FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Carolyn
Marinan, Communications, 612-348-5969
County Board actions
On Tuesday, the board voted to move ahead with elections upgrades, expanded mental health crisis services, appointed an acting administrator for Public Works and accepted a grant for a new dental clinic at HCMC.
Elections equipment, office upgrades move forward with e-poll books, space to process absentee ballots
The County Board approved a $4.5 million contract with
KNOWiNK Election Software. The plan to replace paper voter rosters with electronic
poll books will provide increased consistency and efficiencies and will provide
critical communication on Election Day, essential to the managing and
processing absentee ballots in a timely manner. Secure, wireless communication
will allow Hennepin County to update polling place rosters with the most
current absentee ballot status information without interrupting or delaying
operations in the polling place.
In a separate action, the board also approved the schematic
design for new Elections office space at 701 South 4th Avenue, Minneapolis.
This project includes design, construction and furnishings needed to renovate
the 18th floor to meet the new requirements of expanded absentee ballot
processing tasks during election seasons, and to serve as multipurpose flex
work and conference space for countywide use at other times.
Learn
more about the e-poll book initiative.
Learn
more about plans for new Elections offices.
The County Board accepted a grant of nearly $743,000 from the
Minnesota Department of Human Services to continue and expand the county’s
mobile mental health crisis services for adult and children. The allocation
replaces the Children’s Crisis and West Metro Adult Crisis grants, and includes
a $340,321 increase over the 2015 allocation. The program will add two
full-time equivalent positions to improve coverage and make other improvements
to address access, timeliness and cultural competence.
Learn
more about the grant.
Learn more
about Hennepin County’s mobile mental health crisis services.
The board appointed Carl Michaud acting
assistant county administrator of Public Works. He fills the position recently held by Debra Brisk, who resigned the position last month. For many years, Carl has
led the Environmental Services department and has a keen understanding of this
work as well as the departments in Public Works. This acting appointment
is effective immediately.
A $4.6 million grant will fund the Delta Dental Oral Health Center at HCMC, to be located in the hospital's new $220.8
million clinic and specialty building. The grant will also fund
in-clinic dental services for the highly complex patients who receive care in
the HCMC Coordinated Care Clinic. The clinic will see and treat the
85 percent of
HCMC’s dental patients who are covered by public programs, are uninsured, or
qualify as low-income residents. In addition, the clinic will provide enhanced
patient-centered care for all patients, especially children and people with
special needs. The Delta Dental Oral Health Center at HCMC will increase oral health care access by approximately 60 percent, to reach 27,500 patient visits a year.
For more information, read the full news release.
Capitol Budgeting Task Force:
The board appointed two at-large members.
Library Board
The board selected two alt-large members. One more will be appointed at the next meeting.
- Jonathan Gaw
- Caitlin Cahil (incumbent)
Learn more about opportunities to get involved in Hennepin County citizen advisory boards.
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Look for more news on
the Hennepin County website at www.hennepin.us/news.
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