Rachel Ginbey took reins as new Hancock County Attorney on March 13

Supervisors had agreed to extend the job offer to Ginbey on Feb. 13, which she accepted. Ginbey served as the Floyd County attorney for the past eight-plus years.

“I’m 100% in support of her,” said Supervisor Chair Sis Greiman. “She is stellar. We are lucky to get her.”

Greiman cited the results of Ginbey’s high caseloads of criminal jury trials in Floyd County, calling it impressive how much she helped reduce crime there.

“I think she is pretty well ready to go,” said Supervisor Gary Rayhons when the board voted to extend the job offer to Ginbey. She replaces Blake Norman, who served as Hancock County attorney for five years. He was selected as a district judge in Iowa Judicial Election District 2A before resigning, effective on Feb. 9. Winnebago County Attorney Kelsey Beenken served briefly part-time as temporary Hancock County attorney.

Ginbey has a husband and five children who are moving with her to Hancock County. Husband Shannon Ginbey has been a stay-at-home dad since their second son was born. He enjoys doing carpentry work in his spare time. The couple’s oldest son, Chase, is 11 years old. He loves sports, especially soccer. Son Hunter is 9 years old and enjoys playing video games and interacting with animals. Son Landon is 7 years old, is very social and involved in dance and tumbling. Faith is the only daughter and is 5 years old. She is in tumbling and loves animals. Brayden is the baby of the family at 3 years old and loves to be outside, according to Ginbey.

Ginbey is a native of rural Rockwell. She attended Newman Catholic School and Northwestern College in Orange City where she majored in social work.

Ginbey worked as a family support specialist while attending law school at Creighton University School of Law in Omaha, Nebraska. While living in Nebraska, she met her husband. They were married in 2010 and moved to Mason City in 2011 when she was hired as an assistant county attorney in Cerro Gordo County.

In other business as the March 13 supervisors meeting, Hancock County Emergency Response Coordinator Andy Buffington said dishes were in the process of being installed at the new Hancock County communication tower site near Duncan. In addition, dishes for the new system were being added to communication towers in adjacent Winnebago and Cerro Gordo Counties. Buffington estimated that work should be completed within the next two weeks.

“It’s going quick,” Buffington said. “If the weather would get better, it would probably go even quicker.”

Buffington noted that area drive tests will then be completed to see how that the radio transmissions are being sent and received properly. He estimated that the testing should be done within a month. May 1 is a possible target date when everything could be up and running.

County Engineer Jeremy Purvis that secondary roads crews were out at 5 a.m. and again at 2 p.m. on March 10 to clear hard-surfaced roads in the county after a wet, heavy snow fell. He said blowing snow drifted and refroze sections of roads. He noted that crews moved to gravel roads over the weekend and into Monday. He noted that staying off gravel roads initially helped crews keep from tearing up spots that were already in tough shape more than necessary, related to prior flooding.

Purvis also said that, despite the rough winter, the department is in good shape with blades for its snowplows because they were fully stocked before the start of the season.