LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga.- The Lumpkin County Commissioners decided to pay CorrectHealth the additional money required to bring them up to the new contract fee however they will not be paying the additional fee that was requested.

The board also voted to approve the amended intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the Board of Education for the proposed aquatic center. They approved a proclamation recognizing the 8U Baseball team for their state championship.

CorrectHealth sent the Board of Commissioners a bill requesting funds to help them break even on the months that the commissioners were bidding out for the service. During those months the commissioners were paying the original contract rate of $22,417.01, they requested at the first work session for the commissioners to meet the first proposed rate of $27,699.67.

To review that meeting visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/08/03/board-reviews-correcthealth-bill-for-uncontracted-months/. The commissioners decided it was only fair to pay the money back at the new contract rate of $29,000, viewing that it wasn’t CorrectHealth’s fault they were not under contract for those months.

The board however did not feel that they owed the extra $42,000 because a contract amendment never came before the board. In Dec. when the nursing shortage began affecting the situation, CorrectHealth contracted Sheriff Stacy Jarrard and presented him with two options, cut down on the nursing staff or bring in more contracted services at a higher cost.

Jarrard contacted County Manager Alan Ours and got what he interrupted as an okay to move forward with the higher cost. Ours does not have the authority to approve contract changes so the next action was that it should have been placed on the next available agenda but it was not.

CorrectHealth did send a contract amendment to the board but it was never signed and CorrectHealth moved forward with the contracted services in what they called “good faith”.

John Ritter, Director of Marketing and Business Development came with Jarrard to the meeting to explain why the board should pay the fee. 

“I did bring an option where we could have remained revenue neutral by cutting the service, but the client(Sheriff Jarrard) requested no we don’t want that we agreed to move forward and have that extra nurse so we have 7 days 12-hour coverage in the facility and we honored that request, we fulfilled that request, and we paid for that request,” explained Ritter.

The board was unaware of the options and had no opportunity to find additional funding to cover the extra expense. Jarrard asked that the money come out of his budget to pay the company, however after Finance Director Abby Branan reviewed his budget she found no additional funds to cover the fee. 

Heard in the clip above is Chairman of the Board Chris Dockery explaining to Ritter his view on how the contract change should have been handled. At this time it is unclear what next steps CorrectHealth may take to get the additional funds.

The Commissioners recently adopted new plans for the aquatic center. The original plans came in way over the budget set aside for the project so the board started the plans over. 

After numerous meetings with the community to get their input the board finally settled on a plan that best fits the community’s needs. The Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education had an IGA for the original plans and now that the plans have changed the agreement needs to be amended.

The Board of Education voted to approve the amended IGA at their regular meeting on Aug. 8, to examine that meeting and the plans visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/08/09/board-of-education-approves-iga-with-the-county/. To see what the IGA looks like visit http://lumpkincountyga.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1656&Inline=True, it begins on page 48.

The Commissioners also made a proclamation recognizing the 8U Baseball Team GRPA Class C State Champions. The team was present for the proclamation and also received a Lumpkin County Coin from the commissioners. Commissioner Tucker Greene is one of the coaches for the team. 

“I would just like to say thank you for the recognition for that group of boys that you saw before you, I’ve coached a long time and a lot of kids and this was one really really special group, and I was honored to be apart of it and I just thank yall for what yall did for them,” commented Greene.