Eau Claire City-County Health Department outlines programs, funding pressures and testing gaps

The City-County Health Department presented its 2024 annual report to the Eau Claire County Board on April 2, detailing core programs, funding sources and recent grant cuts that officials say will affect services.

The presentation, by Public Health Director Lisa Giese and City-County Board of Health member Mark Cady, said the department has a $7,700,000 budget for the year and receives slightly more than a third of its funding from the county and city tax levy, another large share from federal and state grants, and fees for services.

"We get $7,000 annually from the state of Wisconsin for our communicable disease program," Giese said, stressing that Wisconsin provides much less state public-health funding than other states. That low state support, she said, increases reliance on federal grants and local levy funding.

Giese said the department focuses on prevention and population health rather than clinical care. Examples cited included the Nurse-Family Partnership home-visiting program for new parents, WIC nutrition services (which Giese said serve almost half of infants born in Eau Claire County), environmental health work such as private-well testing and tattoo- and food-service inspections, and substance-use programs that range from prevention education to supplying sharps disposal sites.

The department flagged recent federal changes that it said reduced local grant funding. "We have already been notified of cuts," Giese said. She told supervisors that three grants were ended retroactively, producing an estimated local shortfall of about $130,000, and that a Department of Transportation pass-through grant for child car seats was halved after money had already been spent.

Supervisors pressed staff on testing for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in private wells. Giese said the county lab does not test for PFAS and that such samples go to the State Lab of Hygiene or other facilities; she said the county is working with UW-Eau Claire on a study after elevated PFAS levels were found in the south/southwest part of the county. "We are seeing PFAS in this community," she said, and noted that mitigation funding is limited and managed through the Department of Natural Resources.

Board members also asked about opioids and fentanyl. Giese said the county is seeing some decreases in use and overdoses but continues to track them and to receive various opioid-related funds distributed through different channels, including money that goes directly to the sheriff's office and settlement dollars that the county is reviewing for local use.

On communicable disease preparedness, Giese said the department follows up on many reportable conditions each year and is monitoring national measles activity. "If I had measles and was not yet showing signs of that and came to this County Board Room, every one of you in this room would be exposed," she said, underscoring measles'high transmissibility and the county's plans to work with clinics and schools.

Giese and Board of Health members asked supervisors to help sustain local levy support and to refer constituents to the department's annual report and resources. She also highlighted partnerships with UW-Eau Claire, the Eau Claire Health Alliance and other local partners that shape the community health assessment and improvement plan.

Board members thanked the department for its work and noted the department's long history of shared city-county service. The presentation was followed by questions from multiple supervisors about water testing, vaccination rates and county efforts to collect and map private well-sampling results.

The presentation materials and the annual report are available on the health department website, and staff said they would share links to dashboards and testing events with supervisors.