County Purchases Building For Health Department
Peeling paint, crowded exam rooms and heating problems were only a few of the problems identified by the staff at the Health Department in Water Valley. The crew (from left) Debra Harris, Amanda Beard, Melissa Greer and Tina Tucker were excited to learn the county had purchased a new building to house their operations. – Photo by David Howell
By David Howell
Editor
COFFEEVILLE – After almost three years of asking for an updated facility to house the health department in Water Valley, the state health department’s District Health Officer, Dr. Alfio Rausa, heard some good news from Yalobusha supervisors during the “first Monday” meeting held in Coffeeville Jan. 4.
That good news was a unanimous vote to purchase the building that previously housed Odom Rural Health Clinic located at 645 South Main Street in Water Valley to house the county’s health department office. The building, which is owned by the hospital, became available with the opening of a new rural health care clinic that will move all of the hospital’s doctors in one facility.
The current health department building is located adjacent to the Water Valley Courthouse and Dr. Rausa has repeatedly stressed to supervisors that the building was crowded and antiquated.
Also attending the Jan. 4 meeting was Yalobusha General Hospital Administrator Terry Varner who, along with Dr. Rausa, fielded questions from supervisors before the vote was taken to purchase the building for $275,000.
District One Supervisor Tommy Vaughn first asked Dr. Rausa for assurance that the facility would be open to serve Yalobushians five days per week.
“You will be open five days a week?’ Vaughn asked. “The last few months you have just been open three.”
“The problem was this was a shared staff between Grenada County and here,” Dr. Rausa explained to county officials. Following the restructuring of staff members, Dr. Rausa told supervisors that the Water Valley facility had two full-time nurses dedicated to the county in addition to other rotating medical staff.
Dr. Rausa also pointed to the national health care reform legislation on the table, which could improve funding for preventive health care.
“We are looking at big time improvement in our funding structure for support of the health department by the federal government for preventive services,” Dr. Rausa told supervisors.
The Price
Next Vaughn asked Varner if the sale price, which is based on a 2008 appraisal, was negotiable.
“On July 7 of 2008 you were here and we had tentatively agreed to go ahead and purchase that building,” Vaughn said. “Since that time real estate values have plummeted,” Vaughn continued, referring to the possibility of obtaining a new appraisal that could show a decrease in the value of the building.
Varner told supervisors the hospital had invested $365,000 in the Odom building, including an initial purchase price of $135,000 in 1998 and a renovation four years ago.
“We are trying to finish this project off and we still have equipment to purchase. We drained our operating account lower than we wanted to do,” Varner told supervisors, referring to the new medical facility.
Varner said the money from the Odom building purchase had been budgeted to help fund the new building.
An offer by Varner to use the hospital’s maintenance staff to provide modifications to the building ultimately found favor with supervisors who agreed to stick to the original price.
“As far as getting another appraisal, I am alright with the one you got. You need the money to do what you are doing, I think you are doing good,” District Three Supervisor M.H. “Butch” Surrette told Varner. Surrette also said the hospital, health department and county all had a similar purpose, to provide services to the people in the county.
Dr. Rausa also fielded questions from District Five Supervisor Frank “Bubba” Tillman, who noted that a second health department facility located in Coffeeville had been previously closed due to low usage.
“You are telling us you are going to be open five days a week now. What I am asking you, where is all this increase in our people that use the health department coming from?” District Five Supervisor Frank “Bubba” Tillman asked.
“The big thing is we will have medical services available twice as much as we had before. Patients that we had going over to Grenada or Batesville will be coming here,” Rausa answered.
The Funding
Purchasing a new building for the health department, along with building a new county jail, have long been been identified as two critical needs for the county.
“I think everybody on this board agreed that the health department was the number one priority at that time. This (building) came along and kind of fit our needs,” Vaughn continued.
“In 2008 when we made the agreement, the money was already put in the budget,” Vaughn continued, after fielding a question from former supervisor Henry Dean Gray about funding the purchase.
With the purchase, Vaughn explained that the county will still have over $2 million in the general fund.
“Sheriff, if you had a couple of capital murder cases, that $2 million would be gone,” Gray asked.
“That’s true but for years and years we had way less than a million,” Vaughn answered. “We had $900,000 when I got here,” Vaughn said, referring to the county’s surplus. “Now we got $2.4 million.”
“But we didn’t have as high as taxes back then,” Gray answered.
“Yes, there have been some changes. But if we don’t take some move to make improvements in the county, when we can, and this isn’t something that came up over night. I think it can be done and we got enough in the reserve to take us to normal circumstances,” Vaughn said.
