Hill County Commission elects officers

The Hill County Commission elected new officers during its weekly business meeting Thursday, with Mark Peterson and Jake Strissel being voted chair and vice chair, respectively.

Peterson and Strissel both abstained from the votes for their nominations with the remaining two commissioners voting for their appointments.

After the voting was over, Peterson said he wanted to reintroduce the practice of occasionally having other members of the commission become acting chair during certain meetings.

He said he thinks everyone on the commission should get some experience chairing meetings so he’d like to take some opportunities throughout the next two years to let his fellow commissioners do that, though he doesn’t know how often they would do this.

He also said he would like to reach out to Havre High School to see if students are interested in spending time at the courthouse and sitting in on meetings to get a feel for how county government works, which he thinks is important for young people.

During the meeting the commission also discussed the recent resignation of the Hill County Health Department’s Disease Intervention Specialist Brandi Williams, which Strissel said is a big loss for the county.

Peterson said Williams has met with them to lay out her ongoing projects and give them an idea of what a replacement would need to carry on those projects, which the commissioners thought were worth continuing.

The commission also unanimously passed a six-month extension to their contract for William’s position along with the health department’s congregate living coordinator position.

Hill County Clerk and Recorder Lexis Dixon said that, because the request to extend this contract was made during the budgeting process, the commission will need a budget adjustment resolution to go along with said extension.

Strissel said he thinks they could probably get one drawn up by the end of the day.

Still on the subject of health, this time for employees, the commission also discussed possibly extending their contract with the Healthy Is Wellness program, which provides wellness evaluations and assistance to county employees.

The program was originally funded by the Montana Association of Counties, but they stopped funding it due to not having enough statewide attendance.

However, Peterson and Strissel said they both really like the program and almost half of the county’s employees were taking advantage of that so they would like to keep doing it if they can.

Peterson said that would mean paying between $15,000 and $17,000 every six months and they want to make sure that it is a financially responsible decision compared to the number of people making use of it.

He said the program costs the same regardless of how many county employees use it so he’d like to set up a survey for the employees to talk about their experience with the program, why they use it or don’t and what’s preventing them from using it if they want to.

He said he would also like to give Commissioner Sheri Williams, who started in that position earlier this week, a chance to get up to speed on the program which she hasn’t had enough time to do in these first few days on the job.

Strissel agreed and the matter was tabled until next week.

The commission also approved a task order from Great West Engineering increasing the contract for work on the Milk River Levee’s right bank underseepage relief well from $69,500 to $78,115 so they can take and test water samples in the area for the potential impacts of petroleum hydrocarbons.

Strissel said he looked over the task order and it looked fine.

However, there was some confusion regarding what funds would be used to pay for the increase.

Peterson said they intend to take the money for the increase from the county’s CARES Act funds with the intention to refund it once they’ve found another funding source for the work being done on the levee.

Hill County Treasurer Sandy Brown said she’s not sure they can do that and requested the chance to get her materials collected so they can discuss the specifics in a meeting later, a request the commission granted.

The commission approved the task order with the intention to use CARES Act funds assuming that was possible, which Brown said was fine by her, as long as they have a chance to sit down and go over the matter.

The commission also set the date for a hearing that will establish the hours of operation for the courthouse, which will take place in their office at 9:45 a.m. Thursday Jan. 19.

Peterson said they will publish notices in local media reminding people about the hearing, and encouraged people to get in touch with the commission if they have questions about it.