In an afternoon meeting on Monday, Supervisors took action on a number of pressing items pertaining to Mahaska County.
Supervisors accepted a recommendation from the County Insurance Committee to continue with a wellness program for 2016. The cost and coverage remains the same as the previous year.
A 28E agreement was also swiftly accepted for both Beacon and Eddyville. According to Chair Henry “Willie” Van Weelden, the agreement is the same as it has been in previous years. They will again utilize services of the Mahaska County Sheriff’s Department.
A mobile home in disrepair at 1210 Santa Clara Street took over the conversation for a period of time.
“The mobile park wants it gone. It’s been there long enough, it is a hazard,” said Supervisor Mark Doland, who has had to run unnamed individuals off of the property on three separate occasions.
The Board unanimously agreed to pay up to $1,500 to Ed Kinkaid with Century Homes to deal with removing the mobile home.
Updates on pavement and bridge deck repair processes were presented to the Board of Supervisors by Dave Shanahan, county engineer, with a repair cost of a “couple hundred thousand dollars.”
Shanahan said that so much damage has been done to the areas in question that the concrete is failing in the roads and it must be addressed. Areas included G-71 (two locations), T-38 (two locations), Buckley Bridge on G-5T, G-29 (two bridges), a bridge over the railroad west of Lacey, and an overflow bridge on the North Skunk River. Shanahan did not address how the damage had been caused exactly.
Afterwards, the Board approved a rock trailer purchase for the 2016/2017 budget at $38,000. They also approved to sign a federal aide agreement for a bridge replacement project on Elba Avenue, located southeast of Leighton.
Talk of union contracts began first with approving a union contract with the Sheriff’s Department, notably including a 2 ½ percent raise for the Mahaska County Deputy. Afterwards, there was confusion as the union contract with the SEIU for secondary roads employees dominated the conversation. It was unclear at the time of the meeting whether everyone involved knew how next to proceed if the union disassembled.
Vice Chair Mike Vander Molen was under the impression that if the union was decertified, that union employees would then default to being governed by the handbook. Van Weelden disagreed but both acknowledged they were unclear on how the process would work.
“I think you have to treat everybody the same,” said Vander Molen. “If you want to have a discussion about what we want to do with everyone, we can. But we can’t have two separate sets of non-union employees.”
More information should become available as the situation is finalized this week or next.
A public health agreement for fiscal year 2017 was not available at the time of the meeting, so it was tabled for a future conversation. No committee reports or public comments were heard during this Monday meeting.
