Surry County Health Director Samantha Ange was first into the proverbial shark tank for the Surry County fiscal year 2024-2025 budgeting process that began Tuesday night in Dobson. She highlighted the soon to be completed Health and Nutrition Center renovations, rising costs, and diminishing grant support during her presentation.
The entire presentation was for informational purposes only as the final budget submissions are not yet finalized. The initial projection for the Health Department budget is $10.8 million and they were budgeted $9.318 million for fiscal year 2023-2024.
Ange informed the Surry County Board of Commissioner that the renovations to the health department offices are nearly complete. She expects work to be finished by the end of April.
Contractor Tony Chilton was in attendance to provide an update on the few remaining items that are to be completed or which have presented themselves during the course of the renovation. He told the board that the roughly $2.1 million project had, as of Tuesday night, $167,490 in extra work required above the initial projection. That projection had already built into it a $100,000 contingency for cost overruns or extra work. Chilton said for a job of this size, keeping the contingency costs within 10% of the project total, or $210,000, is a good thing.
Some of the remaining items include an HVAC condenser, electrical and data work, digital signage, and potential cleanup of minor damage caused during the renovation to floors and walls. Chilton said the $6,700 set aside to repaint walls or fix floors may ultimately not be needed. All told, the potential requests would max out at $46,080 but possibly be less after final cleanup and inspection. The board was left Tuesday with a decision on how to fund the remaining $46,000 of constructions projects. Commissioner Bill Goins asked Ange, “Is this it — for sure?”
Commissioner Larry Johnson wanted to know how much money is in the Health Department general fund and was told that prior to the renovation that number was around $2.1 million. Of that, $850,000 was taken to pay for the project itself, leaving around $1.25 million in reserve according to Finance Office Laura Neely.
Johnson floated the idea the department could use some of its own general balance for the purchase of office equipment and furniture that was estimated at $200,000. Ange was open to the idea of using the departmental reserves saying, “I’m not territorial about my money.” Neely added the current balance is “the highest it’s been in a while.”
Commissioner Eddie Harris concurred and suggested that Invest in Surry funds could cover the remaining $46,000 of construction items while the Health Department could assume responsibility for the purchase of furniture. He said it was more in line with the spirit of the funding thus far from the county that has gone to construction itself. “It’s a little cleaner on paper and we can complete this project with almost all Invest in Surry money.”
The motion was a two-for-one that authorized the county to use Invest in Surry funds to complete the project and authorize Ange to use her reserves for the furniture. For her part, she seemed happy to have gotten an answer either way and to be able to order said furniture as soon as Wednesday.
Just that day Ange had gotten word that a recurring grant from state for primary medical care had not been awarded to Surry County. “We lost out on a $130,000 primary care grant that we have been getting for a long time,” she said. It was determined the county had been getting that grant every year since 2011.
Tucker and Harris asked for clarification on who got the grant instead, but Ange was not yet aware. Two potential landing spots for that grant may be Surry Medical Ministries or the Surry Rural Health Center according to sources at the budget hearing.
Johnson noted that with the exception of the loss of grant funding, the Health Department preliminary request seemed to be in line with expectations.
As Ange walked through her needs, she pointed out that the Health Department budget is heavy on salary taking up 85% of her budget. With cost of living adjustments required, those costs go up every year.
Also, she said the county has not been immune to inflation and noted medical supply costs have jumped up. She gave examples including a COVID kit that was $127 is now $142 each, or flu test kits that were $397 are $469 now, tests for strep throat were $729 and are now $903. There is nothing the county or Ange can do about these cost increases that have taken her supply budget from $276,000 to a projected $450,000. She also made a request for two vehicles for Environmental Health.
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