County looking for insurance solution

May 27--GIRARD -- The Crawford County Commission continues to struggle with insurance costs for county employees.

Since the beginning of 2017, the county -- which uses a self-insured plan -- has been regularly hit with large claims through employee insurance. The commission has transferred a total of $525,000 -- in 2017 -- out of other county funds to cover insurance costs exceeding what the county makes from monthly premiums.

Transfers have mostly come from available money, exceeding the budgeted, end-of-year carry over for the respective funds. However, it is a concern to the commission. The commission plans to meet Tuesday to discuss options with the county's Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas representative.

"I'm ready to increase premiums right now," Commissioner Jeff Murphy said. "I'd much rather make a change now than when we're about to run out of money."

The commission encouraged county department heads to give their input on an increase in insurance premiums.

Crawford State Park Manager Dave Goble approached the commission with concerns about Crawford County Sewer District No. 4. Goble inquired about the cost of attaching Crawford State Park's system to the sewer district.

Goble also raised concerns about flushing the sewer lines at Crawford State Park. According to Goble, the original specifications for the system call for it to be flushed once per year, but he says it has not been.

"My understanding was that the county does not have the equipment to flush the system, so we would see if the fire district would do it," Goble said. "But no fire district wants to bring their new tanker out to pump sewage or risk over-pressurizing and busting a line."

Goble is also part of the Sherman Township fire district. The district recently purchased a new tanker truck, so Goble offered to sell the old one to the county to be used for flushing purposes.

The commission will consider his proposal.

The commission approved giving a permanent easement to Westar Energy. The easement is located on the very northeast corner of the Homer Cole Community Center and will be used to install and maintain a larger, steel transmission pole. The larger poles are part of Westar's new initiative to connect the Franklin substation and DePaul substation with a new substation in Frontenac.

-- Chance Hoener is a staff writer for the Morning Sun. He can be emailed at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @ReporterChance.

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