The St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday that permits the county to establish contract details for the sale of a building to Covered Bridge Healthcare.
Covered Bridge has been the occupant and leaseholder on the building at 658 E. Main St. in Centreville for the last four years. The sale would permit them to renovate and expand the building. As presented during last week’s County Executive Committee meeting, the proposed sale would take place under a three-year land contract with a $144,000 price tag.
County Administrator Teresa Doehring said she has established a draft of that contract with Covered Bridge, under which the building would revert to the county in the event of any deviation from a sale contract. Once the contract’s legal language is finalized, commissioners will vote one more time to approve the actual sale.
Covered Bridge Executive Director Rick Shaffer thanked the commissioners for the county’s support over the past four years, and for considering the sale. He cited the collaborative ways the county and Covered Bridge have worked together, including providing services like medical oversight at the county jail, and thanked Doehring for her work in putting the draft contract together.
Third District Commissioner and Chair Dennis Allen said, “I think it’s a good project, and I’m glad we’re able to come to some agreements here.” Fifth District Commissioner Ken Malone agreed, calling the sale “a great circumstance of a partnership to help them continue to move forward with providing services that are essential to our community on a daily basis.” Second District Commissioner and Vice Chair Kathy Pangle also expressed her agreement, as did First District Commissioner Allen Balog.
Human Services Commission Presents Annual Report
St. Joseph County Human Services Commission (SJHSC) Collaborative Coordinator Laura Brott presented an annual report to county commissioners Tuesday. According to Brott, SJHSC coordinates collaboration between 18 agencies to improve the quality of life to its constituents, prevent duplication of work, and improve citizen access. It has seven task forces to address specific topics ranging from family violence to healthcare. SJHSC Chair Tim Stoll said a lot of its work dovetails with county goals.
In her presentation, Brott detailed the work her agency has performed over the last year. She described events which brought together a variety of collaborative professionals and agencies, and helped distribute a variety of resources. Brott also described several online resources available at its website and through its Facebook page, which it started in 2019, as well as some printed resource materials available at its office. These included an agency calendar and a St. Joseph County Community Resource Guide, which includes details on food and housing resources, and has been updated this year with COVID-19 information.
Brott said that in March 2019 she received the Hometown Health Hero award from the Michigan Health Week Partnership for SJHSC’s work in coordinating connection events and tools, and received a letter of recognition from State Rep. Aaron Miller.
She said 2020 has been a “year like no other,” with COVID-19 impacts changing the way her agency does its work. Some in-person meetings and events have been cancelled, and it has had to connect with its constituents in other ways, including through online communication platforms. Despite that, Brott said, she has been able to achieve similar results for Census outreach to its work in 2010. Other work and projects, such as a master housing plan for the South Michigan Planning Council, continues to move forward.
Financial Picture Details Pending
Finance Director Angie Steinman said the county is 50 percent of the way through its fiscal year, and about 46 percent of the way through its projected expenditures for the year. She said pandemic impacts will be significant, but her office is close to having some projected figures to illustrate how those impacts will play out for the remainder of the year.
Steinman briefly addressed a citizen comment about a decision on Friday, July 17 in which the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that counties cannot keep excess proceeds from tax foreclosure property sales. A roughly $300,000 general fund surplus in the 2019 fiscal year audit came from a transfer from the Delinquent Tax Fund and represent interest and administration fees. She said they did not come from tax foreclosure proceeds, which are kept separately and not intermingled with the general fund.
Steinman also addressed another comment about whether the county is sitting on a large surplus and not using it. The unassigned fund balance in the 2019 audit is roughly $3.8 million. She said the Government Finance Officers Association’s best practice is to have two months of revenue set aside “as a nice safe cushion for financial well-being.” Two months’ revenue would be about three million dollars, Steinman said, which “puts us right at that mark where we’re teetering between healthy and unhealthy. In terms of what our savings is, we’re sitting right where we should be and not sitting on a large surplus.”
Dave Vago is a staff writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.
