By Sam Parsons

The Oskaloosa city council held a regular meeting last night and discussed potential changes to 911 Operations Board policy terms. Oskaloosa Police Chief Ben Boeke presented a first-draft suggestion to the council for discussion purposes, in which he recommended to replace or substantially update the existing Mahaska County 911 28E agreement, which was first established in 1988.

Chief Boeke recommended that the organization be a separate and independent 28E legal entity where the city of Oskaloosa would not possess unilateral control. In the proposed structure, the organization would have 100 available “voting points” with which to make decisions, with Oskaloosa being responsible for 45 of those 100 points. Major decisions would require at least 70 voting points and approval by a majority of the member jurisdictions. Other jurisdictions would include Mahaska County, New Sharon, Fremont, University Park, Beacon, Eddyville, Leighton, Rose Hill, Barnes City, and Keomah Village.

No official action was taken, but the council agreed with the proposal with no major changes and to work toward a final draft that is acceptable to all parties.