Warden gives $3,000 to health district

WARDEN - Warden is donating $3,000 to the Grant County Health District to help with its operations.

The district asked the city for a donation of $2 per resident. The money is used to fund additional services, including disease-specific support groups, blood testing for diseases, food worker card testing and public health fairs, according to Jefferson Ketchel, the district's administrator.

"They have always asked for more money than we give them," City Clerk and Treasurer Kris Shuler said. "They have asked for $2 per person, but the last two years we've paid them $2,500 only."

Councilmember Tony Massa, the city's representative on the district's board, said the agency is struggling because of funding cut backs and has government mandates which aren't funded.

"I can tell you as a board, we are very frugal with the money we have," he said. "We haven't done layoffs yet, but we have eliminated positions by attrition, and made several changes to live within the budget that we have."

Massa pointed to H1N1 vaccinations at the school district as one of the items the district did in the city. The combination of immigrant populations and income levels in the county provides challenges for the district.

"We probably got our money's worth out of the health district," he said. "There's only been two or three months this year, that I can think of, where we haven't had open tuberculosis cases, which the health district has to monitor."

Mayor Roldan Capetillo said the donation amount has increased slowly over time, but the budget won't allow the $5,200 donation the district requested.

"I don't have a problem helping out the health district," he said. "It's just that budget-wise, I think all cities are in the same boat."