All hands on deck at the courthouse: Clock is back in operation

MUSCATINE, Iowa Major repairs on the Muscatine County Courthouse's clock tower have been completed and all four clock dials are back in operation.

Muscatine Couny Budget Coordinator Sherry Seright reported the news to the Muscatine County Board of Supervisors during its weekly meeting Monday morning. Seright said that while repairs to the clock mechanism were completed, some lighting in the tower still needed to be replaced, but that would be done at a later date by county personnel.

After months of the clock being out of operation and research by the board, members voted in August to award a repair contract to Verdin Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, in the amount of $26,149. Work on the project began soon afterward.

HVAC

On another construction matter, Seright also reported to the board that work on a new heating, venting and air conditioning project for the Muscatine County Administration Building, 414 E. Third St., was ahead of schedule. She anticipated that project being completed by the end of October.

The project will install a new $1.02 million geothermal HVAC project for the building. Contractors are tapping into the existing geothermal system currently in operation at the Muscatine County Courthouse across the street from the administration building to provide heating and cooling to those buildings through underground wells and pumps to heat and cool buildings without the need for conventional boiler systems, providing an energy cost savings to the county.

Voting

Muscatine County Auditor Leslie Soule, who also serves as county election commissioner, noted during the meeting that early voting for the Nov. 4 general election had begun in Muscatine County.

She reminded county voters who are receiving absentee ballots by mail that they are required to sign the back of the envelopes for their ballots to have a valid vote. Soule noted that the auditor's office has had to contact some of those voters to make sure those envelopes are signed.

Soule also announced locations for satellite voting in the Muscatine County area during the next two weeks. She noted that those who have requested ballots by mail should wait for those ballots, but any other residents who have not voted were encourage to vote. (See info box elsewhere with this story for the list of satellite voting locations.)

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All hands on deck at the courthouse: Clock is back in operation