(Audubon) After 12 years as member of the Audubon County Board of Supervisors, Gary VanAernam is retiring.
VanAernam’s final meeting was on Tuesday morning. Supervisor’s Chairman Doug Sorensen says, “We did a farewell to Gary and enjoyed some doughnuts to celebrate his final day.” Heath Hansen will be sworn in next week.
During the Secondary Roads update, Engineer Mith Rydl admitted there were some equipment issues during the recent winter weather. “Things went pretty well other than one major problem. It was so cold they found out that DEF freezing is a real problem in the motor graders. They had several they had to limp back to the shop and one of them didn’t even make it. With pollution control they have to use a product called DEF and it freezes at 12 degrees Fahrenheit. When you have subzero temperatures and 40 below wind chills it’s just a problem.”
Sorensen says there were no issues with equipment that was stored inside a heated shop, but there’s not enough space for everything to be stored in the same location. “We are going to try and figure out what to do about that. We know we can’t be the only county with that problem, because every place north of us is colder than we are. We are going to have to figure out how to keep these motor graders running in cold temperatures and whether we have to find a way to get them all into headed areas to store them or put some sort of a warmer on the DEF or what we have to do.”
The Supervisor’s also held their first budget workshop. Sorensen says it’s about a two month process to prepare the county budget. The biggest increase is going to be in salaries for county employees due to a rise in the cost of living.
