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Supervisors thank Bahr on his last day

Webster County Supervisors and Planning & Zoning Commission members thanked resigning Planning and Zoning Administrator Chad Bahr for his service on his last day in the courthouse Tuesday.

Supervisor Chairman Mark Campbell noted that the county’s Human Resources Department is attempting to contact the last person who applied for the position to gauge their interest before moving on with a subcommittee to search for new applicants to fill the vacancy.

He also said that the county is considering the possibility of sharing the position with the city of Fort Dodge, which is looking for a planner. The county may also consider separating the enforcement and planning functions of the job.

“There’s a lot of ideas in the air right now,” he said, saying it would be erroneous to put a timeline on the hiring process at this point.

For expertise with the P&Z Commission in between administrators, the county will turn to Snyder and Associates, of Fort Dodge, which will present information with recommendations on agenda items.

“The goal is to make this as efficient as possible,” he said.

Commission co-chair Jon Anderson said that the P&Z is sad to see Bahr leave, noting his excellent work in digging through years of minutes to update amendments.

“He’s done a great effort on moving things forward,” Anderson said.

“Finding and updating text amendments was a herculean task,” co-chair Margo Knipple added. “It hadn’t been done in nine to 10 years.”

They also said Bahr has done more code enforcement with dilapidated buildings than anyone before.

“Going forward with confluence, we’ll be able to make the changes we feel need to be made in our comprehensive plan,” said Knipple.

Bahr submitted his letter of resignation last month, citing several factors that affected his decision to move to Prescott, Arizona, where he’ll manage about 10 employees doing similar work for Yavapai County.

Bahr cited difficulty in maintaining proper certification, being up for re-appointment every year, the Master Matrix and “antiquated” Iowa Code sections as part of his frustrations with the position in Webster County.

“(The Master Matrix update) needs to be done and the reluctance by folks in the (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) business and the legislature to open this up for modernizations is self-serving and poor public policy on a large scale,” Bahr wrote in his letter of resignation. “Opening this up will allow people to be good neighbors towards each other. How can that really be a bad thing?”

“I harbor no bad feelings towards anyone and desire to celebrate all that Webster County offers to a citizen and a future employee,” the Story County native’s resignation letter concludes.

Bahr has served in his position for the last two and a half years. Previously, he held similar positions in Garden City, Kansas, and Yuma County, Arizona.

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