The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Wednesday, approved the Assignment of a County held tax sale certificate of purchase for a Lot in Cumberland. Cass County Treasurer Tracey J. Marshall told the Supervisors the lot is next to property owned by Brent Paulsen, who wants to clean-up the lot and get the property back on the tax roll. Auditor Dale Sunderman said it’s not a “High Value” property at $38 per year.

Board Chair Frank Waters said Paulsen wants to improve the community by cleaning-up the site and possibly making it a small park or, at least get rid of the eye sore of junk material currently located on the lot. Sunderman said the property description is the “South half of the east half of Lot 9 block 9, Second Addition,” in Cumberland.

In other business, Cass County Engineer Charles Marker updated the Board on the gravel and roads the Secondary Roads department will be working on this year, “Specifically, one-mile at a time.” He says some of the “Contract rock” will be “Spot Rock,” which is used for roads that have portions that which have soft or muddy.  Marker said Contract Rock currently runs $10 per ton, which takes up a good chunk of his budget.

He said also that they have been stockpiling some of the material in parts of the County. There are about 30-miles of rock roads in each district within Cass County, with each district receiving a share of the rock necessary to handle road improvements. He says the rock costs his department $790,000. That figure does not include the cost of hauling and handling the material. Marker says his department receives $1.7-million dollars from property taxes, with nearly half of that going for the purchase of rock alone.

He says the decision on which roads need to be bladed and/or re-rocked, is made with each district foreman. And in her report to the Board, Cass County Mental Health/General Relief Coordinator Deb Schuler said the 28-E Agreement for Regionalized Mental Health Services has been accepted, and another regional meeting will be held on March 31^st to approve the Management Plan, which must be submitted to the State by April 1^st. Schuler reports also, Dr. John Bigelow with the Southwest Iowa Mental Health Center, has been appointed to the Regional Mental Health Advisory Council, which means Cass County will be represented on that particular Board. Some of the persons on the Council will be appointed to the Board in charge of running the Regional services.