Seven area counties, including Dubuque and Delaware, are considering sharing services for financial efficiency. These services include 911 dispatching, road work and county technology. The Telegraph Herald reports the discussion comes after Dubuque County Supervisor Wayne Kenniker arranged a meeting recently among fellow supervisors in Dubuque, Delaware, Clayton, Clinton, Cedar, Jackson and Jones counties. Multi-county resource sharing isn’t uncommon in this region. Several supervisors pointed to shared county engineers as an example of collaborative services. Dubuque County’s new engineer, Todd Kinney, splits his position with Clinton County. Staffing continues to be a challenge for counties in eastern Iowa and the cost to maintain necessary services continues to grow. At the same time, local government’s ability to collect more funding is shrinking. One challenge is Dubuque County’s growing budget shortfall for emergency services. Because the state recently reduced Dubuque County’s 911 surcharge allocation, county officials say it is increasingly difficult to balance their budgets.
