March 28, 2024

JCHD brings space concerns before county supervisors

Board discusses possible move of all tenants within annex building

To continue the months of discussion on the Jasper County Annex Building, the Jasper County Board of Health brought its concerns about the county health department’s current location to the Jasper County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Board chair Margot Voshell shared the board’s vision of moving the department from the basement of the annex building to a new, more appropriate location.

“We are here to talk about the needs of the Jasper County Health Department and are ultimately looking for an approval for a relocation plan based on the recent findings on the current location of the health department,” Voshell said.

The findings she referred to were from an investigation completed by the engineering firm of Shive-Hattery on the exterior foundation of the annex building. Through its observations, Shive-Hattery found issues throughout the basement on the exterior foundation walls on all four sides of the building including no evidence of any water proofing. Because of that, the firm found it appeared a majority of the infiltration was through the existing brick foundation walls with some isolated areas where leakage could be directly linked to conduit, windows or other penetrations. The window wells showed signs of the brick retaining walls being displaced inward and cracking with brick deterioration.

“It has been made perfectly clear the basement of the annex building is not acceptable, it is not an acceptable space for people to work,” Voshell said. “People have said they are not going to go down there and to have, as the chair, to have my team who are responsible for working in those conditions, it is not acceptable.”

She went on to explain the financial situation of the department, which has used less tax dollars than when it was housed at Skiff Medical Center, and has increased services to assist a wide variety of citizens.

“We do much more than go to fairs and provide information,” Voshell said. “We are very instrumental in emergency preparedness in our county also very instrumental in education. We will be taking on the Parents as Teachers program to educate young moms and dads on becoming better parents. It really does affect not only the most vulnerable citizens but also every single person.”

Supervisor Doug Cupples questioned if the services provided by the health department are competing with the hospital or are being duplicated within the county. Voshell responded that the department administrator is a member of a health coalition within the county to make sure, among other things, the department is not duplicating services.

Supervisor Joe Brock brought up another service provided by the department that ultimately saves that tax base dollars through its work.

“I think another important element on what you do is the savings involved with keeping people out of nursing homes and keeping them in there homes,” Brock said. “The taxpayers pay for the nursing homes in most cases.”

Voshell added that the department currently keeps close to 100 vulnerable adults in their homes through the home care program.

“It serves many purposes because not only are they getting their physical needs met but also their social needs met,” Voshell said. “It maintains people to stay in their homes and prevent them from going to a nursing home.”

The discussion took a turn when Cupples brought up how the supervisors do not have an opportunity to talk about county issues outside of its regular meeting due to quorum rules. He expressed his frustrations with projects not moving forward and nothing getting done.

“One of the things that I get tired of is we don’t get things done, we sit here and talk about it,” Cupples said. “I would prefer we get things done.”

From there, the board branched out to discussions on a new location, what the continued use of the annex building would look like and introduced the idea of constructing a new location for county offices. Spaces the health department have viewed include area of DMACC and the former New Care building.

“I haven’t seen anything in this town with existing buildings that I am excited about,” Brock said. “We can look at these old buildings, I have spent six years working on old buildings and I don’t care to have anymore. I mentioned here a while back maybe a new building so we don’t have the maintenance costs. Those old buildings just never quit draining you. I think there is some support out there (for the new building,) too. I think we should at least explore all of our options.”

County maintenance director Adam Sparks also gave his opinion on the situation.

“If the thought is to move, I am not for moving just them (the health department.) I want an all-in-one move or a stay,” Sparks said. “We do not need another building to take care of, to add to the pot, we have way too many to begin with, we can’t keep up now. We don’t need to add another lone building by itself.”

At the annex building, Sparks said not all of the work has to be done now and that it is a workable building. If the supervisors elect to move forward at the annex building, Sparks said the basement has to be addressed before anything else.

“If we’re not going to do the basement, we should probably not do anything else in the building,” Sparks said. “Obviously we cannot fix the inside of the basement until the outside is fixed.”

Cupples suggested brainstorming with the many people involved in the situation to help find a solution but Brock said it is up to the board to make a decision.

“I think it is up to us three to get this done. You can ask everybody else and have your point system, but this lies with the three of us,” Brock said. “We haven’t made any headway on this.”

No decisions were made during the meeting. Discussions are expected to continue on the topic.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com