Warden holding health district money

WARDEN — The Warden City Council decided to hold on to their $2,500 donation to the Grant County Health District.

The decision came after the Grant County commissioners started examining whether to disband the Grant County Health District and create a county department.

The district is run by a board made up of the county commissioners and representatives from the cities. Making it a department would place it under the control of the commissioners.

The commissioners are holding a second public hearing on the issue at 10 a.m. on Dec. 22 at the commissioner’s meeting room in the Grant County Courthouse.

Discussion of the change occurred after the district changed the form they use to approve wells on new property, Commissioner Richard Stevens said. The district used to guarantee the fact there was water and now it only guarantees the quality of the water.

This has delayed development because Grant County code requires the district to approve the amount of water, he said.

Commissioner LeRoy Allison said another reason why they’re discussing moving to a department is because city and county budgets are tight this year.

“My concern here is we have over the last few years seen an increase in the demand for dollars at the health district,” he said. “What I’ll be looking to talk to (Public Health Officer Alex Brzezny) before we make any determination is to look at any kind of duplication because we’re having to tighten our belts.”

Health district Administrator Peggy Grigg said she didn’t think it was in the district’s perview to comment on the amount of water in a new development.

The Warden City Council decided to hold onto the money until there was a decision, Warden Mayor Roldan Capetillo said.

City Clerk and Treasurer Kris Shuler said the city can hold onto the money indefinitely, and it may or may not be released depending on what the commissioners do

“We’ll just wait and see what happens next month when the new commissioner (takes office,)” he said.

All together the cities’ contributions to the Health District are estimated at $50,000 next year, said Janet Saito, a Health District accounting clerk. This amounts to about 2.2 percent of the total budget for the district. The county contributed $115,650 into the district’s general fund last year.

Grigg said all of the cities’ contributions combined pay for about one support full-time employee.

“There’s a good chance the other cities are feeling something similar,” she said. “We could feel a loss of $50,000. We have been fortunate this year, we haven’t had to lay anybody off to make our budget.”

Even if the county decided to change to a district, state law requires the change occur at the end of the calendar year, she said. They also have to give the district six months notice, so it’s unlikely the change would occur until the end of next year.