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West Windsor health officer outlines 2024 work, warns federal grant funding is phasing out
Summary
Health Officer Jill Swanson told the council the department kept a flat operating budget for 2025 while federal pandemic-era grants that funded added staff and equipment are winding down; the department will shift more costs to the operating budget and continue community outreach, risk communication and partner planning.
Jill Swanson, West Windsor health officer, told the council during the township's March 11 budget work session that the health department's operating budget for 2025 is flat and that several federal and state pandemic-era grants that supplemented staffing and supplies are ending.
Swanson said the department used pandemic-related grant funding in 2024 to supplement staff, support health-promotion and infectious-disease outreach, and buy facility items including a generator and vaccine refrigeration equipment. "Our operating budget is a flat budget this year," she told the council, and added that grant funding the department has relied on is "now cycling out."
The department received notice of a potential $20,000 federal/state award that could be spent through June 2026, Swanson said, but that amount is small relative to the funding levels the department had received in recent years. She told council members that because those larger grants are phasing out, the health department will be more reliant on the municipal operating budget going forward.
Swanson reviewed program work for 2024 and plans for 2025: continued community health improvement planning through the Greater Mercer Public Health Partnership and with Penn Medicine Princeton; completion of an internal local risk communication plan and a planned exercise with county partners; continued workforce development and leadership training for inspection staff and the public health nurse; digital conversion of historic block-and-lock files to streamline public records requests; and two continuous-quality-improvement projects to reorganize the health department website and revise standard operating procedures.
She also described the department's revised point-of-distribution plan for mass medication or vaccination in an emergency and said staff who were brought on for pandemic response have been reassigned to health education, outreach and emergency planning. Swanson encouraged better public outreach and said the department already uses partner email lists to distribute materials to faith organizations, schools and child-care providers.
Council members asked whether the department partners with the school district for distribution; Swanson said the district has been cooperative for quick messages about clinics or communicable-disease notices. Council members also asked about travel-vaccination guidance; Swanson said the department links to the CDC traveler's health site.
Swanson said the department is encouraging staff to pursue leadership training to prepare for transitions and noted two staff members earned the Certified Health Education Specialist credential in 2024 and the public health nurse became certified in infection control. She closed by repeating that the 2025 operating budget is flat and that the department expects some grant funds to end in mid-2025, increasing reliance on the operating budget.
The council did not take a formal vote on the budget line during the presentation; Swanson's overview was presented for council review ahead of formal adoption later in the budget process.
