For the last several weeks, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors has received and approved several requests to better prepare the county for various emergency situations. Tuesday’s meeting will seemingly keep the trend going.
The board will vote to approve the official resolution for the Continuity of Operations Plan presented to them last week by Jasper County Emergency Management Coordinator Jim Sparks. The board voted to approve the measure, but require for it to be in a resolution format for record purposes.
“This has been a long time coming, so I appreciated the support in finally getting this done,” Sparks said during that meeting.
A passage from resolutions states:
“The Jasper County Board of Supervisors deems it of the utmost importance to be prepared to insure the continuity of local government services in the face of disaster. Prior planning is necessary to prepare for emergencies such as fire, tornado, natural gas explosion, a pandemic, long term hostage situation, white powder threat, weather related calamities and other disasters.”
In addition, Sparks will also ask the board to approve bids for backup generators for the former Iowa National Guard Armory located at 1030 W. Second St. S. in Newton. The only bid shown on the agenda come from Altoona-based Ziegler CAT.
The four used generator units Ziegler provided information on ranged in prices from $15,500 to $26,500 and they would be sold as is and offer no warranty.
Jasper County Community Services Director/Central Point Coordinator Jody Eaton, who has been the lead on the county’s regionalization efforts, will be back before the board Tuesday as well.
Eaton will be asking the board to approve a 28E Agreement to join Central Iowa Recovery and providing an update on the Central Iowa Community Services Region, which the county officially joined on June 25.
Members of CICSR include Jasper, Boone, Franklin, Hamilton, Hardin, Madison, Marshall and Story counties.
CIR would be established to help provide rehabilitative and support services for people with mental illness in the participating counties. The agenda doesn’t specify if CIR is in conjunction with the CICSR counties or another entity all together.
If the measure to join CIR is approved, Eaton would then ask the board to appoint a person to the CIR board.
In other business:
· Vision Care Direct Sales Director Mike Jones will present the board with options for potential vision benefits plans for county employees.
· Greater Newton Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Darrell Sarmento will ask the board for permission to use the square and courthouse for two events. The first request is for “Ridiculous Day” on July 27. His second requested date would fall on for Aug. 23 for the Classic Car Cruise.
· Gary Stephenson will ask the board to consider making a donation to acquire a 1934 Leoni Illuminated Constitution Lithograph. In a letter to the board, Stephenson said he would like all 99 of Iowa’s county courthouses to have one.
· Jasper County Maintenance Director Adam Sparks will ask the board for approval on two measures. The first is the purchase of 2014 Chevy Silverado. Bids on the new vehicle ranged between $31,000 to more than $44,000. Several of the lower bids only differed by hundreds of dollars and the winning bid could go to either Urbandale-based Bob Brown Chevrolet or Ankeny-based Karl Chevrolet.
