Supervisors Utilize Usage Rate For Animal Shelter Funding

Mahaska County Supervisors for March 7, 2016.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – It takes months of work to develop a budget for Mahaska County. Different departments within the county present their budgets to the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors for their consideration.

On Monday, the board opened a hearing for the public to discuss the proposed 2016-17 budget. There was no one from the public at the 9am meeting to discuss the budget, or any potential concerns.

The board then closed the public hearing, and voted to approve the budget as published.

The Mahaska County Courthouse often provides the public relief, in the form of open public restrooms, during downtown events. The supervisors considered a request from the courthouse security committee to not open those facilities during those events, due to security concerns.

The supervisors voted to allow the use of the public restrooms during special events this year, but would inform the Oskaloosa Chamber that next year portable restrooms would need to be used in place of opening the courthouse.

Mahaska Health Partnership was approached by a Mahaska County Supervisor to explore a program that would help offer mental health services for county employees.

The conversation about this program came about as a result of a fatal accident that a county employee was involved with during the past year.

Jan LeBahn from MHP was on hand to discuss mental health plan options with the supervisors. Those options include a pay-as-you-go approach, or a yearly contract with a set price.

The supervisors will further review the options, and will decide on a course of action in an upcoming meeting.

The supervisors also discussed a contribution to Stephen Memorial Animal Shelter.

“We did change the funding structure for the animal shelter?” Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Doland asked the other supervisors. “I think if we give anything to it, it would be based upon usage.”

“I agree. Our usage is about one-tenth of the city’s,” said Mahaska County Supervisor Mike Vander Molen.

Mahaska County Supervisors said that the City of Oskaloosa was going to be contributing $150 thousand dollars towards the project, and that ten percent, or $15 thousand dollars, by the county wouldn’t help the project very much.

“It’s what our usage is,” said Vander Molen. “I don’t know why we need to keep distributing these costs to rural tax payers who don’t use it.”

“The rural community doesn’t use it, why should we have to pay for it? Why do we keep shifting all these costs to them?” Asked Vander Molen. “All it is, is cost shift for users that don’t use the facility.”

“I’m not prepared to give a number,” said Doland about a county financial commitment to the animal shelter.