County briefs      

[APRIL 15, 2005] 

Proposed resolutions

• The board tentatively approved a resolution to assist with a proposed commerce park development. The amount of $45,000 per year for 20 years for the purchase of property to develop a warehouse distribution center on Lincoln's west side met with 100 percent verbal approval. Debt certificates will be issued to cover the costs, although returning revenues are anticipated to more than cover the cost within a couple of years.
• A recommendation was made from the insurance committee to accept the bids for employee health insurance from Health Alliance.
• HMO: $326 -- last year was $303
• PPO: $374 -- last year was $348
• A new cap on health insurance payment of $326 per employee was proposed.

The resolutions will be put to a formal vote on Tuesday.

GASB compliance

The treasurer's office has developed a 10-page capital assets and procedures plan that will be used by all the county departments. It establishes rules that each department can use that will bring Logan County into compliance with the new state regulation GASB 34. GASB requires accounting and depreciation of government-owned assets, properties and equipment.

When departments have completed their accounting work, the information will be added to the annual audit.

Other than that information, the remainder of the audit has been completed, finance committee chairman Chuck Ruben said.

Completing the audit is important in keeping the Logan County Health Department operating in the black, administrator Mark Hilliard reminded the board. Payments from the state Department of Human Services are suspended until the audit is completed. The local health department does eventually receive all those payments. They are just delayed.

Hilliard was pleased to report that despite not being levied this year, the department has operated in the black for the first four months of the county fiscal year. He credits the hard work of the department's employees, particularly the home health program workers.

That was the end of his good news. Hilliard said that a rural add-on grant that supports home health Medicare ended as of April 1. The projected loss to the end of the county fiscal year for that program is $22,000. Additionally, he said, it appears that the president has not included it in next year's budget.

More bad news is coming later this year, Hilliard said. He has just learned that state and federal grants that fund some of the well-utilized programs at the health department will be cut. Included in those programs are Women Infants and Children, a breast cancer and cervical cancer program that provided education and mammograms, and a teen parent program. A total of $63,000 support for these programs will be lost.

The cuts begin with the state fiscal year, which runs July 1 to June 30.

[]