By Rich Wicks | Times Vedette
During the Oct. 6 meeting of the Guthrie County Board of Supervisors, Health Services Director Jotham Arber described his draft of a proposal for Guthrie County to be designated as the lead entity for the public health district.
“The thought here is to go over the application before we submit it on Thursday,” Arber said. “The district would cover from Guthrie over to Pottawattamie and down, all 14 of those counties.”
Arber noted that in this corner of Iowa, many counties already have shared public health departments.
“We have a combined district, as in, there are two health departments for six counties. So we have Adair-Audubon-Guthrie. We’ve got Taylor-Adams-Ringgold. We’ve got Fremont-Mills. So those are all combined,” he said. Arber noted that the proposal would stipulate having a representative from each county in the district.
Arber explained the general timeline as he understands it.
“We will submit this by noon on Thursday, and then we should know by November who they have selected. Once that happens, then contracts will be drawn up,” he said, adding that service would be set to begin Jan. 1.
County Auditor Dani Fink summarized her Fiscal Year 2026 annual financial report. After the review, the supervisors approved the report. Fink also summarized her Fiscal Year 2027 first quarter financial report.
The supervisors meet regularly on Tuesdays at 9 a.m. The public is welcome to attend in person at the courthouse or via remote technology. To join remotely, call 323-792-6123, then use meeting code 547029216#.