Kauffman to fulfill engineer duties for Union County on temporary basis

In the absence of a county engineer of their own, Union County officials contacted Adair County officials about Engineer Nick Kauffman fulfilling the role for both counties on a temporary basis.

Adair County officials discussed the matter at their board of supervisors meeting Wednesday and ultimately decided that if the agreement didn’t take Kauffman away from Adair County for significant amounts of time they should help a neighboring county.

According to Adair County Auditor Mandy Berg, the agreement the supervisors authorized is for the county to be reimbursed for Kauffman’s work at a rate of $77 per hour for no more than 90 days.

“It sounds like Nick will mainly perform administrative duties, not really any of the day to day engineering duties. It will be more like approving payroll, approving claims, and things like that,” Berg said. “This agreement outlines the hourly rate, plus he’ll be paid for mileage, and it’s during his regular business hours. Any time he goes down there to help, that’s what they’ll reimburse the county for.”

Zach Gunsolley resigned from his post as Union County Engineer Sept. 2 after he accepted a position with the Iowa Department of Transportation. Kauffman filled in on a similar basis for Union County in late 2016, just before Gunsolly was hired.

In other business, the supervisors:

• accepted Curt Queck’s resignation from the Tourism Council and appointed Kristen Jensen to the same position.

• signed a Midwest Group Benefits COBRA service agreement after switching providers recently.

• heard an update from Sarah Gomez on behalf of Midwest Partnership Economic Development.