Retiring Grundy County Supervisor Barbara Smith pictured at a reception held Monday, Dec. 28, in her honor following the longtime supervisor’s final board meeting. PHOTO BY ALAN TSCHERTER/GRUNDY COUNTY AUDITOR

GRUNDY CENTER – This past Monday, following her final Grundy County Board of Supervisors meeting, a retirement reception was held for longtime District 5 Supervisor Barbara Smith (R-Grundy Center). After more than two decades in office, Smith has certainly earned a reprieve.

After Smith declined to run for a sixth term this past November, District 5 – a mostly urban seat that includes the city of Grundy Center – will have a new leader in Jeff Pabst (R-Grundy Center), formerly with the Secondary Roads Department, who won election after defeating Smith’s son Rick Smith for the Republican nomination in the June 2024 primary.

In a feature published in September of 2019 in the Grundy Register marking her 15th year in office, Smith – a former Grundy Center family and consumer sciences teacher who spent her childhood years in Minnesota – told the newspaper, “I really feel in towns our size in Grundy County, we need to pay it forward. It’s a real privilege to live and raise a family here, and you need to work on behalf of your community to keep it moving in the right direction… you’re either moving in one direction or the other.”

As Smith embarks on a new direction in life, Tama-Grundy Publishing wishes her the best and congratulates her on a well-earned retirement!