The Dallas County Board of Supervisors convened Tuesday morning and evening for regular and joint meetings.

The morning session began with Sheriff Chad Leonard performing a promotion ceremony during open forum. Deputy Bret Maxwell was promoted to Sergeant, and his family as well as many others from the Sheriff’s Office were on hand to congratulate him. After that, the Board approved updates to the employee handbook, which included revisions discussed at the previous week’s meeting. Next, there was a special presentation with the Chinese Association of Iowa, where four students discussed their experiences in the state, and also presented gifts to the Board. The Supervisors then approved (approval of) the 18th pay application for the new law enforcement center, which included payments made to eight contractors for a total amount of $794,966.79, followed by the monthly update on the project.

Another project discussed was the courthouse renovation, and the Board approved change orders for $2,438.33, $3,429.18, and $1,184.80 for the furnishings in the Recorder’s and Treasurer’s offices, and construction on the Recorder’s wing, respectively. They also tabled a fourth change order for the Treasurer’s furniture until they could discuss it with Treasurer Mitch Hambleton. The Board then approved an agreement with Design Alliance/the Farnsworth Group to begin the planning phase for relocating the Secondary Roads offices from Adel to the central maintenance site near Dallas Center. Also related to the Roads Department, Engineer Al Miller gave an update on the progress of construction around the County, and discussed disposing of vacated storage sheds around once everything is moved to the new cold storage facility at the central site.

Next the Board discussed but took no action on the initial blueprints to turn the bus barn located at the Human Services Campus into classrooms to be used by Des Moines Area Community College. The Board then went into a closed session to discuss pending litigation. Upon reconvening open session, they approved terminating the inmate meals contract with Homecare Services, and agreed to a new month-to-month contract with Hy-Vee. The new contract will be effective until the new law enforcement center is open. There will be more discussion on Homecare at next week’s meeting. They also approved the appointment of Cathy Erickson to the Planning and Zoning Commission for a four-year term.

Finally, the evening session was held at the Kuehn Conservation Area near Earlham, where the Supervisors joined the Dallas County Conservation Board for a joint meeting. No official action was taken by the Supervisors at that time.