Henry County, Insight Human Services to part ways May 1

By STEPH TAHTINEN

Mt. Pleasant News

Henry County and Insight Human Services will part ways on May 1 as IHS transitions from being run by the county to being a private company.

Todd Meyer, IHS administrator, has been working to privatize these services in Henry County. The new IHS had previously planned to start business on April 1, but Meyer and Evan Clouse, the current community services liaison for the county-run IHS, met with the board of supervisors on Thursday morning to update them on the transition and gave the new starting date of May 1.

All of the residents have found housing within the county and will be moving out of the current facility, owned by the county, on May 1.

?Everyone has a home to go to,? said Todd Meyer, Insight Human Services administrator. ?Everybody was able to find very nice housing.?

?They are giddy,? commented Clouse.

The new IHS company will have about 45 employees. A majority of these are currently working for the county but will switch to the privatized company on May 1. Around 17 or 18 new employees have been hired, according to Meyer and Clouse.

Five of the current IHS county employees will not be going to the new company and would qualify for unemployment. The county plans to keep one of these employees working for a minimum of 20 hours per week for the month of May to help clean out and organize the items and records that will be left in the building.

There will be some items left behind ? such as furniture ? that the county will need to determine what to do with it. Meyer said he has been receiving many calls about the furniture.

The supervisors asked that Meyer and Clouse update them again in two weeks and keep them informed on what needs to be done for the transition.

In other business, the supervisors met with County Engineer Bill Belzer, who informed them it could cost $650,000 to $750,000 to pave the road by Burge Cemetery, west of New London.

The supervisors had received a request Tuesday morning from the Burge Cemetery Association to pave about one mile of road by the Burge Cemetery.

Besides paving the road, the idea was also raised to change the county?s policy on dust control to allow this road to receive an application, as dust was a part of the reason the association wanted it paved.

?Dust control would help, but I?d like to get rid of the gravel,? said Donald Johnson, board member of the Burge cemetery Association.

Besides the high cost of paving the road, Belzer referenced issues with snow drifting in the area, as well as the ditches and right of way not being big enough.

Right now the right of way is about 66 feet, and at a bare minimum it would need to be 100 feet, maybe more by the deep ditches. This additional right of way would need to be taken from the west, said Belzer.

?You can?t go towards the cemetery. You wouldn?t want to,? said Belzer.

Supervisor Chairman Kent White also questioned the precedence that would be set if the county were to pave a road at the request of only a couple of citizens.

In other business, the supervisors:

? Heard the first reading of an ordinance to modify the number of considerations necessary to pass an ordinance. This ordinance is amending the county?s procedure to match the requirements of Iowa Code. Currently the county?s procedure is stricter than the Iowa Code requires and takes about six weeks to pass an ordinance; following the state code could cut that time in half.

? Approved the Henry County entrance policy, which now allows for plastic dual wall, metal and concrete culverts

? Approved a liquor license for Jet Stop Salem Stub