While no action was taken then, the board revisited the discussion on Wednesday morning with some new information and options presented. As Wurr stepped to the speaking podium, he said he didn’t have much to add since the conversation two weeks ago, but Baedke had received a few options.

Of the four presented, Wurr said the second and fourth options were his preferences, with option two being the cheapest but option four being the best. He offered to pay the expense out of his department’s budget or bring a budget amendment to the conference board if he needed to dip into reserve funds.

Baedke said the county does not have any cost estimates in hand at the moment, and he also had a few concerns of his own: namely, that another card access panel would have to be added. Supervisor Carol Hibbs asked if a key lock could be installed instead, but Baedke said fob access was “the way to go” for increased security.

Baedke also said there was an option put in a door without an automatic closer to make for less work on the counter.

Several area farmers attended Wednesday morning’s board of supervisors meeting to bid on the county farm lease, which ultimately went to Lee Smith at $495 an acre for three years.

“We would just have to make sure that the door gets manually closed. If we’re doing this to increase the security, obviously we’re not gonna leave the door open. That just defeats what we’re trying to do here,” he said. “That would be kind of my route to go if we were to go a route. I appreciate Blaze trying to supplement this out of his budget. I think that’s a really nice sentiment there.”

He added that he has courthouse contractor Breiholz Construction working on a price, and Supervisor Steve Salasek wondered why the door hadn’t been secured from the beginning.

“It’s a funky space, so we needed to provide a public counter for GIS as well as the assessor’s office,” Baedke said. “There were some storage requests there that I don’t think are being utilized near as much as we planned them to be, so cutting into the public counter isn’t gonna really hurt, now, all that much, where initially that was ‘We need this space. People come up here all the time.’ Obviously, we were kind of early in COVID with all of that, and things have transitioned a lot as far as how that office reacts with the public.”

According to Baedke, plans for the courthouse renovation called for as many offices as possible to be secured, but some were more difficult than others due to various logistical issues. He then asked the board how far they wanted to go on this.

After a bit of discussion, Wurr indicated he would be OK with a manual door as long as it would still lock, and as part of a discussion with Board Chairman Jarret Heil, Baedke said it would make the most sense to go to a fob system now as opposed to later.

“If we fob it and it locks and we have to manually close it, that is perfectly fine with me. I’m sure my staff would be perfectly fine with me,” Wurr said. “We kind of do it now with the half swinging door. Sometimes it shuts on its own. Sometimes we have to make sure it shuts.”

Wurr also said his department had money freed up from a court case line item that could go toward the project, and Baedke noted that with labor included, the cost could jump up to $7,000 or $8,000 “in a quick hurry.”

Before the discussion wrapped up, Heil offered his thoughts.

“I think it’s important to have a door there. I think it would really help with that office for security purposes and for the employees,” he said.

A motion to proceed and plan to pay for the door out of the assessor’s budget passed by a unanimous 3-0 vote.

Earlier in the morning, the otherwise quiet meeting briefly became lively as several area farmers popped in to bid on the cash rent for the 230-acre county farm property. After a sealed bid for three years and $350 an acre was opened, the live bidding started, and Dan Anderson and Lee Smith went back and forth before Smith finally submitted the high bid of $495 per acre.

In other business, the board:

• Approved the consent agenda as listed.

• Approved the following hires: Parker Reese and Ismary Gonzalez as jailers for the Sheriff’s Department, each at $22.30 per hour; Steven Kieffer and Jackie Kenneth McAllister Jr. as part-time court security, both at $23 per hour; Hayley Noelle Paige as a full-time executive secretary for the sheriff’s department at $20.59 per hour; and Joey Rudkin as a full-time auditor recorder assistant — vitals, DNR, RE transfers and elections at $20.75 per hour.

• Approved a resolution regarding the assessed/taxable valuations of utility companies for 2024-2025.

• Approved an alcohol license renewal for The Harvester Golf Club.

• Approved the purchase of a new Holland T6.180 Tractor from Central Iowa Farm Store for $173,850.

• Approved the purchase of a 2025 Volvo VHD64F300 Tandem Axle Chassis from GATR Truck Center in Waukee for $149,597.61.

• Approved the purchase of a dump body, plows, pre-wetting system and sander box to fully outfit the 2025 Volvo VHD64F300 from Henderson Products of Manchester for $178,859.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.