These notes were taken by an Okanogan County Watch volunteer. Every attempt is made to be accurate. Notes are verbatim when possible, and otherwise summarized or paraphrased.
Note takers comments or clarifications are in italics. These notes are not the official county record of the meeting. For officially approved minutes, which are normally published at a later time, CLICK HERE.
The time stamps refer to the times on the AV Capture archive of the meeting on this date at the County livestream archive. To locate items in real time, the clock on the wall in the AV Capture screen can be helpful.
02.14.23 - BOH
Meeting Highlights:
TO HEAR THE AUDIO RECORDING OF THIS MEETING CLICK HERE
New ARPA funds allocated, $500,000 over four years, budget healthy
Nepotism concern: Environmental Health Supervisor replacement can’t be overseeing family member, resolution debated; Organizational chart to be studied, single administrator should
replace administrative team.Requests for variances to go through Health Officer, appeals through Hearings Examiner.
Health Officer Wallace signals growing opioid crisis, affecting schools and rivaling those in larger counties, in spite of strong support programs: peer counselors, food and transportation aid...; behavioral health fragilized by decrease in psychiatric care providers; shortage of care providers and hospital beds persists.
BOH requests blood and urine testing machine to help Coroner determine cause of death; $61,000 “investigative tool” can be shared with law enforcement to avoid long delays from outsourcing; wastewater testing for Covid continues in Brewster, could be widened to include
drug detecting.Septic system application process simplified
Health Board retreat scheduled for March.