County looks at health services

The Waseca County Commissioners gave a warm welcome to Carl Sonnenberg, the new city manager for the City of Waseca, at their regular meeting Tuesday, March 7. He expressed his thanks to the board for their support for the city, and closed his comments by adding he hoped they could “work on building bridges, and leave that tug-of-war behind us.”

Sarah Berry, county public health director, presented the board with a grant plan to expand the county's services through Healthy Smiles, a program offering dental cleanings, fluoride varnish, and sealants to eligible residents. Leah Cameron, business manager for county public health, successfully applied for a $10,000 grant through Delta Dental. Under the plan approved by the board, the money will be used to reimburse Healthy Smiles for services provided to uninsured or underinsured individuals. This will expand the eligibility for the Healthy Smiles program in Waseca County, as previously only those with medical assistance or state-provided insurance could take advantage of the program.

A public hearing is set for the March 21 board meeting regarding fee changes for county public health which were not included in the original list of changes for 2023 due to a miscommunication. The purpose of the fee changes will be to bring fees in line with state insurance reimbursements to maximize revenue while avoiding large write-offs of costs not covered by insurance. The proposed fee changes are as follows: Education for Lactation consultations increased from $50.29 to $120, Quadrivalent and high-dose flu vaccines increased from $60 to $69.94, single-dose flu vaccine decreased from $60 to $21.52, and home nurse visits increased from $123 to $200. Also, “other injectable administrations” will be changed to “public health nurse clinic” to better match billing language, and will increase from $5 to $50.

Dr. Daniel Berg has agreed to provide medical consultant services to Waseca County Public Health, a service he's already providing in Le Sueur County; the contract was approved by the board. Statutes require the public health department to have a licensed physician as a contracted medical consultant to provide direction and protocols for immunization programs and other resources. This is a service Dr. Berg provides to the communities he serves at no cost.

The board approved a cooperative construction agreement with the City of Janesville for rehabilitation of County State Access Highway 43 (Teal Street). The costs are to be split 78% paid by the county and 22% by the city. The engineer's estimate for the project is $176,030.50, which leaves the county to pay $137,098.75 while the City of Janesville pays $38,931.75. Waseca County will be able to use county state aid municipal funds, which are set aside for expenditures on county state-aid highways within cities with a population under 5,000.

Only one bid was received for the county's annual pavement marking project, which this year aims to re-stripe 67 miles of county roads with reflective paint. The bid, from Sir Lines-A-Lot, LLC, is for $105,508.13, which is about 33% over the county engineer's estimate for the project. After consideration, the board decided to accept the bid, as adequate road markings are an important safety issue, and to keep a close eye on costs as they approach the $70,000 allotted in the 2023 budget for restriping. The board will review the mileage covered and decide whether to defer some roads to next year or allow the project to go over-budget based on the amount left to complete. The board's other options were to reject the bid and ask for rebidding, which would be unlikely to have favorable results given only one bid was received, or to immediately defer some roads to next year to reduce the amount of re-striping to be contracted.

Two resolutions were passed for the drainage authority. Resolution 2023-08 makes changes to an agreement between Waseca County and Waseca County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) for inspections required by the 2017 Buffer Law of public waterways and drainage systems. In 2017, county staff did not have the resources to perform required inspections and contracted with SWCD to maintain compliance. Now, with the creation of the Land and Water Resources Department in the county, that department will take on responsibility for inspecting drainage systems, while SWCD continues to handle public waters. The resolution also covers a change in how costs to SWCD are covered from a stipend to a billing system. Resolution 2023-09 states that 65% of wages in the Land and Water Resources Department, the amount determined by a study of time spent on public drainage systems, are to be covered by assessments to beneficiary landowners. This is not an extra assessment, but part of the regular yearly assessments. Minnesota Statutes require the costs of services to public drainage systems to be covered by assessments in this manner.