T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS The vacation of a segment of county road, nuisance properties and Central Iowa Community Services were discussed at Tuesday’s Marshall County Board of Supervisors meeting, and all three members participated, though one wasn’t present. Board Vice President Dave Thompson, left, was available on a live video conference to discuss and vote with President Bill Patten, center, and member Steve Salasek, right.

Backing up data is a good habit to keep, and the Marshall County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with another county to safeguard data at Tuesday’s regular meeting.

“It’s a boilerplate document provided by Warren County to keep some of their information here,” said Marshall County Chief Information Officer James Nehring of the agreement with Warren County. “As part of a sharing agreement, we back our data up with Warren County, they back their up to our county.”

He said each county stores about a week’s worth of the other county’s data as a backup plan for an emergency.

“We keep about seven days of data off-site in the event that we truly lost the county,” Nehring said, adding there are other data backup methods being used as well, though many have to do with longer-term information storage than short-term storage.

The proposed vacation of a portion of 310th Street in southeastern Marshall County was discussed in a public hearing at the meeting as well.

“I just want to make sure that the county maintenance from Underwood (Avenue) to my place is not going to diminish, because I’m the only person down there,” said county resident Jerry Engel, who lives close to the proposed area for vacation.

Board President Bill Patten said his portion of road will continue to receive regular county services.

“That is still going to be a county road, snow will be pushed and gravel will be added,” he said. County Engineer Paul Geilenfeldt added the portion in Engel’s area was specifically exempted in the motion; it mentioned 514.5 feet to be excluded from the proposed vacation.

The decision on whether or not the portion of road will be vacated is set for the Aug. 8 regular board meeting.

In other business

The board voted in favor of renewing the employee statement of understanding with Central Iowa Community Services Region (CICS) Governing Board.

“This is something that started a number of years ago when Marshall County became part of a 10-county region for mental health,” Patten said, adding each county contributes funds to the region. “That money, then, is used to run the programs within CICS.”

The latest in a series of 28E agreements for law enforcement services was also approved, this time between the county and the city of Liscomb; the city will pay $7,320 for the services provided to the town by the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office.

“About all of the towns now have been covered in Marshall County, unless they already have their own police force,” Patten said. “This money is used for more patrols, perhaps more lengthy patrols.”

Three certificates of purchase of tax sale were also approved by the board Tuesday. “These were all tax sales, it was a public nuisance tax sale,” said County Treasurer Jarret Heil. “[The properties] were an nuisance, abandoned, and they were a problem for the city, and they came to us.”

Marshalltown City Administrator Jessica Kinser also spoke to the tax sale item.

“All three of them are ones that we’re still maintaining them as nuisance properties,” she said, adding all three have structures, and two are ready for demolition at any time.

Two county employees were recognized at the meeting. Tera Moore of the treasurer’s office was recognized for her five years of service, and sheriff’s office Det. Wade Ruopp was noted for his 40 years of service.

The next Marshall County Board of Supervisors meeting is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 8 in meeting room no. 2 on the third floor of the Marshall County Courthouse, 1 E. Main St.