Unconstitutional recess appointments, the Fast and Furious scandal, the Keystone pipeline project, making Veterans Administration services more accessible, extending unemployment benefits and payroll tax cuts and many more topics were discussed when U.S. Senator Charles Grassley spent an hour answering questions from the two dozen citizens who met with him at Jamie’s Coffee Mill and Deli in Mount Ayr Tuesday, Jan. 17.

Grassley’s stop in Ringgold county was one of 34 he is making during January as part of his effort to visit each of Iowa’s 99 counties each year.

Recess appointments

Grassley expressed his unhappiness with the recent recess appointments made by President Barak Obama  as well, and responded to a question about what Republicans in the Senate were going to do about it. 

On Jan. 4, President Obama bypassed the Senate and appointed Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three members of the National Labor Relations Board.  His move is highly controversial over whether he exceeded his constitutional power to make appointments during a Senate recess and so exceeded the power of his office, Grassley said.

“Our constitutionally outlined system of checks and balances among the three branches of our government is undermined when the President ignores the Constitution in making appointments,” Grasssley said.  “The Constitution expressly assigns the Senate an advice and consent role in presidential nominations. The president nominates, the Senate acts to confirm or disprove the nomination.”

The Constitution says each house of Congress makes its own rules of proceeding.  The administration argues the Senate was in recess during the President’s appointments, but that’s a red herring, Grassley said,

“In effect, the Senate is in session when it says it’s in session, not when the President says the Senate is in session,”  Grassley said. “And, according to its own rules, the Senate was not in an extended recess during the President’s action.  The Constitution does provide for the President to make appointments when the Senate is in a prolonged recess, but there are restrictions on those powers.  And in addition to constitutional limitations, practice, tradition, and legal opinions all have influenced the process.”  

If constitutional constructions are flouted, the President could choose to make all of his own appointments and skip the Senate’s advice and consent role,” Grassley said. “Similarly, if the Senate were to declare the law of the land without seeking a presidential signature or veto, that would be a clear violation of constitutional strictures.   The White House would protest, just as the Senate is protesting now.  The Constitution works to keep any one branch of the government from getting too powerful.  It’s what keeps our country a republic, not a monarchy, the form of government our founders fled, fought, and rejected.”

A Justice Department opinion was cited by the president for the action, but Grassley is unconvinced. 

“The conclusion of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel is at odds with the text of the U.S. Constitution and the administration’s own previous statements,” Grassley pointed out. “It fundamentally alters the careful separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches that the framers crafted in the Constitution.  It relies on no Supreme Court decision for its conclusion that the Constitution allows the President to make these appointments.  In fact, many of the administration’s conclusions are unsupported in law or the Constitution.”

  The Justice Department recognizes that the courts might well disagree he noted.  The action flies in the face of more than 90 years of historical practice.  

“Taken together with a laundry list of other assertions of the power to act without Congress, this clearly is an escalation in a pattern of contempt for the elected representatives of the American people,” Grassley said.  “The Senate will need to take action to check and balance President Obama’s blatant attempt to circumvent the Senate and the constitution, a claim of presidential power that the Bush Administration refused to make.  No president since Theodore Roosevelt has tested the limitations on a president’s power to make recess appointments as President Obama has.   It was seen as a blatant power grab when Theodore Roosevelt did it, and it strikes many of us the same way from President Obama.”

Fast and Furious scandal

Fast and Furious is a gunrunning investigation in Arizona that led to the illegal selling of about 2,000 high-powered guns with the idea that we would be able to arrest drug kingpins in Mexico, Grassley explained.

Not all of the guns got across the border and a couple of them showed up at the site where a Border Patrol officer was murdered.

“A lot of people from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was telling Washington, D.C. that this wouldn’t work and I don’t think anyone was arrested that was anything like a drug kingpin,” Grassley said.

Some of these people came to Grassley a year ago and the investigation is ongoing. 

“The more we get into it, the more leads it brings,” Grassley said. “I’m not sure I can see an end to this but I’m going to keep pushing.”

One example of the problems with the bureaucracy was a request Grassley made in January that was answered in February. “The Justice Department said at that time there was nothing to the matter, but in a hearing in October the department admitted that its first correspondence had been a lie,”  Grassley said. “We traced that to an assistant attorney general.”

For more, see the online or print editions of the Mount Ayr Record-News.

 Retail sales in Ringgold county totaled $13,580,514 for the second quarter of 2011, an uptick of 1.4 percent over the 2010 total to the second highest second quarterly sales on record.

That’s the news from the latest sales tax report from the Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance.

The increase in Ringgold county compares to a 2.09 percent increase registered across the state for the three months ending June 30, 2011.

The sales increase in Ringgold county reflected a rise of $193,383 from the $13,387,131 registered in the second quarter of 2010.

Sales went up in all surrounding counties over the period, with Decatur county leading the way.

Sales in Decatur county totaled $8,846,742 for the quarter, up $909,402 or 11.5 percent from a decline the previous quarter. This is a new record there in any case.

Sales in Union county showed an increase of 3.9 percent or $1,151,896 to $31,028,943. This is the second highest amount for this quarter there, with sales in 2008 topping that mark by over $800,000.

Taylor county showed an increase of $205,726 or 3.2 percent over the same period last year to a total of $6,613,956. This is a new record for Taylor county.

Adams county sales increased $122,953 or 1.9 percent to $6,573,908. This is a new record for Adams county.

Sales in Clarke county increased 1.2 percent or $199,958 to $17,395,622 for the period. This was a new record there as well. 

Sales by community

Sales comparisons for three communities were available in Ringgold county for the quarter.

Mount Ayr sales went up $56,318 or .5 percent to $11,828,345, a number that has been surpassed twice before in 2000 and 2001.

Diagonal sales slipped a little from the record set in 2010 of $887,627. They were down  1.1 percent or $10,233 to $877,394. Sales in Ellston climbed $113,499 over the previous year to $345,721. This was a 48.9 percent increase, the highest for any community in the area.

In Adams county, Corning showed a sales decline of $247,859 or 4.5 percent to $5,311,548. This number had been surpassed eight times in the past 14 years.

In Clarke county, Osceola sales were  up $22,420 or .1 percent to $16,699,850. The number had been surpassed in 2009.

Communities in Decatur county both showed increases. Lamoni sales totaled $2,985,490, an increase of $301,897 or 11.3 percent. This number had been surpassed in 2006. Leon sales were up $93,973 or 2.2 percent to $4,300,544. This number was surpassed in the quarter in 2007.

In Taylor county, sales increases were shown for Bedford, Lenox and Clearfield. Bedford had an increase in sales of $123,976 or 4.2 percent to $3,108,596. This number was surpassed in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Lenox sales were up $98,926 or 3.5 percent to $2,920,718, a new record. Clearfield saw sales climb $24,686 or 14.5 percent to $195,248. This was the best there since 2004.

Union county sales in Creston jumped $1,048,807 or 3.8 percent to $28,699,133. This number has been surpassed three times in the past five years. Sales in Afton were up $144,560 or 8.7 percent to $1,812,813. This has only been surpassed once in the past 10 years in 2008.

  All five of the large group speech contest entries from Mount Ayr Community high school and one from Diagonal high school received division I ratings and advanced to state following the district speech contest held Saturday, Jan. 21 in Osceola.

The MAC speech team included two group improvisation entries, two radio broadcast entries and a short film entry. Advancing from Diagonal was a group improvisation team.

The students will advance to the state contest to be held Saturday, Feb. 4, at Ankeny high school in Ankeny.

There were two MAC group improvisation teams qualifying. The first team included Joey Taylor, Johnathan Triggs, Jacob Sobotka, Braydee Poore and Matt Kerns. On the other team was Taylor Still, Maggie Jennett, Allison Wallace, Matt Poore and Tyler Triggs. 

Qualifying in group improvisation from Diagonal was the team of Ryan Parrott, Dom Buchannan and Brice Still.

Two radio broadcast teams from MACHS also advanced. The KSBO radio broadcast team included Alex Sobotka, Matt Kerns, Joey Taylor, Desirae Trammell and Taylor Lynch. The MKIS radio show included Maggie Jennett, Taylor Still, Allison Wallace, Leah Klejch, Dawson Knapp and Ben Saville. 

A new contest piece this year is short film and the Raider team advanced here as well. Alex Sobotka, Desirae Trammell, Taylor Lynch, Matt Poore, Ethan Pollock, Derek Hand, Megan Doubleday, Kylee Klommhaus and Dusty Lyden put the film together.

Diagonal had three other groups participating that received division II ratings.

The two radio broadcasting team that participated from Diagonal including a senior team with Ashley Jarred, Jenna Berger and Bailey Cameron that did a themed broadcast on bullying and a junior team of Dom Buchanan, Heath Evans and Shad Haidsiak that did a lighthearted newscast for laughs.

Also participating was a reader’s theater group with senior Amanda Davis and Amber Lilenthal, junior Charlene Hingeley, sophomore Bryce Still and freshman Ryan Parrott.

The MAC speech team is coached by Shaun Kniep and the Diagonal team is coached by Curtis Lambson.

  It’s homecoming week in the Diagonal Community school district, leading up to games with Seymour on Friday, Jan. 27.

Spirit week at the high school began Monday, Jan. 23, with senior citizens day with students dressing as their grandparents would. Tuesday, Jan. 24, was cartoon day with students dressing like their favorite cartoon character.

Wednesday, Jan. 25, was nerd day with students to dress as nerds. Thursday, Jan. 26, was to be “Would you be my friend if I wore this?” day. The dress will be crazy or weird.

Friday, Jan. 27, will be spirit day, with everyone asked to wear their maroon colors.

A homecoming pep rally for the school and community will be held at 2:40 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 27.

Homecoming king and queen candidates have also been set for the event.

Homecoming queen candidates are senior Jenna Berger, daughter of John and Deb Berger; senior Bailey Cameron, daughter of Marty and Shawn Cameron; junior Elly Brown, daughter of Brian and Becky Brown, and junior Charlene Hingeley, daughter of Quentin Hingeley.

Homecoming king candidates included senior Trenton Moffitt, son of Kris and Terry Moffitt; junior Shad Haidsiak, son of Josh and Jessie Haidsiak and junior Dominique Buchanan, son of Kevin and Sandra Buchanan.

Sophomore and freshman attendants have also been named as well as the prince and princesses.

Sophomore attendant is Ryan Parrott, son of Johnny and Tina Parrott.

Freshmen attendants include Kaitlyn Klommhaus, daughter of Kevin and Shelly Klommhaus, and Layne Ruby, son of Doug and Melanie Ruby.

Princesses will include Lalluren Burton, daughter of Tim and Mel Burton, and Elizabeth Miller, daughter of Chris and Amanda Miller. Prince will be Cody Hays, son of Cody and Becky Hays.

The homecoming games against Seymour will begin with the girls game at 6:15 p.m., immediately followed by the boys game.

Following the boys game, the homecoming coronation ceremony will be held in the gym.

The homecoming dance will then be held in the old gym to round out the homecoming week activities.

 BY ALAN SMITH

When the tragedy which gripped Ringgold county Friday really began is hard to say.

Bob Taylor, 40, and Lori Yeager, 45, had problems in the past -- including a conviction for domestic abuse on Taylor’s part at one point.

Somehow the turmoil boiled over to take the first life very early Friday morning.

It was 2:06 a.m. when a 911 call came into the Ringgold County Law Enforcement Center. Taylor and Yeager’s nine-year-old daughter Kylee was calling for help from the family residence at 2339 280th Street, four miles south of Mount Ayr.

When the Ringgold county sheriff’s officer arrived Yeager was dead from a gunshot and Taylor had left the residence, leaving his daughter behind.

Decatur county and Lamoni police were the next to arrive on the scene to offer their aid.

Then the manhunt began.

In the next hours more than 30 officers from Iowa and Missouri were directly involved.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation was called in and the Iowa Highway Patrol. Law enforcement officials in Worth and Harrison counties in Missouri were also alerted.

Seven people from the DCI were soon on hand -- five agents and two evidence techs. A search warrant was received so that all the i’s would be dotted and t’s crossed in case this was a murder that would go to trial.

As soon as the sun was up, the Iowa State Patrol plane was in the air and stayed up for five hours searching around southern Iowa for signs of Taylor and the copper-colored 2008 Ford F350 Super Duty pickup he was driving.

A host of Iowa Highway Patrol troopers also arrived to help with the investigation and search.

Soon the media was notified about the early-morning death and the search for Taylor. An arrest warrant for Taylor on a charge of first- degree murder was issued.

Phone calls began to come into the Ringgold County Law Enforcement Center from people who thought they might know where Taylor might flee.

“We were thankful that people tried to help though none of the tips actually turned out to be places where Taylor was,” Ringgold county sheriff Mike Sobotka said.

The DCI was interviewing multiple people as well, trying to figure out what had happened and where Taylor might have gone.

Throughout the community the word spread. The Mount Ayr Community  school was notified and precautions taken, though Kylee would not be coming to school.

Lori Yeager had been an employee in the Head Start program at the Family Resource Center, so the trauma was already being felt by staff there as well.

Word spread through the community. Murder is so uncommon in Ringgold county it seems unthinkable. There have only been two murders in the county in the past 30 years -- one a young Omaha man killed in a drug deal and left in a field to be found months later and an elderly former school teacher killed in a robbery in the 1980s.

The rest of the tragedy was played out late Friday afternoon along a stretch of Interstate 29 two miles south of the intersection with Highway 2, that runs from Mount Ayr to the Iowa-Nebraska border.

A Fremont county deputy sheriff spotted the pickup, parked alongside the Interstate 29 near the eight mile marker.

According to the Fremont county sheriff, the deputy pulled over and began to approach the vehicle. Taylor opened his pickup door, faced the deputy and then shot himself. He died from the self-inflicted gunshot.

The tragic day had come to a conclusion for Yeager and Taylor, but not for the family and friends they left behind. Or for the community shaken by the events of the day.

The Ringgold County Ministerial Association held a well-attended candlelight vigil Sunday night at the First Christian Church in Mount Ayr in memory of the couple and the healing that needed to begin.

Several prayers were offered and candles burned, music played, tears were shed and comforting support given. The song “I Can Only Imagine” was among the songs played, wondering what it will be like to come into the presence of Christ after death.

For some it was hard to imagine what had brought all this heartache to two families and the community at large.

“These were tragic events for all of Ringgold county,” sheriff Mike Sobotka said. “We wish for better outcomes but we have certainly had our share of tragedies in the past few months in Ringgold county.” He was referencing the deaths of two young people in tragic accidents.

“Kylee, Maisie and Brett have all lost parents, people have lost friends, familes have lost loved-ones,” Sobotka said.

Sobotka noted, however, that the Ringgold county community somehow comes together in support everytime people in the area meet with tragedy.

“I know people will pull together to get us through this tough time as well,” he said.

The funeral service for Lori Yeager was set for Wednesday, Jan. 18, at the Roberson-Polley Chapel in Albany, MO, where her parents live. An obituary is included in today’s Mount Ayr Record-News.

Funeral service for Bob Taylor was set for Friday. Jan. 20 at 2 p.m. at Watson-Armstrong Funeral Home in Mount Ayr. His obituary will be included in next week’s Mount Ayr Record-News.

  Mount Ayr’s city council spent most of its meeting taking its first close look at city budget matters for the next fiscal year, but handled a host of other items as well at its regular meeting Monday night.

The council approved the water system design contract, a fire department reserve fund, pretax insurance, a minimum utility charge waiver, tobacco violation actions and a beer permit approval.

City budget work

Much of the work by the council Monday night was the first review of the city budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

City clerk Pam Poore presented information on what the city would have to work with for the coming year in terms of income and expense.

Some of the budget askings from city groups have not yet been received, but the council reviewed the requests of those that had been received.

Poore said that preliminary budget projections show that the property tax levy should decrease this year for the city. Instead of a $15.93 levy, the new levy will be in the $15.56 range, she told the council.

A number of suggestions for budgeted amounts were made as the council proceeded through the budget.

The budget discussions will continue at future meetings in preparation for budget publishing in March.

Water system design contract

The council has been discussing a contract with MSA Professional Services for the design of the water booster station for the community to replace the current water treatment plant.

At the meeting Monday night the council went ahead and approved the contract for a lump sum of $48,680.

Questions that were raised by city attorney Richard Wilson and city staff were all answered in the final wording of the contract, it was noted.

       Announcement of a new physician joining the Mount Ayr Medical Clinic staff, election of officers, NHSC site certification, disposal of the old facility, conflict of interest policy, approval of the Hartford’s 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plan and an IT update were just some of the main topics discussed at the monthly meeting of the Ringgold County Hospital Board of Trustees Monday night.

Physician recruitment

Hospital administrator Gordon Winkler reported that Dr. John Forney, M. D., has accepted a position at the Mount Ayr Medical Clinic.

He has submitted his Iowa license application and enrolled himself in an Advanced Trauma Life Support course. The course is a requirement for providing Emergency Department coverage. Dr. Forney is working on his credentialing for Ringgold County Hospital but he has to have an Iowa license before he can complete his application and be a participating physician on insurance panels. Right now he is establishing his moving plans. The process for obtaining an Iowa license could take 60-90 days.

Election of officers

Election of officers was held and the current officers were re-elected for next year. Kathi Braby is chairman; Fred Wilson, vice chairman, and Bill Armstrong, secretary.

NHSC site certification

Ringgold County Hospital has been pursuing certification as a National Health Service Corps site. On January 9 Winkler received an email from the National Health Service Corps stating that the application has been approved. This allows the hospital to participate in several loan forgiveness and repayment programs.

PrimeCare, a state and national loan repayment program, is closed now. It will be open again in the fall. PrimeCare awards are up one to $50,000 per year based on availability of funds. The National Health Service Corps is $60,000 for two years. The hospital is now listed as an approved site. Physicians can now fill Ringgold County Hospital out as a site. The certification has to be renewed every three years.

  It’s homecoming week next week in the Diagonal Community school district, leading up to games with Seymour on Friday, Jan. 27.

Spirit week at the high school will begin Monday, Jan. 23, with senior citizens day with students to dress as their grandparents would. Tuesday, Jan. 24, will be cartoon day with students dressing like their favorite cartoon.

Wednesday, Jan. 25, will be nerd day with students to dress as nerds. Thursday, Jan. 26, will be “Would you be my friend if I wore this?” day. The dress will be crazy or weird.

Friday, Jan. 27, will be spirit day, with everyone asked to wear their maroon colors.

A homecoming pep rally for the school and community will be held at 2:40 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 27.

Homecoming king and queen candidates have also been set for the event.

Homecoming queen candidates are senior Jenna Berger, daughter of John and Deb Berger; senior Bailey Cameron, daughter of Marty and Shawn Cameron; junior Elly Brown, daughter of Brian and Becky Brown, and junior Charlene Hingeley, daughter of Quentin Hingeley.

Homecoming king candidates included senior Trenton Moffitt, son of Kris and Terry Moffitt; junior Shad Haidsiak, son of Josh and Jessie Haidsiak and junior Dominique Buchanan, son of Kevin and Sandra Buchanan.

The homecoming games against Seymour will begin with the girls game at 6:15 p.m., immediately followed by the boys game.

Following the boys game, the homecoming coronation ceremony will be held in the gym.

The homecoming dance will then be held in the old gym to round out the homecoming week.

  Ringgold county recorded its first fatal traffic accident of the new year early Saturday morning near Kellerton.

Larry Jackson, 55, of Kellerton was killed in the accident at 3 a.m. on County Road J45 south of 240th Street.

According to the Iowa State Patrol report, Jackson was driving a 2002 Chevrolet pickup northbound on the county road when he lost control, entered the west ditch and overturned, coming to rest on the driver’s side.

Jackson was not wearing a seatbelt and was partially ejected from the vehicle.

The accident was not discovered until several hours later when a passerby found the accident site.

The accident is still under investigation by the Iowa State Patrol.

Funeral services for Jackson were set today (Thursday) at Slade-O’Donnell Funeral Home in Leon. An obituary for Jackson is included on the obituary page.

  A number of personnel items, including the retirement of two veteran faculty members, and current and future improvement projects to buildings and grounds comprised the bulk of the discussion at the regular meeting of the Mount Ayr Community school’s board of directors on Monday, Jan. 9.

Personnel matters

Two additional long-time faculty members have accepted the district’s retirement incentive and submitted their resignation letters to the board. 

Marilyn Hawkins, fifth and sixth grade math teacher, and James Smith, secondary math teacher, will both leave the district effective at the end of the current school year. The board accepted their resignations with gratitude for their many years of service.

The board also accepted the resignations of Donna Young, a long-time associate in the elementary, and bus driver Tom Giles. Young will finish the current school year, but Giles’ resignation was effective at the end of the first semester.

Jill Wheeler and Deb Lynch submitted letters of resignation from their duties as drill team sponsors. Wheeler and Lynch will complete the current drill team season, which will come to a close in early spring. 

The board voted to hire Amy Wood as drill team sponsor for the upcoming school year. Wood has been a volunteer assistant with the drill team this year and will continue in that capacity. She will then take over her duties as sponsor beginning with team try-outs for the 2012-2013 squad later this spring. Wood will be paid $2,518.

Principal Lynne Wallace recommended that elementary associates Tara Shields and Deb Graham be promoted from probationary to non-probationary employee status effective in  December. The move will increase their hourly wage to $9.96 for a total of $14,301.44 each.

Buildings and grounds

The board spent considerable time getting updates on ongoing improvements and acting on additional projects to buildings and grounds.

  Committee and board appointments, reappointment of Pam Poore as city clerk, a discussion about city legal counsel, union decertification and council compensation were all topics when the Mount Ayr city council held its first meeting of the new year Tuesday, Jan. 3.

Mayor’s appointment for 2012

  Mayor Don Solliday made appointments for city council members to several responsibilities as part of the first meeting of the newly formed council.

Appointments included:

Mayor pro tem -- Gerald Cannon.

Landfill representative -- Deloris Stutzman.

Fire department and law enforcement -- Mack Greene.

Park and recreation -- Brent Ricker.

Employee relations -- Deloris Stutzman and Brent Ricker.

Street maintenance -- Wes Mathany, Mack Greene and Bob Strange.

Water and sewer liaison -- Gerald Cannon, Brent Ricker and Kevin Stocker.

Budget committee -- Pam Poore, Gerald Cannon, Kevin Stocker and mayor Don Solliday.

Zoning commission liaison -- Wes Mathany and Mack Greene.

Revision of city ordinances -- Mayor, clerk and council. 

Board appointments

Two city board appointments were also made for 2012 at the meeting.

Shelly Shields and Leslie Dredge-Murphy were re-appointed to new three-year terms on the Mount Ayr Park Board.

Appoint city clerk

Another of the items taken care of at the first meeting of the new year was to appoint a city clerk.

The city clerk is appointed for a two year term following the general election each time.

The council voted to reappoint city clerk Pam Poore for another term.

   Rick Santorum, one of two candidates to visit Ringgold county in the election campaign for president this year, came away with a commanding lead in the vote by Ringgold county Republicans in the precinct caucuses held Tuesday night.

Both Republican and Democrat caucuses were held Tuesday, but with the Democrats not having a presidential race the turnout was light for Democrats. A total of 180 Republicans took part in the caucus vote here.

The final results from the caucuses held for all the Republican precincts held at the Mount Ayr American Legion building included:

Rick Santorum, 62.

Newt Gingrich, 35.

Rick Perry, 28.

Mitt Romney, 26.

Ron Paul, 23.

Michelle Bachman, 5.

John Huntsman, 1.

Across the state, the results were much closer.

There was a virtual dead heat for Romney and Santorum with 25 percent of the vote each and Paul at 21 percent. Romney won by eight votes -- 30,015 to 30,007.

Further behind were Newt Gingrich at 13 percent, Rick Perry at 10 percent, Michelle Bachman at six percent and John Huntsman at one percent.

Some 122,000 Iowa Republicans took part in the precinct caucuses this year.

Democrats held their precinct caucuses at the Ringgold county courthouse assembly room.

Both parties handled party business at the caucuses this year. Central committee members were elected from precincts, delegates were named for the county conventions in March and platform issues were discussed and passed on to the platform committee for the county conventions.

  In a decision that was not popular with many other county offices, the Ringgold county board of supervisors voted to hire a second deputy auditor at a meeting Tuesday morning.

The first meeting of the new year brought the naming of Kurt Shaha as chairman of the board for the coming year and a whole host of appointments and resolutions which will be reported next week.

As well as the decision on a second deputy auditor, the board of supervisors approved a weir repair contract, reviewed the list of items for property and casualty insurance and handled some other more regular matters.

Meetings were held Thursday, Dec. 29 and Tuesday, Jan. 3, this past week. The Tuesday meeting was moved to Tuesday because of the Monday holiday for New Years.

Deputy auditor decision

County auditor Laurie Greenman has talked with the board about opening a position for a full-time second deputy auditor and the board voted unanimously to approve the new position at the meeting Tuesday.

Several of the other elected officials in the county attended the meeting to register their concerns about where the money would come from for the new position.

Greenman told the supervisors and those attending that Ringgold county was the only county in the state that tried to run the auditor’s office with two employees in making her case for a third person.

Greenman said that the biggest concern in the office was having enough employees so that accounting responsibilities could be done by different people for the checks and balances that the state auditor said needed to be done.

She also noted that she had been spending more time on helping the board of supervisors with matters, including employment lawsuits, than auditors in the past had done.

She noted that other offices had offered help on a part-time basis but said that this did not provide the continuity that she needed to get the many tasks of her office completed.

Greenman also noted that secondary road employee payroll might need to be moved back to the auditor’s office to answer auditor concerns as an example of how more responsibilities were being handled by her office.

Turnover of employees was another issue she said made a third person important in her office.

She said she talked with the supervisors back in October about the segregation of duty matters and how help was needed to keep up with the responsibilities of the office.

Assessor Neil Morgan was the first of the current officers to speak about the issue.

He noted that county employees had a one percent increase in salary in the past three years and wondered where the estimated $44,000 would come from for salary and benefits for a new employee when budgets were so tight.

He questioned if giving the agenda notice at 5 p.m. on the Friday before a long weekend for a decision at 10 a.m on Tuesday was proper and noted that in the past new positions had been advertised for other employees to have an opportunity for them.

He noted that the work of the office had been done by the auditor with one deputy in the past and wondered if there were options of using part-time employees or help from other offices to keep up with the work and not adding another full-time employee.

Treasurer Debbie Cannon, sheriff Mike Sobotka, recorder Karen Schafer and county conservation director Kate Zimmerman also spoke up, noting that their requests for more help had been turned down in the past because of tight budgets.

They were concerned that in times of tight budgets, adding another salary for the county would mean that their budgets would ultimately be affected negatively.

With supervisors working to cut expenses and hold down budgets in the past, they were questioning where funds would come for this kind of expenditure.

They noted how several offices had offered people to help catch up some of the responsibilities that were falling behind in the auditor’s office.

Former board member Royce Dredge was also present at the meeting to voice his concern about the decision.

  Area fire departments have been busy over the past short periods with fires and accidents.

The biggest fire loss came Friday, Dec. 23, at 2:43 p.m. when a home at 306 S. Lincoln Street caught fire.

The Mount Ayr Community and Union township fire departments fought the blaze at the rental property home owned by Rick and Laura Stull of Mount Ayr.

According to the Ringgold county fire department, the blaze gutted the interior of the home, making it a total loss.

Cause of the fire was suspected as being electrical but has not been confirmed, according to fire chief Mike Wimer.

Robert Lloyd was living in the home at the time for the fire. There were no injuries.

Firemen responded to a vehicle fire at the home of Larry and Kim Overholser  at 1518 248th Street in Benton at 8:15 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 25.

The fire was contained to the engine compartment of the vehicle.

Firemen also helped with a rescue at an accident Monday, Dec. 26, on 220th Avenue in Mount Ayr where three people were injured. That is reported in a separate story.

Amish school house fire

The Mount Ayr and Union townships fire departments also responded to a fire at the Amish school house near Jackson Corner  on J55 and U.S. 169 south of Mount Ayr at 9:58 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 29.

Class was in session with some 50 students in the Jackson Corner School building when wool insulation in the attic began smouldering from the heat of the chimney of the building’s wood stove.

The building and contents were evacuated while the fire was fought. There was a good deal of smoke for a period, but the fire was put out without the building catching fire.

No estimate of damage to the building was available but classes were back in session this week.