Washington Communications Center equipment shelters to be in place by may

WASHINGTON - Six precast equipment shelters will be in place by May 20, 2020, as part of the Washington County Communications Center project as a result of action taken by the Washington County Board of Supervisors when it met in regular session Tuesday, Sept. 24, at the Washington County Courthouse.

Following a public hearing on the subject, where no member of the public had any comment, the board passed a resolution to open a bidding process for the delivery of the new or refurbished shelters. The specifications require that the shelters must be precast concrete prefabricated steel reinforced structures and must carry a warranty of 10 years from the date of delivery. May 20, 2020, is the final deadline for completion of this part of the project.

The supervisors also approved a recommendation from Washington County Engineer Jacob Thorius that the low bid of $790,784.48 from Diamond Surface, Inc. of Rogers, Minnesota, be accepted for a road improvement project. The work will involve pavement planing and grooving along three miles of the Keokuk-Washington Road and six miles of 190th Street, Thorius said and will be completed no later than April 20, 2020.

During the meeting, Deputy County Auditor Amber Day reported on two recommendations of the Insurance Committee. The committee recommended that beginning in 2020 county employees be required to have prescriptions filled by pharmacies, not hospitals, for any specialty drugs. And it recommended a 2 percent increase in funding for 2020 health insurance premiums to be divided between the county and employees. The supervisors approved the committee recommendations.

Danielle Pettit-Majewski, Washington County Public Health Administrator, also spoke during the meeting. She presented a resolution to the supervisors regarding an application to the Washington County Riverboat Foundation for a $46,000 grant for the agency's Rethink Your Drink project. The project is intended to encourage members of the public to drink more water and fewer soft drinks and other drinks containing sugar. The grant money would be used to purchase new fountains where people could refill water bottles in public parks in the county. Three would be installed in Washington, three in Kalona, two in Wellman, one in Riverside and one in Marr Park. Each community would be responsible for the actual fountain installation and water hookup in this collaborative effort. The supervisors approved the resolution.