Supervisors award lease agreement for County Farm

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Tuesday, December 2, with most everything finally falling into place for the Board to award the lease agreement for the County Farm, an action that has been on hold for several weeks for various reasons. Even though such issues as the addition of a conservation plan to the lease agreement and correspondence with bidders on such changes all finally ironed out for the Board, that did not necessarily mean that a decision on the awarding of the contract came any easier for Board members.
Discussion during that lease agreement agenda item played out in regard to various bidders and their bids as to which of the original six bidders were still leaving their bids in place and which of them had been active in pursuing further information in light of the conservation plan added to the agreement following the initial submission of bids. Following that discussion, Supervisor Dennis Koenig made a motion to award the lease agreement to Dave Einck and his bid of $277 per acre.
"I know it's not going to be the most popular decision because I'm not going with the highest bid," Koenig said. "But, I've got a lot of farmer in me, I've been farming all my life. Dave is a neighbor to that property and drives by that place every day; he sees it, and that's pretty important, as far as I'm concerned."
Allamakee County Attorney Jill Kistler had recommended awarding the lease to the highest remaining bid of $350 per acre submitted by Paul Regan, but admitted that recommendation was based solely on the dollar amount, which was still less than the $365 per acre lease amount contracted for the same cropland within the previous agreement coming to an end this year. "You know a whole lot more about farming than I do," Kistler said to Koenig when he offered an apology that his motion was going against Kistler's recommendation.
Supervisor Sherry Strub had first started to make a motion on the matter but did not finish, admitting she did not know enough about farming to feel comfortable in making such a motion. After Koenig made his motion for awarding the lease agreement to Einck, Strub did second that motion, but then voted "nay" on the ensuing Board vote. But both Koenig and Board Chairman Larry Schellhammer voted "aye" to carry the motion to approval and award the agreement to Einck.

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