The Union County Board of Supervisors approved Monday a temporary agreement to employ a Clarke County engineer 9 a.m.
Temporary contract
Christian Boehmer, who is the Clarke County’s engineer, will fill the Union County vacancy simultaneously until the county can find an engineer.
Boehmer, originally from Kalona, has been Clarke County’s engineer for six years, and was approached after Union County has still not filled the position since September.
“It’s kind of our neighborly duty in Clarke County to help out people when we can and my board was gracious enough to dedicate about 50% of my time over here,” Boehmer said.
Boehmer will begin Wednesday or Thursday and expects to be on engineer duty for two days of the week in Union County. Boehmer added he will attempt to keep the balance of his time between the two counties as even as possible.
Boehmer will be compensated $67,500 by both Union and Clarke county each, totaling $135,000. This total includes his base salary of $3,750 a month that Clarke County has been providing him.
Juvenile court contract
Child Welfare Decategorization Project (DECAT) and Community Partnerships for Protecting Children (CPPC) coordinator Jocelyn Blazek met with the board to have an amendment for the juvenile court contract approved.
“Juvenile court has some funds that unfortunately we are not going to be able to spend on other projects,” Blazek said. “So we would like to transfer the funds into the family assistance account of the contract so that we can have a little more flexibility with spending that money before it reverts at the end of 2021.”
The contract was amended by $60,000 that would be transferred from juvenile court into delinquency prevention. With these funds youth that need to complete community service hours can do so by assisting with the mural project. The funds also can help DECAT and CPPC identify at-risk youth and have them occupied in community involvement to keep them out of trouble. Blazek added that it would provide mentorship to these at-risk youth as a whole.
Tax report
Union County will be holding a tax sale after the last year’s was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A tax sale allows residents to purchase uncollected property taxes and interest can be received by the purchaser.
Treasurer Kelly Busch reported the county has 3.21% of uncollected taxes that can be sold to participants of the sale with 1,008 parcels. Busch also said that there were 600,000 parcels that were outstanding and 1.5% interest on uncollected taxes. The date for the tax sale is yet to be determined.
In other Board of Supervisors news:
• Al Hysell reported new pipes have been installed on Eagle Avenue in Platt Township, one on 260th St. and a driveway in addition to a pipe on Willow Avenue.
• Union County’s COVID-19 report stated 27.4% of the county has been fully vaccinated but demand is still decreasing. The 14-day positivity rate was 1.2% while the 7-day positivity rate was 2.4%. Union County residents will also be able to receive the Johnson and Johnson vaccine later this week.
• The board of Supervisors appointed Kevin Webb and Steven Hunt to the ADA board.