The Marshall County Board of Supervisors quickly breezed through a light agenda during a regular meeting that clocked in under a half hour on Wednesday morning, unanimously approving several motions including a road maintenance agreement with ITC Midwest pertaining to the construction of a pair of transmission lines between the Twinkle substation on the east side of Marshalltown and the Morgan Valley substation near Fairfax in Linn County.

County Engineer Paul Geilenfeldt welcomed Jamie Toledo of ITC Midwest to the speaking podium, and she thanked the supervisors and Geilenfeldt for being “really good partners” in the infrastructure space and bringing reliable energy to the area.

“These are 345 kV lines that you’re probably familiar that are going through. We refer to them as the ‘Beverly Lines.’ They’ll start in Q1 (of 2026), so we like to get all of our ducks in a row before that period of time and make sure we’re being good partners in the space,” Toledo said. “We have concrete trucks that have flatbeds. We’ll have Ford F-150s coming through, and we want to make sure that we’re both in agreement with how the roads should be treated. A lot of it’s a safety issue, so do you want to do repairs if there are repairs needed and whether we reimburse those that (would) be our cost. So we want to just make sure we have an agreement on how all that works in advance. So that’s what this agreement is about.”

Geilenfeldt added that the agreement is very similar to past ones the county has had in place for wind farm repowering projects, and if there are problems with road conditions, the county will fix them and bill ITC for reimbursement if the on-site foremen aren’t able to repair them on their own.

A motion to approve the agreement passed by a unanimous vote. Earlier in the meeting, Conservation Director Emily Herring presented the appointment of a new Marshall County Conservation Board member, Tina Nelson, for the supervisors to confirm, noting that she will replace Tom Mack after he served for the last 12 years. Nelson, Herring said, is an avid camper both locally and around the country, and she previously worked for the Marshall County Public Health Department. She has also served on the Friends of Marshall County Conservation Board for the last two years.

“I want people on the board that actively use our parks and see what needs to be done and how to improve, and I get very regular pictures of her and her grandkids out in the park, including playing at the Green Castle playground in the blizzard a couple of weeks ago,” Herring said. “I think she’d be a great fit. Not only is she an avid camper, but her and her husband do active forest management, and she’s a great volunteer.”

Nelson told Herring she would only be on the board if she could continue volunteering, which she quickly affirmed. The supervisors voted unanimously to approve Nelson for a term running from Jan. 1, 2026 through Dec. 31, 2031.

Later in the meeting, the board approved a motion establishing the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the National Qualification System (NQS) as the standard for incident management in Marshall County. Marshall County Emergency Management Coordinator Kim Elder explained that it was “new, but not so new” as the NIMS has been in place since about 2006 for traffic control, planned events or actual emergencies and disasters.

“It wasn’t new then, either, when it originated, but it was just a way to organize it, and that works everywhere from the operations level, the on-scene type (things like) fire, EMS, law enforcement, but it also works on the back side of things — emergency management, finance and administration and the government side of things,” she said. “Again, it’s not new, but it’s just a rebranding, almost, of what it is.”

It also updates the needed training at each level, she added.

“It’s just a good way that they organized it, and also, because of grants, there’s guidelines and we have to have this approved and adopted by the county and then it’ll go to my commission, who will also, hopefully, adopt the guidelines also,” Elder said. “It’s not new to our responders. They already know where they stand and what they do. They do it well, but it does help us, especially on the jurisdictional level as emergency management, too. When someone says ‘What classes do I need?’ It’s outlined already. It’s not a guessing game. That has been a big help because there’s been a lot of years where there’s some gray area.”

There is no term included in the motion, and it will remain in place until verbiage is updated.

“It’s pretty much written at the federal level, and then we just tweak it a little bit,” Elder said.

During the public comment period, John Worden of Green Mountain reported that he had requested to meet with new Marshalltown Public Library Board Trustee Ronnie Manis about the ongoing situation involving The Epoch Times and American Rifleman magazine, and Manis was not available to stay after Tuesday night’s library board meeting but agreed to speak with him at a later date, which Worden described as the first “positive development” in three years.

“He was a former trustee, and so he has experience with strategy and maneuvering as a board member,” Worden said. “He’s probably gone off the reservation by agreeing to meet with me and probably Ray Mitchem, so we’ll see how it works out. But so far, so good.”

Marshall County Attorney Jordan Gaffney also took the public comment period as an opportunity to praise county staff for their efforts with the internal fundraising campaign for the Marshalltown Area United Way. Last year, they gave $5,233, and this year, they increased their pledges to $6,201.

“I just want to say thanks to the board for your generosity and all our staff here at Marshall County for having hearts for helping others,” he said.

Gaffney offered special recognition to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office for having the highest level of employee participation among county departments, for which he is working to coordinate a pizza party in celebration, and the Auditor/Recorder’s office for grossing the highest amount in donation.

“Because giving is sweet, and it has such a positive impact on our community, I present the positive donut,” he said to a round of applause. “Well done.”

“I may be a tiny donut, but I believe in you. Donut forget how awesome you are,” the commemorative trinket reads.

In other business, the board:

• Approved the consent agenda as listed.

• Honored Jill Tompkins for 25 years of service as the assistant to the county engineer in the Secondary Roads department.

• Approved the annual Heroin and Meth (CAMP) hot spot grants.

• Approved the federal aid agreement for the replacement of Bridge O-6 on the 2900 mile of Oaks Avenue over South Timber Creek.

• Approved the annual homestead and family farm credits and military service tax exemptions.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.