Twombly retires after ‘a great 16 years’ as supervisor

Adair County’s board of supervisors met Monday and it was John Twombly of Greenfield’s last meeting as a supervisor. He is retiring after 16 years of service to the board. Michael Christoffersen of Greenfield was elected unopposed in November to take his seat.

“I’m sure I’ll miss it a little bit,” said Twombly, who took office in January 2009. “I’m getting to the point where I’m going to be 78 in January. I think it’s time for somebody younger. I think Michael’s a good person. I think he’ll do right by everybody in Adair County.”

Over his time on the board, Twombly said a strength of the county has been its department heads.

“A lot of counties seem to struggle, but we’ve been fortunate to have elected officials who are dedicated to public service. We’ve had no inner struggles. You check a lot of counties around and they have a lot of inner struggles,” Twombly said. “We had a lot in our engineer’s department when I got on the board, but since we’ve gotten Nick Kauffman it’s been wonderful.”

Twombly said it has become important that no one person micromanages department heads. Instead, the supervisors manage department heads through group decisions they vote on.

“We seem to manage with five supervisors. We may not always all agree but we get things worked out,” Twombly said.

He said the department heads have also become known for hiring dedicated employees, which is another strength he sees the county as having.

“Adair County should be quite happy,” Twombly said.

Three large-scale projects that were completed while Twombly was on the board were the construction of the sheriff’s office, the engineer’s office and the elevator addition to the courthouse. All three have been positive additions to county government.

The sheriff’s office, which is also home to Greenfield Police and the county jail, replaced a structure that had become very aged and was in jeopardy of being shutdown because of the condition it was in, he said.

The same goes for the engineer’s office, which has improved the working environment for those employees tremendously.

The elevator project improved the accessibility of the courthouse while still keeping the historical integrity of the building in mind.

Twombly was approached about becoming Greenfield’s mayor in the early 2000s, a few years after he served a term on the city council. He had instead already committed to running for the board of supervisors to replace Bob Grasty, who was retiring. His background is in the military, civil service and postal service.

Twombly ran unopposed and has only been opposed in one election since.

“I’m just really thankful for all the support I’ve had from the public in Adair County,” Twombly said. “It’s been a great 16 years.”