Health board officially restructured

All three cities have appointed members to the recently-restructured Lincoln County City-County Board of Health as of Wednesday.

The Lincoln County Commissioners on August 24 passed the new bylaws for a restructuring of the Lincoln County City-County Board of Health. Since then, Libby, Troy and Eureka City council voted to adopt the bylaws.

Peter Kitts, former PA from Libby Clinic, was appointed by the Troy City Council on Wednesday this week, completing the board. Kitts lives in the Troy area and is the husband of council member Kimberly Rouse.

Lyn Thompson was officially appointed by the Libby City Council during their Nov. 21 meeting. According to the council minutes, Thompson has worked at Cabinet Peaks Medical Center for 19 years in the lab with an emphasis on microbiology and computer records. Thompson told the council that she worked closely with disease reporting and outbreaks, and felt that her specialty would be preventing infection. She also stressed that she would like to address the drug and alcohol problem in the community. Thompson has worked with the board of health through the Montana Chapter of Professionals in Infection control and through her work in the CPMC lab.

Dr. Nancy Haugan was appointed by the Eureka City Council.

Commissioner Mark Peck was appointed by his fellow commissioners Mike Cole and Greg Larson on the Oct. 12 County Commissioners meeting.

During that same meeting, the county appointed Jan Ivers, George Jamison and Joe Copyak.

The new bylaws include restructuring the board of health members to include three qualified members appointed by the county commissioners, one member of the county commissioners and one appointed by each city council. Each member will serve a three-year staggered term. The board of health will then appoint a chair, vice chair and secretary. The board will meet at least on a quarterly basis with up to 10 public meetings per year.

Before, six of the eight members of the board of health were county commissioners and paid county positions.

The restructuring has two main purposes, Nick Raines, the asbestos resource program manager for the board of health told The Western News in August. The first purpose is to create more of a voice for the towns beyond Libby, Eureka and Troy. The second purpose is to have board members with more experience in the medical field.

The Board of Health has five main duties, including environmental health, animal care and control, solid waste and recycling, asbestos resource program and public health.

The bylaws were reviewed by the county attorneys and presented at a county commissioner meeting in September.