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Tama County Board of Supervisors

By Joyce Weise

Tama County Supervisors Larry Vest, Dan Wilkens, and Kendall Jordan met Tuesday, June 2. Two public hearings were held for the purpose of vacating two different roads. The 9:30 a.m. hearing was to consider the vacating of a portion of 220th Street between F Avenue and G Avenue in Spring Creek Township, Section 1. This road was established on October 7, 1861 and has now been requested by a adjacent land owner to be vacated. Those present discussed the reasons for and against. Those present had no difficulty with the road being vacated. However, one land owner could not be reached by certified mail, so a final decision cannot be made until the land owner is contacted. It is the policy of the county, when a request comes in, is to vacate the road if there is no objections. However, if one of the adjacent landowners object, they will not proceed with the process. There is a bridge on this section of road that posed a question. County Engineer Lyle Brehm stated the policy for this type of problem is to sell the bridge to one of the land owners. This has been done in the past and will be done with this bridge when the time comes. The 10:00 a.m. public hearing was for a portion of U Avenue in Section 9 of Salt Creek Township. The road was originally established on August 25, 1877. adjacent landowners had no objections to the vacation, however a landowner living near the section to be closed objected. Supervisors have the policy to go by what the adjacent land owners request. Since there was no objections it was unanimous to proceed with the road vacation.

In other business it was noted the road department continues to haul rock and do blading. The excavators are cleaning ditches. The bridge crew is replacing the piles on a bridge northwest of Vining on R Avenue. Also Engineer Brehm announced he had received the contract for resurfacing E69 from Highway 63 to Highway 146 and the southern two miles of T47. Manatt’s was the low bidder at $1,861,.418.62. A time frame for the work has not yet been decided upon. This project will be done with stimulus money. Brent Heeren, County Attorney, was present requesting the appointment of a temporary special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute pending matters investigated by the DCI due to involvement of law enforcement personnel who have served in Tama County which present an ethical conflict within the Office of the Tama County Attorney. Pat Wilson of Des Moines, Iowa, is willing to serve as a temporary special prosecutor for this case for $75.00 per hour. Discussion on what needs to be done to the Country Living Care building before Genesis Development, Inc. takes over revealed a fire inspection report requiring some things to be done. The inspection was done in December of 2008, however, neither supervisors or anyone from the CPC office had been notified. Sprinkllers and some other minor repairs will need to be made. Genesis will work together with the county of the responsibilities of each party on maintenance and upkeep. Todd Rickerts, Central Point of Coordination, told supervisors it was probably going to be mandated some members of his office will need be on a 24/7 on call basis. Rickerts stated he could handle this with a person working for $1.00 an hour to take calls in off time. They in return can arrange their hours so this will not cause any type of overtime problem. Claims for the past week came to $112,953.50. Landowners request. Since there was no objections it was unanimous to proceed with the road vacation.