better than it does now. But yes, not just names added. There are several spots that he touched up and painted. And once they get in there and look at it, an artist will know what they can and cannot do. Yes, it's going to take some skills. It will. Like I said on the news, just don't go write a name on there with a sharpie inside. No. And that was really one of the challenges. So finding every, because the names were in different orders and different things like that, they were just added. It seemed almost, I don't know how they came up with it in the beginning. So I don't know either, because they are not in any order. You know, we've had people come in and say, well, my dad's not on there or, you know, my mom's not on there. And then a couple of days later, we're like, oh yeah, here they are, you know, it's hard to find because they're not in any order on there at all. So, and then there's the, again, the kind of the ornamental part of it too. You got some flag decorations. And that some of that is where it was really getting faded from the sun, because that was facing to the east. So yeah, that morning sun. Yeah. At the top of on the pillars, you know, you got the shield with the American flag. You know, there's some paint drips on some of them. The white has faded to yellow. The eagle on the main part of the foot has broken off. So if someone could recreate that foot and put back on there, that'd be fantastic. So there's some, there's some pieces that need fixed. Yeah. Just some work. Yeah. Well, again, not just anybody's going to do this. Somebody's going to have to have some skills. Yeah. Help, please. Please. That's, and that's really got, we need to start and get the word out. Yes. Get more people involved with that too. Well, I know that you guys have had a lot of other things going on. One of the things, individual meetings, so you guys all are doing different things. I know Scott Longhorn does Herda. He's got a meeting going on for that today, actually. But you are on the Board of Health and one of the, you made a presentation as part of the meeting that was held earlier this week. And again, Board of Health folks, they don't meet very, it's not a, it's what, every two months? Yes. Something like every two months. And one of the things is healthy, was it healthy home? Healthy homes initiative, yes. So you got something that you're looking at. We kind of had something through planning and development health and sanitation before where they had equipment where they could go and take a look at your home and do some things there. But going a little bit more into it, especially with the radar. Yes. So my idea was to, so this year, the state of Iowa passed legislation that says every new home being constructed will be built with a passive radon mitigation system, regardless of every home. So. All new homes. All new homes. Instruction. Passive mitigation system. While you, why you were building the home, why not make it an active system? Why it's open and there is cheaper. It doesn't cost that much more to the home owner. And it's safer. Iowa is the highest in the nation in radon. Boone County is like number three, I think, in the radon saturation or, you know. We're in the top tier. We're, unfortunately, yes. One of those areas we don't want to be. Yes, we are. We are top tier and Boone County is in top tier. We're there. So I put together an ordinance that says

Boone County, you'll have a active, we're going to put an active radon mitigation system on any new construction. Because once your home's constructed, it costs, you know, it could be 1200 to 5000. And then we're not going to mess with that. That's up to the home owner themselves. But any new construction. So the Board of Health unanimously passed that one. And now it, I sent it to our county attorney to look at it and go over it and make sure it passes the sanity test. And then it'll go to the Board of Supervisors. And once it goes to the Board of Supervisors, they'll vote on it, which is me again. And then they'll decide if they want to pass it. But that'll be done, that'll be required because it's an ordinance, public hearing, so people can have input on it. Yes. Especially, again, people are right away, you're going, well, passive is pretty relatively easy. Active basically just has the fan in there. Yeah, basically. Yeah. So, but those are some of the things that doing it during construction, which is, you know, makes more sense. I think any home habitats been doing, you know, they all have it. Yes, they'll have it. I mean, there's a lot of contractors that have been doing it. This is just a mandate that the state wants. And you would just like to up it just a bit more. Yes, up the ante. So, I'm just trying to make these homes safer for people. It makes sense, you know, trying to keep the cancer rate down, trying to keep people healthier longer. It just makes sense. We've had too many people pass from cancer, our cancer rates way high. And let's just try to lower it any way we can. So again, that's one. And so people will hear more about that once you go through legal review and stuff and then be able to put it on the agendas. Yes. We'll remind them when that comes up to write different things that are happening that way. I know at one time you guys had talked about, and obviously, I think Eric Kretzinger is the one that's kind of tracking it more, where different counties doing moratoriums on data centers. And what used to be what most people hear about in the beginning on data centers to what they are now might be two different things, really. It's one of the issues was right away, people are going, well, we don't have a moratorium, but you don't have anybody inquiring either. No. We haven't been really approached by, you know, there's data centers sniffing around, absolutely, you know, but we haven't been formally approached by a data center for say to put up here in Boone County. We don't need an ordinance. I mean, we don't need a moratorium because right now, all of us are in the same mindset that we're not going to change the regulation that we have now in order to allow the one to come in. It would require an ordinance amendment to permit that. Right. So until we see something that makes sense, you know, now I understand the hatred for data centers, you know, for the big ones that suck up water and use energy, but I also understand there's others that don't suck up all the energy and don't

use a lot of water and electricity. So, you know, there's pros and cons. So you have to have a balance and maybe I'm not saying yes or no. I'm saying let's look and have a conversation. I'm not going to get spun around the wheels right now. And I'm not saying that we are, I'm not going to get my pitchfork out and start stabbing data centers. Right now, it's a no the way we're looking at things. But I'm still ready to have that conversation with anybody. I'm not going to just shut them out. So I think one of the things that the board did do, this would have been previously, the moratorium was for commercial sized solar. Yes. But you had some people asking specifically about doing something like that. And you took a look at your, your zoning ordinances basically is where the control is. Yes. And there just wasn't a lot there. Right. So they came in, they actually came in, went, came to a meeting, here's what we want to do. Okay, now we need to start looking at this. And we, we looked at the advantages and disadvantages of solar, what it would do. And so we, we put in the setbacks and everything. So. But again, the moratorium to be able to update your ordinance to give you at least some kind of control on issues that more, a lot of people might have. So, but and did a lot of research, you guys went and took a look at different, different solar farms. And there are several, I mean, there's, they're around the area. So, I mean, good sized ones too. I don't have a problem with solar. I just think it belongs on roofs. Okay. We all have those, have those things that we're working on. I did want to ask about, because I know one of the boards that you serve on is the community, communication. Yes, of course, the big, the big thing there had been the, what we call the Motorola update. Yep. Things have come together. Finally, we're moving, I got all the work done. It sounds like. Yes. Up and up and running. We have a come board meeting tonight. First one in a while. So we'll see what, what happens, what comes out of this meeting. Things seem to be running okay. Both towers are up. The one at the, the old one at the sheriff's department has been deconstructed and taken away. We have the new one and the base out at Don Williams that is working fine. And the new one at the sheriff's office here in town. So the big thing was adding the new, basically it was we had to replace our microwave, the relays from the different towers to the different towers, because we pretty much got our monies worth out of the old system. It wasn't just the height of the tower. It was the height of the tower because of the growth of the trees. We needed that, but plus we needed to update our microwave. So it was a two step process. And as we, as we all know, technology doesn't age well. So it'll be something else soon. We're going to have to replace something else. Guarantee it. Well, I know. Don't we all, it just happens. But at this point in time, seems to be working as well. And I think the one up north at Don Williams, the big thing there was better access into the river valley. They can, I think that's actually turned out to be exactly what they had hoped for. So when an officer is out on their portable, they have full coverage now. So for those that were, the big issue was that with Landis taken out the, or the elevator up there was being used for that relay. And basically, again, it was hard to get the microwave to that. Yes. It was very spotty before when Landis was, when the tower was in Beaver. No, not Beaver, Boxholm. My apologies. Boxholm. What was in Boxholm? The coverage was spotty down there in the river valley. Excuse me. Now that the tower is in up at Don Williams, it is, coverage is seamless. Okay. We like, well, law enforcement and fire like that a lot. Yes. That's the one people will say, well, it's always, we remember there's more on there than just the highway patrol and the sheriff's department. Yes. You got a lot of, a lot of traffic going through that. And fire departments in particular, when they're out there in those areas, they like to be able to communicate with help. So I get that. Central Highway Expo, of course, we got farm progress coming. We do. Excited? Are we ready? How's the crops looking? You know, they're looking good. We had that big storm the other day. Everything's still standing. I was happy to see that. We put a lot of work in getting them in. So I was glad to see the corn still up. But no, the crops are looking great out there right now. A little, little rust out there, a little southern rust, but I think the sprayers are on top of it, taking care of things. The farm, the Central Iowa Expo looks good. We recently have re-roofed the two full standalone bathrooms out there. Okay. So they have been re-roofed. We are redoing the concrete around them next year. Those are both going to be redone, report. So we are putting new screws in the admin building this year. All the screws are coming out because the roof is great. It's just the, the rubber around the screws is kind of deteriorating. So we're taking all them out and putting new ones in. So it's aging folks. Yes. It's been there. It's been there. It's been there a while now. Yeah. So we're, we're doing that, trying to take care of a few things. Constant mowing. That's been, that's been a chore for me out there. So if you guys don't know, I go out there and I mow, mow that hillside. That keeps them busy. It does keep me busy when I'm not doing the supervisor job. Well, yeah. It's, as far as the Central Iowa Expo and, and a lot of people will ask about it. Again, it's one of those attractions for Boone County, but we have seen a lot of growth out there. Yeah. We've been lucky to get more and more events out there. You know, we had the, the firework guild out there. They came out there a couple of years ago and they want to come back, which is fantastic. And we have the firefighters association that wants to come back again. So the more events that we can have out there, the better it's going to be for Boone and Boone County. So if you know of any events that would, needs a big space like that, contact Central Iowa Expo and see if that's something that is in your price range to rent. It's not that expensive. And there's lots of land. There's buildings you can rent. There's all kinds of things that could be, you could be access. The sheriff's department's out there racing around the track all the time. You know, I go out there and I mow and sometimes I got to watch out to where I'm going because they're speeding around the place. If they're wondering, yes, let's say they, they do basically some training. They do. It's a training site. Yep. They train out there. State patrol goes out there and trains and yeah, it's pretty neat. Does we make use of it too? Yeah. We have had, and one of the things that was done out there again, a lot of the roads that were put in, that was in Iowa State DOT, a lot of trial projects and stuff. And I know they continue to come out there and they check those. Again, this is like the long range study on how these roads are holding up with all the traffic and the different things that go on there. Yeah, they have tests out there. We do, there's some asphalt studies and things like that. They come in there and I believe, now don't quote me, I may be incorrect, but I believe they come out there and they pour asphalt and things in concrete for, I mean, free. Yeah. And that's their test plot and they'll test it. I mean, where we want things, but that's their spot and then they'll test things out there. So I believe that's the case. Oh, that one big display tent. I think that's the test spot. Yes. That was one with the Soybean Association. Yeah. We're involved with that one. Yeah. Yeah. And that's proven to be, could we do this all in other places too? That's a nice spot. Yeah. So we got, that'll be going on, but I think probably the big thing is now the overpass has really helped traffic. Yes. Still going to get congested folks, it just is with that much traffic in and out of there. Yeah. And I, there is, I believe Hertha has purchased land out there. I know they've purchased land out that way and they're building their maintenance shop. They'd like to move out that way. Yep. They're somewhere, they did purchase land out that way and they're building their maintenance shop out there. So kind of growth that you were looking at. People keep wondering, what about spray tech on the other side and they keep asking what it is and things like that. Again, we are seeing the development along 30, the corridor, which is something that the county does have with their comprehensive plan. Right. On the south side of 30 there, you have spray tech and that's going to be a warehouse. You won't see much more growth there on the south side of 30 probably because of the water line. There's just not, there's not a a large water line going across the highway. So fire safety is an issue. You can't get it over there. But on the north side, it's, that's all zoned for future growth along the north side. So that could easily go south side. It would be really expensive to do to get that water line across and I just don't see that happening. Yeah. Right now it's coming from the south, I think, to see that area. So yeah. And again, that's a Xenia and it's not sized for that kind of thing. Right. And the county is not in the water business. So I know they keep coming and asking you. They do. But feel free to ask and we'll help you develop any way you can. We do, you do have a few other things that are going on, but this is just one of the big things. One of the big things I wanted to let make sure people understood the work or the effort trying to find somebody to do that World War II. That's big. Oh, I know I was going to ask you, too, because you guys did pass a resolution seeking a naming the bridge on 30. Oh, yes. For Daniel Sussker. And it's been 20 years. Yeah, it's hard to believe, isn't it? But again, submitted the request to the DOT. It's got to come from the DOT. Haven't heard anything yet. No, we haven't heard anything yet. But the official naming of the Highway 30 Bridge to the Daniel Sussker Memorial Bridge will happen on November, I'm sorry, September 11th. Okay. That's when it will happen, pending approval of the state, which shouldn't be a problem. And it'll happen at the DOT office up here in Boone. So would that be on the new bridge? The new bridge. Yes. Yep. All right, folks. And we won't, there won't be anyone out there on the bridge. We won't be out doing a ribbon cutting or anything on that. It'll be a ceremony done at the office. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So just so those that are wondering, what's how's that going to work? Right. Sean Bryant, our guest on our program from the Boone County Board of Supervisors. Still meet. I know you've been posting some of the videos of your meetings, your Zoom meetings. Well, that's not me. That's somebody else. That's somebody else doing that. That's somebody else doing that one. That's why you get tech people out there. Yeah. So which is fine. You know what? It's all public information. Somebody's grabbing our videos and posting them, which is fantastic. We have nothing to, we're transparent as it can be. So I just do the recap. You know, so. And by the way, for those that wonder, yes, you can still go to the meeting and sit there too. I wish somebody would because it gets kind of boring in there. It gets a little lonely. Lonely, yes. All right. Hey, I do appreciate you taking time to come in and visit with us and let us know what's happening. Thanks so much. And we'll talk to you again down the road. Thank you, Jim. Alrighty. Sean Bryant, Boone County Supervisor on our program today.