Health Department Board discusses new building

The WIC Program is a special supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children, and serves to safeguard the health of low-income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating including breastfeeding promotion and support, and referrals to health care.

The Health Department has been working with the Mills Group out of Morgantown to design the building, and although design plans are not finalized, Health Department Administrator V.J. Davis hopes they will be in the next few weeks.

“I know the commission is very excited to get this building,” Davis said. “We are looking at a million-dollar building.”

Davis said at this point construction costs are approximately $350 per square foot, and that also depends on supply of construction materials.

“Once the plans for the building are finalized, the commission will begin to look for grants and funding for the building,” Davis said.

In the basement of the building, one half will be storage and the other half will be finished.

Health Department Board Members did get to look at preliminary plans, and Kendra Baker thought it was wonderful.

“We have to thank you for thinking ahead to get the Extension Office and WIC program into the design of the building also,” Baker said to Davis.

Davis said in the past, space wise it had never worked out before.

“We received the bill for the design of the building from the Mills Group, and it came in lower than expected,” Davis said. “We budgeted $25,000, and the total cost was $21,000.”

Currently, the Health Department is housed on the second floor of the courthouse annex.

The department has many services including an immunization program, diabetes program, blood pressure screenings, and environmental screenings.

In other business, Davis said the department is still waiting for updated standing orders on the new COVID-19 vaccination. Until those are received, they cannot give out the new vaccine.

The department is still getting a few calls regarding and questions about their clinics. At the end of June, the departments will do the COVID vaccinations on a requested basis and no further clinics will be held.

The grant that funded temporary employees during the COVID pandemic will be complete at the end of June also.

The mission of the Preston County Health Department is to protect, promote, and improve the health and the well-being of residents of the county through investigating and reporting infectious disease, monitoring disease surveillance and statistics to prevent communicable disease outbreak.