(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Board of Supervisors, this (Wednesday) morning, received a report with regard to the Mental Health Region. The Board heard from Sarah Guillatt, Rachel Cecil and Darcy Alt, with the MHDS Board, and Brittany Palmer, from Crossroads Behavioral Health. Rachel Cecil, Director of Operations for the Heart of Iowa Mental Health Region, said they met in December with the Southern Hills Region, to discuss the possible merger of Southern Hills and the Cross Mental Health Region, that would make up 13 counties as shown in a map of the merger. Darci Alt, Mental Health Director & CEO, Heart of Iowa Region, talked about their services and how they’ve been able to help those affected by the high school shooting in Perry.

She said they’ve had therapists in the schools and the community. The Adair County Supervisors agreed to fund their portion of the services, contingent upon a 28-E agreement with the Southern Hills Region. She said Rachel Cecil has been working on the preliminary 28-E agreement for the Board to review, and establish their budget service plan by April 1^st, so it can be in-place by July 1st.

In other business, the Board approved a 12-month wage increase for Sheriff’s Office employee Gwendy Rice in the amount of $20.43/hour effective Jan. 30^th. The acknowledged the receipt of a Prestage Farms Manure Management Plan update, and the 5^th Judicial 2023 Annual Report. Supervisor Jodie Hoadley is on the Board.

The Supervisors received an OSHA report from Adair County Engineer Nick Kauffman, who said there were three injuries on file and nine claims for hearing loss. The Board acknowledged receipt of the report and signed-onto plans for the N-26 (Lincoln Township) Reinforced Box Culvert (RCB) Project and a Right-of-Way contract for the N-26 project, and the plans for the N-19 (Lincoln) Bridge Project.

Kauffman said they received five bids for the Adair County Road P-33 Hot Melt Asphalt resurfacing project, a local Farm-To-market road The low bid of $4,972,55.27 from Heningsen Construction was accepted by the Board. The highest bid was $5.7-million. The Engineer’s original project estimate was about $5.3-million.

Kauffman also updated the Supervisors on Secondary Roads Department maintenance, projects and activities. Due to the record snowfall the County received, the costs submitted to FEMA for reimbursement included $98,000 for Overtime only, $384,000 in machine time, $50,000+ in equipment repairs, and $10,000+ for salt and sand. The grand total for the three-weeks crews dealt with the storms and the aftermath, amounted to $562,000. It’s unclear how much the County might actually receive.

The Board concluded their meeting with a Budget Work Session.