Ozark County Commissioners get insurance update, approve purchase of sheriff’s dept. truck

The Ozark County Commissioners met for their regular weekly meeting at 9 a.m. Monday morning in the upper level of the Ozark County Courthouse. Meetings are open to the public, and anyone can attend. 

Presiding Commissioner Terry Newton said the county is still working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to obtain financial assistance for costs the county endured after strong storms earlier this year. Newton said they are on step four of a five step process, but the process is very slow.  

Western District Commissioner Layne Nance gave an update, saying that the lake has receded enough that vehicles are driving across Haskins Ford, a bridged area where County Road 863 crosses the upper reaches of Bull Shoals Lake. “They are crossing Haskins Ford. I’d rather they had not crossed it in cars over the weekend, but two or three said they had taken a car across it and took it real slow,” Nance said. “It’s fell another half foot since then. So, it should be pretty good now.” All other crossings, including Smokey Road (County Road 551B) are also crossable, they report. Haskins Ford and Smokey Road are the two roads that are most often not crossable in the county. 

John McCarty, a representative with the county’s heath insurance provider, Arch Brokerage, gave the commissioners a  mid-year update on its health insurance.

McCarty said the county’s loss ratio is sitting at 69 percent, which he said is “fantastic.”

“It means everything is going just like we want it to,” McCarty said. 

The county’s plan through Arch Brokerage is a “level-funded plan,” a hybrid of a traditional, fully insured plan and a self-insured plan. It has the benefit of having a low financial risk due to a set maximum county out-of-pocket amount and a fixed monthly cost that allows an opportunity to receive a refund payment at the end of the year if claims paid out for that year are low.

McCarty said that he’s in negotiation with another county client, and if he’s able to secure that client, he’s hopeful that another hospital system will create an agreement that would allow a lower tier of service than the county currently has, which means a lower deductible for county employees at some healthcare providers. 

The commissioners and County Clerk Brian Wise said McCarty has been really good with keeping them informed, and they appreciate that.

The commissioners also approved a purchase request by the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department to buy a 2019 Ford Expedition with 37,000 miles on it. It is already fully-outfitted for the sheriff’s department and is offered with a lease option, they say. Fully-decked out for the sheriff’s department’s needs, the truck costs just over $40,000.

“Right now, we don’t have an extra vehicle [at the sheriff’s department]. Some of the older vehicles up there are ones we got when Raymond Pace was sheriff. If something happens, we’re kind of out of luck,” Newton said. 

OCSD Administrative Assistant Curtis Ledbetter said that happened over the weekend.

“One of the Tahoes is at H&W now, and they had to go get Cass’s vehicle just to finish out the weekend shift,” Ledbetter said, referencing Sheriff Cass Martin. Ledbetter says the company they’re leasing the gruck from will ship the vehicle to OCSD, likely at the end of July. 

The courthouse and county offices will be closed Thursday, July 4, for the Fourth of July holiday.