Area agency receives grant to promote heating assistance

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Sub-committee reports from supervisors accounted for the lone agenda item for the Henry County Board of Supervisors Thursday.

Supervisor Vice Chairman Marc Lindeen briefed the board on the Southeast Iowa Community Action board meeting.

He said that the agency has been awarded a grant for promoting its energy assistance funding for area people who meet the criteria. Southeast Iowa plans to use the grant money to advertise the program.

The board also discussed the ramifications of the change in the U.S. Department of Labor?s overtime rules, which become effective Dec. 1. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has increased the amount that a full-year exempt employee must be paid to remain exempt from overtime pay.

The salary has been increased from $23,600 per year to $47,476 annually.

Due to the rules changes, the board approved a staff recommendation to increase the annual salaries of the human resource and education manager to $47,476, effective Oct. 1, to meet the minimum threshold so they will remain exempt employees.

Program, coordinators, however, will receive a three-percent raise effective Oct. 1, and they will not be considered exempt employees.

Lindeen also attended the recent Henry County Emergency Management Agency board meeting. The supervisor said Walt Jackson, county emergency management director, briefed the board on his recent trip to the National Federal Emergency Management Agency?s (FEMA) training session in Maryland.

?He (Jackson) said he learned more about what not to do than what to do,? Lindeen reported.

Jackson, the supervisor said, also is planning a full-scale training exercise, complete with helicopters, in the spring of 2017 at Oakland Mills.

Lindeen, fellow Supervisor Greg Moeller and Henry County Sheriff Rich McNamee attended an active shooter training program Wednesday in Des Moines, sponsored by the Iowa Community Assurance Pool.

?Preparedness is the largest thing I gathered (in the event of an active shooter),? Moeller said. ?It (program) was insightful and made you think.?

Moeller said the group attending the course was advised to get all departments (law enforcement, fire and rescue) involved whenever planning an active shooter or other emergency drills.

Because the county had representation at the program, it will receive a $1,000 grant for emergency event training.

The supervisors will meet again in regular session Tuesday, July 26, at 9 a.m. in the Henry County Courthouse.