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County looks to cut fat, literally

Published 12:05am Saturday, June 9, 2012

NATCHEZ — Adams County’s government is looking to save money wherever it can, and that includes trimming the fat, literally.

In early May, Supervisor Mike Lazarus brought the idea of a weight-loss contest for county employees to the board of supervisors. Many companies offer incentives to motivate their employees to be healthy, he said.

The supervisors have since then been raising a cash prize — approximately $900, collected from among the supervisors themselves and other donors — and other prizes, such as gym memberships, to tempt employees into workout clothes and onto exercise bikes.

Adams County’s government uses a self-insured insurance structure to offer its employees health care benefits, and thus the county budget is directly affected by employee health.

“My goal in the end is that we save on our health insurance,” Lazarus said. “Any motivation we can give (employees) to lose weight ultimately is good for us, but it is also good not just for the ones trying to win the money, but for the ones who want to be healthier — nobody wants to spend the last years of their lives in the hospital.”

Supervisor Angela Hutchins said the supervisors have the aim of offering the healthy-living experiment at no cost to the county, and that the prizes they are offering are donated.

In addition to getting employees to exercise, Hutchins said the county’s insurance company will send in a cooking expert to teach employees how to cook healthy foods.

Keeping employees healthy not only saves on health costs, but also will help keep county services more efficient as the county sees less lost time from employees who have to take off for health problems, Hutchins said.

“All of this can help us with the cost of our insurance, but also, keeping our employees healthy means that the healthier (they) are the less they have to go in for screenings and things,” Hutchins said.

Natchez Regional Medical Center is partnering with the county for the program, offering weigh-ins and body-mass-index readings, Lazarus said.

And if it goes well, Lazarus said a similar program might be opened to the public.

“We are the guinea pigs for this program,” he said. “(NRMC is) going to see how it will work, and then open it to the public.”

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  • Anonymous

    The Nanny State is coming -  The Nanny State is coming

  • http://www.facebook.com/san.rucker San Rucker

    building up employee morale is the greatest incentive that a company could ever offer.   it is demeaning to work for a group of illiterate supervisors/managers who have no people rapport.  cross training on the jobs should also work well for employees and the company.  when a person has the flu or domestic disputes etc. and needs a day off, if their position can be easily filled, just for a day without causing job related panic, then implement the cross-over training to complement your employees and also to reduce monotony and stress.   i am, by no means, advocating for the employees that show no interest and appreciation, it’s like the wanna be thugs only group in our publicly funded schools.   train them to support themselves with whatever their mentality will support so they can bring great relief to the over-burdened tax system.   nashville spent millions to add bike lanes to our over congested main thoroughfares.  now car drivers have a choice of running over the bicyclist in the far right lane or being run over by another non-attentive driver coming at you in the left lane.  stupid idea but it was implemented, more wasted tax dollars, they don’t care, it’s not there money.yes, people need to reduce the health problems caused by problems of obesity but keep in mind that you don’t see drunk-driving lanes, text-messaging, lanes,  etc.  classes should be open to the general public with incentives offered and consultation on how to live more quality oriented lives.  notes should be taken from all participants as to what their on-going issues are that cause them to act out the way they do.  have quality staff to address those issues and take action, don’t put them on hold like most governmental agencies do.

  • Anonymous

    When you find a over weight work force you have found one who does little or no physical labor. Most people today think it is demeaning to work at all!

  • Anonymous

    Education on selecting healthy food choices instead of the high fat content food being consumed in daily diet would go a long way toward solving the problem.

  • Anonymous

    Stop the gluttony of high caloric fatty foods would be a good start or wait for a stroke or heart attack, that’ll teach you real fast to eat better.   

  • Anonymous

    The county doesn’t have any money to spend on projects to get them off their duffs, just to maintain payroll……….

  • Anonymous

    dont  give them any ideas they will want to send them to school .Anyway i dont know the first person that truly works that is fat. It takes a lot of asssets to get that way and stay that way no matter what you eat.

  • Anonymous

    we have plenty of things that need done in adams co. that would cost no more than the gas to get them there, but they would have to do the bad word LABOR!

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