City and county issues revolving around the regional airport, Highway 63, and mental health regionalization took the spotlight at today’s Eggs and Issues forum.

Oskaloosa City Mayor Dave Krutzfeldt and Mahaska County Supervisor Greg Gordy were on stage, along with several other local officials in attendance.

The Airport Commission released a map showing three sites along Highway 163 between Oskaloosa and Pella, on which the future regional airport will be built. The Federal Aviation Administration will evaluate these sites over the next 6-8 weeks to determine the best location.

Krutzfeldt mentioned that both Pella and Oskaloosa’s websites post the minutes of Airport Commission meetings. He says a commitment was made to notify all residents whose land might be affected by the project. City Manager Michael Schrock added that anyone can sign up for updates on this issue on the Oskaloosa City website.

Plans for the 97-mile stretch of US Highway 63 between Oskaloosa and Waterloo continue to develop. This portion of US 63 was designated on the Commercial Industrial Network (CIN) last August, potentially qualifying it for additional state and federal funding for maintenance. The overall goal of the CIN is to better connect areas of economic growth in Iowa by improving infrastructure.

Gordy stated environmental and traffic studies are being conducted to determine where the routes and bypasses will be built. He expects the route selection process will be finished by July.

Mahaska County signed a letter of intent months ago to merge with Marion, Jasper, and Poweshiek Counties to pool resources for mental health services. Now it’s up to the Iowa Department of Human Services to approve the merge, and until then, Gordy says there’s not much else to do.

Other topics of the day included maintenance of city streets and county roads, as well as polling procedures for the upcoming special election for county supervisor. Incoming County Auditor Sue Brown explained there will be 7 voting centers open to all county residents, and votes will be cross-checked to ensure people do not vote at multiple locations.

Full video of the forum will be posted here soon. Replays will be aired next week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings on MCG Channel 12.