Being part of Tri-County cut down costs, and establishing a new health department will be expensive
Proponents of keeping Tri-County Health whole instead of splitting apart wondered if the costs of creating a brand new department outweigh the benefits.
“Is all of this really worth it? I just have to ask that question. Is it worth it?” said James Poplawski of Parker.
Douglas County contributes about $2.5 million to Tri-County’s annual budget. Setting up their own health department could lead to a duplication of some of the costs now shared with two other counties.
“We're getting for a fraction of what we pay, we're getting a tremendous amount of services,” Poplawski said. “So we get 60 programs and services for a fraction of the cost and pretty much the whole purpose of Tri-County health is for Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas to split that cost of those three counties.”
He urged commissioners to listen to public health experts.
“Let's mask up, keep our taxes low and keep our children safe,” he said.
Another resident, Robin Mendelson, said masking shouldn't be so contentious.
“You ski, you wear a helmet, and many people wear a face shield if it's cold or if it's icy. So this has been completely blown out of proportion,” Mendelson said.
The change takes effect at year's end. Also, earlier in the day on Monday, the board agreed to create a five-member board of health, which includes two commissioners themselves.
Some Douglas County officials say they've been exploring an exit for more than a year
Just how much it’ll cost Douglas County to create its own health department isn’t clear. A DougCo staffer laid out the county’s efforts to date and plan moving forward, describing a survey of residents and the hiring of a health management contractor and an environmental public health services consulting firm.
She said the county has also contracted with the non-profit Colorado Health Institute to develop a roadmap for the transition to an independent local public health agency.
“In a lot of ways, Douglas County is just too big to be small,” Commissioner Abe Laydon said. “We joined Tri-County when we were 4,000 people. We’re 357,000. This isn't a divorce from Tri-County Health. It's just an empty nest and that's okay. It's okay for kids to grow up and to move on and to do new things.”
He noted the county has paid for Tri-County’s services through the end of the year. He portrayed DougCo as being responsible stewards of taxpayer money, saying it will have millions in federal funds at its disposal in the future.
“I will say this county, through conservative budgeting, doesn't have virtually any debt whatsoever. We have reserves,” Laydon said.
Commissioner also discussed a letter sent by Arapahoe County detailing its concerns about the split.
But the board said it’s been weighing the move for months.
“We have not taken this lightly,” said Commissioner Lora Thomas, who added staff had been studying it since last July, compiling their findings in a thick binder. “It will be done right. And I believe people will look back years from now and think they did a great job.”
The contentious DougCo/Tri-County split has become a bit of a Colorado pandemic flashpoint, with two divergent competing worldviews offering two different responses to the deadly and contagious virus, mirroring a divided nation.
When Arapahoe County’s commissioners asked for public feedback, residents were closely split. The county’s communications director said it had received more than 18,000 responses, but only 6,300 were valid. Nearly 11,000 came from IP addresses that entered two or more responses, and more than a thousand of the disqualified responses came from out of state or out of the county.
"Exit" - Google News
September 09, 2021 at 03:48AM
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Douglas County Commissioners Unanimously Vote To Exit Tri-County Health Department - Colorado Public Radio
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