Supervisors to learn more about building project

Two members of the Washington County Board of Supervisors attended the meeting of the county Board of Health's Building and Finance Committee (BFC) Tuesday afternoon.

Supervisors Richard Young and Abe Miller have fielded questions from the public about the new building planned to house the county's public health department. In addition, members of the board of health attended the July 14 supervisors meeting and asked that the carryover funds be set aside for the building project, estimated to cost $2.5 million.

Young was sitting in yesterday for Supervisor Jack Seward who was not at the meeting. Seward is a member of the board of health and the building and finance committee.

Board of health chair Virginia Bordwell shared a brief history over the various locations that have been used by the public health department, including the former nurses' home on the Washington County Hospital and Clinics grounds. The nurses' building was demolished when the new hospital was completed in 2007. Since then, the public health department has been located in the Federation Bank building in downtown Washington, which costs the department about $50,000 in rent a year.

At the July 14 meeting, the supervisors did not vote on the request. The Public Health carryover for fiscal year 2015 was $163,908. At that meeting, Seward said that it was the policy that the unspent funds from the county departments stay in the General Fund.

During Tuesday's meeting of the building and financing committee, public health administrator Danielle Pettit-Majewski said that the board of health had talked about the carryover funds last July. The supervisors allowed the board to retain about $100,000 at the end of FY 2014 for the building project. That money was the result of an increase in Medicaid reimbursements ? one-time money.

BFC chairman Steve Olson said the request to retain this year's carryover was to add to the funds already earmarked for the building project. He said that the BFC is trying to increase the project fund before applying for grants.

"I think it would bode well for us on grant requests to say, frankly, that the county has some skin in the game," Olson said.

Young and Miller both said it is their intent to help the project.

As the discussion continued, Pettit-Majewski said that she and fiscal administrator Peggy Wood had talked with Young and Miller after the July 14 meeting. Individuals also met with supervisors Bob Yoder and Stan Stoops to explain the matter.

The BFC and the supervisors also discussed creating a line item for capital projects in the future.

At the end of the discussion, the BFC and Young and Miller agreed to meet in a board of supervisors' work session at 2 p.m. Aug. 12, at West Chester Savings Bank to learn more about the building project.

The BFC also debated when to hold a bond referendum on the project and decided to continuing aiming for the referendum during the November general election.