Local COBCO Board Signs 6-Month Deal with Two Rivers Insurance

Des Moines County Supervisor Tom Broeker told his colleagues on the County Board yesterday(Tues) that the “breakup” of Wellmark-Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Two Rivers Insurance will not impact county employees’ health insurance coverage.

COBCO is the cooperative among the county’s municipalities, including the county itself, for insurance purposes, and the COBCO governing board has signed a 6-month contract with Two Rivers..

 

On another front, the frustration was obvious yesterday (Tues) morning, when Des Moines County Supervisor Jim Cary reported on the last Rural Utility Service Systems…RUSS for short…board meeting.  The dissatisfaction has been growing with the cost of “RUSS’s” work to install sanitary sewer systems in small, usually unincorporated towns, like Argyle, Mt. Union and the Mooar/Powdertown area, where an engineer recently estimated the cost of a sewer system could run from 1.8 to 2 1/2-million dollars for 48 homes.

 

Des Moines County is now on the hook for more than $13,000 a year to keep RUSS operating, and that number is sure to rise as other counties refuse to pay and seek to break the 28e agreement that put them all together in the first place.