During its Nov. 19 meeting, the Hays County Commissioners Court proclaimed Nov. 20 as Geographic Information System (GIS) Day.
The court recognized GIS Day, which is a national event, in recognition of the work that the Hays County GIS does.
“I know in citizen comments, we had some conversation about our emergency services, and that’s one of the key components that this whole GIS effort is about, is updating 911, making sure we have consistency in phone numbers, and I mean addresses and no overlapping in names or similarities,” Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said.
GIS Analyst Killian Sterling said that the county’s GIS department is essential for numerous aspects of governance in Hays County.
“So in addition to our work within development services, GIS supports, elections, local health, fire marshals, the sheriff’s office and we’re crafting exciting new relationships with other departments like parks and natural resources,” Sterling said.
The commissioner’s court also discussed and approved various changes to employee insurance plans.
The first insurance decision was to renew the county’s Humana Group Medicare Advantage plan for county retirees. The renewal was made unanimously.
The second insurance decision was to migrate the county’s voluntary life insurance coverage from Dearborn to MetLife. The change was approved unanimously.
The offering from MetLife would include an open enrollment period, in which medical requirements for policy coverage would be waived for county employees.
“We will go out to our employees now, with a special announcement that if employees are interested in adding this coverage to their benefits package we’ll make some time available,” Hays County Human Resources Director Shari Miller said.
The last insurance change was to ease the transition of county employees from the previous health insurance provider to their new provider UnitedHealthcare. The proposal, which was unanimously approved, means UnitedHealthcare will cover any healthcare received before the transition but had the insurance claim filed after the transition.
The Hays County Commissioners Court 9 a.m on select Tuesdays each month. For more information, visit its website.
