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Madison County Board names 2026 chair, vice chair and committee representatives
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Summary
At its Jan. 2 organizational meeting, the Madison County Board of Supervisors elected Heather Stansell chair and Diane Fitch vice chair, confirmed Jessica Hobbs as liaison for elderly services and ambulance facilities, and approved a slate of supervisor appointments to county boards and commissions while debating landfill turbine‑blade policy and opioid task‑force funding.
The Madison County Board of Supervisors completed its required organizational business on Jan. 2, electing Heather Stansell as board chair and Diane Fitch as vice chair for 2026 and confirming supervisory liaisons to a range of county boards and commissions.
Speaker 2 moved to nominate Supervisor Stansell to serve another year as chair; Speaker 3 seconded, and the board approved the nomination by voice vote. Speaker 5 read a roll-up of assignments, naming Heather Stansell as chair, Diane Fitch as vice chair, Diane Fitch as general supervisor of courthouse, annex and Monument Park buildings and grounds, Heather (last name read in transcript as a variant) as contact for the North Annex/Public Health/VA building, and Jessica Hobbs as contact for the Elderly Services building/meal site and ambulance building and grounds. The composite resolution listing the assignments was adopted by voice vote.
During the longer boards-and-commissions review, supervisors confirmed representative assignments for the assessor conference board, covered-bridge preservation, decategorization, REAP/REIT issues and others. Speaker 3 noted that REAP/REIT money is generally handled by the Conservation Board and the Soil and Water Conservation District and that government entities cannot directly apply for REIT in many cases.
Supervisors spent significant time discussing landfill policy and concerns about turbine blades: Speaker 1 described a past incident in which blade fragments were allegedly placed in a landfill and caused a near-fatal workplace injury and said the county previously adopted an ordinance requiring signage and restricting out-of-region dumping. The board discussed a pact with neighboring counties to refuse turbine-blade waste and to post signs and tarping requirements at landfill entry.
The board also reviewed oversight of the county opioid task force. Speakers said the local funding stream currently provides roughly $30,000 per year now but is expected to decline over several years toward a lower annual amount (discussed in the transcript as about $15,000), prompting questions about whether oversight should shift from an oversight board to an advisory role and whether other counties might funnel unused funds into local programs.
Other housekeeping actions included naming the Winterset (and the publication read as 'the Amazonian') as the county's official newspaper for legal notice purposes, removing inactive boards (CICS and Heartland, among others) from the appointment list, and adding the opioid task force as an item of oversight. The meeting concluded with a motion and voice‑vote adjournment.
No roll-call vote tallies with named votes were recorded in the transcript for these organizational items; approvals were taken by voice vote as part of the organizational meeting process.
