Jefferson County Board of Health hears aging grant funding requests
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STEUBENVILLE -- Two more organizations approached the Jefferson County Board of Health Tuesday, seeking funding from the county health department's $306,781 Healthy Aging Grant, awarded by the Ohio Department of Aging in November.
Speaking were representatives from Trinity Health System's Prime Time Office on Aging, as well as the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program. The two follow a previous request for funding in December by Our Place senior activity center.
Trudy Wilson, manager of senior adult services for Trinity and manager at Prime Time, said the Lovers Lane activities center is seeking $121,000 of the grant's available funds to develop and provide geriatric-specific telemedicine services. The new services would serve seniors by bringing distant health care providers to the seniors already at the center through video calls, saving them from having to make a trip.
Prime Time -- which serves Jefferson County seniors 60 or older -- is not able to accommodate in-house medical services, Wilson said, and it is already limited in its long-distance medical transportation services for seniors. That makes a telemedicine program necessary to serve the increasing Jefferson County senior population, which she said is the fifth-largest senior population in Ohio.
The service will not be limited to providers from Trinity but extended to national providers, said Matt Grimshaw, the health system's CEO. A room will be set aside in the Prime Time center for telemedicine appointments, with the possibility of an assistant to help seniors navigate the process.
The relatively large funding request is warranted by Prime Time's already meeting many of the funding requirements, Wilson said. For example, a 20 percent necessary obligation of funds for food assistance ties in with Prime Time's existing meal assistance program, which provides approximately 1,000 meals per day, and the telemedicine program is "right down the line" for the 10 percent Internet access and digital literacy obligation.
Also speaking about a funding request was Christine Brown, grant specialist with Family and Community Services Inc., attending the meeting on behalf of Marti Leake, coordinator for the Retired Senior Volunteer Program in Columbiana and Jefferson counties. She said the senior volunteer network for seniors is centered on engaging seniors in service opportunities for local nonprofits, providing a much-needed social outlet for the seniors.
The volunteer network is seeking $10,000 in funding to expand its reach and actively recruit more seniors. At least 57 seniors currently participate in the local program, Brown said, with community partners ranging from food pantries to activities centers.
Separately, Dr. Janie Culp, health department medical director, said Ohio is designated as high in cases of influenza, with Jefferson County seeing an increase in December hospitalizations -- seven in 2022 rising to 41 in 2023, including one pediatric case. Meanwhile, Culp said, as influenza A and B cases have risen since taking a dip around the COVID-19 pandemic, the county has also seen its COVID-19 cases decrease to the lowest recorded December number in three years.
Culp said that the clinical staff is preparing for a vaccine clinic for a roughly 170-person Amish population near Bergholz, a population the health department worked with in early December to quash a meningococcal disease outbreak among its children. The Ohio Department of Health will provide vaccines for the clinic, which Culp said the community was initially skeptical of, though it has recently become "more than willing."
In other business:
• The board approved Hollow Rock Landfill -- a residual landfill located in Stratton and associated with FirstEnergy Corp.'s former W.H. Sammis Power Plant -- for a 2024 license, pending approval by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Carla Gampolo, sanitarian and environmental health staff, said the landfill is now run by KEY Environmental Inc., an environmental consultant from Carnegie, Pa. KEY is not taking any waste into or out of the landfill, she said, but a license is still needed.
• Marc Maragos, environmental health director, declared that the public health issue at the site of a train derailment along the Ohio River near Toronto has been abated, following the environmental staff's satisfaction with Norfolk Southern's cleanup operations at the site. Consultants for the railroad are working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to obtain permits necessary to stabilize the location's embankment, with work estimated to begin around early-to-mid-2024.
• The health department has five nuisance cases in the prosecutor's office pipeline, Maragos said, including cases with Donald W. Barrow of 101 township Road, Bloomingdale; Joan Marie Carlsen of 1339 Main St., Smithfield; and Tom Lederer of 2618 Commercial Ave., Mingo Junction.
• Calls to the odor complaint hotline for January are at 16 so far and totaled 44 for December, Maragos said, though December's number is up from the usual December average, according to health Commissioner Andrew Henry.
• Kylie Smogonovich, nursing director, said the health department acquired 1,400 diapers through a diaper drive with Trinity Health System. Planned as early as November 2022, the department's community diaper bank is expected to begin distribution in early February, and a survey is open for interested individuals to fill out and express interest in receiving diaper assistance.
• The board approved the penultimate purchase order for the Eastern Ohio Correction Center, with $126,989 to be paid out of the Confinement Facilities 2023 grant for developments meant to reduce the spread of diseases.
• The board approved a contract with the Ohio Department of Health's STI Prevention Program, which provides medications for sexually transmitted infections in the local community and will run until June 30, 2028.
• The board approved Henry to attend the National Rural Health Association in Washington, D.C., with registration and lodging at a total cost of $1,759.50. Henry said the trip is funded through the health department's workforce development grant, allowing employees to attend equity-based conferences.