Homan retiring from long stretch of public service

GREENFIELD — When the Adair County Board of Supervisors adjourned their meeting Dec. 30, that marked the end of an era of over 49 years David Homan was serving the people of Adair County either as a state or county employee.

Homan has served on the board for 12 years and chose not to seek re-election for another.

Jerry Walker of Bridgewater will assume his spot on the board, representing District 3, when the board gavels in for the new year on Monday, organizing for the new year and beginning the budget project in earnest.

“I said I’d do one term, so three years later I’m still here,” said Homan, a Fontanelle resident. “I really enjoyed working with the board. We seemed like we had a good board the whole 12 years, which made it easy. In the end, every time we made a decision I think it was in the best interest of the county. That’s the way I think it should be.”

Homan first worked for the county working for the engineer’s office, which was then located in the courthouse. He spent 31 years with that department after he had worked for the State of Iowa for six years prior, following his military service.

“You might say this is my third retirement. I retired out of the military in 1996, then I retired from the county in 2008, now I’m retiring at the end of this year. Three retirements is pretty good for one life I guess,” Homan said.

Homan says highlights as a supervisor were seeing the building of the new sheriff’s office and a new engineer’s office, hiring Nick Kauffman to be county engineer and building the courthouse elevator addition.

“One of the highlights of the 12 years was hiring the engineer we currently have because he has done wonders for the county,” Homan said. “He’s updated our equipment, he’s solved some of the morale problems we’ve had and I just think he’s done a tremendous job.

“Add to that, the supervisors I’ve worked with, for the most part, have been cordial and have gotten along just fine. We’ve had disagreements, but it seems you’re always going to have that,” he added. “A couple of times, I hope I’ve influenced decisions for others with my background with secondary roads, to help guide some of the others and answer some of their questions they’ve had.”

In answering a question about what is ahead for the future board of supervisors, Homan stated he feels Adair County will be the “envy of other counties” because of the work they’ll be able to accomplish with TIF money generated here. Homan said that at one time, Adair County led the state in number of bridges because of the rivers that travel through its borders, and with those bridges comes upkeep.

“We need those bridges to help farmers get the crops in and out, to get the grain to town. We need it for our economy period,” Homan said. “We’ve had people move into our county, I think, because of our roads. I think we’re on top of [keeping up our roads] more than ever and the funding’s going to be there to continue to do that. From when I started working for Adair County to this point in time, I can’t believe the difference there is.”

Homan stated he’s thankful for the time he could spend serving all of the county’s residents and hopes future boards will continue looking out for the interests of all of the county’s residents.

“For the most part, I enjoyed it,” Homan said. “It’s important people understand we’re working for the county as a whole, to help the county out as a whole.”