Building, health, and senior citizen matters occupy Pottawatomie County officials

Pottawatomie County Commissioners and Assistant Public Works Director Jim Jenkins, contemplated their course of action in renovating the current County Appraiser’s Office at the group’s Monday meeting. The decisions in renovating the building are not easy one’s to make after considering it’s depreciation.

Jenkins told the group they can put whatever amount of work into it that they want but the question is when it will be replaced. Improvements can be designed with a target date but the public works official indicated if it needs to last 20 more years they can figure up that would take or if it’s 10 years they can probably figure that.

 No decisions have been made yet.

Interim Health Director Mary Abitz spoke during the meeting about communicable diseases, more specifically Pertussis and the Health Department’s services that treat it. Abitz also spoke about Flu vaccines this year and the decision to stop providing FluMist, a “nasal spray vaccine”. This decision comes after leading experts deemed FluMist widely ineffective.

Silver Haired Legislature member, Ruth Ensley, spoke to Pottawatomie County Commissioners Monday about problems with Kansas retirement funds. Ensley represents Pottawatomie County and over half a million senior citizens in Kansas. She stated seniors are not happy with the Kansas government taking a loan on their hard earned money.

Among the problems listed is a need to examine the cost of living increase and whether it properly reflect today’s costs, as it has not been changed in 20 years.