By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
While COVID touched most lives, it was particularly brutal in settings where groups of people lived together – either by choice or by force.
The numbers of those sickened or killed by COVID were exponentially higher in nursing homes and prisons than for the average population.
Wood County Health Commissioner Ben Robison reported recently that the county health department has been selected as a facilitator for approximately $2.5 million to be used to help congregate living sites prepare for pandemics like COVID-19.
The funding would be used for confinement facilities like jails and detention facilities, and congregate living facilities like shelters and long-term care settings.
Local facilities wanting to be part of the program will be asked to identify uses for the money, and the health department will hire an outside auditor to spearhead the program, Robison told the board of health earlier this month.
The state and federal funding will be split into $1.3 million for congregate living settings, and $638,000 for confinement facilities.
“This will really benefit the residents of Wood County in these facilities for many years to come,” Robison said.
Health board members voiced their support.
“This gives us the opportunity as a facilitating agency to help our partners,’ board member Richard Strow said.
“It broadens our impact,” board member Bob Midden said.
Also at the board meeting, Robison reported that the health department has done well managing its finances and planning for the long term.
In the not too distant past, the health department was operating with a reserve of $200,000, he said.
But now, with the closeout of some FEMA money expected by the end of this year, the health department will have a reserve of just over $7 million.
“It took us some hardship along the way,” Robison said.
Robison suggested to the board that a rainy day fund be established with about $2 million. He also asked that a fund be established that would be dedicated to employee paid time off. Most of the health department staff accrue vacation time and sick time, he said. So when the employees leave the agency there is often a “substantial” payout required.
Working with the county auditor’s office, the health department would be better prepared if a $700,000 fund be set aside to handle that paid time off liability, Robison said.
“Overall, I think this is a pretty good idea,” Strow said.
“This is responsible to the taxpayers and responsible to the employees as well,” Robison said.
The health department director of finance, Rick Nelson, explained this change to gap financing would put the health department more in line with how Wood County government operates.
In other business at the board of health meeting:
- Robison announced that Wood County Health Department has lost its WIC director Corey Shepherd, who has accepted the position of WIC director for the Ohio Department of Health.
- Robison reported that during construction at the health department, the WIC office has been relocated to the county building on South Dunbridge Road. And the health center’s pharmacy operation is using the former conference room at the East Gypsy Lane Road building.
