Health Department wants spot on facilities list
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on March 13, 2015 1:46 PM
A Board of Health member on Wednesday raised questions about the status of new facilities for the Health Department and the likelihood that a move might be included in the county's long-range facilities plan.
Dr. Allan Harvin cited a recent newspaper story referencing the county's priority of such projects as a new jail and relocating the Department of Social Services, which is currently housed in the Health Department building.
Board Chairman Bob Cagle suggested Harvin might be referencing the proposed agriculture center that was announced earlier in the month. He said in that announcement, the jail was also given priority.
"As I understood it, once those are done, we'll be seeing the Health Department," he said.
"I think the article said DSS would be moved out and the Health Department would be expanded in this facility," Harvin said.
Health Director Davin Madden explained that office space has long been a concern for both DSS and the Health Department. The situation with the county-owned Borden building, where Eastpointe currently leases three floors and the other three are occupied by DSS, will change within the next 18 months or so, when that lease expires.
Madden said he did not believe the county would be interested in renewing the lease with Eastpointe so that it could instead accommodate DSS at the Borden building.
The option of doing renovations on the county office building at the corner of Ash and Herman streets, which houses the Health Department, would also present challenges, he said.
"The way it's designed, the walls are just pure concrete," he noted.
Board member Ray Mayo, also on the county commission, said he was not a member of that board's facilities committee but recalled the Health Department being a "high priority" on the facilities list last year.
He said one reason no long-range plan has been finalized to date is that there are other projects currently on the books, such as the two middle schools under construction. But those, he noted, are expected to be completed by the time the next school year begins in the fall.
"We will be getting from the facilities committee a long-term project list," he said, seeking confirmation from Tommy Burns, recently hired assistant county manager, who also attended the Board of Health meeting.
"Right now we have got the jail and the 911 call center as the two projects we're trying to get wrapped up," Burns said, adding that both should be completed during the summer.
County Manager George Wood had told The News-Argus last month that a large part of what he and Burns will tackle this year are the space needs at DSS and the Health Department.
He said at the time that his hope would be to look at the Health Departments needs versus what it currently has and how to accomplish the need for additional space.
Wood said commissioners would be creating a "facilities master plan," a systematic study of all county facilities and mapping out all capital costs over the next six years.
Where that places the Health Department in the meantime remains a mystery.
"I just hate to see us be 'a penny wise and a pound foolish,'" Harvin said. "It's been 43 years since the hospital moved out of here because the building was too old to be used as a hospital. The building's had a good lifespan."
Mayo said he was not pleased with the condition of the Health Department building, especially when compared to facilities in other counties.
He said that his opinion would be to "shift up on the priorities," adding that he was confident that when it came time to make a long-range plan, the Health Department would be on it.
Contemplating what can be done, even temporarily, he said he empathized with the current situation.
"There's a lot of time that employees lose to having to run from one office to the other," he said. "I'm aware of the drawbacks of being in this building."
"(The Health Department) do an awful lot, we have an awful lot of positive outcomes," Cagle said. "(Think of) what more we could do if we had the proper facilities."