By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
EL RENO – An optometrist has been named to the Canadian County Board of Health.
Mustang native Dr. Jason Myers, who has a Yukon optometry office, was appointed during the March 27th Canadian County Commissioners’ meeting.
The commissioners voted 3-0 to appoint Dr. Myers and Commission Chairman Dave Anderson as their two representatives on Canadian County’s five-member Board of Health.
Anderson, the four-term District 2 county commissioner from Mustang, nominated Dr. Myers for the appointment to a new term.
“He’s a great young man,” Anderson said. “I go to church with him. I’ve talked with him about it and he’s very interested.”
District 1 Commissioner Tom Manske said, “If he’s willing and qualified, fine.”
A 2004 Mustang High School graduate, Dr. Myers practices at Eye Care Associates of Yukon.
He graduated magna cum laude in May 2012 from Northeastern State University’s optometry school.
Dr. Myers is a member of the American Optometric Association and the Oklahoma Association of Optometric Physicians.
One of the commissioners’ two appointees to Canadian County’s health board should be a doctor of medicine.
If one is not available, the commissioners may appoint a dentist, optometrist or registered nurse.
THE OTHER APPOINTMENT
“Our second appointment is one of us,” Anderson told Manske and District 3 Commissioner Tracey Rider. “It really doesn’t have a defined term.”
The first-year commissioners followed Anderson’s recommendation to appoint the board chairman as their second representative on Canadian County’s health board.
The chairmanship typically rotates among the three commissioners and Anderson volunteered to serve for the rest of 2023.
He is due to be county commission chair until January 2024 when either Rider or Manske succeed him in that role.
Two members of the Canadian County Board of Health are appointed by the state health commissioner. One member is appointed by a Canadian County district judge.
“The County Board of Health is the governing body over the finances that are generated by the county’s mill levy for health services,” Anderson explained.
“That mill levy is 1.65 mills and generates about $3 million a year.”
The board will meet soon to begin an annual budget approval process. Several meetings are conducted each year.
“They will be submitting a budget document, an estimate of needs, to the county to be included in our general fund budget,” Anderson added.
