TIMES UNION REPORTS – Like many other businesses and organizations, Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice has an employee shortage.
At Tuesday’s County Commissioners meeting, Home Care & Hospice Executive Director Glenn Hall made a public plea for employees to help fill the need. Commissioner Bob Conley said he invited Hall to the meeting to discuss briefly the issue “which lays heavily on his heart” and “will have a tremendous impact on the community.”
Hall said, “The reason I felt it was important to be here today is because you are one of our two major funders in helping us provide services to this community. We have, as you know, struggled in the home care side of our business for years. We don’t make a lot of money on home care, but that’s always been offset by our hospice business.”
Now, like every other business around, he said, Home Care & Hospice is suffering a resource shortage.
“It is beginning to impact our ability to provide the level of care that we would like to,” Hall said. “We’ve been short nursing staff now for well over a year, and I just felt, No. 1, it was important for you to know that. And No. 2, appeal to your hearts to help us spread that we’re looking for people who are servant-minded, looking for folks that want to work in this environment where we take care of people in their homes to help them stay out of a very expensive hospital stay or nursing home stay.”
He said they appreciated the county’s help and couldn’t do what they do without the county’s support. He said the resource issue they’re facing is a “major challenge” to them right now.
Home Care & Hospice is looking for “good nursing, homemakers, aides, clinical staff that can help us provide the service to our county that they deserve,” Hall said.
In other business:
• Suzie Light, representing Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation, said KEDCO is still moving forward with small business loans, although Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) funds are no longer available. KEDCO does have loan funds from other sources, including USDA funds.
There are currently 16 housing developments in various stages that KEDCO is working on.
The Club 729 platform is helping employees with home ownership.
“So that brings us to the Hoosier Homes Program resolution that you have seen,” Light said. “This is an opportunity for employees to access down payment assistance through a program called Hoosier Homes and it is a statewide program. Area banks have been invited to participate in that program, and the local Kosciusko County Steering Committee heard a presentation about the Hoosier Home program and then recommended its adoption in our county.”
The Steering Committee has been in place since 2018, working on the county’s housing strategy. Light said on the Committee’s recommendation, they were asking the Commissioners pass the resolution.
Commissioner Cary Groninger said he saw the presentation and what it can do for Kosciusko County.
“The income levels were a little higher than most,” he said, with the median gross income at $100,000 for families that would still qualify for the down payment assistance program. “So I think it’s something that would be very helpful for those trying to buy their first home that haven’t saved up all their money for their down payment. But this is really something I think would be great.”
He made a motion to approve the resolution and it passed 3-0.
• Groninger said the county needs a letter of support to apply for the Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program, which would allow the county to hire a person to work on community development in the county’s rural areas as well as for the county itself.
“This would be an asset to really help with those communities being able to use their ARP (American Rescue Plan) dollars in a way that can have a lasting impact on their communities,” Groninger said. “We’re in the process of applying for that grant; that goes in later this week. And just looking for a vote for a letter of support or letter of interest for the county to apply for that.”
He said it did go before the County Council at their last meeting, and they did approve it. The Council’s approval was needed because to start the coordinator position there is a $20,000 ask.
“This is something I’m really excited about but I think it can really bring a lot of opportunity to these small communities in our county,” Groninger stated.
Commissioner Brad Jackson said basically the small communities weren’t able to have someone to go after grand dollars and other funding. Groninger said that was correct, and he also agreed with Conley that the position was part-time and temporary.
Jackson made a motion to approve the letter of support, and it was approved 3-0.
• The Commissioners approved two grant applications for money from the county’s ARP dollars, as recommended by the county’s ARP Committee.
The first project is for $30,000 for COVID testing and supplies for cleaning and disinfecting county offices going forward. The second grant application is for $18,666.69 for the rental of the building at the fairgrounds where COVID-19 testing is taking place.
• Highway Superintendent Steve Moriarty asked for permission to set the opening of annual bids for highway supplies. That will be at 9:15 a.m. Nov. 9. All the bids will need to be in the auditor’s office by 9 a.m. that day. The Commissioners approved the bid opening date.
