County approves land sale to Iowa City endodontics firm

By MEGAN COOPER

Mt. Pleasant News

?This facility will be great for this community. I support it,? said newly elected mayor of Westwood, Dr. John Roederer during Thursday?s Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting.

Roederer was referring to Endodontics Specialists L.L.C. out of Iowa City that wants a branch here in Mt. Pleasant. The sale of the land has been in discussions in previous meetings and during Thursday?s meeting it was approved.

?We sometimes get caught up in the dollars and we don?t want that to dictate what happens. We realize how much it would mean to the community to have them (Endodontics Specialists L.L.C.) come here. I think we need and I know we will be appreciated for it,? said vice-chairman Marc Lindeen during the meeting.

?I know the doctors are very interested in this sale. They are excited and know they can do so much for the community. They are hoping to pull in different dental specialties and they know they have a lot of clients around here and this will make it easier for those clients,? Teresa Morrow, real-estate agent for Endodontics Specialists L.L.C., said to the board.

After the board approved the resolution to sell the 2.8 acres of land in Crossroads Business Park for $100,000, Morrow told the board what the facility could look like.

?It?s a nice facility, brick and they are nice buildings. The building itself more than likely will be about 5,000 square feet and they are talking about what could be done with the rest of the land. It?s a possibility that a residential use could be used. I heard there was need here for newer apartments. They could then use the rest of the land for parking. Also, they discussed possibly using it to entice other specialists to move to town,? Morrow said. ?It isn?t known yet as they haven?t started their plans since they didn?t know, but I know they are excited and I know they want to be a part of this community.?

After the signing of the contract with Morrow, Travis Johnson, community health director at Henry County Health Center, discussed the medical examiner investigator budget.

?We had seven individuals who were interested in becoming medical examiners. Five of those individuals have completed training and only two remain. Now, the next step is for them to finish their training in St. Louis, I?m here to ask you if we could fit that into the budget this year. We have two individuals who are ready to attend the training. For one to go, it would cost approximately $2,000, but if we sent two at a time, it would cost approximately, $3,140,? Johnson told the board.

After a short discussion, the board agreed to allow those individuals to do the training. ?We need these people and to invest $2,000 per person is money well spent. I?m for it. If we can get two trained this year, I say let?s do it. We need medical examiners,? Lindeen added.

Johnson also asked for funds to purchase ?jump bags? for the medical examiners. Each bag would cost about $60 per individual. The ?jump bag? would include a camera, clipboard and forms needed. It would also include a body bag if possible. A total cost for all the ?jump bags? and a body bag would be about $850. ?We might be able to get the body bags from the state, but I haven?t talked with them yet,? Johnson said.

The board approved the purchase of the ?jump bags? and approved of the training for those seven individuals interested in becoming medical examiners.

The department heads of the county discussed their monthly updates. Most had business as usual.

?We have been in maintenance mode,? John Pullis, executive director of Henry County Conservation said. ?We had some maintenance done on the Nature Center and Cari (Nicely) has been busy with her programs until school lets out for the holiday. Eagles are at Oakland now, there are quite a lot of them and the best time to see them would be in the morning at first light.?

Ana Lair, Henry County treasurer, mentioned that postage stamps would be going up in January. ?We don?t know the exact price yet, but it could be one cent or three cents, it?s something to keep in mind,? she said.

According to Rick Van Winkle, Henry County veteran affairs, there wasn?t a big turn out for the benefits fair that took place in November. He was expecting at least 200 people and they had approximately 60 show up.

The National Healthcare Reform will be cause for less funding, according to Sarah Berndt, Henry County CPC. ?There will be significant funding changes coming. There will be less funding to mental health services and hospitalizations. We hope the people who this directly affects have done what they needed to do. They had to either talk with IowaCares or they needed to go the insurance exchange,? she said.

The board, during the meeting, also:

? Appointed Robert Meyer and Scott Baylor to the Henry County Revolving Loan Fund Loan Review committee

? Approved the liquor license for Scarff Service and Countree Store

The Henry County Board of Supervisors will meet again on Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 9 a.m. in the board room of the courthouse.