Supervisors enlist Pratum to test and review voting security

By Rick Morain

Jefferson Herald

The Greene County Board of Supervisors on Monday approved an agreement with a service provider to review and test the county’s voting security plan.

The agreement, with the Pratum firm, relates to cyber and similar security for the county’s elections. Pratum will review the county’s current incident response plan, make recommendations and test the county’s preparedness.
The $3,540 charge by Pratum will be paid by a grant to the county from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office.
In other action, the board approved a letter of support for a grant application to Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation from the fire departments of the towns in Greene County for a used 8,000 gallon water tanker truck to be employed for rural fires. The actual purchase would be made by the Jefferson Fire Department. Estimated cost is around $135,000.

The board approved an amended joint 28E agreement with Central Iowa Community Services. The amended agreement changes the method for adding counties to the regional organization.
County recorder Deb McDonald asked the board to reconsider adopting an ordinance to permit ATV/UTV vehicles to use the county roads. She said a number of counties around Greene County do so. The board is on record preferring regulation at the state level. There is currently a bill in the legislature to permit such operation on county roads. It would remove the ability of counties to regulate such use.

The board of supervisors dug into the county’s 2022-23 budget proposals at last Thursday’s board meeting, concentrating on the ambulance portion of the budget.
The 2022-23 budget proposes adding a full-time employee for the ambulance service. That would allow ambulance director Michele Madsen more time for administrative duties while spending less time covering unfilled shifts.
Joan St. Clair of Heritage Insurance estimated the county’s contributions to insurance coverage for the 2022-23 fiscal year. The package total for property, liability, auto physical damage insurance and administrative fees is estimated at $224,830, a boost of about 12 percent or $24,000 over the current year’s total of $200,989. Both figures include the recent additions of the Alliant and Midland building purchases.

On the other hand, the county’s workers’ compensation coverage will be lower by about 25 percent from what is expected for the county’s classes of work. Discounts will be applied for workers’ compensation, but amounts have not yet been determined. St. Clair estimated that coverage’s cost to decline by almost 35 percent to just under $51,000.

The annual premium for the county’s insurance bond is estimated at $2,500.
The board now meets regularly every Monday and Thursday at 8:30 a.m. in the board room on second floor of the courthouse.

Contact Us

Jefferson Bee & Herald
Address: 200 N. Wilson St.
Jefferson, IA 50129

Phone:(515) 386-4161