Thurston accepts state funds for additional public health funding

The Thurston Board of County Commissioners has greenlit an additional $2,788,399 to be received as part of the Washington State Department of Health Consolidated Contract.

This is the 15th amendment to the existing contract #CLH31030, approved on January 1, 2022, and will span through December 31, 2024.

Thurston's Public Health and Social Services Department Assistant Director Jennifer Freiheit said the additional funding is for public health services and the programs under the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) 2022-2024 Consolidated Contract.

According to the staff report, the contract covers foundational public health services, infectious disease prevention services, immunizations, recreational shellfish activities, infectious disease prevention services, injury and violence prevention overdose, and drinking water programs.

County staff said they would come back to the BOCC to submit the official breakdown of how the additional funding will be divided on various programs.

"We knew we would be getting additional money, but we did not know that it would be on August 8, and we did not know exactly what the amount would be, but we made assumptions in our budget," said Budget Director Robin Campbell.

The state's #CLH31030 contract is the "mechanism used to transmit federal and state funding for public health services to the county where the services are delivered."

"It's never hard for me to accept dollars from the state to do our job," said Commissioner Gary Edwards.