County chairs rotate in organization for 2026

New year, new Union County. Jan. 7 marked the first meeting of the year where the county’s elected officials help steer the county for success.

In mostly routine organization, Union County supervisors assigned themselves to new boards and roles within the county, along with approving a few annual resolutions.

Continuing a tradition, the assignment of chairman and vice chair was shuffled for 2026. Supervisor Rick Friday will lead county meetings as chairman with Supervisor Dennis Hopkins as vice chair. In 2025, Supervisor Dennis Brown was chairman with Friday as vice chair.

Each supervisor is assigned to multiple county boards as a representative. Each board has a primary and alternate representative. Supervisors were assigned to each board as follows:

- Dennis Brown: Afton Development Corporation, ATURA Transportation, Connections Area Agency on Aging, HHS Decategorization Board, Emergency Management Commission, Health Insurance Committee, LEC Board, RC&D Committee, Zoning Board of Adjustments - Afton, Union County Health Care Coalition.

- Rick Friday: Airport Redistricting Commission, LEC Board, REAP, Southern Iowa Trolley, Union County Economic Development Commission, Union County Public Funding, Courthouse Security.

- Dennis Hopkins: Airport Redistricting Commission, County Board of Health, Crossroads Mental Health, Heartland Management Alliance, MATURA Action, Prairie Solid Waste Agency Board.

Additionally, Union County Head Dispatcher Tamara Fitzgerald was assigned to the E911 Service Board and the Regional E911 Board as a representative of Union County. Ron Riley will attend the SICOG Project Board as representative.

Treasurer Kelly Busch assigned three secondary positions within the county’s treasury department for 2026. Stacey Graham, Kayla Brown and Christine Bristow were appointed to deputy treasurer, second deputy trasurer and drivers license deputy treasurer, respectively.

The conservation board reappointed Denise Roberg to their board on a five-year term. All members of the American Disability Act board (Marion Davenport, Allison Danilovich, Brian Bolton, Sandy Hysell, Shawn Lauer, Hannah Hagle, Mike Hilger, Dennis Hopkins and Steven Hunt) were reappointed on two-year terms.

All members of the county’s medical examiner board (Jacqueline Hope Welchans, Lonnie Miller, Brett Weis, Jennifer Worisek, Katie Evans and Tinneal Harris) will continue their terms after their annual review.

The four divisions of the county’s condemnation board received their reappointments. Licensed real estate brokers or agents of Chris Lane, Retta Ripperger, Korina Loudon, Bruce Jamie Travis and Diane Poore were reappointed. Bank and/or loan agencies reappointed Paul Fuller, Dan Waigand, Randy Ringsdorf and Maggie McGehee.

Continuing with the last two divisions, owners of city property reappointed Katie Turner, Gail Peterson, Dave Landers, Toni Landers and Mike Rollings. Owners/operators of agriculture property reappointed Mary Seales, Cole Lacina, Ann Moore and Leslie Wurster.

Seven resolutions were approved as part of reorganization. The first allows for the county to continue evaluating construction permits for a specific type of confinement feeding structure and give recommendations to the DNR based on the state law’s master matrix.

The county also approved resolutions adopting deferred compensation for county employees, named five depositories the county will use for county funds, adopted a record retention schedule which determines when appropriate documents can be destroyed, established meeting order and schedule and gave the recorder’s office and treasurer’s office limits for cash on hand ($200 for recorder’s, $1,400 for treasurer’s).

Other organization included scheduling county holidays (President’s Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year’s Day 2027) and assigning the official newspaper of the county to Creston News Advertiser and Afton Star Enterprise.