New county engineer accepts 3-year contract

John Scott Cline, the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors? pick for county engineer, formally accepted a contract of employment in person at today?s board meeting.

Current county engineer Tom Goff will stay on the job until the end of the fiscal year, June 30; Cline?s contract begins July 1 for three years, the maximum term allowed, with a beginning annual salary of $81,000. He actually will work with Goff through the last week of June and be paid.

Today Cline, who uses his middle name Scott in preference to his first name, is meeting with the Jefferson County Secondary Roads Department at 3 p.m.

The board of supervisors approved purchasing a new truck and auctioning online the 1999 truck it will replace.

?We used the state?s bidding system that gets us the best price,? said Goff. ?The state goes out and gets blanket bids.?

The county is buying a O?Halloran International manual transmission truck with a base price of $90,388. Knapeheid will outfit it with a truck bed and snowplow, bringing the total cost to $137,000.

Supervisors also approved purchasing 70,199 tons of rock from Jefferson County Quarry to use in the Secondary Roads Department.

?It came in higher than last year,? said Goff. ?I asked to give a bulk rate and it still is about a dollar more a ton than last year. So, we?ll contract for 70,199 tons but drop it down to 63,000 tons.

?We?re still playing catch-up from three years ago.?

Supervisor Dick Reed said the increased price probably reflects the increase in fuel costs.

?We get several people in here asking about the quality of rock used,? said Reed.

Goff said the county has the Iowa Department of Transportation sample the quality. There was a year that a quarry sold rock that had a lot of flint in it, but it was not Jefferson County Quarry.

The county has been going through the process of hearing a grievance filed by a jailer. The county has used Paul Greufe, a human resource specialist from PJ Greufe and Associates, Davenport. during the process. The process has come to a point of arbitration. Today, the supervisors discussed hiring Greufe for the arbitration process.

?Do we need to hire Paul, it?s costly, $3,000 to $4,000, and I wonder if Tim [Dille, county attorney] is capable of handling it for us?? said supervisor chairman Steve Burgmeier. ?He?s done arbitration before.?

Dille said he?s never arbitrated in a union setting.

Jefferson County Sheriff Deputy Gregg Morton said he would prefer using Greufe especially since this was the sheriff?s office first arbitration.

?He?s been in the loop all along and I can?t see doing this halfway,? said Reed.

Morton said that?s his thoughts, also.

Greufe has also negotiated contract negotiations with Jefferson County law enforcement previously.

?Nothing against, Tim, but he is the county attorney,? said Morton. ?We?ve already learned a great deal going through this first arbitration with Paul and I think we can learn more keeping him in. I?d like to see him do the arbitration.?

Burgmeier said he?d like the county attorney?s office and everyone involved to ?pay close attention to what?s going on, so when there?s another arbitration, we can handle it in-house.?

Morton agreed with Burgmeier.

?Spending $4,000 for the first time is a good idea and we can learn from the process,? said Burgmeier.

All three supervisors supported using Greufe for arbitration.

Melanie Carlson of French-Reneker asked the supervisors to approve a $300 change order to the 227th Street paving project.

?Normally I wouldn?t come to you with a $300 change order,? she said. ?But this is not an engineering question but a political question.?

During construction, 227th Street will be barricaded down to one-lane traffic.

?AmericaInn is so new, that seeing road work, newcomers might not realize the hotel is open and AmericaInn has requested a sign added to the barricade on 227th Street that says ? hotel entrance 400 feet,? said Carlson. ?It will not be a heavy duty metal sign, but it will be reflective.?

Supervisor Lee Dimmitt said the sign is for the hotel?s benefit, the hotel should pick up the extra $300 charge, instead of spreading the cost among the residents, city and county.

?I see this as the cost of doing business, it?s part of economic development and we should move forward without a debate over spending $300 on it,? said Reed.

Burgmeier and Reed approved the change order as presented with Dimmitt voting no.