Comments on: Is it time to consolidate Iowa counties?

By: gardbr

gardbr — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:44:37 +0000

It would be an improvement for both Benton County AND West Virginia. Benton County would also get Senators Robert C Byrd and John D Rockefeller as a bonus.

By: agbus98

agbus98 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:42:14 +0000

I keep hearing the idea to consolidate counties but no mention of all the other forms of government. We still have township trustees, over 900 cities, cemetary board, school boards, extention councils, soil and water boards just to name a few. Why not keep the counties and consolidate some of these lessor board up under the county structure and give the counties something to do.

By: gardbr

gardbr — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:55:26 +0000

or WAFC (waa-f-ka)?

By: 96Bravo

96Bravo — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:26:35 +0000

I say merge Benton county with any county in West Virgnia.

By: NotASoccerMom04

NotASoccerMom04 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:49:46 +0000

That's it mine wasn't even a theory just my opinion, think about those people that would have to drive 100 miles just to get to a courthouse (look at the map those little circles represent the courthouses). I know it's not going to happen anyway, it's just this guy's opinion. He already states that some counties share county attorneys and engineers. And maybe that's what we need to do more sharing to save money. Like I said above if you know the different demographics of Iowa you would see that some of these counties wouldn't even mix together, but yet again that's just my opinion, not my theory.

By: NotASoccerMom04

NotASoccerMom04 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:42:11 +0000

hahaha

By: Herb_Bhang

Herb_Bhang — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:46:24 +0000

You knew more than I did. I couldn't remember which county had 2. I'm smart, just not real smart.

By: OwenHarper

OwenHarper — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:00:45 +0000

You're in Miami, stay there.

By: AdaminMiami

AdaminMiami — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:57:07 +0000

Do some math here soccermom… It is estimated that this would save $250,000 per county we get rid of.. Say we get rid of 80 counties, that's about 21 million dollars. Given your theory, the state of Iowa would have to arrest 420,000 drunk drivers. In 2007 Iowa arrested 13,130 so we either need to get those cops working a little harder, or send every drunk driver to jail in a limo…

By: iowahawkeye

iowahawkeye — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:50:08 +0000

Number of school districts is weel over 350 http://schools.nationalrelocation.com/districts/I...

By: Herb_Bhang

Herb_Bhang — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:46:24 +0000

You knew more than I did. I couldn't remember which county had 2. I'm smart, just not real smart.

By: iowahawkeye

iowahawkeye — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:45:50 +0000

It's a good plan, one that should have been implemented years ago. Next up sould be school districts, as we don't need more than about 110.

By: tandog

tandog — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:34:51 +0000

This makes too much sense so our elected leaders won't understand it.
I do have one question, how will the new names be determined? With the combination of Winneshiek, Allamakee, Fayette and Clayton counties would the name be; Winn-all-ette-ton county??
This could be fun!!!

By: skelloch

skelloch — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:10:11 +0000

Anything logical that saves money and makes sense won't get very far. One of the corporate air services flying into Iowa used pass the word before landing "Welcome to Iowa, please set your watches back 40 years."

By: simpli_fi

simpli_fi — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:53:25 +0000

Speaking of school districts, the state of Hawaii has a single school district. Just sayin'.

By: windsortongue

windsortongue — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:04:42 +0000

My hat's off to Mr. Hadley for stirring the pot on this issue. Perhaps the recession, some lucid examples of cost savings, and examples from other parts of the country (Jacksonville, FL, comes to mind) can combine to gain the attention of the electorate. Without such evidence the entrenched interests will fan the flames of fear to protect their little feifdoms. With 99 counties, 100(+) county seats, and more than 200 school districts, Iowa should be crowned the parochialism capital of the country! Wouldn't it be nice to demonstrate to the nation that we're as smart and forward thinking as we claim to be, rather than 'lost in the fifties again' (that's 1850s!).

By: NotASoccerMom04

NotASoccerMom04 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:35:32 +0000

I have to disagree with you on this one. Putting together counties will actually cost us more tax dollars, if you look at the map you will see that if one person gets picked up for lets say drunk driving on one side of those large counties it will take at least $50 just in gas to take that person to the courthouse the next day, and I am stressing with at least $50. I think we should just leave it as it is. Just because your the CEO of Maytag doesn't mean that you can decide on county lines, look what happened to Maytag all of our jobs went overseas, he has no degree in anything that has to do with changing county lines it is just his opinion. And what about combining counties with different demographics? Like the Amish, or Dutch in southern Iowa with middle class or upper class? It doesn't make sense. I wish I was the CEO of Maytag maybe I could talk to The Gazette and make my opinion on a issue.

By: JohnHouar

JohnHouar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:13:08 +0000

County consolidation is long over due. And while we are at it cities like Des Moines, Waterloo and Cedar Rapids need to consolidate services with their respective counties. People do not like property taxes but seem unwilling to do the things necessary to lower them.

By: gardbr

gardbr — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:13:49 +0000

i assume this re-division would have equitable asset valuation, for taxation for services, and equal populations? if so, then we could go to a bicameral legislature and really start to see a great cut in costs started at the capital! a question though, how would extremely large areas supply the same services, i.e. road maintenance and snow removal, in the same time frame as the smaller area? would they have to have a large fleet and a large employee base? if so, there would be limited savings in that portion. but, we could just ship all of the county records and other paper needs by internet to Des Moines and close many court houses.

By: HiawathaBob

HiawathaBob — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:11:55 +0000

pottawattamie county has two as well.

By: Barbrady

Barbrady — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:40:15 +0000

I have always thought the same too. When I moved to Oregon in '02 I was surprised that a state with 800,000 more residents and is 74% larger in size has only 36 counties. There's no need for 99 mini-governments in a state this size.

By: jdinnis

jdinnis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:52:45 +0000

I have always thought that 99 counties in Iowa was excessive. SUch a consolidation is long overdue. It might also allow us to clean house here in Linn county. I think the current county government is bloated and getting worse.

By: Iowabeth

Iowabeth — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:43:10 +0000

I get more "bang for my buck" from small, local government. We are able to attend city council, county supervisor and local school board meetings. It is difficult to get attention from state and certainly federal leaders. Let's not make our local government more difficult to deal with by making them bigger.

By: Marionite

Marionite — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:39:17 +0000

Sounds like a great idea! Change is hard, but reality is harder. Many counties, particularly in the south and southwest parts of the state, are loosing population quickly. And those that stay behind are generally older folks who are retired or nearly so. It just doesn't make sense to have all the duplication in county services. I can only begin to image the logistical nightmares of re-drawing county borders, adjusting tax bases, updating maps, etc. But it can be done.

By: Jack_Sprat

Jack_Sprat — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:29:25 +0000

100 Lee county has 2.

By: Bud_Heavy

Bud_Heavy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:28:18 +0000

Cedar Rapids should have 2 also. That way when the original one gets flooded again, they will have another home.

By: TimmytheGent

TimmytheGent — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:25:46 +0000

That map actually looks very logical, which means it won't happen. If I remember my history lessons, the counties were laid out so that any county resident would be able to travel to the county seat and back on horseback in one day. Times have changed. We have contraptions called automobiles now, and an even better resource in computers and the internet. Time to cut some dead wood.

By: TimmytheGent

TimmytheGent — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:21:03 +0000

100, thanks to Lee County, if I remember correctly.

By: Jack_Sprat

Jack_Sprat — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:20:41 +0000

100. Lee county has 2

By: anon017

anon017 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:14:15 +0000

If I remember right, not counting federal courthouses, 100. Lee County has 2, on in Ft. Madison and one in Keokuk.

By: Herb_Bhang

Herb_Bhang — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:57:37 +0000

Nope, try again.

By: Bud_Heavy

Bud_Heavy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:54:23 +0000

Too much government is a bad thing. I agree with that but some counties will be picking up the slack on other counties when it comes time for tax value of properties.

By: kellypicklerd

kellypicklerd — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:48:26 +0000

By: Herb_Bhang

Herb_Bhang — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:42:02 +0000

Quiz: Iowa has 99 counties, but how many court houses does it have?