Tama County Administration Building, 104 W State St., Toledo, Iowa. TELEGRAPH FILE PHOTO

TOLEDO – The Tama County Board of Supervisors had a special meeting on Monday, June 5 at noon. The meeting was to discuss possibly merging the jobs of sanitarian, weed commissioner, and zoning commissioner into one and sharing that employee with Marshall County.

In attendance were members of the Tama County Board of Health, who remained firm in their recommendation not to move forward with this merger. Some problems had arisen with the previous sanitarian, but since Chris Behrens has taken over, things have seen a vast improvement. The Board of Health made it clear that they fear that if this merger goes through, the duties of the local sanitarian will be overlooked, and certain parts of the job will be pushed to the wayside.

The idea to merge these jobs and share an employee with Marshall County came from the Marshall County supervisors, who believe that both counties will save around $60,000 through the merger

The Tama County supervisors eventually recommended not sharing a sanitarian with Marshall County. However, the possible sharing of an employee that would do the jobs of both weed commissioner and zoning commissioner with Marshall County is still on the table.