County officials discuss flooding, health insurance, ongoing projects

In addition to talking about a potential problem with county health insurance, county department heads and officials discussed ongoing projects in Hill County in a meeting Wednesday.

At the beginning of the meeting, Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said the commission had been told that there was a problem with this year’s county health insurance plans, saying they had surpassed some kind of federal limit that may result in some employees being penalized.

Peterson said he wanted to let everyone know there was a potential issue and that conversations about it would be had in the near future and he didn’t want anyone to be surprised by that.

When asked for clarification after the meeting, Peterson said he’d only just heard about it and he didn’t want to say anything else for fear of getting something wrong.

The next day he said the issue is only with one of the county’s health insurance plans, specifically the High Deductible 4000 plan, which the county introduced just this year.

Peterson said the plan apparently exceeds a federal limit on how much the county and employees can contribute to a plan.

He said he’s not sure what the ramifications of someone using the plan given that fact are, so it may be that the commission just recommends that employees not choose it, but they still want to talk to the Montana Association of Counties, which provides the plans to get specifics.

At Wednesday’s meeting Peterson and his fellow commissioners also provided an update on the commission’s recent activities and projects.

He said the rebuilding of the RSID 21 Lift Station has been delayed due to weather and bids for work on Montana Highway 232 will now go out in November of 2024 with work starting in 2025.

Peterson said they’ve also been informed that the money they’ve set aside for updating the Hill County Courthouse’s heating, ventilating and air conditioning system is insufficient to outfit all three floors and they now have to decide which floors will get the new system.

He said it seems like the second and third floors have the greatest need, but they don’t have the money to do everything they want.

Strissel said he’s been working to help Hill County Attorney Lacey Lincoln and Hill County Public Health Director Kim Berg on crafting an interlocal agreement that will allow them to receive money for opioid abatement.

He also said elected officials now have new cellphones.

Commissioner Sheri Williams said she’s been working on sheriff’s union negotiations and keeping track of the flooding in the county, and said there are still a lot of areas that have been washed out.

Road Department Supervisor Shane Huston said his department is just trying to get things back in order as quickly as they can.

Hill County Mosquito District Supervisor and Weed District Coordinator Terry Turner said they have their drones up and running and have been helping the other departments get photos of flooding damage.

He said they’ve also gotten their mosquito pellets in but are having a lot of trouble finding ingredients for their smoke bombs so he’s not sure what they’re going to do about gophers this year.

That aside, Turner said, they are doing classes in local schools about weeds and mosquitoes and waiting for new guidance from the Biden administration on endangered species, which they are not thrilled about.

Berg said she put together a bunch of information for county workers who need to go out into flood conditions, and she’s sent that to all the relevant departments.

She said workers should really consider getting themselves up to date on their tetanus vaccine as well as Hepatitis A, since the flood waters have almost certainly carried cow manure and organisms that could carry diseases.

She said she’d be happy to have her staff come up to the road department and get everyone updated.

She also said county residents need to test and sanitize their wells if they’ve had any degree of flood contamination.

Berg also said her department has a new WIC Coordinator, Tami Schoen, has received a grant to hire a disease intervention specialist and may have some money coming in to help them address a significant increase in syphilis cases.

She said a lot of cases that have been found this year have been asymptomatic, which is extremely unusual and very concerning.

She said the department is also working on a system that will help address local environmental health evaluations while the county remains without a sanitarian.

Members of the Hill County Commission held a discussion on the ongoing lack of sanitarian earlier that week.

The discussion was scheduled on the commission’s weekly calendar to take place 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, but the conversation was had Tuesday, without Commissioner Sheri Williams, who said she was under the impression it would take place Wednesday as scheduled.

Hill County Commissioner Jake Strissel said before a forum on the flooding held Wednesday that the commission decided to raise the position’s wage to $28 an hour and make it a full time position, which the Hill County Health Department, as well as members of the Hill County Health Board, had suggested.

Strissel said he thinks the position will be put back under the health department, which they also requested, but that isn’t a sure thing.

Hill County Building Manager Joe Smith said at Thursday’s meeting that they’re working on upgrading the Hill County Detention Center’s control panels from pneumatic to electronic, but they’ve run into complications with repairing the lock on the building’s west entrance.

Smith said they can’t get it fixed in a traditional way since it is integrated with the entire building’s security system, so they’re going to need some help.

Hill County Sheriff Jamie Ross said he’s working on grant applications and getting positions filled.

Montana State University Hill County Extension Agent Colleen Pegar also gave an update on her organization’s activities.

Pegar said they are doing weigh-ins for 4-H and their recent ServSafe class had a 100% pass rate.

Hill County Human Resources Officer Brittany Pfeifer said she is wrapping up the county’s safety campaign and she will be at the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce Job Fair at the Holiday Village Mall from 3 to 6 p.m. next Wednesday.

Before the meeting ended, Peterson reminded all county employees to examine any county vehicle for damage before they use it and make note of anything they find.