Grant could improve kids’ dental health in qualifying families

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN CYNTHIA MARTENS
Local children in income-qualifying families could have healthier teeth-at no charge-if their parents take advantage of the opportunity.

At its meeting Tuesday, the Hillsboro City Council voted to accept a teeth-sealant grant from the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund in Hutchinson.

Teeth sealant is a plastic coating that a dentist bonds into the grooves of the chewing surface of a tooth in an in-office procedure. The sealant helps prevent the formation of tooth decay and is an alternative to fluoride-treated drinking water.

“This is for school-age kids with an emphasis on lower income, but not (solely) low income,” said Steven Garrett, city administrator.

The grant is in the amount of $14,700. Garrett said the next step is to work out the details of implementing the program.

The cost of the in-office sealant process would be covered in part by the grant, and the actual application would be handled by two local dentists, Garrett said.

Councilor Len Coryea said he was concerned about “selling” the idea to the community.

In response, Mayor Delores Dalke said, “Why wouldn’t people have their kids’ teeth sealed if it’s for free? It’s up to us-we’re going to try to work with the school people to make sure the word gets out.”

Dalke said the grant would not cover all the expenses of a tooth-sealant program, and the remainder of the financing will have to come from fund-raisers.

“That’s how we applied for it,” Dalke said. “That we would do some local fund-raisers to raise the balance of the money for the families.”

The proposal includes a target date for completing applications by Jan. 31, 2003.

In other matters, the council discussed designating Garrett to fill in the job of public officer that was recently vacated with the recent resignation of Kermit Dirksen.

“In our ordinance, it requires the council to designate a public officer who performs the duties of code enforcement,” Garrett said. “And that designated officer was Kermit Dirksen, who is no longer with us.”

The council voted to appoint Garrett public officer until a replacement can be hired.

“Somebody’s got to do it, so it might as well be me-my name goes on the nasty letters,” Garrett said.

After approving Garrett’s appointment, the council discussed developing two separate job descriptions for the position of public officer-building inspector and code-enforcement officer.

A job description exists for building inspector, but one would have to be developed for code-enforcement officer.

Dalke said: “I would suggest that we don’t approve this tonight-that we approve it in content, but we separate out the two job descriptions. Right now we’re looking for someone full time to fill both of these positions. But we could end up with somebody part time.

“Rather than mixing this all together, I’d like to do two job descriptions. But ideally, we would hire somebody for both jobs.”

Garrett asked council members to bring to the next meeting a list of responsibilities they consider important for the job of code-enforcement officer.

In other business, city council:

recessed into a Public Building Commission Meeting. The commission voted Matt Hiebert as chair, Shelby Dirks as vice chair and Jan Meisinger as secretary. It also approved reimbursing a Hillsboro Community Medical Center invoice of $8,390.83 for two patient lifts. The lifts are used to transfer residents in the long-term-care unit.

approved payment to Countryside Excavating for demolishing and removing two houses previously located at North Washington. Approved separately was $5,200 for the house at 306 N. Washington and $5,500 for one at 309 N. Washington. Rose Mary Saunders, with Reiss & Goodness, said the asbestos was disposed of properly before the Kansas Department of Health and Environment gave permission to demolish the houses.

approved adopting ordinances Nos. 1058 and 1059, which formally make the “2002 Uniform Public Offense Code” (18th edition), and the “2002 Standard Traffic Ordinance for Kansas Cities” (30th edition), respectively, the official regulation source for Hillsboro. Both are produced by the League of Kansas Municipalities.

approved paying $43,183.95 to APAC-Kansas for work on South Washington Street, and drainage improvements serving blocks one through six in Dalke’s Addition. They also approved paying the engineering firm of Reiss & Goodness an inspection invoice of $6,903.75.

“We’ve been on this project over a year,” Coryea said. “I’d like to get it done.”

Garrett said it should be completed next week.

heard from City Engineer Bob Previtera of Reiss & Goodness about the cost of materials for three 36-inch reinforced-concrete culverts to be used on the Commerce Street drainage-improvement project at Hillsboro Industrial Park. Option No. 1-without end sections-would cost $5,083.20. Option No. 2-with end sections-would cost $6,237.60.

“Any one of these two options is probably better than what they’ve got out there now,” Previtera said.

He recommended putting the end sections on, and said: “I suggest they have it surveyed. What I’ve given them now are concepts that show minimum grade requirements and alignment-so I think they’re probably going to need it.”

approved an Emergency Medical Technician scholarship for Michael W. Wadkins of Hillsboro, who agreed to work a minimum of 12 months after certification and take a defibrillator course.

approved a bid from Hi-Plains Sand for street sealing to begin late September or early October on the following streets: Third Street, the 300 block of North Jefferson, North Birch Street, North Cedar Street, B Street, the park turn around and parking area by Adobe House, and Carriage Hills. Their low bid was 65 cents per square yard.

“The measurements I have would be roughly 38,000 square yards,” Garrett said.

“It would be my recommendation that we approve Hi-Plains. Their quote for this year is lower than their quote for last year. I’ve been told Hi-Plains gets in and gets out.”

approved paying $48,510 to Flaming Metal Systems for the city utility building.

appointed Dalke and Garrett as delegates to the League of Kansas Municipalities meeting Oct. 12 to Oct. 15. Alternates are Hiebert and city clerk Meisinger.

heard from Garrett a report about two recent electrical outages.

“Kansas Power & Light kicked us off, and our substation did what it was supposed to do-shut down,” Garrett said.

Garrett said KP&L assure him outages should not be a frequent occurrence in the future.

Coryea asked why outages occur more often when school is in session, and Garrett asked him to document the outages so they can be investigated.

Garrett also reported the Hillsboro Planning Commission will be conducting a community survey after the Hillsboro Arts and Crafts Fair.

“The survey will be interesting-to show us what the community is thinking,” he said.

recessed for executive sessions regarding personnel and acquisition of property.

No business was conducted when the public session resumed.

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