New engineer sharing plan with Adams County begins Nov. 3

The Adair County supervisors approved last Wednesday ongoing sharing of County Engineer Nick Kauffman with Adams County under a new plan that will take effect Nov. 3.

The agreement, which will split Kauffman 50/50 between the counties, was approved on a 3-2 vote with Nathan Baier, Matt Wedemeyer and Jerry Walker voting for it and Michael Christoffersen and Jodie Hoadley voting against it as presented.

Christoffersen told the newspaper while he sympathizes with Adams County’s inability to find an engineer of their own, he wasn’t able to see the benefit of a shared agreement between the counties. While he acknowledges the savings that will exist under such an agreement, he was concerned for the time it would take away from Adair County.

Hoadley said some constituents she talked to weren’t in favor of such a sharing agreement because it could spread Kauffmann too thin. She also felt if Adair County is helping Adams County and Kauffman’s wage would be higher due to the sharing, Adams County should foot a bigger portion of the cost. She felt that would have been reflected better in a 60/40 agreement.

Walker stressed fairness and practicality when advocating for a 50/50 split.

Adams County supervisors present stated that they didn’t think Kauffman would have presented this idea if he wasn’t comfortable with the proposal.

This idea of making existing engineer sharing with Adams County a longer arrangement is something Kauffman first talked about Aug. 27. He said he had never given sharing beyond his interim status a thought until Adams County inquired about it and he crunched a few numbers, which looked better than what he would have first guessed.

The proposal, he said, would involve his time and mileage, plus the time of the assistant engineer and possibly office staff. Measures would be written in the agreement so that there are clear boundaries for which county is responsible for paying for what and large equipment isn’t unnecessarily shared between the counties.

In the beginning and through the final decision in this process, some supervisors expressed concern about Adams County becoming the focal point of the engineer’s attention because of problems Adair County experienced when sharing under another engineer years ago. In that conversation, Kauffman told them he would not propose such an arrangement if he didn’t think he could handle it, and they expressed confidence in his ability to manage it.

Adams County will continue searching for an engineer.

If counties are without their own engineer for a certain length of time, they become at risk to lose accessibility to state and federal funds. Adams County was in jeopardy of reaching that limit, another reason this agreement was important to them.

In other action, the supervisors:

• heard a presentation from the Greenfield Pool Steering Committee, which is seeking support for a project that would see a new pool built in Greenfield, if a Nov. 4 bond referendum vote passes successfully

• approved pay increases for attorney staff members Nellie Griffith and Kara Buckner as well as auditor’s office employee Nathan Reed

• heard a periodic report from Environmental Health Director Jotham Arber

• approved tax abatement on a parcel

• approve township clerk wages be paid to Amanda Pickrell