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Rutherford County health staff seek OK to refill WIC role; committee forwards $488,500 ELC grant to budget review
Summary
At the Jan. 28 Health and Education Committee meeting, county health staff asked commissioners to recommend changing a vacant registered-dietitian position to a nutrition educator for WIC and presented an Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) grant of $488,500; commissioners voted unanimously to forward both items to the next steps.
Rutherford County health officials told the county Health and Education Committee on Jan. 28 that they want to fill a vacant WIC nutrition role at a lower job classification and that the department has a new $488,500 grant contract to spend on lab and facility upgrades.
John Blair, assistant public health county director for the Rutherford County Health Department, told commissioners the department wants permission to recruit a nutrition educator to fill a vacancy previously funded as a registered dietitian position. Blair said the change is part of the state pass-through contract and is intended to increase the pool of eligible applicants for the WIC program. “The nutrition educator can do almost the exact same thing as a registered dietitian can do,” Blair said.
Blair said the state has approved the reclassification but that past county practice has been to bring such changes before the Health and Ed Committee with a recommendation for the full commission. Commissioners voted unanimously to forward a favorable recommendation to the full county commission, with the caveat that county human resources (Sonya Stevenson) be consulted as needed before final processing.
Blair also described a state ELC grant the department presented for committee consideration. He said the new contract totals $488,500, which rolls $340,500 from an earlier CARES-Act-era contract together with an additional approximately $148,000 in new funding. Blair said the money is a cost-reimbursement contract (the county pays and invoices the state) and requires no local match.
Blair outlined the principal uses requested by the state: installing handicap-accessible door equipment at the Smyrna facility and at the Murfreesboro facility (the Smyrna site is not currently accessible and Murfreesboro’s equipment is more than 25 years old), and upgrading natural-gas lines feeding generators that power refrigerated vaccine storage. He said the gas-line work is relatively expensive and will consume a significant share of the new funds.
Committee members moved to approve the contract and to send it on to the county Budget office for review; the roll call was unanimous in favor.
Blair opened the department report by saying Rutherford County’s “community risk for Covid right now is low” and reminded residents that flu and RSV remain active in winter and that flu vaccine and free COVID tests (via covidtests.gov) are available. He described the department’s data source as the agency’s record system and said monthly statistics come to the county from the Tennessee state health office. He also noted the county is performing a community health improvement plan (a recurring, public document) and encouraged the public to request additional information from the health department.
A procedural motion to approve the committee’s minutes was also passed at the start of the meeting.
