Irma storm damage could pinch Macon-Bibb’s pocketbooks

Macon-Bibb County leaders will have a better gauge in October on how costly Tropical Storm Irma will be to the county’s pocketbooks.

Interim County Manager Julie Moore said it’s still unknown how much debris needs to be collected. But at $20 per cubic yard for removal and with likely tens of thousands of cubic yards of debris in Macon-Bibb, the price tag will greatly change in coming weeks.

The county is also calculating the final tally for overtime incurred during Irma relief efforts, Moore said at Tuesday’s County Commission meeting.

For the remaining debris left to be removed, Macon-Bibb has contracted with a company to help speed up the process.

“Until (the contractor) gets on the ground... and give some sort of perspective, I would be just guessing on a number,” Moore said about the cost.

Macon-Bibb must follow Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines — such as using a debris monitor — to be reimbursed for the removal of trees damaged by Irma. With Hurricane Harvey and other natural disasters in recent weeks, the county is preparing in case it doesn’t receive as much money as it has in the past, Mayor Robert Reichert.

“The demands for storm relief are huge,” he said. “(Washington, D.C., legislators) are having a vigorous debate about raising the debt ceiling to cover FEMA’s expense. It wouldn’t be beyond my wildest imagination that FEMA doesn’t have the money to reimburse us.”

County officials also discussed ways to continue informing residents about how to properly place its debris by their curbs.

“They cannot take it to one of the collection sites because they’re not authorized to bring it in,” Reichert said. “People cannot dispose it themselves. They’ll have to stack it up and wait for us to get it.”

Budget woes

The County Commission’s Operations and Fiance Committee supported using $3.3 million of reserves to cover the fiscal 2017 budget.

The supplemental requests come as various county departments dealt with issues such overtime, maintenance and vehicle repairs going over budget.

The County Commission will also discuss next month making some changes to the fiscal 2018 budget that went into effect July 1.

“We have a large increase to our utility costs ,which we had not calculated in our budget,” Moore said about last fiscal year’s budget. “We had some transfer out to funds that will cause us to step back and look see what they’re doing for 2018.”

Health insurance

In a 3-2 vote, the commission’s Operations and Finance Committee moved ahead a resolution Tuesday addressing health insurance costs.

The recommendations were in response to medical claims in 2017 tracking about $2 million higher than last year, according to BB&T and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

There was one significant change to the measure as the committee removed some changes for certain prescription drugs, including not charging a flat $200 co-pay for high price “specialty” drugs.

The modifications made Tuesday likely means the county realizes fewer than $100,000 in savings, instead of $650,000 in a year, a BB&T Insurance Services official said Tuesday.

The recommendations that were approved by the committee as part of Tuesday’s resolution include:

▪  Doubling the co-pay for emergency room visits and lowering the co-pay for urgent care;

▪  Eliminating co-pay for “LiveHealth Online,” a service that allows patients to speak with doctors through video capabilities on smartphones, tablets or computers;

▪  Having half of a prescription filled when a patient is using an “extremely expensive” specialty medication for the first time.

Voting in favor of the resolution were Commissioners Scotty Shepherd, Larry Schlesinger and Gary Bechtel. Commissioners Virgil Watkins and Elaine Lucas voted against the resolution, saying they rejected the co-pay increase when more outreach is needed to curb issues such as some employees going to the emergency room for non-emergencies.

CPR, First Aid training

The County Commission will have a potentially lifesaving measure on next week’s agenda.

The Public Safety Committee unanimously passed Tuesday a measure on having the county examine the prospects of having all Macon-Bibb government employees trained in first aid, CPR and use of defibrillators.

The county would also look into the costs of placing more defibrillators and first aid kits in Macon-Bibb facilities.

“Maybe it could save someone’s life,” Commissioner Joe Allen said.

This story was originally published September 26, 2017 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Irma storm damage could pinch Macon-Bibb’s pocketbooks."