County pledges $100,000 to avian flu efforts
Tammy Humbert told the Dubois County Council that the local response to the avian influenza outbreak will be the new standard across the United States.
She explained that state and federal officials have said that the preparedness efforts and response by the county have been unmatched by anything they’ve seen before and that new procedures are being written that will be used as standards in other such events around the nation.
She added that the unified support of the county departments have helped federal and state responders to be further along in eradicating the flu than they ever imagined. Months of observation and testing remain but state and federal workers will only need to remain here for a few more weeks.
Humbert thanked Sheriff Donny Lampert, County Health Department Executive Director Donna Oeding, County Highway Superintendent Steve Berg, and a host of workers who helped with the efforts on the ground at the farms.
In commending the efforts of the county workers involved, Humbert requested $100,000 allocated to the process. She gave a rough estimate of about $31,240 spent on the response so far in addition to about $5,000 spent on the staging area at the Dubois County 4-H Fairgrounds in Bretzville. She expected the tally to exceed $50,000.
The state estimated they have spent about $384,410 so far while the federal tally is over $3 million.
The council agreed to set aside $100,000 from the rainy day fund to support the expenses incurred through overtime for the county’s employees as well as equipment costs.
Humbert told the council she could not put into words how grateful and proud she is of the effort that Dubois County has put into handling the crisis.
In other actions the council:
-Approved $70,000 for a new security system for the courthouse, annex and health department as requested by Sheriff Donny Lampert. Astro Security owner Doug Fischer appeared with Lampert to provide a more detailed explanation of how the system will operate.
-Approved a request from Lampert for $40,000 for a new vehicle. Lampert reminded the council that he is only asking for one vehicle this year because the department’s trucks and SUVs are lasting longer than passenger style cars.
-Approved the low bid of $51,000 from Seufert Construction for bathroom renovations in the county corrections department.
-Heard from Janet Schnell with the Council Substance Abuse Council who gave a report on the 2015 Comprehensive Plan which included statistics on the county’s worst substance abuse problems. The top problem is alcohol abuse, the second is illegal use of marijuana, and the third is prescription drug abuse. She requested the draw down for her budget from the county in the amount of $34,379.74 – generated by user fees in the county-wide drug program by her organization. The council approved the request.
-Accepted a challenge from Councilwoman Becky Beckman to study the county’s tax abatement offerings. She stated that the plan seemed to be overly generous to companies that just add equipment but not a lot of jobs. Other council members agreed with her that the abatement schedule needs to be reviewed. The council approved a review and a report on the findings in upcoming meetings.
-Councilwoman Charmian Klem reported on the creation of a spreadsheet that examines the county budget and the contributing factors in the recent efforts to cover the county budget with EDIT funds over the last few years to keep the county from operating in the red. The council agreed that they need to continue to support a detailed look at the pay for county employees, but acknowledged that they have to bring the budget in line with revenues before they can consider pay increases going forward.
