Tama County Board of Conservation acting chair Steve Kenkel, second from right, listens during the Wednesday, May 7 regular meeting held in Otter Creek Nature Center as board member Chris Behrens (off frame) addresses public comments regarding programming. Also pictured, board members Danielle Dunning (far left) and Jim Allen (obscured), Director Curtis Behrens (center), and Naturalist Angela Tague (far right). PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Editor’s Note: This story will publish in the Friday, May 23, edition of the Sun Courier.

OTTER CREEK LAKE – Tama County’s new naturalist and an alleged lack of programming dominated public comment during the Wednesday, May 7 meeting of the Board of Conservation.

“On March 24, I contacted the nature center and spoke to [Director Curtis Behrens]. He informed me that the new naturalist had been hired and started work that day. I asked if our regularly scheduled program would occur on the fourth Wednesday, which was two days later. Curtis stated that she would have a week of training so she would not be able to attend that date, but that he would have her reach out to me regarding a program on the fourth Wednesday in April,” Lacy Starits, owner and director of Miss Lacy’s Preschool in Toledo, said as part of her public comments which kicked off the May regular meeting. “On April 4, I reached out again … I left a message and it was not returned. Neither Curtis nor the new naturalist reached out at any point throughout the month of April to discuss details or cancel the visit. No one showed up on April 23.”

According to the Tama County Auditor’s Office, which handles payroll for the County, Angela L. Tague was hired as a full-time naturalist/park ranger on March 24, 2025, to replace Raina Genaw, who was first hired in May 2023 as the county naturalist and subsequently fired in Dec. 2024 by Behrens; she received a severance package as part of her termination.

Per Tague’s LinkedIn page, she holds a Bachelor of Science from Truman State University; she also attended Western Illinois University and studied elementary education and teaching.

Also according to her LinkedIn, Tague was most recently employed as a clerk/postmaster relief with the United States Postal Service (USPS) in Healy, Alaska, from Dec. 2020 to Nov. 2024. Before USPS, she worked for Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines as a conservation and curriculum coordinator. She held various jobs between 2011 and 2014, including as a K-9 handler. From February 2005 to September 2011, she worked as a program coordinator for the Iowa State University Insect Zoo. She also worked for roughly three-and-a-half years at Colo-NESCO Middle School.

Directly prior to the May 7 meeting, Tague declined the newspaper’s request for a photograph, which would have been used as part of a planned introductory story regarding her hire.

“I have heard from several others in the community that they have reached out but have not received a response [from Tague],” Starits continued. “I have also been informed that the new naturalist intends to prepare kits for others to teach. While these kits would be a great way to supplement or extend programs, I strongly advocate that the board does not replace in-person naturalist programs. … One of the greatest benefits my students received from past naturalists was the opportunity to learn from other adults more knowledgeable than me in this area.”

Starits ended her comments by asking the board and Conservation staff to consider the needs of Tama County.

“I am here today to hopefully get a better idea of if and when the new naturalist plans to start visiting programs and what programming may look like moving forward. I am also here to urge all of you to take some time to consider what this program should look like to best meet the needs of our community.”

Board, naturalist respond

In response to Starits’ comments, vice chair Steve Kenkel – acting chair during the meeting due to Bryan Wacha’s absence – said he wasn’t sure how programming would be implemented going forward.

“I don’t know … what the focus is going to be – whether it’s going to be the same (as) in the past, or I suspect it’s going to be different. Whether or not that’s going to include the ability to be able to do [in-person programming] for organizations like yours, but somebody will let you know,” Kenkel said before turning to Director Behrens and asking, “Is that fair? You guys will be in touch?”

“Yup,” Director Behrens replied.

“Because I assume, you’re still working on programming?” Kenkel asked while looking to his left toward Tague. “And it’s just going to take a while to get up to speed because it’s kind of like starting over.”

Board members Chris Behrens and Danielle Dunning then shared comments they received recently, also related to programming.

“I did receive a public comment from the North Tama School District … along similar lines as to what Lacy was stating … difficulty [communicating] with you guys and some frustration in being able to set up programs,” Chris Behrens said. “It would maybe be good to reach out to them.”

Dunning also brought up public comments she received regarding an annual May school field trip to Otter Creek Lake and Park that did not materialize, allegedly due to communication difficulties.

In response to the comments, Tague indicated that communication with North Tama “fell off.”

“I left a couple of messages and didn’t hear back,” Tague said. “And there’s only so much [I can do]. … As far as other community members, I follow up with the messages that I get either from email or over phone. Sometimes it can take a bit of time to chase them. … I’ll certainly follow up with those and double-check.”

“And in fairness,” Kenkel added, “you’ve been here six weeks?”

“Five,” Tague replied with a chuckle.

Action items

Later in the meeting, several action items were addressed including a vote on advertising for a combination park ranger/technician position to replace former park officer Riley Conrad who resigned recently to take a position with the Belle Plaine Police Department.

The motion passed 3-1 with Chris Behrens, Dunning, and Kenkel voting in favor; Jim Allen voted no after expressing his belief that having a ranger with law enforcement certification was unnecessary and that deputies from the Sheriff’s Office responded quicker to issues at the campgrounds than Conrad.

Conrad’s salary for the next fiscal year had been set at $24.48 per hour. The new wage scale will be advertised as $24-$26 per hour, depending on experience. Conservation will also pay for the new hire to attend the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy.

“When he’s a [technician] he works for [Conservation Maintenance Supervisor] Dustin [Horne]; when he’s a patrolman, he works for me,” Director Behrens said in summary of how the position would be managed.

A motion was also approved by the board for a new volunteer packet. Director Behrens said such a packet had already been approved by the County’s insurance, so it was essentially ready for implementation. Courting high school volunteers would be a focus of the new naturalist, both Director Behrens and Tague indicated at various points during the meeting.

Finally, a motion to update Conservation’s rules and regulations was approved. The rules were last updated in 2020. Updates included adding language about ATV/UTV use in the parks and woodcutting.

Staff reports

As part of the naturalist’s report, Tague provided details on work she has been doing to clean and organize the nature center’s basement. She said she had conducted a “detailed inventory of everything” and was now moving on to purging some items and reconditioning equipment.

“[I’m] figuring out the educational side of what we have to work with,” she explained.

She also has been working on permitting, telling the board she had been inventorying “every deer mount, every fish, every antler, etc.”

As she works to determine the direction of programming, Tague said she made contact over the last month with a plethora of individuals and entities across the state including Conservation departments in Madison, Polk, Black Hawk, and Story counties. She also enrolled in the Master Conservationist Program offered through ISU Extension and Outreach in Polk County.

Tague also addressed the new volunteer program, telling board members that implementing a “robust volunteer program” would allow her to “expand programming.”

“Getting that started is really important to the big picture,” she said.

Since the April meeting, Tague said she had met with Gladbrook-Reinbeck teachers in regards to fourth-grade ‘School of the Wild’ programming. She also completed a program with North Tama ninth graders, helped with Tama County Soil and Water Conservation District’s annual 5th Grade Outdoor Classroom at Otter Creek Lake and Park, and gave an Earth Day presentation at Emerson.

During his report, Director Behrens further delved into Tague’s vision for the nature center basement, telling the board that ultimately he would like to treat the upstairs and the downstairs as two different buildings – an event hall (upstairs) and an educational center (downstairs).

In a follow-up email to the newspaper, Director Behrens said the upstairs Diorama Room “will almost always be open for guests, even once that formal split of uses takes place someday down the road.”

Currently, public hours for the nature center are “by appointment only.” Director Behrens also explained that decision in his email, writing, “Being we have so few staff and so many projects going on, we can’t always guarantee someone is stationed at the Nature Center during our usual operating hours. My Naturalist will often be doing programs elsewhere than the nature center (our other parks, schools, around the Lake) and I am often either in meetings with other organizations/contractors or helping with field work, especially now that we only have one full time employee (Dustin) taking care of most of our 1,000 acres.”

Even after the possible formal split, the nature center “as a whole will likely remain open to the public,” he added. “[S]o even though the top floor may formally become ‘Event Hall’ or some variation, park visitors will always be able to drop by to see either level, including the diorama, wall art, library, etc. [unless] there is a reservation of the space.”

During an update on staffing, Director Behrens said two seasonals had been hired: Arlo Cibula, whose hire date is listed by the Auditor’s Office as April 21, 2025, and Braxton Rohrs, who will begin May 20. Both worked for Conservation last season.