March 2021

Linn County Certifies Fiscal Year 2022 Budget

At its March 24, 2021 meeting, the Linn County Board of Supervisors approved a $130.7 million budget for fiscal year 2022 following two public hearings. The newly approved budget does not raise the countywide or rural services levy (property tax) rate.

Even with no change in Linn County’s countywide levy rate, homeowners could still see a 2.3 percent increase in their county property taxes due to the increase in taxable value as a result of a change in the state residential rollback.

Linn County taxes account for approximately 16 percent of the overall tax bill paid by Linn County property owners in incorporated areas. The remaining 84 percent of property taxes goes to the property taxpayer’s city of residence, school district and other taxing bodies in the county. Linn County taxes represent slightly more than one-third of property taxes for rural residents. FY22 runs July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022.

Ribbon Cutting Held for Mental Health Access Center

Linn County and its partners—Abbe Health, Area Substance Abuse Council (ASAC), Foundation 2, and Penn Center—celebrated the completion of Linn County’s first Mental Health Access Center with a ribbon cutting on March 5, 2021.

The Linn County Access Center, located in the former Linn County Public Health building at 501 13th St. NW in Cedar Rapids, will provide 24/7 urgent, high quality crisis behavioral treatment for people 18 years of age and older who are experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.

Learn more.

Linn County Tree Equity Program Launched from Planting Forward Initiative

In collaboration with 11 community partners, Linn County Sustainability and Linn County Conservation have joined forces with Monarch Research’s Planting Forward initiative. Linn County Sustainability is seeking to provide trees to households who might otherwise not be able to access them.

Funding for the trees for this program comes from the Planting Forward initiative started by Clark McLeod and Monarch Research. The list of trees to be planted are all native to Iowa, focusing on oak species which support over 534 moth and butterfly species according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Homeowners and volunteers from the partnering organizations will plant the trees starting the second week of April with many partners planning planting events during Earth Week.

Learn more.

Wanatee Creek Name Change Now Official

The Linn County Board of Supervisors and the Linn County Conservation Board are pleased to announce the U.S. Board on Geographic Names has approved Linn County’s request to change the name of Squaw Creek in Linn County to Wanatee Creek.

Linn County was notified by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names on March 26, 2021, that this request was approved and the new name has been entered into the Geographic Names Information System, the nation’s official geographic names repository. The repository is available and searchable online at https://usgs.gov/geonames/domestic-names.

Linn County Seeks Public Input on Climate Change and Climate Action Through April 2

Linn County is continuing to seek input from residents about their thoughts on climate change and climate action through a climate action survey. The survey questions are designed to understand how Linn County residents perceive climate change and climate action, how climate disaster events like the August 2020 derecho impact Linn County residents, what climate action residents would like to see in Linn County, and to know which communities within Linn County are participating in the survey.

Take the survey.

Stay Informed.
Sign Up For Notify Me.

Linn County makes it easy for you to stay informed about County news, services, and events by offering email and/or text message notifications. Topics available for subscription include:

News releases
Road construction updates
Snow removal updates
eNewsletters
Meeting notices
Agendas
and more!

Visit Linn County’s website at LinnCounty.org/NotifyMe to sign-up to receive the information that is important to you. There is no cost to subscribe. Text messages are subject to standard text messaging rates.

Find Us Online:

Website: LinnCounty.org
Twitter: @LinnCounty
@LinnCoConserv

  @lc_elections
  @LCPublicHealth
  @LinnIASheriff

Facebook: Linn County, Iowa