By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Improvements are coming to the Barton County Health Department. Director Karen Winkleman submitted a letter to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment back in July requesting the use of $50,000 of an Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) grant towards a remodel. With the help of $10,000 in additional funds from KDHE, the Barton County Commission agreed Wednesday morning to pay the remaining $11,000 for the renovation.
"The remodel we're looking at is to combine two of our restrooms into one, and make it a (decontamination) area where we have a shower, a washer, and a dryer," Winkleman told commissioners. "We would use it when we go out on environmental visits, or like with COVID, we would have had a place to come back and change before we went home."
Another piece of the renovation will convert the library area to a more private meeting room for HIPPA-related meetings. Commission Chair Shawn Hutchinson emphasized the county would be getting $71,000 worth of work completed for the local cost of $11,000. Winkelman said it could have been a matter of good timing.
"The grant was actually to be used by the end of November," she said. "A lot of health departments were having trouble trying to get projects started or done by that time, so that extended the grant to June 30, 2023, which has been very helpful."
Brentwood Builders was the lone contractor to enter a bid on the project, which will likely begin before the end of the year.