HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – The Hill County Board of Health met on Wednesday for their quarterly meeting and discussed a wide range of topics.
The primary item of discussion was the need to review and restructure the board due to action taken in the 2021 legislative session.
The Board will need to update their interlocal agreement between Hill County and the City of Havre, originally created in 1981, so that it is reviewed and up for renewal at least every five years.
Updating the agreement will also mean having to update the bylaws of the Board, according to County Attorney Lacey Lincoln.
The Board currently features the three Hill County Commissioners and two representatives of the public. Ideas thrown around included having the County Commission and city each get one appointment, and for the other three appointments to be chosen jointly.
Both the city and county believe the Board should continue to serve both entities, but it likely needs to be restructured, in part because new legislation requires them to be governed by a body of elected officials. However, “governing body” is not defined in the legislation.
The body could be the Havre Mayor, the City Council, the County Commission, or even a new group that is created specifically to govern the board.
Discussions on renewing the interlocal agreement and restructuring the Board are expected to continue in the months to come.
Other items of discussion:
- Berg says that the rate of new COVID cases remains very low in Hill County as of now, and the vast majority of new cases in the state that are sequenced continue to be the main Omicron variant. They do not have a need for dedicated contact tracers at the moment, but the funds allocated by the Commission are now available and have been received. Berg says the Hill County Health Department still has COVID vaccines available, but only the Moderna vaccines are being stored at their facility. This is because their pharmaceutical fridge is out of order. There were tens of thousands of dollars worth of items in the fridge at the time it stopped working, nearly all of which were salvaged and taken to storage at Northern Montana Hospital. The exception is about 100 flu vaccines.
- Berg says they are seeing an uptick in influenza A as well as gonorrhea. When it comes to gonorrhea, they are increasing their testing and treatment efforts.
- Family Planning is preparing for their funding source to be switched over to Bridgercare later this year, but clients should not expect any changes to services
- Women Infants and Children (WIC) services can continue to be conducted both in person or over the phone through at least October, and increased stipends for fruits and vegetables have been extended through September.
- Berg said that the presence of Avian Flu has been detected in birds as close as Toole County. It is not easily spread to humans and no symptomatic cases in humans have been reported in Montana yet, but the situation will continue to be monitored.
- Sanitarian Clay Vincent said they have yet to receive any applications for his eventual replacement. He said the salary listed in the application is lower than many other counties and should be looked at. He also expressed concern about Senate Bill 199, which he says allows anyone to sell homemade foods without meat with no inspection. He also said he was worried about the increase in vaping among youth, something that many others in attendance agreed with.
- Disease Intervention Specialist Brandi Williams said that she recently attended a naloxone training program, and is now able to train others. The naloxone is a nasal spray that is used when someone appears to be overdosing on opioids. Williams said she will be looking at a way to provide training to people who deal with particularly impacted communities, and also provide them with naloxone to use if needed. This may be able to be done with state funding, and more information will be provided as it becomes available. Currently, the Health Department has a limited amount of naloxone available.
