The Greene County Board of Supervisors met Monday in regular session.

The meeting started with several public comments urging the Board to continue their regular meetings with remote options available. Jefferson resident and city council member Darren Jackson spoke about the benefits of audience participation and engagement through remote options during their meetings and as a teacher in the Greene County School District, he noted the 30-40 consistent remote participants during a school board meeting. Cooper resident Chris Henning, Rippey resident Nancy Hanaman and Jefferson resident Ginny Showman also spoke in favor of continuing Supervisors meetings via Zoom.

Supervisor Chair John Muir said the Board has not made a decision to discontinue their meetings electronically, but thought if they do continue offering it, another person would have to run Zoom so that current Supervisor Pete Bardole could fully engage in their meetings and not have to also run Zoom. 

County Attorney Thomas Laehn mentioned that he had the busiest day of his career last Friday, with hearings scheduled every 30-minutes starting at 9am. He said he gave a draft of the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower music policy to the Bell Tower Community Foundation and once they are done reviewing it, the policy will be presented to the Board.

Finally, after reviewing the finalist for the Ring Out for Art contest, as recommended by a committee, the Board approved the four sculptures to be placed on the courthouse grounds later this year as a celebration of the bell tower. The Board also discussed allowing the countywide mask mandate sunset on March 31st and will revisit if there is a sudden increase in COVID-19 cases?