TOLEDO CHRONICLE - For the second week, Tama County Supervisors and some department members have focused on the use of county vehicles during discussions at the regular meetings of the supervisors. 3rd District Supervisor Dan Wilkens said two weeks ago he had received complaints of county vehicles being used for personal errands.

Discussion at that time indicated there had been a couple of incidents when county vehicles had been used for personal errands, however, this reportedly has been taken care of with those misusing the vehicle being reprimanded.

Present for the discussions were employees from the Tama County Health department, Emergency Management department and Sheriff's department. Linda Rosenberger, County Health Department, said at the June 9 meeting employees in her office were driving the vehicles to their home. Rosenberger gave figures showing how this has saved her department money in the past two years. Rosenberger said most of her personnel had appointments with specific times to follow.

If the employee drives their personal vehicle to work, then takes a county car to the appointment, this accounts for quite a bit of extra time the county employee cannot use to serve the client. Rosenberger said many of their appointments are set by doctors and it is necessary for a nurse to be available at that time. Figures were given on the amount of money her department has saved since they put the policy in effect a couple of years ago. Rosenberger stated with the policy she has now the employee can leave from their home and meet their appointments along the way saving time and money.

Roxanne Warnell, Emergency Management and 991 director, said she was on call 24-hours-a-day - seven-days-a-week. She said did not feel she could do justice to emergency situations if it was necessary for her to drive from her home in Gladbrook to the Courthouse in Toledo and then get a county vehicle to go the emergency situation. She feels an emergency needs the quickest response possible. The Sheriff's Office is exempt since deputies are on call "24-7" all the time. In case of emergencies the trip to the courthouse could make quite a difference.

Supervisors Chairman Larry Vest asked Wilkins to study the situation and write some type of a policy. Wilkins said he would work on it and would come up with something in a couple of weeks, at which time he would put the subject back on the agenda for discussion. At the June 17 meeting, Wilkens said he felt no person working for the county should have to use their personal vehicle for county work. Instead, Wilkins said county vehicles should be available for use once the county employee had reported for work. In other buisness the supervisors:

learned the the Department of Health and Home Care wants another vehicle. Wilkins will work on this trying to get something purchased in this fiscal years budget.

Lori Johnson was present for the reappointment of members to the Empowerment Board. They are Jill Herink, representative for education - Meskwaki Settlement School, Jenn Stover, business and industry citizen representative and Larry Vest, Board of Supervisors - citizen, with all terms expiring June 30, 2011. Also, Angie Knowles, education - citizen - South Tama County School, term ending June 30, 2012; Deb Schlichting, Pied Piper Preschool and Child Care, term ending June 30, 2013. Laura Kopsa for fiscal agent and Lori Johnson as Tama County Empowerment coordinator were tentativelly approved, pending the approval of the Empowerment Board. Johnson said there would be one vacancy effective July 1, 2009 as Earlene Bacon will not be able to continue on as citizen representative.

The road report shows the bridge crew completing pile replacement on a bridge northwest of Vining on R Avenue. They will be moving to a bridge northwest of Vining near the intersection of S Avenue and V18. A couple days of work is left on 265th Street between W and X Avenues. They have been cleaning ditches and using this dirt to build up a section of the road.

County Engineer Lyle Brehm said they are trying to reshape several roads this year. They have done this in the past but have not been able to do much the last couple of years. When a road is reshaped it is necessary to commit more rock to the area initially. Brehm says with a limited budget for labor, equipment and materials so committing more rock to one area precludes the possibility of placing it elsewhere. However, it is anticipated the reshaped segments will have a lower demand for rock in the future and increased serviceability, along with extra height that is always an advantage for drifting snow. The goal for this rebuilding for this year is 10 to 20 miles.

The contract for resurfacing of E69 and the south two miles of T47 has been returned. The board had previously approved this contract. Although it is not official, Brehm said this work would most likely start right after Labor Day. This will be done by recycling and will be a rough surface till the top asphalt has been replaced.

Susan Jones, Tama County health insurance representative, gave supervisors a copy of the change in the Tama County Health Care plan, which describes eependent by eliminating the words opposite sex and states "The spouse of an employee, unless legally separated, to whom the employee or retiree is legally married except that a common law spouse is not considered the employee's spousse for purposes of this Plan. Spouse means a person to whom a covered employee is legally married, except that a common law spouse is not considered for purposes of this Plan."

A work session was set for Tuesday afternoon (June 17) at the Country Living Care Home with Tama County Supervisors and the Genesis and Country Living Care Center Board. There will be discussion to work out all problems. No action will be taken today.

Claims for this week were $257,106.

Facebook  MySpace  Digg  Stumble    Mixx  Fark  del.icio.us   LiveSpaces

Member Comments

View Comments: | Post a comment

No comments posted for this article.

You must first login before you can comment.