Oneida County committees agree to withdraw from tri-county human services agreement

The Oneida County board’s social services and public safety committees, meeting jointly on Aug. 24, agreed to forward a resolution to the full county requesting withdrawal from the current tri-county human services agreement.

Besides Oneida County, the other two counties in the agreement are Forest and Vilas.

“(The three counties are) dissatisfied with the services that are being presented,” social services committee chairman Jim Winkler said. “So the public safety committee and the social services committee met today to discuss the issue, and all three counties are in agreement to withdraw from the human services agreement by the end of next year and either rewrite the contract or do whatever. We don’t know what that looks like yet.”

Winkler explained that “a number of years ago” the tri-county human services board was created to provide services for mental health-related issues for communities in each county and the three Native American Tribes within the counties — Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Forest County Potawatomi and Sokaogon Chippewa Community (Mole Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians).

“And since that time, over the course of the last several years, there have been people who’ve been dissatisfied, and so now it’s being deemed necessary to look at a different structure,” he said, reiterating that changes concerning the human services board have yet to be determined. “This is just a recommendation being forwarded by two committees to go to county board in September, (when) that decision will be made,” he noted.

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].