Page/1  Wilkes County Board of Health Meeting Minutes  June 3, 2024  The Wilkes County Board of Health held a regular business meeting Monday, June 3rd, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. att the Wilkes County Health Department in the. Ann Absher Conference Room. Board of Health members in  attendance were:  Ms. Susan Bachmeier Dr. Sarah Miller-Wyatt Dr. Keaton Mash Dr. Gary Nash Mr. Chris Anderson Ms. Martha Brame Ms. Heather Conlon Ms. Deborah Britton  Ms. Rachel Willard and Ms. Jenna Daye were also in attendance. Prior to the June meeting, packets containing the materials to be discussed were mailed and sent via email to each Wilkes County Board 1. Welcome and Introductions: Ms. Rachel Willard welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order at5 5:30 p.m. Ms. Willard introduced Ms. Conlon to the board. Each member spoke about  member for review.  themselves.  2. New Board Member Induction:  Ms. Heather Conlon was sworn in byl Ms. Jenna Daye to be member of the Board of Health. 3. Adoption of Agenda*: Ms. Deborah Britton made the motion to adopt the agenda for the Board of Health meeting for. June 3rd, 2024; the motion was seconded by Ms. Martha Brame, and  unanimously approved.  4. Approval of Minutes*: Dr. Gary Nash made the motion to approve the minutes from the April 8th, 2024 meeting; the motion was seconded by Dr. Sarah Miller-Wyatt, and unanimously approved.  5. New Business Officer Election*  Vice Chair- -[ Dr. Keaton Mash*  Ms. Susan Bachmeier made the motion to appoint Dr. Keaton Mash as Vice Chair fori the Board of Health; ther motion was seconded by Mr. Chris Anderson, and unanimously approved.  Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Update  Ms. Rachel Willard explained that she really. just wanted to give an update. We did talk about the budget at the last meeting. We got our proposed budget back from the county manager; we did have a cut this year which we generally do not. We took a cut of about $100,000. We can shift things around; cost settlement will come in to help offset this. Whatl lam concerned about is our pharmaceuticals. We puti in for $90,000, and itg got cut to $50,000. That is al big cut. Ms. Susan Bachmeier asked ift that was everything. Ms. Willard said no, wel have very limited funds. Ms. Willard explained that there are additional funds in Adult Heath,    Page 12  Child Health including MESH, and Family Planning. General is our catch all, this is thet fund that we buy our COVID vaccines out oft that we are required by! law to have. It's where wel buy our travel vaccines. Istill think we will be okay. The reason Ididn'tbringi ite earlier, sO someone could go to the! budget meetings is because other departments took bigger hits than we did. From an operational standpoint, Id don't think it will be too detrimental. This time next year may have to gol before the county commissioners and ask for money. just don'tk know yet. will say basically everything that was cut was what COVID funds paid for over the past four years. Ms. Martha Brame asked ift the County Manager said why! he made those cuts. Ms. Willard said no, we got our budget back andi that's it. Thel board of county commissioners have not approved thel budget yet, SO we could get ani increase or another cut. Ms. Susan Bachmeier stated thati it seems likei it will reallyi impact operations. Ms. Willard said ito could, but this year we are: slated to get half a million dollars in cost settlement based off of our tentative settlement. It's still a cut, butl Iwill say all departments took cuts; some more substantial than others. This is thei first time Ihave seen a cut like that in the 5 years Ihave been here. Oncei iti is approved, Nancy will come and bring her sheet.  6. Old Business Grant Update MESH Grant  Ms. Willard said she believed at thel last meeting wet talked about the MESH grant and at that point we had not heard from the Health Foundation. We did get that grant from The Health Foundation. We asked for $25,000 more to help cover counseling in the summer months. What the Health Foundation decided to do  was take that $50,000 and spreadi it out over two years.  ii. Office of Rural Health Grant  Ms. Willard stated that we did get cut $43,000 ont this grant. That is because they hadi more local Health Departments apply this year. Because wei fall into both thel local Health department bucket and thel FQHC bucket, SO we got! kind ofl lumped with the local Health Departments. We got $107,000 instead of the $150,000 we asked for. We had to make choices on what we wanted to cut, SO we cut staff time, interpreter  cost and some of our contracultural costs.  October Board of Health Training  Ms. Willard said at the February meeting Ann only presented half of the slides. She was slated to come to this meeting, but that was too much with policies. We are going tol have her come backi in October if thatis is okay with everyone. Also, if anyone wants Ann to talk about something specific, just let her know.  7. Administrative Report Departmental Update  Ms. Willard started the departmental update with the employee picnic. We did celebrate that last week. I think it went overall fairly well, and Ithink everyone enjoyed it. We did change the food this year and gave out several prizes and awards to staff. We are starting to change at few things and I think the staff appreciate it. The survey results reflect that as well. Market bucks have started back up for the season. Jared took his first round to all the different schools and St. Paul's Church. Fort those ofy you who are new or don't remember, market bucks are dollar coupons we give tot families in need thatt they can use at the farmers market or the Wilkes fresh van. Each week, families get $101 to use at St. Paul's, we have taken it down to $5 because those are also given out to senior citizens. Wel had about a 48% return rate last year. That's higher than ith has been in the past. We have almost implemented our new data platform, i2i.  Hopefully, by July 1st we will be live with that.    Page 13  Board of Health Annual Policy Review* . BOH Overall Operations  Ms. Willard explained tot the board that any updates and/or changes would be highlighted inj yellow.  ii. BOH Operating Procedures    Page 4  ii. Policy on Policies  iv. Community Health Improvement    Page/5  V. Fee Policy    Pagel 16  vi. Internal Controls for Cash Receipts  vii. Patient Eligibility Determination Guidelines    Page/7  vii. Organzationa/Stratege Planning  ix. Replacement of Equipment  X. Tobacco- Free Buldings/Grounds/Cars/Functions    Pagel 18  xi. WCHD Plan for Workforce Development  xii. Immunization Policy for WCHD Employees    Page/9  xiii. Sliding Fee Scale    Page 110  Motion made by Ms. Martha Brame to approve the updated polices; motion was seconded by Dr. Keaton  Mash, all were in favor, unanimously approved.  Review ofLocal Board of Health Rules 2008 Smoking Rule  ii. 2016 E-Cigarette Rule    Page 11  Ms. Willard explained toi thel board that once every four years we have tol look back at what rules we have inp place and see if we need to amend or create new rules. These are the only two board ofh health rules that are still active. The 2008 rule was created because the board of health group decided they did not want smoking in our government buildings or cars anymore. The 2016 rule is basically the same outline, but we just added electronic nicotine devices. Ms. Bachmeier asked if other tobacco use is allowed. Ms. Willard said yes, technically, smokeless tobacco can be used. Ms. Willard explained that if the board want to create ar new or amend this tobacco policy, itl has to go before the county commissioners for approval. We do not have that sole authority to adopt or amend ai tobacco rule. Dr. Keaton Mash asked ift there have been any amendments tot the 20081 tobacco rule. Ms. Willard said 2008 was the original. The 2016 e-cigarettes rulei is technically an amendment but we made iti into its own rule. After discussion and some clarifications, the board agreed there is noi needi for adoption of new rules or ordinances or amendment of current local rules 8. Adjournment*: Dr. Gary Nash made a motion to adjourn; Ms. Heather Conlon seconded,  orordinances att this time.  unanimously approved.  Next Meeting date: The next Board of Health Meeting will be on August 12th, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. int the Ann  Absher Conference Room at Wilkes County Health Department.  Minutes respectively submitted by: Jenna Daye, Administrative Assistant  GaBir  Ms. Susan Bachmeier