The Cass County Board of Supervisors held their regular meeting Wednesday morning at the courthouse boardroom. Much of the discussion was in regards to vacancies on some local boards. There is currently 1 vacancy on the Magistrate Appointment Board, 1 vacancy on the County Board of Health, and 3 vacancies on the County Zoning Board.

The Magistrate Appointment Board consists of two attorneys, one representative from the judicial commission, and three appointed citizens. Those citizen spots are served in 6 year terms and only meet when a Magistrate Appointment is necessary. The Board decided that they will try to recruit for the open spot and hopefully be able to appoint someone at their next meeting on the 6th since a Magistrate appointment will be coming up soon and they need the board filled for that process.

They said for the Board of Health position, Public Health Director Beth Olsen would be searching for a suitable candidate to fill that spot and then the Board could act on that vacancy. They do not currently have someone lined up for that spot.

Board Chair Steve Baier said they have one person lined up to fill one of the openings for the Zoning Board but two spots still need filled. The Board will actively recruit for that spot, keeping in mind gender equity and county wide representation as factors.

Cass County Sheriff Darby McLaren was there at the beginning of the meeting to explain a contract buyout for one of their new hire Deputies. The new Deputy came from the City of Audubon and they will paying 75% of his buyout for leaving that contract early. He will now be under contract in the same scenario for 3 years for Cass County. The Board discussed that this is pretty standard procedure and essentially covers the cost of training.

Cass County Engineer Trent Wolken reported that work continues to progress well on replacement of a bridge on M56 and should be completed in a couple more weeks. He also reported that bids for culvert sections have come back 42% higher than last year at this time so they are going to assess and prioritize those projects for the summer and perhaps put some off due to the high costs. A new road grader is expected to be coming in June.

Wolken also said they are working to fill three positions for secondary roads right now. He said they have had a strong number of quality applicants and have interviewed 13 individuals for the maintenance positions and 5 people for a technician position. He said they will likely be doing some second interviews and filling spots in the next couple of weeks.

Cass County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Kennon said they are working to allocate some COVID grant money and he has been working with public health to create a stockpile of PPE for the County. He also is looking to upgrade three different spaces for video conferencing including his office, the courthouse basement conference room, and the main boardroom. He said the upgrades would involve tv’s that could not only be used for video conferencing but also video presentations and so forth.