McLean County health panel approves three new public-health grants, highlights 2024 Narcan distribution

The McLean County Board Health Committee on an affirmative vote approved three budget amendments to add revenues and expenses tied to newly awarded public-health grants and heard a year-end summary of 2024 activities, including a large Narcan distribution.

The health department’s administrator, Jessica Mendon, asked the committee to combine three items and add them to the 2024 budget. The grants are: a Fund 105 lifestyle coach grant for diabetes prevention and management; a Fund 107 tick surveillance grant that is part of the Illinois Department of Public Health’s Comprehensive Health Protection Grant; and a Fund 107 Local Health Department Respiratory Surveillance and Outbreak Response Grant. Member Bell moved to place the combined items on the table; Member Hanson seconded. The motion passed.

Mendon said the grants were unplanned when the county set its 2024 budget and that adding the revenues and expenses will allow the health department to expand services. “These new grants that we're receiving are allowing us to do more work,” Mendon said, listing expansions from prevention to cessation for tobacco services and from diabetes prevention to including management services for existing diabetes patients.

Director McDowell presented a summary of the department’s 2024 achievements and plans for 2025. McDowell highlighted that the county installed a wall-mounted Narcan dispenser, completed trainings and distributed more than 1,000 boxes of Narcan in 2024. The department also plans to expand vector surveillance beyond mosquitoes to include ticks, McDowell said.

There were no amendments to the grant approvals and no recorded no votes. The committee did not discuss any changes to staffing tied to the grants during the meeting.

The committee scheduled its next regular meeting for Feb. 4, 2025.