HomeMy WebLinkAboutHealth Board - Minutes - 10/11/2016BAYFIELD COUNTY
BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING
Tuesday, October 11, 2016 – 4:30 PM
Bayfield County Annex Building EOC
Present: Jeremy Oswald, Wayne Williams, Fred Strand; Ellen Braddock, Rachel Coughtry
Absent: Elaine Kopp, Dr. Deb Dryer, Brian Goodwin
Staff: Sara Wartman, Cathy Moore, Brandon Rohrig
Others: Ted Eastlund
1. Call the Meeting to Order: The meeting was called to order at 4:30 pm by Chairman Strand.
2. Approval of August 9, 2016 Meeting Minutes: A motion to approve the minutes of the August 9,
2016 meeting was made by Williams; motion seconded by Braddock. Motion carried.
3. Public Comment: Ted Eastlund was in attendance. He represents the Lake Association in the Barnes
area. He thanked the Health Board and County Board for everything that is being done in regard to
the CAFO and protecting our environment. He is here to just listen.
4. Review of Third Quarter Budget Report: The budget is on track. Currently our expenditures are at
67 percent and our revenues are at 57 percent. Revenues lag due to the time it takes to get payment
on the grants.
5. Review and Possible Action Regarding the Human Health Hazard Ordinance: The Health
Department Director is proposing a more defined Human Health Hazard Ordinance for Bayfield
County. This has been in the development stage for quite some time. The State Statute is very broad
in its definitions. Ordinances from many counties were used as a template to put together a Human
Health Hazard Ordinance that is specific to Bayfield County. Most counties have a Human Health
Hazard Ordinance specific to their county. Corporate Council has been reviewing the ordinance and
making corrections / revisions as necessary. The ordinance and its changes were reviewed by the
Board. A motion to approve the Human Health Hazard Ordinance as presented and forward to the
Full County Board for adoption was made by Braddock; motion seconded by Oswald. Motion
carried.
6. Well Water Testing Program Update: The Health Department is conducting a program of testing
well water in Bayfield County. The Department received a Coastal Management Grant to test wells
in the Lake Superior Basin. The purpose of the grant is to test for contaminants in the water such as
bacteria, heavy metals, nitrate and other possible contaminants. Towns such as Cable, Drummond
and Barnes do not fall in the Lake Superior Basin. Funds were allocated by the County to pay for
well testing. We are using these funds to pay for well testing in areas that are outside the Lake
Superior Basin. We are more than half way through the testing program. Residents from all over the
county are taking advantage of the program. If we find there are areas where we have not had a good
response, we will do outreach to residents in those areas.
Beach monitoring is done for the year.
We are looking for options to fund the hydrogeological atlas. There are funds through Bayfield
County Land Conservation to pay for capping abandoned wells. We are starting to send out results of
the well water testing. People can contact the sanitarians if they have questions.
We are looking at partnering with Bayfield County Land Records to see if they would be interested in
the well water data to use in their GIS program.
7. Strategic Planning Update: The process can take time. We develop a more focused direction by
doing a Strategic Plan. We came up with some goals and strategies in the two sessions but the staff
felt they could finalize the goals and objectives with one more session. Some items that were brought
up were greater outreach to rural Bayfield County, more programs for the aging population, and that
we have so many different programs and not enough staff and staff time to do them all. One of the
goals we need to work on is how to be available to the public, expand services and provide quality
service with the current level of staffing. One thing we do want to focus on is internal and external
communication. This plan is for the next three to five years. We are planning to become an
accredited health department. Doing a strategic plan is part of that process. The Plan needs to done
by January 1, 2017.
8. Grant Updates: We are looking for funding to pay for Madeline Gotkowitz’s Hydrogeological Atlas
Study. The Hydrogeological Atlas Study creates a database of groundwater in Bayfield County. It
includes information on such things as groundwater flow and depth-to-bedrock. We are looking to
team up with Land Records to do the mapping. USGS (Madeline’s) proposal for creating this atlas is
$101,000. We are looking for another Coastal Management grant to help with the cost. It may take 2
to 3 years to finish the atlas. We are aiming for working segments with measurable goals each year.
WIC recently went through an audit. Barb Pevytoe, Northern Regional WIC monitor, is happy with
how the program is going and that our client count is up. We have been trying to put more
information on our Facebook page and we have been doing more face to face and social media
outreach. We are also doing some print ads. We are starting to build community partnerships with
entities such as Early Head Start.
The Community Opportunity Grant is at a standstill while we are trying to hire a part-time nurse.
9. Immunization Clinic Update: We will be doing mass vaccination clinics in the schools for
influenza. We will also be doing mass clinics for other vaccinations such as DTaP, Tdap, Hepatitis
A, Hepatitis B, HPV, etc. We will have flu clinics at our office, at senior meal sites around the
county, at the WIC Office and other sites around Bayfield County. We tried to coordinate with other
organizations to find out other areas they felt we should hold a clinic. Most of the flu clinics are done
in October; there are only a few in November.
10. Review and Possible Action on the Following Policies and Procedures: Part of becoming
accredited is to have the department policies and procedures reviewed and revised every 5 years.
Some of our policies and procedures have not been updated in a very long time, well over 5 years.
When rewriting policies or creating new ones we would like the Health Board to approve them. The
three policies that have been updated are the WIC Office Severe Weather Plan, the WIC Office
Evacuation Plan and Accessing SPHERE Birth Records. The Director explained the purpose of the
policies and procedures. A motion to approve the policies and procedures as presented was made by
Coughtry; motion seconded by Oswald. Motion carried.
11. Review and Possible Action Regarding Inactivation of the Following Policies and Procedures:
As with updating policies and procedures there are some that need to be inactivated either because we
no longer perform the service or the program no longer exists. Again, we would like the Board to
approve our inactivation of these policies and procedures. The Director explained why these policies
and procedures were being inactivated. The three we would like to inactivate are the Wisconsin Well
Women Program (WWWP), Seal-A-Smile Policy Statement and Paternity Testing (Buccal Swab
Specimen). The Director’s intention is to store the inactivated policies and procedures in a historical
folder on the K drive and dispose of the paper copies. Only the current policies and procedures would
be in the policy and procedure binder. A motion to inactivate the policies and procedures as
presented was made by Oswald; motion seconded by Coughtry. Motion carried.
12. Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Updating Department Policies: The Director is having
staff review policies. If a new policy and / or procedure is created or if an existing policy and / or
procedure has major revisions the Director and the Board felt this should be brought before the Board
for approval. Those with minor revisions such as spelling, grammar or changes that do not affect the
intent of the policy and / or procedure need not be brought to the Board for approval. The Board
would also like to review policies and / or procedures for mandated services.
13. Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Committee Meeting Times: Meeting dates and times
were discussed by the Board. The consensus is the meetings will remain the second Tuesday of every
other month on the even months but the time will be changed to 5:00 pm.
14. Next Meeting Date: December 13, 2016 at 5:00 pm in the EOC.
15. Other Issues: None
16. Adjourn: 5:44
Respectfully Submitted
Cathy Moore
Office Manager