The Guthrie County Supervisors met in regular session Monday.

The meeting began with a discussion with current Informational Technology provider Guthrie Center Communications about the potential for the County hiring their own IT director. Guthrie Center Communications Technology Development Director Curt Thornberry told the Board it would not be an impossible job for someone, but a big one with plenty of work to do for the county departments. Thornberry said it could be a challenge to have enough support from one person when you factor in weekends and vacation time.

Guthrie Center Communications General Manager Andy Randol told the Board in the four years they’ve worked for the County they’ve thought of themselves as a partner, not a vendor, “It’s a process to transition, I don’t think tomorrow you go out and post an IT professional ad, I don’t think that’d be the way I’d do it anyway. It’d be a process, allow us to work with you, if you so choose, to work through the process and get things in step. I’m not saying that because of the contract we have today, it’s just how I see the best way to move forward.”

Randol complimented the Board on recently forming an IT committee to determine the County’s needs moving forward. An IT contract for the next fiscal year was presented, for which the Board took no action. Next, the Board received an update from Midwest Partnership Economic Development Executive Director Sarah Gomez, who informed the Board of the corporation’s recent shift from representing four regional counties, to solely Guthrie and Adair. She says this will be a positive change for the organization. Finally, the Board approved allowing the Guthrie County Chaplains to be covered under the Iowa Municipal Works Compensation Association, and assignment of a county held tax sale certificate for a parcel located in Bagley to Jerry England.