The airports in Chester and Quincy will benefit from two Federal Aviation Administration grants.

  The Plumas Board of Supervisors approved budgets for both projects during its Dec. 18 meeting.

  Chester’s Rogers Field will receive $536,594 for airfield improvements including resealing and remarking, as well as to cover engineering costs to redesign the apron.

  Gansner Field in Quincy will receive $164,430 for new snow removal equipment.

  Plumas County historically receives sizable grants from the FAA for use and safety issues.

Alcohol and drug

  Public Health Director Mimi Hall discussed seven issues with the supervisors, all related in some way to her new area of responsibility — alcohol and drug.

  Hall told the supervisors that she would normally have just placed the items on the consent agenda, but she wanted to provide an update on the new program so she placed them on the board’s regular agenda.

  The county’s alcohol and drug program receives federal funding to administer assessment programs and one of the requirements is to develop written policies and procedures in many areas, including youth, HIV, perinatal and tuberculosis. She presented the manual for the supervisors to review.

  Hall also asked the board to approve a contract with West Hills Hospital to provide residential treatment services. Though Plumas County contracts with a number of rehab facilities, Hall said that West Hills is a necessary addition because it provides detox services.

  Hall said that the county must contract for “serious, ongoing treatment that we can’t provide.”

  Public health, through its alcohol and drug program, also funds a portion of the salary for a behavioral health therapist in the county’s mental health department.

  During the Dec. 18 meeting, the board approved transferring $46,500 for the position, which provides services for incarcerated individuals or those under supervision as a result of Assembly Bill 109.

  “We are spending a lot of money to treat a handful of people — five or six total so far,” Hall said.

  The department also funds another $103,077 for the adult drug court program. This pays for half of a probation officer’s salary, probation aides and various services and supplies related to drug court.

Probation

  The supervisors spent part of their afternoon session unraveling a request from Chief Probation Officer Sharon Reinert to use $30,059 from the county’s contingency fund to help pay for a probation officer, and another request to fill a vacant position for a supervising probation officer.

  During the budget process, the supervisors had opted not to fund the probation officer position after that individual was promoted to the supervising role. Now the individual wants to return to her former position. Since the position hadn’t been budgeted, Reinert needed the contingency fund contribution.

  Instead, the board told Reinert to pay for the position using the funds allocated for the supervising position, and denied her request to hire an additional employee. The department will now have a vacant supervising position.

       The board told Reinert that they would consider her request again during the mid-year budget review, which will be held early this year.