Newspaper Page Text
www.starnewsqa.com StarNews MARCH 2011 Page5
TABLED from front page
recent board of health meeting at which
Dr. Alpha Fowler Biyan, interim health
director for District 4, gave a presentation
to the BOH, in-an attempt to persuade
them from attempting a separation from
the district.
Dr. Bryan’s presentation seemed to have
little affect on the board, with several
members asking questions that Fowler
often had no direct answer for. The con
cern, said board members, is the vague
ness of how funds are received and dis
tributed by the district. Although Bryan
attempted to give detailed responses about
fund disbursement, Board of Health
Chairman Dr. Jack Birge told her, “Wha
tever the case; it isn’t working.”
Birge said he has been looking into the
matter for 5 years and doesn’t believe
Carroll County has been receiving its fan-
share of state money that is tunneled
through the district. The split from District
4 would give the county health board
much more power over how funds are
used, Birge said. Also, the county would
qualify for state funding, based on popula
tion numbers.
Dr. Bryan was in attendance at the com
mission meeting as well and continued to
make a case for not moving forward with
separation during the public comments
section of the meeting.
“1 don’t believe that creation of a sepa
rate district is the solution,” she said, “but
rather an analysis of the root cause of the
problem and implementation of appropri
ate solutions.”
Bryan said that the fiscal impact to the
county had to be considered, and that a
E-SPLOST from front page
passes, said Cowart, who pointed out past
successes of E-SPLOST, such as the new
Mt. Zion High School, Providence
Elementary School in Temple, and the
Joshua R. Mabry Center for the Arts at
Carrollton High School.
Cowart and Edwards outlined a project
list that would be executed if the citizens of
Carroll County vote in favor of E-SPLOST
IV. The list included 100 new classrooms
district wide; a new Northeast College and
Career Academy campus plus an expan
sion and renovations to the current
Southwest Campus; a 1,200 seat perform
ing arts center; classroom additions or
renovations at Bowdon, Central, Temple
See MARCH 15 page 19
number of services throughout District 4
are not captured in local operating budgets
of the local health department.
Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, new director of
the state division of public health for the
Georgia Department of Community
Health and a Carroll County resident,
spoke to the board during the meeting and
said she understood the concerns of the
BOH, but that the state could not afford
the extra funding a separate district would
cost.
“We want to be cooperative and help
you any way we can,” she said, “and
make sure that there is an efficient use of
funds. We vow to be transparent. The bot
tom line is, though, the state really doesn’t
have the money for a separate
department.”
When the time came to vote on the mat
ter, District 5 Commissioner Kevin
Jackson made the motion to table it, citing
the new information brought forth by Dr.
Bryan and Dr. Fitzgerald.
“I think we need to sit back and take a
breath, and have the board of health take a
look at the additional information,” he
said. “Once we’ve had time to look at this
further, we can make a better informed
decision.”
District 1 Commissioner Trent North
disagreed, saying that he thought the
board should move forward by voting on
the issue.
“I commend the chairman and Dr.
Birge for finding out and acknowledging
that there was a problem,” he said. “Ho
wever, I think that we owe it to our depart
ment and to Dr. Fitzgerald to allow her to
have an opportunity to represent Carroll
County. We should send a message that
we are glad our new government chose to
reach to Carroll County to pick one of our
own [Dr. Fitzgerald lives in Carroll
County] to head up community health,
with the understanding that we have
expectations. Those expectations are that
we deserve our fair share of state dollars.”
In the end, the vote to table the matter
passed 4-3, with Commission Chairman
Bill Chappell, District 5 Commissioner
Kevin Jackson, District 4 Commissioner
John Wilson, and District 6 Commissioner
George Chambers voting in favor of
tabling the resolution, and District 1
Commissioner Trent North, District 3
Commissioner Ashley Hendrix, and
District 2 Commissioner Vicki Anderson
voting in opposition.
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