By John Estridge
There remains no health officer in Franklin County.
Franklin County Health Board held an emergency meeting Tuesday, August 24, in a reorganization attempt.
Three new board members joined the board, with two of the three there for the meeting. Another three current board members were there and one more needs to be appointed.
After a seemingly aborted attempt to elect a board president, Joe Meier was nominated and unanimously approved as the president. Then, Kim Neace became the vice president.
Deborah Tibbetts, the health department’s remaining RN, gave a COVID-19 report. She said there have been 143 new COVID cases since August 9. Of that number, 62 are Franklin County Community School Corporation students. Four people are currently hospitalized due to the COVID, she said.
According to Tibbetts, the COVID-19 Task Force needs to be started up again due to the increase in numbers occurring in the county.
Tibbetts said she has tried to get a health officer for the county, but has been unable to do that. She said she is going to contact the Indiana State Department of Health and ask the state health department to send a health officer to the county.
There are functions the health department is not able to do without a health officer. One of those is to give non-COVID vaccinations to children. The department continues to give COVID vaccinations, she said.
She said Indiana State Health Department Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box is signing the county’s death certificates so the county can continue issuing those.
As the meeting was winding down, Jessie Olvera, asked questions of the health board. The former health board signed a contract with Olvera to be the department’s administrator at its last meeting. However, the former health officer took the contract with him before he resigned.
Therefore, there was not a signed contract to give to the Franklin County Commissioners for approval.
Commission president Tom Linkel attended the health board meeting, and he said, speaking for himself, he was waiting for guidance in the situation from the new health officer whenever a health officer is appointed. Tom Wilson, commissioner, who also attended the meeting, said a former health officer advised the commissioners not to sign the contract.
Earlier in the meeting, the board decided to table the matter of an administrator until its Tuesday, October 19 meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. The board’s reasoning was to gather more information before making a decision.
According to Olvera, the money for the position comes from a grant, and the grant would have to be extended if the health board waits until the October meeting to act.
During the meeting, grant coordinator Eugena Monroe gave an update on the department’s grants. She began her presentation with the EMS contract for $50,000. EMS has been giving COVID tests at its Brookville location. It has been funded through a contract with the health department and that is funded through a grant. Monroe said the state determined EMS should have been treated as a subcontractor, so the contract with EMS is going to have to be rewritten and the grant redirected.
Currently, EMS is continuing to operate using its own money. An EMS board member, who was present at the meeting, said EMS is fine with using its own money to continue the testing until the contract situation can be rectified.
She said more grants are pending and she would make information concerning the grants available to board members upon request.
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