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Putnam County hears nonprofit funding updates from SMA Healthcare, Meridian and Episcopal Children's Services
Summary
Officials from SMA Healthcare, Meridian and Episcopal Children's Services briefed commissioners on services for Putnam residents, funding sources and program risks; SMA and Meridian outlined grant reliance and programmatic needs while Episcopal Children's Services requested $5,000 for school-readiness match.
Putnam County commissioners heard summer budget and program updates from three local service providers on July 14 as part of the board's pre-budget review process.
Salvatore "Tory" Gentoli of SMA Healthcare said Putnam County provides SMA roughly $390,000 per year in direct funding and property in-kind (two buildings at 330 K Larkin Drive), which supports drug court, therapy and psychiatric services across a six-county service area. Gentoli said SMA operates some programs in the red and relies on grants ("over $10 million" secured since 2018) and county support. He told the board one neonatal grant expires at the end of August and SMA has applied for a replacement award to avoid closing primary-care services in Putnam: "If we do not get that grant, we would have to close our primary care services." Nancy Russo of SMA described the forensic case management role and the assisted outpatient treatment program (court-ordered outpatient care tied to the Baker Act) and said many of the residential and outpatient services are provided inside Putnam County.
Lauren Cohen, president and CEO of Meridian, presented the organization's annual report for Putnam County, noting an increase in telehealth (reported figures: 454 Putnam County residents and 3,456 telehealth services in the year ending June 30, 2026). Cohen said outcomes data show about 79 percent of adults and 80 percent of children reporting improved functioning; Meridian requested a 2% funding increase from the county (presented figure: $56,100) to support expanded services including a central receiving facility and opioid treatment license allocations used in Putnam.
Britney Spangler of Episcopal Children's Services summarized early-childhood results for the fiscal year and asked the county to continue a $5,000 match in FY 26-27 for school-readiness programs; Spangler reported an average of 764 Putnam children served and an average annual cost of $5,029.45 for those served.
Commissioners emphasized the need for geographic detail about who is being served in Putnam (zip-code or district-level breakdowns) and agreed to request additional data from both SMA and Meridian so the board can evaluate budget requests during the formal budget process. Chair reminded the public that no funding decisions would be made in the meeting and that budget allocations are decided during the commission's formal budget hearings.
What happens next: staff will ask providers for more granular service-area data to inform FY 2026-27 budget deliberations.
