Monday’s Tama County Supervisors meeting went on like usual under the cloud of the day’s possible storms; at one point, the lights in the room flickered on and off, but this was just Sheriff’s Office Investigator Trevor Killian leaning against the light switch.

The meeting started like usual with Tama County Engineer Ben Daleske’s report, which stated that they’ve been spot rocking in the last week. Spots listed on the dust control list will be reviewed. Last week, the department hydroseeded B Avenue and will move on to K Avenue this week. The old shop has been torn down, leaving only a concrete slab, which will eventually be chipped away at. The Tama County Engineer and the road foreman’s will be attending the OSHA 10-hour course this week.

A TIP rural electric coop utility permit was approved.

The Supervisors also approved the four, 10-hour day schedule for the road department. The Auditor’s quarterly report was approved.

The supervisors approved a change to the Health Insurance dates. With this new change an employee’s insurance will start at the first of the following month after they start, and the insurance will end at the end of the month after they leave instead of the day of.

Although it was on the agenda, and the supervisors went through the public hearing process for it, they decided not at this point to repeal the Tama County Wind Energy Conversion Ordinance VI.5 (6.5).

Yard clean-up at Union Grove Lake was approved. The supervisors approved Lori Johnson taking Shannon Zoffka’s spot on the Tama County Essential Service Advisory Council, and they also approved Chris Harris to be on the council as an alternate for Tama Ambulance.

An exemption to the hiring freeze for a bridge crew laborer was approved.

When it came to supervisor updates, most were rather sparse as some meetings were still to be had. Supervisor Heather Knebel talked about participating in Tama County Government Day and that IT interviews are ongoing.

Curt Kupka reported working on the calls that he had received.

David Turner reported that the Emergency Services Association board is ironing out who is to provide services in what areas. He also reported from his meeting with the juvenile detention center that they are receiving more and more mental health patients.

Chairman Mark Doland talked about the wind down of the local mental health services that are being taken over by the state. Tama County will be a part of a new behavioral health district more to the northwest, it is also hopeful that the state will continue to reimburse for different mental health medications, and transportation for inmates of the county jail. Doland said that many changes are to come within the mental health world and resources are limited. Doland also talked about talking to the public health board about what they can do to broaden and expand services before stating he had hoped that this reporter would have put more in last week’s article about Sheriff Casey Schmidt’s mental health update but that the article had instead been consumed by Bob Vokoun’s resignation and that mental health always seems to get shoved to the side.

Claims totaling $92,044.14 were approved.