The Jasper County Board of Supervisors added their signatures and a letter of support to a petition seeking to get a downtown derecho-damaged building in Newton demolished at their meeting on Tuesday. The owner of the property, Chedester Properties LLC of Des Moines, agreed in 2023 to tear down the two-story building at 209 West Second Street North at the company’s expense, by February 2nd of last year. Newton City Council member Randy Ervin says that was in a signed court settlement agreement, but also told the board that no judge has ordered Chedester Properties to comply with the agreement and get the building removed at this point. 

“There has only been one judge that has done a contempt of court fine of $500. All other judges talk about fines or putting people in jail, but nothing has been done from the judicial system to force this to happen. 

Jasper County Board of Supervisors Chair Brandon Talsma told Erving the County has had similar issues with court extensions and delayed enforcement.

“Our guys at Community Development deal with stuff like this all the time too, dealing with illegal junkyards. Unfortunately, it’s just extension after extension after extension. So if we can add a letter of support to this and try to put more weight behind the city to help get this property dealt with, I don’t have a problem with it.”

The Newton City Council’s petition drive comes as some city residents have been using social media to ask people not to vote for current Council members on November 4th, because they are not doing enough to get the damaged building taken down.