County health department will be able to accept credit cards

People using services and getting licenses at the Taylor County Health Department will be able to use credit and debit cards to pay.

Members of the county’s finance and personnel committee approved allowing the health department to offer credit card sales using the govpay.net service.

County health director Michelle Cahoon came to the committee asking permission to allow the service to be offered. County code requires approval by the finance and personnel committee for any department to use credit card sales.

As with other county departments, the processing fees will be charged back to the consumers. Cahoon said it would be a 3.75% fee that consumers would have to pay for the convenience of using the service.

She said that with fewer people carrying cash, even the $20 charged for vaccination fee is more than what many people have in their wallets. She said some of the licenses for things like restaurants can be $500 to $600 and that being able to use a credit or debit card to pay offers convenience for them. She said she has gotten a lot of complaints from people for not being able to use cards at the department.

Adding the capability to take cards will result in slightly more work for the county’s finance department. As the service is used, the money will go into the general checking for the county and need to be transferred to the correct budget.

It was noted that other county departments including the clerk’s office, the courts and the treasurer’s office have been accepting credit cards for some time with many using a pay.gov as the vendor.

“Why wouldn’t we have it standardized?” asked committee member Ray Soper.

Human services director Suzanne Stanfley said she thought it was a great idea to be able to accept the cards and noted this would make it easier to get payments from people within her department and indicated they may be coming to ask for permission in the future.

Cahoon noted that there is not a contract with their vendor and said that if they wanted to switch to something else or stop using the service there would be no fees to do so.

Broadband

Taylor County moved a step closer to having an external broadband manager to oversee the county’s broadband network and work with vendors. Committee members approved a job description for the new position which will be part of the information technology department. The county board is scheduled to act on if the position should be formally created at its meeting next month.

Broadband chairman Mike Bub explained that when the county started the broadband project 4.5 years ago, they didn’t anticipate the explosion in grant funds that are being made available at the state and federal level.

Bub said the county has a $9 million direct investment in the broadband project with the fiber optic network. Through a contract with Bug Tussel, they have allowed that company to use $14 million of the county’s borrowing capacity, and the county is actively seeking another $15 million in grants. He said that with $35 to $40 million in the project, it was necessary to have someone overseeing the contracts and working with vendors and customers. “Right now the person who is doing it is part time and doesn’t get paid,” Bub said, referring to himself.

“I think it is time to have someone who will be responsible for the next 20 years,” Bub said.

He noted the county received an $18,000 planning grant which would cover wages for it for the remainder of the year and that the goal would be to get additional grants which cover the salary for it. He said the intent of the grants is to help areas that are underserved by commercial providers. “We are 71 out of 72 counties, we feel we are going to be eligible,” Bub said.

He noted that it is a virtual guarantee they would not be able to get the grant funds without having someone dedicated to working on it.

Committee members approved the job description. Approval of the actual position will take place at the county board meeting on August 15.

In other business, committee members:

  Approved a new job description for the Financial Specialist – Child Support position to reflect changing job requirements. The job has changed where about 30% of the time is spent inputting reporting information into the state system which allows the county to receive the quarterly payments which are a major funding source of the office’s operations. It was noted they would be back in the future requesting a job reclassification depending on what the county’s consultants determine after reviewing the new job description.

  Approved hiring Charlotte, N.C. -based Debt-Book to work with the county finance department for new generally accepted accounting standard board (GASB) requirements for leaves and rental accounting. The cost is $10,000 for the software and training. The county had planned to use its regular auditing firm to do the work, but finance director Larry Brandl said they were unable to do so. While there will likely be an ongoing charge, Brandl said he did not have that information as of the meeting.

  Set 0% increase for operational costs as the goal for the 2024 county budget. Each July the county sets a goal for departmental budgets. Costs such as wages and benefits are set by the county board out of departmental control. The committee also directed Brandl to budget for a 12% increase in the county’s health insurance with the hope it will be near that amount.

  Approved the job description for the youth services lead position in the Human Services department. Stanfley said the job description was based off others in the department and is part of an ongoing review of the job descriptions in the department.