County agrees to help bring dentist to town

By: 
Jason Ferguson

It appears the residents of Custer are only a city council vote away from welcoming a new dentist to town almost two years after Destination Dentistry closed up shop.
At the Nov. 18 meeting of the Custer County Commission, the commission unanimously approved committing $5,075 a year for the next four years to assist the Custer Area Economic Development Corporation (CAEDC) in recruiting a dentist to Custer.
Tanya Olson, secretary for CAEDC, gave a presentation to the commission about the potential recruiting of a dentist through the S.D. Department of Health’s Recruitment Assistance Program, an incentive program designed to attract medical professionals to rural areas lacking them. Olson said not only does the CAEDC qualify for getting assistance in bringing a dentist to town, but there is a dentist willing to start a practice here.
To be eligible, a community must have a population of 10,000 or less and cannot be located within a 20-mile radius extending from the center of a city of 50,000 or more, while also having an unmet provider need.
The current contract amount for a dentist is $243,643. The state would be responsible for $182,725.50, which it pays at the end of the contract period. The rest of the money is to be paid by the community to which the dentist will relocate. That total is $60,908.50.
Olson said the CAEDC proposes to split the community portion of the incentive between the City of Custer, Custer County and the CAEDC, to be paid to the dentist over four years. Each entity would be responsible for $5,075.70 per year.
A letter from the CAEDC says it would enter into an agreement with the dentist with similar criteria to the state; generally, as long as the dentist meets the criteria, they are eligible for the grant money each year from the community. If the dentist leaves the community before the end of the contract period of three years, they must repay any funds already received.
Olson said the money would help purchase dental equipment and assist the practice in getting set up in the same building on 5th Street in which Destination Dentistry operated.
However, the entire building would not be used for the dentist office, Olson said. Some would become professional suites.
Olson said bringing the dentist in would add several professional jobs in town, such as hygenists, while adding the contract for the dentist would be with CAEDC, with the county and city (if it agrees) paying money to CAEDC.
“We think it’s a win-win and we hope you do, too,” Olson said.
The dentist would be Dr. Kari Bolen, DDS, an 11-year veteran of dentistry who practices in Sioux Falls. She graduated from Creighton University School of Dentistry in 2009 and holds a bachelor’s degree of biology and Spanish from Augustana University.
Commissioner Mike Linde questioned why a dentist can’t be brought to Custer without the financial incentives. Olson speculated the cost of starting a practice, getting equipment and cost of living as potential reasons. She said CAEDC contacted area dentists about opening a satellite office in Custer, but had no takers. She said former Custer dentist Dan Custis has been advertising nationally and locally through dental associations in an effort to bring a dentist to town, to no avail.
“It’s kind of a bad precedent,” Linde said of using money to bring a dentist to town. “I don’t know if our job is to bring jobs to town.”
Commissioner Mark Hartman said he doesn’t typically support throwing money at such things, but liked the team effort aspect of the proposal in that the CAEDC, county and city would all put money toward the effort, should both the county and city approve funds for the program. All of the commissioners agreed a dentist is needed in town.
The commission unanimously approved committing the money, sans Linde, who abstained from the vote, saying he was neither for or against the motion to approve.
In other news from the Nov. 18 meeting, the commission:
• Heard from Sheriff Marty Mechaley, who spoke about the pilot program the county has been a part of that sees the use of tablets for county residents who are suffering mental health issues.
Under the program, when the sheriff’s office responds to a call where mental health issues are present, the person is given a tablet and connected with a mental health professional in Sioux Falls. They are allowed to talk to the professional away from deputies.
The program has been a tremendous success, Mechaley said, as 70 percent of those put in front of the tablet are not committed to a mental health facility, but rather, are able to talk things out and develop a plan for coping strategies. Mechaley said it takes the sheriff’s office out of providing mental health duties and puts it into the hands of someone more qualified.
Mechaley said the sheriff’s office has as many as three mental health calls per day and Custer County was the number one user of the program last month and the number three user in September of the 25 agencies chosen for the pilot program.
The program has been free, paid for through the Helmsley Charitable Trust. Mechaley hopes the program continues and is launched statewide, estimating it has saved the county 30 man-hours of work as well as gas money and depreciation on vehicles when deputies transfer people to mental health facilities, sometime as far away as Yankton.
• Heard from District 30 Rep. Tim Goodwin, who believes the recently-passed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in July is unconstitutional because it packaged three different things—recreational marijuana, hemp and medicinal marijuana—in a single constitutional amendment. He believes the amendment was bundled that way on purpose, so farmers (hemp), proponents of medicinal marijuana and proponents of recreational marijuana would all vote in favor of it. He also pointed out that the state voted on medicinal marijuana twice, through both the amendment vote and an initiated measure.
Goodwin said he would like to see recreational marijuana go to an up or down vote as a single issue on a ballot.
Goodwin also touched on the shuttered State Treatment and Rehabilitation (STAR) Academy, saying he wants to see it become a mental health facility, pointing to Mechaley’s earlier discussion as proof there needs to be one on this side of the state. He said he plans to talk to Gov. Kristi Noem about the issue.
• Approved a new county highway department snow removal and sanding policy, which states there will be no snow removal operations conducted on non-county system roads unless there is a “dire emergency, all other methods have been exhausted and the county commission has authorized such activity.”

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