Commissioners Approve Revised Fee Schedule For Health Department
January 31, 2023 at 10:35 p.m.
Commissioners Approve Revised Fee Schedule For Health Department
By David [email protected]
That changed Tuesday after Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver presented to the County Commissioners a revised fee schedule.
“At the beginning of every year, I try to take a look at the health department’s ordinances and permits we issue, certificates. Just try to see if everything’s OK for another year. And everything’s fine, but our fee schedule has stuck out as being something I think that needs updating. The last time it was updated was 2013,” he said.
Weaver contacted other surrounding health departments for a comparison and said they were all a “bit different” than Kosciusko County’s fees.
Commissioner Cary Groninger said he looked through Weaver’s proposed new fee schedule and comparison to other counties. He said Kosciusko County’s fees were a bit less than the other counties and will continue to be even with an increase.
The Commissioners approved the new fee schedule.
Under the new fee schedule, birth and death certificates, paternity affidavits and genealogy reports are $10 each. Birth certificates were $7, death certificates were $5 and paternity affidavits were $10.
Food service establishments yearly permits are $50, up from $20; daily food permits, $15, up from $3; septic system permits, $50, up from $25; and private well permits, $25, including water test, up from $10.
Immunization validation is $1; there’s no fee for routine vaccinations for insurance or Medicaid eligible; and only an administration fee for underinsured or no insurance. Travel vaccines are an administration fee plus the cost of the vaccine. A TB test is the cost of the material.
Weaver’s information to the Commissioners compared Kosciusko’s fees to Elkhart, Marshall, Noble, Fulton, Wabash and Whitley counties, all of which are generally higher than Kosciusko’s. The annual food permits in the other counties ranged from $100 to $250, while septic permits ranged from $60 to $190. Birth and death certificates ranged from $10 to $15 each.
In other business, the Commissioners:
• Conducted a Board of Finance meeting.
Commissioner Bob Conley was elected president and Treasurer Michelle Puckett was elected as secretary.
Puckett gave the Commissioners an investment report for 2022.
In 2021, she said the county earned $386,000 in interest, while in 2022 the county earned $1.94 million in interest, an increase of $1.52 million.
“The total interest collected is spread over 12 different funds, with the majority of that being placed in the county general fund,” Puckett said. “While the county does not currently have traditional investments, we do receive federal funds plus rate from municipal funds down at Lake City Bank general operating account, which is typically 40 points higher than any other interest rate that is available under investments.”
She said the county ended 2022 with an interest rate on its account of 4.73%.
“So we will continue to monitor those rates to make sure we’re responsibly keeping them in the account for that investment. If those rates start going down really quickly, and we can see that’s a new trend, it would probably be wise for us to go forward and look for a traditional investment where we can lock in a rate, but, right now, in the environment we’re in, when that rate continues to increase, this is the best use to collect those interest dollars for the county,” Puckett stated.
Finally, the last order of business she had for the Board of Finance was the cancellation of checks. Every year, the Commissioners are presented all the warrants that were on behalf of the county that are more than two years old and the funds are put back into the accounts from which they were written.
She presented a total of 70 checks Tuesday that were written prior to 2022 for a total of $6,206.57. The Commissioners approved cancelling the checks.
• Approved for Kosciusko County Community Corrections Director Barry Andrew to apply for a $350,755 community corrections grant and an $82,746 Drug Court grant. He also will seek the County Council’s approval on the grant applications at their Feb. 9 meeting.
Andrew also told the Commissioners he received a last-minute request for an appointment to the Indiana Community Corrections Association as a voting member for the ICCA’s board of directors. He needed a signature from the Commissioners on a letter for him to send back, which the Commissioners approved.
“Congratulations on that. That’s an honor,” Commissioner Brad Jackson told Andrew.
• Approved Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Chris McKeand’s request to apply for a $15,000 Indiana Department of Natural Resources Marine Patrol Assistance Grant.
“It’s a grant that we participated in since the inception of the grant itself through the DNR,” McKeand said. “What it does is it supplements our budget for the actual lake patrol we do here in Kosciusko County.”
He said the grant is for $15,000, with $12,500 of that for enforcement - for officers to be on the lake - and the remaining $2,500 for the boat slip for the boat KCSD has on Lake Wawasee. McKeand said they also have a boat on Tippecanoe Lake as well, but that is taken care of without grant funding.
• Approved two applications for inclusion of territory into the Tippecanoe-Chapman Lakes Regional Sewer District, as presented by architecture and engineering firm Jones Petrie Rafinski. Both are individual lot petitions and voluntary from the property owners who want to be included in the project.
The first one was from the Stopher Family Trust and is an undeveloped lot near Forest Glen and Stanton Road. They’re expecting to build in the next few years and agreed to pay a debt service portion of the project to have a grinder station installed on the property. The cost of the service - about $31,000 - will be included in the project and not necessarily borne by the property owner.
The second one is on Chapman Lake and is property owned by John and Amber McDowell. It is immediately adjacent to the sewer district. Because of the timing of when this request came in after construction, the property owner will be responsible to pay those costs of about $13,701, but they would be included in the project.
Both applications were approved by the engineering committee and the board of directors.
• Heard the first formal update on the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board from Board President Rob Bishop. The board was created and started in 2022. Bishop was joined by fellow board members Aggie Sweeney, Mike Cusick and Troy Turley. Fifth member Matt Metzger was unavailable.
Bishop said they’re working with MACOG (Michiana Area Council of Governments) to generate their master plan. Most of the grants the Parks Board would like to pursue requires a master plan to be in place. Deadline for the master plan is April 15.
One of the next steps the board will be doing as part of its parks plan will be to host three public meetings in March - one in the northern part of the county, one in the middle and one south. Bishop said those dates, times and locations will be published to get the public’s input.
• Approved the appointment of Katie Wonderly to the Pierceton & Washington Township Library Board to serve out the remainder of an unnamed board member’s term, which expires July 30, 2024.
That changed Tuesday after Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver presented to the County Commissioners a revised fee schedule.
“At the beginning of every year, I try to take a look at the health department’s ordinances and permits we issue, certificates. Just try to see if everything’s OK for another year. And everything’s fine, but our fee schedule has stuck out as being something I think that needs updating. The last time it was updated was 2013,” he said.
Weaver contacted other surrounding health departments for a comparison and said they were all a “bit different” than Kosciusko County’s fees.
Commissioner Cary Groninger said he looked through Weaver’s proposed new fee schedule and comparison to other counties. He said Kosciusko County’s fees were a bit less than the other counties and will continue to be even with an increase.
The Commissioners approved the new fee schedule.
Under the new fee schedule, birth and death certificates, paternity affidavits and genealogy reports are $10 each. Birth certificates were $7, death certificates were $5 and paternity affidavits were $10.
Food service establishments yearly permits are $50, up from $20; daily food permits, $15, up from $3; septic system permits, $50, up from $25; and private well permits, $25, including water test, up from $10.
Immunization validation is $1; there’s no fee for routine vaccinations for insurance or Medicaid eligible; and only an administration fee for underinsured or no insurance. Travel vaccines are an administration fee plus the cost of the vaccine. A TB test is the cost of the material.
Weaver’s information to the Commissioners compared Kosciusko’s fees to Elkhart, Marshall, Noble, Fulton, Wabash and Whitley counties, all of which are generally higher than Kosciusko’s. The annual food permits in the other counties ranged from $100 to $250, while septic permits ranged from $60 to $190. Birth and death certificates ranged from $10 to $15 each.
In other business, the Commissioners:
• Conducted a Board of Finance meeting.
Commissioner Bob Conley was elected president and Treasurer Michelle Puckett was elected as secretary.
Puckett gave the Commissioners an investment report for 2022.
In 2021, she said the county earned $386,000 in interest, while in 2022 the county earned $1.94 million in interest, an increase of $1.52 million.
“The total interest collected is spread over 12 different funds, with the majority of that being placed in the county general fund,” Puckett said. “While the county does not currently have traditional investments, we do receive federal funds plus rate from municipal funds down at Lake City Bank general operating account, which is typically 40 points higher than any other interest rate that is available under investments.”
She said the county ended 2022 with an interest rate on its account of 4.73%.
“So we will continue to monitor those rates to make sure we’re responsibly keeping them in the account for that investment. If those rates start going down really quickly, and we can see that’s a new trend, it would probably be wise for us to go forward and look for a traditional investment where we can lock in a rate, but, right now, in the environment we’re in, when that rate continues to increase, this is the best use to collect those interest dollars for the county,” Puckett stated.
Finally, the last order of business she had for the Board of Finance was the cancellation of checks. Every year, the Commissioners are presented all the warrants that were on behalf of the county that are more than two years old and the funds are put back into the accounts from which they were written.
She presented a total of 70 checks Tuesday that were written prior to 2022 for a total of $6,206.57. The Commissioners approved cancelling the checks.
• Approved for Kosciusko County Community Corrections Director Barry Andrew to apply for a $350,755 community corrections grant and an $82,746 Drug Court grant. He also will seek the County Council’s approval on the grant applications at their Feb. 9 meeting.
Andrew also told the Commissioners he received a last-minute request for an appointment to the Indiana Community Corrections Association as a voting member for the ICCA’s board of directors. He needed a signature from the Commissioners on a letter for him to send back, which the Commissioners approved.
“Congratulations on that. That’s an honor,” Commissioner Brad Jackson told Andrew.
• Approved Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Chris McKeand’s request to apply for a $15,000 Indiana Department of Natural Resources Marine Patrol Assistance Grant.
“It’s a grant that we participated in since the inception of the grant itself through the DNR,” McKeand said. “What it does is it supplements our budget for the actual lake patrol we do here in Kosciusko County.”
He said the grant is for $15,000, with $12,500 of that for enforcement - for officers to be on the lake - and the remaining $2,500 for the boat slip for the boat KCSD has on Lake Wawasee. McKeand said they also have a boat on Tippecanoe Lake as well, but that is taken care of without grant funding.
• Approved two applications for inclusion of territory into the Tippecanoe-Chapman Lakes Regional Sewer District, as presented by architecture and engineering firm Jones Petrie Rafinski. Both are individual lot petitions and voluntary from the property owners who want to be included in the project.
The first one was from the Stopher Family Trust and is an undeveloped lot near Forest Glen and Stanton Road. They’re expecting to build in the next few years and agreed to pay a debt service portion of the project to have a grinder station installed on the property. The cost of the service - about $31,000 - will be included in the project and not necessarily borne by the property owner.
The second one is on Chapman Lake and is property owned by John and Amber McDowell. It is immediately adjacent to the sewer district. Because of the timing of when this request came in after construction, the property owner will be responsible to pay those costs of about $13,701, but they would be included in the project.
Both applications were approved by the engineering committee and the board of directors.
• Heard the first formal update on the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board from Board President Rob Bishop. The board was created and started in 2022. Bishop was joined by fellow board members Aggie Sweeney, Mike Cusick and Troy Turley. Fifth member Matt Metzger was unavailable.
Bishop said they’re working with MACOG (Michiana Area Council of Governments) to generate their master plan. Most of the grants the Parks Board would like to pursue requires a master plan to be in place. Deadline for the master plan is April 15.
One of the next steps the board will be doing as part of its parks plan will be to host three public meetings in March - one in the northern part of the county, one in the middle and one south. Bishop said those dates, times and locations will be published to get the public’s input.
• Approved the appointment of Katie Wonderly to the Pierceton & Washington Township Library Board to serve out the remainder of an unnamed board member’s term, which expires July 30, 2024.
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