Public health brings home grant for five-county HIV/AIDs programs
No additions, deletions or changes were made to the list of consent agenda items presented to the Plumas County Board of Supervisors at the Tuesday, Oct. 8, meeting.
A grant for $168,636 for the current fiscal year topped the list of consent items approved by supervisors.
A resolution to accept the grant from the California Department of Public Health is for Housing Opportunities for Persons Living with AIDS (HOPWA). Supervisors authorized Plumas County Public Health Director Andrew Woodruff to sign the agreement.
The grant is part of a contract between the county and the state’s Office of AIDS for various HIV/AIDS related services and prevention activities.
The goal of HOPWA is to assist people with advanced HIV infection and AIDS to remain in their homes. This helps reduce the need for costly and inappropriate hospitalization, according to Woodruff.
The program is administered for the Mountain Counties AIDS Consortium by Plumas County public health. It “has been immensely successful in our five county region,” Woodruff explained.
Counties involved in the consortium include Plumas, Siskiyou, Sierra, Modoc and Lassen. The funding is used in those areas for emergency rental assistance and partial payment of utilities though a Plumas housing agency contract with the State Office of AIDS. “The program, which is 100 percent state funded, covers costs for the five counties and is fully utilized each year.”
Surplus vehicle
Plumas County Environmental Health Director Jerry Sipe was given permission from supervisors to declare a 2002 Chevrolet Blazer as surplus property. The vehicle will be sold at a public auction.
“As the board is aware, Environmental Health has an aging fleet of field vehicles,” Sipe explained. This particular vehicle has approximately 170,000 miles and is in need of significant and costly repairs. “Rather than perform the required work, it is time to take this vehicle our of service.”
A replacement for the Blazer has not been identified, Sipe said.
Public works is coordinating a public auction sometime during November. Proceeds from the sale of this vehicle or others from any county department go into the Plumas County General Fund.
Rental fee waived
The waiving of the rental fee at the Chester Memorial Hall for the Lake Almanor Community Supper and Almanor Basin Food Pantry was approved by supervisors.
“After reviewing the requests, facility services has no issue with deviating from the fee schedule,” according to Facilities Services Director Kevin Correira.
The waiver covers the fiscal year.
Maintenance worker vacancy
With the resignation of a fulltime maintenance worker at the Chester Maintenance District, Public Works Director Bob Perreault was given the go-ahead to fly the position.
The position is funded and allocated for the current fiscal year. Perreault also submitted a critical position questionnaire to supervisors. “Maintenance workers are the workforce for maintenance and construction work on county roads and bridges,” Perreault responded in part.
The position is essential to the operation of the department because maintenance workers could be called out for road related emergencies and snow removal at any time.
