By Rich Wicks | Times Vedette
During the Dec. 23 regular meeting of the Guthrie County Board of Supervisors, Health Service Director Jotham Arber updated the supervisors on plans to add a mental health therapist in an office in Stuart.
“We sent out those mental health budgets to the Board of Health, and they approved them. They wanted a few changes,” Arber said.
He explained that the plan is to hire a therapist to see patients in an office in Stuart but added that the owner/landlord is seeking a three-year lease rather than yearly with auto-renewal.
There was discussion that the proposed new clinic would not get paid if/when Medicaid or Medicare patients are “no shows” for appointments.
“I don’t think we want to over-extend ourselves,” Supervisor Mike Dickson said.
Arber said he will prepare budgets to bring to the supervisors. No formal action was taken at this time.
“I want to make sure that it’s sustainable, not just for right now or the next five years, but for 10, 15, 20 years,” Arber said.
The consent agenda was approved by a 3-2 vote, with Brian Johnson and Dickson voting against. The claims and payroll information had not been sent to the supervisors on Friday, Dec. 20, so there had been little time to review the information.
No members of the public spoke during the Public Comments portion of the meeting.
The next regular meeting of the supervisors will be Tuesday, Dec. 31 at 9 a.m. The public is welcome to attend in person or via remote technology. To join remotely, call 323-792-6123, then use meeting code 547029216#.