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Health Department earns grant funds
Federal, state money helps with myriad local, area projects
Barton County Health Dept.jpg
Barton County Health Department

The Barton County Health Department received a big shot in the arm Monday morning as the County Commission approved the Health Department annual federal and state grant awards totalling $466,694. 

Barton County applies for annual state and federal grants, Health Director Shelly Schneider said. This was about 5% less than the $485,000 she had requested, but it was in line with what she was expecting, since these are competitive grants with lots of applicants in the hunt.

“This makes up a good percentage of our budget,” she said. The money comes from federal and state sources, or a combination of both.

The Commission OKed the following grants:

• Child Care Licensing Program - $120,000

Barton County serves five other counties with this funding, including Ellsworth, Pawnee, Rice and Stafford. There are 100 day care providers in this area.

• Chronic Disease Risk Reduction - $60,000

This helps Barton cover two other counties (Rice and Stafford) with projects pertaining to active transportation, food availability and tobacco cessation.

• Family Planning - $46,852.00

• Maternal & Child Health - $79,777

Funds from this help low-income mothers and children through the age of 21.

• Pregnancy Maintenance Initiative - $9,500

• Teen Pregnancy Targeted Case Management - $9,232

This is the first time Barton County has received this grant. Kansas has a high rate of teen pregnancies and problems with new-born health, and this will target those.

• Lifting Youth and Families Toward Excellence - $52,744

Known as LYFT, this helps young families who are expecting or parenting. The focus is on low-income parents, and financial advice and education.

• Public Health Emergency Preparedness - $21,778

The money goes for emergency response efforts, such as the tetanus shots that were given during the recent flooding.

• Immunization Action Plan - $13,752

• Special Health Care Needs  (included in the MCH Grant)

• State Formula - $17,900

These totaled the $431,535

In addition, there was the Regional Public Health Emergency Preparedness grant in the amount of $34,847. 

Funding from this helps Barton County which serves as the fiscal agent for the Central Kansas Public Health Emergency Preparedness group covering Barton, McPherson, Pawnee, Rice, Saline and Stafford counties. 

This brought the money coming to the department to $466,694.