Supervisors appoint 4 Lake Delhi trustees

The Delaware County supervisors today appointed four people to seats on the Lake Delhi Combined Recreation and Water Quality Taxing District.

The four – Larry Peter, Mary Kray, Steve Leonard and Laurie Kramer - take office Friday on a larger and more influential board of trustees that is expected to lead the effort to rebuild the breached Lake Delhi dam.

After winnowing 19 applicants to eight finalists last week, the supervisors, with some give and take, agreed on the four appointees at Thursday's meeting.

“They represent a good cross-section of Lake Delhi people, and they will do a great job leading the rebuilding effort,” Supervisor Shirley Helmrichs said.

Peter, the supervisors' only unanimous selection, said transparency of operations will be one of his top priorities. “People need to know how their money is spent and that it is spent wisely,” he said.

Of the eight finalists, Leonard, David Fry and Todd Gifford are leaders of the Lake Delhi Watershed Committee, a limited liability corporation formed in part to lobby the Legislature for law changes permitting expansion of the board of trustees and funds to help rebuild the dam.

Though all three were impressive candidates, the supervisors “were not comfortable putting more than one on the board of trustees,” Helmrichs said.

Leonard said he looks forward to working with his fellow appointees, whom he described as “a hard-working, teamwork-oriented group of people.”

The new law that expanded the board from three to seven trustees, with four to be initially appointed by the supervisors, also eliminated the requirement that trustees live within the boundaries of the taxing district.

Watershed Committee leaders, in a report today to Lake Delhi stakeholders, expressed satisfaction with the “intent language” included in the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund bill conference report passed Wednesday by both the House and Senate.

The bill includes $350,000 for required preconstruction studies.

While the Senate had earlier allocated $5 million over two years for the rebuilding of the dam, the House was reluctant to allocate the funds prior to the studies' completion, the leaders said.

The House did, however, indicate its support for the project and its intention to allocate funds after the study is complete and final rebuilding costs are determined.

“We are optimistic that the funding delay will have no bearing on our rebuilding timetable,” Leonard said.

The Watershed Committee leaders said the lobbying effort has “built very strong Senate support and broken down many barriers in the Republican led House.”

The four appointees join Chairman James “Buzz” Graham on the board of trustees, with two more seats to be decided in a July 19 election.

Jim Willey, a former president of the Lake Delhi Recreation Association, is running against Edward Schmidt, who resigned from the trustees earlier this year after it was discovered he did not reside within the district, for a board position that will run through July 30, 2012.

Incumbent Bruce Schneider is running against Morey Wruck for a three-year term.

Polls will be open from noon to 8 p.m. at the Delhi Community Center.