The Mahaska County Board has hired a new attorney to handle its litigation over the 28E agreement for the proposed regional airport outside Oskaloosa.  At a special meeting Wednesday morning(10/23), the Board hired the law firm of Belin (BAY-linn) McCormick of Des Moines to represent Mahaska County.  County Board Chairman Mark Groenendyk explains why there is a conflict of interest involving Gary Dickey, who was hired in July of last year to work on the 28E agreement.

“At one point, he also represented some landowners on Site A.  So now we have a court issue.  They have filed a summary judgement issue with the court, as well.  So now we have an attorney that previously represented the landowners and is also representing the County.  So that creates a conflict of interest.”

Groenendyk says there hasn’t been any movement on the County’s lawsuit regarding the 28E agreement on the regional airport.