Honor longtime secondary roads employee Kevin Bauer on his retirement
The Greene County supervisors at their July 7 meeting approved a 28E agreement with the Paton-Churdan Early Learning Center, allowing the county to provide $180,000 to the center for construction of a new building. The payments will be spread out over several years.
The ELC board is working to raise at least $600,000 in funds and pledges to be able to access a $600,000 Community Development Block Grant through Region XII COG.
The supervisors discussed a hack of the Zoom access to their June30 meeting. Midway through the meeting a male voice yelled obscenities over the feed that could be heard by everyone logged into the meeting. Courthouse staff said an obscene visual was on the computer screen as well. Most persons who use the Zoom don’t logon to the video portion as there is no camera on the computer used in the boardroom. Zoom “attendees” are also blocked from commenting or asking questions.
County IT clerk Michelle Fields told the supervisors a bot had “hijacked” the meeting. She said the county Zoom is vulnerable because both the link and the password are posted on the county’s website. They had not been changed since Zoom was initiated in 2020.
The supervisors have always blocked persons listening on Zoom from commenting, unless that person is named on the agenda. They discussed ways to prevent a future hack, including requiring persons to request the link and password for each meeting, as those would be new every time.
GCNO publisher Tori Riley spoke on behalf of open government. “Because one entity that Michelle Fields thinks possibly wasn’t even a person got into your system, you’re going to throw up impediments to the public for knowing what’s going on. You’re going to take a huge step back from openness in government because of a one-time instance that probably wasn’t a person,” she said, and called it an “alarmist move.”
Board chair John Muir and supervisor Pete Bardole both found the visual extremely upsetting, but said the board was looking for middle ground to prevent that from happening again while still providing the public convenient Zoom access.
Muir directed Fields and auditor Billie Jo Hoskins, who posts the agendas, to explore password management for Zoom.
County engineer Wade Weiss reported the county crew completed 2-1/4 miles of paving on County Road P-46 last week, and that he hoped to have the paving completed by mid-week. The crew will then begin on CR E-18 at the Boone County line and work its way toward the west. “The original intention was to get to over to P-29 by July 18, but I don’t know that we’re going to make that. Four inches of rain set us back,” Weiss said.
Weiss and several secondary roads employees were present when the supervisors approved a resolution commending Kevin Bauer (pictured, right, accepting a plaque from John Muir) on his approaching retirement.
Weiss said Bauer has provided 40-1/2 years of dedicated service to the public. He is known for his welding and fabrication expertise. He has done innovative upfits that have drawn equipment suppliers to the county fabrication shop. “Everybody in the state knows Kevin’s skills,” Weiss said. “He’s a talented and gifted individual and we’ve all benefitted from it.”
Weiss estimated that Bauer’s skill at upfitting trucks rather than sending the work out to be done has saved the county $12.5 million. He said Greene County has been able to keep trucks on the road for 20 years and then sell them at a premium used price, while other counties sell trucks after only five years. Bauer’s retirement is effective July 18.
