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

TOLEDO – As the sun stretched and yawned and rose in the east to shine down on another chilly winter day, the usual faces gathered for the Monday, Jan. 27 Tama County Board of Supervisors meeting. The meeting started, like it often does, with the engineer’s report.

The main point of interest Engineer Ben Daleske spoke of was how they took care of the bit of snow we’ve had as of late. A public hearing to vacate 370th Street was approved for Feb. 24.

A public hearing was held for the changes to the V.14, the public comment ordinance. Little comment was received, and the supervisors approved waiving the second and third readings of the new ordinance. The supervisors then approved the new V.14 ordinance.

The new public comment ordinance now only has three rules: 1) Tama County Board of Supervisors meetings shall follow all provisions of Iowa Code Chapter 21; 2) Tama County, Iowa Board of Supervisors meetings will follow procedural rules by using Robert’s Rules of Order, latest edition; and 3) “ORDER AND DECORUM When making public comments on Tama County business topics other than those listed on this agenda, please understand that the Board will not act on your comments at this meeting due to the Open Meetings Law requirements but may do so at a future meeting. The Chair and Board welcome comments from the public; however, when making comments you must be respectful and appropriate. It is not appropriate to use personal attacks, defamatory, profane, obscene, invective, or slanderous language. The Chair may restore order by declaring such out of order and ask the speaker to leave or be removed. The Chair may place time limits on public comments.”

The supervisors went into a brief closed session to discuss sending a letter to the law firm of Denton Davis Brown. Chairman Mark Doland spoke briefly about this when asked during the initial public comment time; he said they had received a letter from Denton Davis Brown. After the closed session, the supervisors approved responding to the letter.

The supervisors approved Doland and Vice Chairperson Heather Knebel to be the board’s representatives to assist in evaluating, interviewing, and appointing potential conservation board members.

Doland and Knebel were also approved to be the board’s legal liaisons. The two will be able to meet with the board’s attorneys without a quorum having to be formed.

Farmers Savings Bank and Pinnacle Bank were approved to be added to the county’s list as depository banks.

Brody Kellogg and Sandra Rasmussen were approved to be Highland Township Trustees.

The supervisors approved an audit of the county’s IT department. For a cost of $4,000, the ISAC Tech Team will come in and evaluate all aspects of the department. This is something that many counties do, and have done more than once, the supervisors explained.

The supervisors also each provided detailed committee reports from the various committees and boards they each serve on. It was said this is to be a monthly event.

Claims totaling $168,854.56 were approved.