Cass County Weed Commissioner Larry Randel provided the Board of Supervisors with an update on his department’s activities. Randel said he’s had several “problem issues” with the growth of noxious and nuisance weeds in the County he’s had to send out notices on, to property owners. Randel says he got a “decent response” from those he sent out notices to, but not a 100-percent response. Randal will follow-up with those property owners next year to remind them of their responsibilities. He said also he wants to work with the County to make sure they take care of their respective rights-of-way, especially after property owners complained that the county doesn’t take care of its fair-share of the weed problem. The weeds he says tend to proliferate, especially in the Massena area, because of work installing the wind turbines and culverts, which causes the seeds to be spread and appear unsightly when the grow into full-fledged weeds. Supervisor Chuck Rieken suggested Randel write an official letter to the County Roads Department, the Iowa DOT Engineer and Iowa Interstate Railroad, to remind them they need to take care of their right-of-ways.

In other business, the Board of Supervisors met for about an hour with area funeral home directors to discuss revisions to the County’s indigent burial policy, which currently pays up to $1,500 for burial or cremation services. Some suggestions which will likely be included in a draft of the policy – which hasn’t been changed since 1997 – include removing a nearly identical and redundant fee funeral homes and the County pays to the Medical Examiner’s Office, removing the funeral homes’ responsibility for finding a burial plot, and setting an equal rate for which the county pays cemeteries for grave openings and closing. How much the County pays for indigent burials needs to be determined soon, because budget deadlines are looming.