Supervisors look for replacements for LOST board seats

Four seats are up for grabs on the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) Advisory Board.

The Plymouth County Supervisors Tuesday set a Dec. 31 deadline for anyone interested in applying.

Volunteer members are needed for three-year terms in supervisor Districts 1, 3, and 5.

In District 2 a one-year seat currently held by Mark Loutsch, who will become a supervisor starting Jan. 1, is also open.

LOST advisory board members must live in their supervisors' district, and will be in charge of awarding LOST grants in 2009. Each district has two members.

Applications may be picked up in the auditor's office in the Plymouth County Courthouse.

They can be delivered there or mailed to the Plymouth County Board of Supervisors, at 215 Fourth Ave. S.E., Le Mars, IA 51031.

The supervisors also appointed John Schneider as an at-large community member to the Loess Hills Alliance Board.

Schneider will not be the county supervisor's representative as his term as supervisor will end Dec. 31.

Supervisor Don Kass is the supervisors current representative on the Loess Hills Alliance Board.

Space Needs

The supervisors also briefly discussed the potential for extra storage space in the basement of the Department of Human Service's (DHS) offices, after a tour of the building.

Supervisors Craig Anderson and Kass checked it out and determined there is a large amount of usable space.

"About one-fourth of the basement could be turned into clerk of courts file space," Anderson said.

Currently part of the basement is used to house DHS material, which is kept in locked, secure file cabinets.

Anderson said possible partitions could be erected in the basement to keep those materials separate from courthouse documents.

As for the furniture remaining in the basement, some could be declared surplus and sold at an auction in the spring or shown to county employees to see if it could be used, Anderson said.

"It's not perfect, but it is an option," he said. "At least we could start cleaning out the closets here."