Union County hires Boehmer

Union County Board of Supervisors Monday approved Christian Boehmer as engineer effective May 30. Boehmer has the same position in Clarke County.

Since Union County has not had an engineer since November 2021 Boehmer has been in a shared agreement with Union County.

“We’ve known him for a couple of years and he’s known us. That’s a pretty good trial run for both of us,” said Union County Supervisor Dennis Brown. He made the motion to hire Boehmer. It was second by supervisor Dennis Hopkins. The vote in favor was unanimous.

Union County Supervisors said the shared agreement with Clarke will not continue after Boehmer begins full-time work. After the meeting, Boehmer said the shared agreement provided plenty of work but wanted something under a different set up. Supervisor Rick Friday said he knows of six counties looking for an engineer. Boehmer has been in Clarke County since 2016. He was with the city of Burlington, prior, for more than a year. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa.

“Sounds like he’s done doing two counties,” Hopkins said. “Either we get him, or us and Clarke lose him, and somebody gets him and that doesn’t make any sense at all.”

Under the shared agreement Union County paid for half of his Clarke County salary. Union County paid $73,000. His pay in Union County will be $130,000. Boehmer resigned from Clarke County on Monday with a 60-day notice.

During the shared agreement between the two counties, Boehmer organized how the tax revenue from Union County’s wind turbines will be spent. Revenue will be used to improve various infrastructure in the vicinity of the turbines, all in the northwest corner of the county. That work is planned to begin this year.