(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted five-to-nothing to enter into a contract with the Robert Haaft Management Firm to assist the county is meeting the new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPPA. The supervisors approved the contract with the stipulation the county be allowed to approve any amendments and that the cost doesn’t exceed 13-thousand dollars. HIPPA is a new federal mandate counties and other healthcare providers are being required to comply with.
The supervisors also appointed Cindy Dather to the Magistrate Appointing Commission; and they heard the annual report and request for funds from the Dickinson County Ag Society, or Fair Board. The group is requesting 35-thousand dollars from the county in the upcoming fiscal year…the same as the current year.
They set February 4th as the date for a meeting with Vern Ryan of Iowa State University to discuss final results of the courthouse survey; and they scheduled a closed meeting for 1:00 p.m. Thursday to talk about pending threatened litigation stemming from two different cases: one is the Dutch Creek Farms permit; the other is from personnel in the former County Attorney’s office who are demanding compensation for past overtime and vacation time that wasn’t used. The closed session will be followed by an open one at 2:00 p.m. to talk about the county’s presentation at next week’s hearing before the Environmental Protection Commission. The hearing is being held on the county’s appeal of a permit issued to Dutch Creek Farms for a four-thousand head hog confinement the company wants to build southwest of Milford.
