Hinsdale County and Mineral County are pretty similar. They’re right next to each other, have comparable populations, and if their county commissioners work things out, might have the same public health district.
Susan Thompson is the chair of the Hinsdale Board of County Commissioners.
“We were approached by Mineral County,” says Thompson, “and between the two counties, we thought it would be a good way to have an economy of service, to work on grants together. We do other things as a combined effort. We thought it would be a good way for both of our communities to get all the services we need for public health, and do it through an economy of scale.”
The two boards had discussed merging things since last summer. Recently though, they hit a road block.
“As counties, we were completely in agreement on how we wanted to do it, unfortunately the statute did not allow us to do it the way we wanted to, and both thought was fair,” says Thompson.
The issue is a state statute that says that if Hinsdale and Mineral County districts merge, they’d have to split costs proportionally based on population. That would leave Hinsdale on the hook for more money than they’re prepared for, more than the two counties agreed on previously.
As long as that statute remains, this merger, which could be a huge cost saving move, is on hold.
Tara Hardy is the current public health director for Mineral and Hinsdale County. Mineral lost their director, so Hardy has taken over both districts.
“I think one of the key things of this, and why I’m not discouraged,” says Hardy, “is because even though we’re not technically a district right now, the commissioners value this combined approach, so we’re going to continue operating with myself as a single director over two county agencies through contractual agreements.”
Hardy and Thompson are both optimistic about the future of the merger. The hope now is that the County Commissioners will be able to tweak the state statute, allowing them to work out their own terms.
