The Greene County Board of Supervisors met Monday in regular session.

The meeting started with a discussion about adjusting protocols for accessing regular Supervisors meeting remotely via Zoom. At last week’s meeting, Informational Technology Director Michelle Fields believed a “bot” had hacked the Zoom link, which led to several interruptions with profane language being used. It was announced by the Board that all of the livestreamed meetings would be “locked” after the meeting begins at 8:30am and if someone is trying to access the Zoom link after that, they are not guaranteed to be allowed to enter the meeting.

County Attorney Thomas Laehn thought that this change still upheld the Board’s policy regarding access to their meetings remotely and not allowing anyone the ability to speak, unless they are on the agenda. Fields went over several options to try and prevent this situation from happening again. Board Chair John Muir was in favor of Fields’ recommendation to change the passcode to enter the meeting via Zoom, no longer publish the passcode when the agenda is released, and then have individuals that want to attend remotely email the County Auditor’s Office to receive the passcode. The Board agreed to move forward, with finalized plans to be determined later.

Resident Bob Ausberger asked if there was county involvement with the announcement of the Ames Regional Economic Alliance (AREA). It was mentioned that AREA was a partnership with Greene County Development Corporation and only involved the Supervisors as far as a 28E agreement that is in place. 

Laehn then made a request to the Supervisors about a digital program that his office uses called West Law. He said that the current three-year agreement to utilize their service for any court document in the world is going to end in September. However, he mentioned that since he intended to not seek re-election next year as county attorney and didn’t want to saddle the next individual with this program, Laehn negotiated with West Law to continue the rate of $845.20 for the rest of the 2025 calendar year and use them for next year at a rate of $966.82 per month. The Board agreed to move forward with that plan.

County Engineer Wade Weiss then gave an update. He noted that about 2.25 miles of concrete were completed on the County Road P-46 project and then once that stretch was done, crews would go back to the County Road E-18 project. He wasn’t sure if crews will be able to get to the 1.5 miles of pavement reconstruction on County Road P-29 by the intended date of July 18th. Weiss added that lots of maintenance was needed for the short gravel road detour on 230th Street with the Highway 30 closure, because of all the recent rainfall.

The Board then approved the cash count for June 30th as presented, before approving the retirement resolution for Kevin Bauer from the Secondary Roads Department, after 40.5 years of service. Weiss spoke about Bauer’s tenure and said Bauer started working for the county in 1985 and after seeing a project that he had done, Weiss moved Bauer to fabrication in the early 2000s and has been an invaluable resource for the county and beyond.

“Everybody in the state knows Kevin. We know Kevin, he’s a talented and gifted individual and we’ve all benefited from it. He’s helped every community in Greene County. We always say ‘Everyone’s replaceable’ and Kevin is not.”    

Finally, the Board approved a 28E agreement for the construction of the new facility for the Paton-Churdan Early Learning Center. Leahn outlined several parts of the agreement with the most important reason for supporting the project was to improve childcare which would then help the overall economic development of the county. As part of the agreement, the Board pledged $180,000 over five years for the construction costs of the total over $1.8 million project to build a new modular unit next to the P-C school building.