The Cass County Board of Supervisors heard a report this (Wednesday) morning from Guthrie County Executive Director of Health Services, Jotham Arber. After Sanitarian Steve Patterson passed away last March, Guthrie County officials decided to move all environment health services under the wing of the Guthrie County Health System, while retaining all the employees and services previously provided.

Arber explained they are updating some of the 28-E agreements for soil services, so all counties are on the same page. There are only minor changes in the way Cass County is charged for services, and the implementation of a Cost Report mechanism. The Cost Report, which will be presented once a year to the Supervisors, so they can see the costs broken down. It wraps the various elements of inspections and services into one hourly rate, such as postage, office supplies and so on. Mileage would be charged separately. Last year in Cass County, there were 35 Perc Tests, 34 Septic Systems Installed, 8 new wells, 46 water tests, 26 time of transfer inspections, 16 wells plugged and 2 well rehab’s conducted. The total number of hours of service amounted to 725, with a total of 17,632 miles driven by inspectors. After his report to the Board, Cass County Auditor/Board Secretary Dale Sunderman, read the Resolution for the 28-E agreement, which the available Board member approved unanimously, with Supervisor/Chair Gaylord Schelling and Supervisor Steve Green absent.

And, in his report to the Board, newly appointed Cass County Attorney Michael Hooper answered some Board member questions with regard to how bad checks are prosecuted in the County. Hooper said there are essentially two options that have been available for many years when a business comes in to his office with a bad check. The first is, it can be prosecuted as a Theft charge. The amount of the check determines the Degree of Theft charge.  The offender would be required to pay restitution at a rate of about $50 per month. There is also an informal way of handling such cases, a method Hooper says was in-place long before he was appointed.

He says the County Attorney’s Office collected money on the bad checks. They meet with the offender and let them know prosecution could move forward, but that they could also simply pay back the money, with the County Attorney’s Office receiving the payment and returning the funds to the affected business. In that scenario, there would be no prosecution.