(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors today (Tues.) heard a request for additional funding for the county’s Public Health Department. Brandon Rohrig of Dickinson County Public Health told the supervisors he’s requesting an additional $50,000 in funding in the next fiscal year…
“Our county funding has remained the same, from what I can tell, going back to 2011. The state and federal funding has gone down quite significantly in some of the aspects, which is very unfortunate, and listening this morning it doesn’t sound good for the state budget again this year. Who knows what that will mean for us up here in northwest Iowa? And then the population in need as of lately has continued to increase here in Dickinson county.”
Rohrig added the department also wants to increase its interaction with the community.
The supervisors agreed to consider the request during budget talks which will be getting underway in the next month or two.
In other business, the supervisors approved a recommendation from County Engineer Dan Eckert to close a bridge on 120th Avenue over Stony Creek in Westport Township. Eckert said the structural integrity of the bridge is a concern, saying some wooden piling under it has greatly deteriorated.
Eckert added the county will likely be forced to address a number of issues with bridges in the near future, siting findings of a recent study that found 21 bridges in the county that have declined in their sufficiency ratings. He says four of those cited in the report have since been strengthened.
