By Mari Radtke
The Supervisors heard budget highlights from Engineer Scott Rinehart. Clay County is paving the 1 mile of hard surface east of Moneta this summer. They will replace the concrete. O’Brien County is required to pay for half of that mile. The estimated cost is $200,000. Discussion of a paving project along the south edge of Sanborn was also discussed. The city wants to pave a section of graveled B20 that runs just outside city limits. The city will install the curb & gutter and do the dirt work to the shoulder. The county will install the hard surface to the road bed. Rinehart estimated that was about half the cost for both city and county. He also described three bridges budgeted for the coming year. He proposed overall a $4.066 million budget.
The auditor’s office considered and brought to the attention of the supervisors another text communication system. The start up cost is $6000, half for set up. It would get covered by ARPA funds but would need to be budgeted in after 2 years if the county decides they like it. They customize the text alerts and can notify people of things like tax deadlines, road closures or other immediate concerns.
Jared Johnson brought in a revised budget request. After further discussion with community volunteers he is asking for additional support from the county to have funds available for investment into EMS System Development. The idea is to adapt a system that works in all communities for the quickest response time to get patients to the next level of care. Johnson amended his original budget request for EMS System Development from $150,000 to $175,000. His total budget request went from $249,000 to $260,000. His current budget is $181,000.
Several obstacles are in place. Volunteer shortages are universal, especially during the daytime hours. O’Brien County has 3 different medical directors so each ambulance service may have different rules to work under or procedures to follow. He also noted that there is still consideration of a ballot initiative. A ballot initiative would put a question on the ballot if citizens would be willing to have ambulance coverage categorized as an essential service. Should the citizens vote positively for that a levy could be applied to property to fund some kind of ambulance response. Johnson and other community emergency representatives have until August to make the determination about putting the question to the voters.