Public Health, Recorder’s Office present FY20 budgets

The director of Henry County Public Health and county recorder Mindy Fitzgibbon presented their budgets for fiscal year 2020 during a regular board of supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 22. Fiscal year 2020 (FY20) is July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.

FY20 is the second year Public Health is preparing their budget as a county department. Formerly, they were a department with Henry County Health Center.

Henry County auditor Shelly Barber said it will be easier to look at next year because Public Health now has history as a county department.

The Board of Health voted during their last meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 15, to increase the wages of home care aides $2 with an additional 3 percent cost-of-living raise received by all Public Health employees. This brings home care aides' salaries up to $13.90 an hour.

Shelley Van Dorin, director of Public Health, compared the salaries of Henry County's home care aides to that of Louisa and Van Buren counties. Louisa County's home care aides start at $14 and Van Buren's start at $12.50.

'We have outstanding aides and I would really like to retain them,” Van Dorin said during a Board of Health meeting last week.

Home care aides offer personal care for cleints two to three times a week and housekeeping once a week. They give patients baths, meal prep, run errands, do laundry and anything else required to keep that person living at home, Van Dorin said.

Another change in the Public Health budget is the amount of money they are asking from the county. For FY19, Public Health requested $119,139. For FY20, they are requesting $162,563.

The amount requested from the county is offset by the revenue Public Health is bringing in from their immunization clinics. The immunization income is projected to increase from $26,910 in FY19 to $180,000 in FY20.

'The new ask from the county is not as high as it appears because there is additional income,” Barber said. 'Revenues are up just as much as expenditures are. What they're asking from the county is not a true picture.”

Public Health provided 4,312 immunizations to 1,886 clients last year, adding 120 patients to their office.

Van Dorin said that while she was worried Public Health would lose patients after their move from the hospital's campus to downtown Mt. Pleasant, more people than ever are walking through their doors.

'We are gaining clients,” Van Dorin said, adding that their location is easier to find in the center of town and their office is bright, open and welcoming.

While the Henry County Recorder's Office FY20 budget reflects FY19, county recorder Mindy Fitzgibbon is adding equipment to issue passports from their office.

Equipment to issue passports includes a passport printer, a print kit, a backdrop for photos and supplies to construct a door for the vital records cabinet. The total cost is $1,319.

Fitzgibbon said she has been working with the federal government to become eligible to print passports in the county Recorder's Office. While they have yet to approve the Recorder's Office request, Fitzgibbon said they told her to keep applying.

The Recorder's Office gets at least one person a day asking if they print passports, Fitzgibbon said.

Passports will bring $45 of revenue per passport to the Recorder's Office, Fitzgibbon said.

The Recorder's Office has to have someone designated to do passports who does not also have access to birth certificates, Fitzgibbon said. Another employee from the Recorder's Office has already volunteered for the position, they are just waiting on the federal government for approval and training.

Another revenue stream for FY20 for the Recorder's Office is boat renewals, which occur every three years, Fitzgibbon said.