Brownwood News – The Brown County Commissioners met at 9 a.m. at the Brown County Courthouse on Monday, February 5th, to discuss items posted on the agenda, which included a mid-year update report regarding the county’s health insurance plan.

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The first item to consider was the burn ban: Commissioners agreed burn ban will stay in effect.

Brown County Sheriff Chief Deputy James Stroope presented the annual racial profile report which detailed 566 traffic stops with 422 citations, those stops resulted in 139 arrests, 205 vehicle searches, of which 115 were consented, and 90 probable cause searches.

Chief Stroope also reported there were 149 inmates in the Brown County Jail currently.

Next on the agenda, commissioners heard from the Brown County Family and Community Health Agent Courtney Parrott, asking for approval to use a $307 Healthy County Employer Reward check to be used for upcoming Lunch and Learn opportunities for Brown County employees. The motion was approved.

Parrott reported of 180 Brown County employees, only 24 employees participated in health related challenges issued by the Healthy County program.

Judge West asked which health concerns most affected Brown County employees: Cancer, Congestive Heart Failure, Muscular/Skeletal injuries were the highest reported.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Judge West said, speaking of the healthy program incentives offered to Brown County employees to make positive lifestyle changes to better impact their overall health.

Parrot noted that employee participation in the challenges has been low, but remains hopeful that interest and participation will grow. Registration has started for the next challenge beginning February 12th.

Brown County employee medical claims have exceeded premiums paid for the year, causing a considerable financial impact for the county budget.

Kathy Davenport with Texas Association of Counties, accompanied by Bart Johnson, presented the mid-year renewal reports on the county’s health insurance for the commissioners after Parrot’s presentation.

Both Davenport and Johnson agreed county employee participation in the health challenges offered could help cut back on swelling medical costs.

“You might save anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000,” Bart Johnson said, as he gave an example of getting just one employee’s blood pressure and cholesterol levels under control, preventing a heart attack. Bart called the Healthy County challenges very beneficial for county employees and the county’s budget when it comes to medical costs.

Other items also considered:

• Precinct 2: Application to install private line CR 406, Application was approved
• Precinct 3: Application to install private line CR 327 and CR 321, Application was approved
• District Attorney: Approval of construction for floor supports for the District Attorney file cabinet. $17,552 is needed to install floor supports to accommodate sliding track file cabinets that will better support the weight of the documents currently stored, which is approximately 10 tons. Murray proposed to pay the $17,552 out of forfeiture funds, and the county would pay approximately $2,000 for engineering fees. The motion was approved.
• Karen Opiela, Elections Administrator: Approval of temporary workers used in elections department to assist with the mass mail process of voter registration cards. Over 3,000 voter registration cards were returned due to mail issues. The motion was approved.