MARSHALL — After looking more closely into a funding request from an area mental health consortium, members of the Lyon County Board said they weren’t the ones who should be acting on it. Instead, the request should be directed to Southwest Health and Human Services.

“I think that’s our understanding of it,” Commissioner Rick Anderson said Tuesday. The request would be discussed by SWHHS at an upcoming board meeting.

Earlier this month, Southwest 18 Consortium chairwoman Stacy Jorgensen had approached county commissioners with a request for $20,000 to help establish a special reserve fund for the consortium.

County commissioners had opted to go back and look at documentation for Lyon County’s participation in the Southwest 18 Consortium. The original joint powers agreement for the consortium had been signed back when Lincoln, Lyon and Murray counties had a shared human services agency. All three counties are now served by Southwest Health and Human Services.

At Tuesday’s County Board meeting, Lyon County Administrator Loren Stomberg said all the county’s documentation showed they had participated in the consortium through the joint human services agency.

“It’s not our obligation,” Stomberg said. The request should be turned over to SWHHS, he said.

The Southwest 18 Consortium is one of several adult mental health initiatives around the state of Minnesota. Southwest 18 serves an 18-county area in southwest Minnesota, and helps support adult mental health services like intensive residential treatment and rehabilitative services.

The consortium is funded through state block grants, and receives reimbursements from the state for the cost of mental health services for people who are underinsured and not covered by Medical Assistance. But there’s often a gap between the time when the bills are paid and the state reimburses the consortium, Jorgensen said told commissioners.

The consortium was requesting $20,000 contributions from member counties to help create a special reserve fund.

The reserve fund would help maintain cash flow during times when the consortium is waiting for state reimbursements, Jorgensen said.