The Cass County Board of Supervisors took care of several administrative matters during their first meeting of the new year, today (Thursday ). The Board elected Frank Waters, of Cumberland, as Chair, and Gaylord Schelling, of Atlantic, as Vice-Chair. Waters succeeds Mark Wedemeyer for the top post on the Board. Waters announced as Chair, he wanted to make some changes in the time the Board normally meets, on Wednesdays.

Frank Waters (Center) heads up the Thursday meeting of the Cass County Board of Supervisors.

He said by moving the meeting start time from 9-a.m. to 8:30-a.m., it would allow the County Attorney, Mental Health/General Relief Coordinator and Engineer to make their reports first, allow Board member Chuck Rieken to attend his Juvenile Detention Board meetings, and get most business out of the way, allowing the media to leave earlier.

Waters had earlier spoken with members of the local media, who all agreed the 8:30 start time would be more beneficial to them than the 9-a.m start. In other business, the Board of Supervisors approved the 2014 Master Matrix (or, Livestock Facility Construction Evaluation) Resolution, which is unchanged from last year.

They also agreed to leave the County Assessor, Engineer and G.I.S offices where they are in the courthouse, and to move the 9-1-1/Communications Center to the newly purchased building at 707 Poplar Street. Their decision came after 9-1-1 Director Rob Koppert reported on the cost of renovating the lower level of the courthouse to make room for an upgraded and expanded 9-1-1 Center. The cost estimate came following a recent assessment of the lower level from Al Povandra, with Carlson, West and Povandra Architects, in Omaha. Koppert said the fee for remodeling the lower level would amount to $191,855.

Combined with the $214,000 cost of remodeling the Cambridge Law Firm building, the County could have been looking at spending in excess of $400,000 for both projects. Instead, the Board decided it would be more cost effective to leave the Assessor, Engineer and G-I-S offices in the courthouse, where they could also serve the public more effectively. Auditor Dale Sunderman said keeping those offices in the courthouse would also eliminate any potential technical glitches associated with a move into the other building.

The next step is to have an engineering firm look into boring under the street for the installation of data and back-up power supply lines. It will still be quite some time before the 9-1-1/Communications Center is relocated to the newly acquired building.