Bill Faircloth.

After the February 24 Tama County Board of Supervisors meeting, it is clear that Supervisor Curt Hilmer does not want to be bothered with calls on his COUNTY cell phone even if you are an employee of the county. He will only answer calls from his district and does not care about any other area. It is a phone line funded by Tama County taxpayers as each of the supervisors thought they had to have County cell phones that you are paying for. Just to let you know, the previous board did NOT get reimbursed for their personal phones or ever feel they needed a County phone. We were there to serve the whole county.

With all the talk about cutting back because of the shortfall of funds, I find it interesting the supervisors just keep spending, including bringing in outside auditors to audit several areas. They are also bringing in the State Auditor to study the so-called shortfall which will cost taxpayers thousands of dollars. There was a clip shown on TV recently about how a lot of counties in Iowa are having trouble with shortfalls because of the property tax cut for seniors the Iowa legislature put into place but did not fund – so counties have to absorb the costs.

During last week’s meeting, the Tama County Treasurer spoke, telling the supervisors that with revenue coming in for taxes we will be good at the end of the fiscal year even with paying back the E911 money they borrowed.

As you may have noted in last week’s newspaper, the supervisors are going to have a lot of legal fees coming up (“Tama County, Board of Supervisors sued over wind energy moratorium'”). Lawyers are also not cheap as the last board found out due to all the Tama County Against Turbines (TCAT) lawsuits.

From the Monday, March 3 meeting, it looks like one of the supervisors’ solutions is to restructure Tama County Economic Development which is currently led by someone trying to bring business to our county. In my opinion, what they are planning will not work in Tama County. Also, they are planning on selling the County Farm which generates an annual income of at least $40,000. It is obvious this board is for TCAT because Chairman Mark Doland told former Supervisor Larry Vest today ‘NO COMMENT’ on Salt Creek Wind because of litigation, and TCAT didn’t say a word.

You all need to be watching what is happening with this new Board of Supervisors.

Bill Faircloth is a rural Toledo resident and former Tama County Supervisor (2021-2024). Prior to public service, he spent nearly four decades working for Fisher Controls in Marshalltown before retiring in 2012; he then worked part-time for Tama County for eight years.