Health Department Seeks Generator To Protect Vaccines
WARSAW — Kosciusko County’s Health Department requested a purchase that can likely ensure some of the department’s most value assets stay viable.
Bob Weaver, administrator, spoke to the Kosciusko County Council at its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, May 9, requesting an additional appropriation of $11,800 for a piece of equipment designed to protect the department’s supply of vaccines.
“I’d like to use that money for a generator for our cooling units out at the K21 building at the clinic that we operate at that location,” Weaver said. “We currently are not on a generator, and from time to time we have temperature excursions with power outages.”
Weaver told the council that temperature fluctuations negatively affect the department’s precious cargo of vaccines.
“If that vaccine falls below one and a half degrees, we are notified by text and telephone,” he said. “If it stays that way for more than a half hour, we have to send it back to the state to be destroyed. We can’t use. It gets to be a real problem of what to do if we get an alarm.”
Weaver said that historically, local hospitals have come to the rescue in such cases, offering temporary use of their cooling units.
“They’ve been kind enough to let us use their refrigeration units in their pharmacy,” he said.
Weaver said in February a violent wind storm caused the department to lose power during the evening. A call to local utilities indicated that the power could be out as long as three to four hours. “So that meant we had to pack up our vaccine and there was a lot of it,” Weaver said.
“I just thought to myself, we have the funds available to get a generator for this and this vaccine is very expensive. I would image there is close to $200,000 worth of vaccine out there at a time. It needs to be protected a little better, I think.”
The council approved Weaver’s request.
In other business, the council:
- Heard from Sheriff Kyle Dukes, who requested appropriations of $56,000 and $30,000 for new radios and a new vehicle respectively. According to Dukes, the radios, 42 of them, would be used for jail personnel, courthouse personnel and two transport officers. Dukes said the funds from the two appropriations originates from revenue generated by monthly sheriff sales. He said the fund currently has $96,000 in its coffers.
- Heard from County Administrator Marsha McSherry, who requested an additional appropriation for land and improvements of $58,694 for the courthouse plaza work, currently underway.
- Approved County Prosecutor Dan Hampton’s request to apply for a $20,000 Senior HUB grant.
- Approved a request from Rob Bishop for a transfer of $55,528.54 from the general fund to the IVD Incentive Fund.
- Heard a report from officials with the Purdue Extension Office.
- Heard a suggestion from the county’s Wheel Tax Committee on proposed rate changes that can possibly be voted on in July after a public comment period. A more complete story is located here.