At the Dec. 17 meeting, elected official Mark Musick publicly recognized John Ferguson, the county's mapping supervisor, for 34 years of service and thanked him for contributions to the assessor's mapping and county monitoring efforts.

"He's been with us for 34 years ... John has made a decision that it's time to move on," Musick said, describing Ferguson as a respected member of the assessor's office. Multiple commissioners and staff offered thanks and congratulatory remarks.

In reports from county commissioners, Tom described the county's experience during a recent snowstorm that dropped about eight inches of snow. Tom said primary roads became difficult and that when crews applied salt it either froze or refroze; he said the state approved use of aggregate in emergencies and urged that state tax reductions be reconsidered so funds could hire and better pay Department of Highways workers and buy equipment.

"It makes no sense to me that we keep cutting the income tax and business tax ... use those funds to hire more DOH workers and pay the DOH workers more money so we can run our county," Tom said, pressing for higher local service capacity. The commission did not adopt a formal policy but recorded the concerns during the reports portion of the meeting.

The meeting adjourned after the reports.