Worth County board approves payroll, discusses contracts, recycling and law-enforcement coverage

The Worth County board approved payment of payroll and handled several routine operational items at its meeting. Speaker 2 moved to pay payroll, the motion was seconded, members responded 'aye' and the motion carried.

Members received a construction update on a new office structure, noting walls and some steel are up and that a remaining parts order will close out the bill once received. A door repair at county facilities was reported fixed and no further incidents were described.

Recycling procedures at the courthouse drew discussion after repeated instances of unbroken cardboard boxes. Speaker 5 urged departments to break down boxes to reduce staff handling time; the board discussed securing the recycling area with a lock and limiting access to those with keys.

On procurement, officials discussed whether to piggyback lawn-mowing advertisements or bid parks individually. Speakers said parks have historically been bid individually to allow multiple local contractors to compete; the board agreed to advertise courthouse/public-health mowing jointly while keeping individual park bids separate.

The board heard from Speaker 1 about law-enforcement coverage discussions with the city of Northwood and Jesse; those talks included a proposed one-year budget option and questions about how settlements from a city union contract (ending June 30) would affect county obligations. Speakers said they did not want to shift city costs onto Worth County taxpayers and discussed techniques such as 'true up' adjustments at year-end to reflect variable costs like fuel and repairs.

Speaker 2 moved to adjourn; the motion was seconded and the meeting ended with recorded 'aye' votes.