Orange County shares a health department with Hardin County. Many including County Judge John Gothia would like to see Orange County have its own health department again to serve the needs of its citizens.
The county got some good news this week from Jennifer Haney the director of the Social Services Department concerning a $1 million grant she applied for from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and was approved to receive. Haney has also applied for a $290,000 grant from the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The turnaround was very quick as Haney viewed a webinar on June 8 about the CDC grant, she submitted the application for the grant on June 9, and received an email June 21 confirming Orange County was awarded that grant. “The two grants are very similar yet different but they’re both related to COVID-19. They’re both related to identifying unmet needs in our county and trying to build up our public health system,” Haney described.
Judge Gothia is excited about the prospect of the county having its own health clinic that is possible now because of the million dollar grant. “This grant is going to allow us to start looking at hiring some personnel that we’re going to need and a rental location that we can have to use as a medical center for our localized health department,” Gothia explained.
The grant came so quickly the search is just beginning for a site for a new health clinic. The judge indicated the Orange County Convention and Expo Center is already too full to serve as that location.
Gothia expressed his hopes for establishing the new health clinic for Orange County. “We want to be able to do all the things that now we’re having them come over and do for us. We want to set it up so it will take several nurses, an epidemiologist, and other things that we have to get in place,” Gothia said.
Gothia is confident in putting Haney in charge of setting up the clinic and hiring the personnel to serve in it. He anticipates the Orange County Health Clinic would require space to hold at least five or six people minimum, and then possibly up to ten at some point when it is completely setup Gothia concluded.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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