The Mower County Board of Commissioners will concentrate on health and home this Tuesday at its next public meeting.

Commissioners will consider transferring three forfeited properties to the city of Austin as well as adding staff to its health and human services department this week.

Austin officials would like to acquire 1206 Ninth St. NE, 707 12th St. NE and 609 10th Ave. NW for the Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority, as well as the Freeborn/Mower Habitat for Humanity.

City, HRA and Habitat staff hope to renovate the 10th Avenue home, maintain the 12th Street home and demolish the Ninth Street home to make way for future lower income housing.

In addition, the board will consider adding social workers to focus on child protection cases as the state dedicates more resources to increasing child protection cases across Minnesota.

Mower County could receive $185,000 — enough for about two and half employees — each of the next two years to dedicate to child protection after the changes proposed by a task force passed the legislature.

The changes stem from a Gov. Mark Dayton-appointed task force that made 100 recommendations about ways to change and improve child protection after the death of 4-year-old Eric Dean, which happened after the warnings of day care workers went unheeded.

The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. inside the board conference room at the Mower County Government Center.