County health providers seek level funding and partial restorations as public-health demand rises

Representatives of the Newton County Health Department, the regional behavioral-health board Viewpoint Health, and the volunteer-supported Willing Helpers Medical Clinic briefed county commissioners on FY26 funding requests and service pressures.

Joseph Sternberg, chief operating officer for the county health department, asked for level funding of $187,550, the same request as FY25, and described the department's use of the money to support clinical and environmental health staff. Sternberg said the department performed about 6,500 patient visits in the previous nine months and emphasized environmental health work that prevents restaurant and septic-related health hazards. Sternberg also said environmental health staffing has returned to pre-recession levels after many layoffs and that environmental health clinics are staffed by Newton employees rather than a district pool (though WIC is administered at the lead-county level).

Eric Norton, chief financial officer for Viewpoint Health, requested $254,282 for FY26, an increase of $19,962 over the prior year, and asked the county to restore the agency's funding to FY17 levels. Norton described Viewpoint as a safety-net behavioral-health provider serving about 1,900 Newton County residents in 2024 with outpatient care and said funding contributed to the facility's detox unit. He reported the detox unit expanded from eight to ten beds since opening in 2023 and thanked commissioners for past one-time or ongoing support for capital and program work.

Christine Boggs, executive director of Willing Helpers Medical Clinic, outlined the free clinic's services for uninsured patients below 200% of the federal poverty level and described rapid growth in demand: roughly 654 active patients, 10–15 new applications per week and nearly half of current patients reporting no income. Boggs said the clinic provided about 1,900 medical visits in 2024, 4,000 prescriptions, and specialist referrals and valued free care at roughly $3.4 million in 2024. The clinic is developing an in-house dental program to reduce preventable ER visits and asked for county partnership to maintain operations as local provider capacity is stretched.

Commissioners asked operational questions about staffing and turnaround times; Sternberg said environmental health permit turnaround from a completed application to permit issuance is typically under a week and that the district looks at fee schedules periodically. Viewpoint and the clinic said county support helps maintain local access to specialty services and crisis stabilization.

Ending: Presenters asked the commission to consider level funding for the health department and to restore or increase appropriations to behavioral-health and free-clinic partners as the county balances rising demand and public-health capacity constraints.