The Greene County Board of Supervisors met Monday in regular session.
County Attorney Thomas Laehn mentioned to the Board that he decided one of his assistant’s, Kate Willms, would have their position end on April 30th, due to budgetary reasons. He added that April 8th was going to be the next jury trial date for an alleged murder case.
County Auditor Billie Jo Hoskins gave an update to the Board that Greene County Conservation Board and Director Tanner Scheuermann agreed to the proposal by Red Lion Renewables of installing solar panels at Spring Lake Park. The Supervisors have not yet approved the overall proposal of a power purchasing agreement from the company yet.
The Board then approved changing the Human Resources representative to Hinders, Updegraff and Franklin from Hopkins and Huebner, with no other changes. They also approved a funding transfer from the American Rescue Plan Act to the general basic fund of $11,127 to be paid to BBS Architects for the Greene County Courthouse HVAC project.
The Board also approved to enter a 28E agreement and a resolution for a multi-county attorney with Sac and Calhoun Counties. Ben Smith is the Sac and Calhoun County Attorney and he has been the Sac County Attorney for 15 years and with Calhoun County, following a resignation of the previous county attorney, in October of 2023. Smith noted that Laehn approached him about adding Greene County and he mentioned that he has a similar mindset with Laehn in that individuals who commit crimes should be held accountable.
He said Greene County would pay 38% of the total salary between all three counties for himself, his assistant attorney and Laura Snider, the Assistant Greene County Attorney. Following the Board’s decision, Smith has until this Friday to submit nomination papers to be on the Greene County ballot for the June Primary. Laehn is not seeking re-election and is running for US Senate.
The Supervisors also acted as the Drainage District Board of Trustees. They tabled the bid opening for the replacement project for Drainage District 20, due to the weather keeping landowners from attending the meeting. They also tabled an annexation, due to ongoing discussions with landowners and needing to see a tile map.
The Trustees did approve a work order in DD 101 with the Union Pacific Railroad easement. It was decided that a public hearing was needed, due to the cost of the repair of $150,000, over the threshold of $50,000. It was mentioned that notice of the work order will be sent to UP and allow them 30 days to respond if they wanted to make the repairs themselves. However, the Board agreed that the work would need to be done regardless, due to the over 9,000 acres that the project impacted. The Trustees also approved paying AgriVia $7,800 for engineering services in DD 20 and drainage clerk responsibilities of $900 for February.