Carl Dickerson, a magistrate for Barren County District 3, speaks during a June 21, 2022, meeting of the fiscal court about complaints he received from healthcare workers at a local clinic.
(BRENNAN CRAIN/WCLU NEWS)
BY BRENNAN D. CRAIN, WCLU News
GLASGOW — Magistrates in Barren County are expected to halt their exploration of further American Rescue Plan Act expenditures until they resolve issues found in how they gave money to certain county healthcare employees and did not to others.
The county received about $8.5 million in funding as a part of the federal government’s ARPA allocations. A court committee was formed to oversee how the county planned to distribute the funding, and they agreed to allocate $1 million to the local healthcare sector.
Half of the allocation was designated for bonus-type checks to employees who worked during the height of the pandemic – March 2020 to March 2021. The other half was designated to education investments such as scholarships.
But every healthcare professional in the county did not receive a cut of the money, apparently.
“People that worked at the individual doctor’s offices – that had COVID – didn’t get a penny,” said Carl Dickerson, magistrate for Barren County’s third district.
Dickerson said he was questioned by staff of an area clinic where he had undergone testing.
Representatives of T.J. Regional Health and area nursing facilities attended a Dec. 21, 2021, fiscal court meeting to describe conditions throughout the pandemic and a growing shortage of healthcare professions. Across the county, 1,043 received one-time payments of $929.37.
The court approved an addendum in May to cover costs for employees of T.J. Regional Health who did not receive a payment because they switched jobs but remained employed in the county. County officials initially said about 10 people were in the group who had changed jobs, but the number was reported to be about 30 during the court’s last meeting.
Local EMS also received ARPA funding, though they were included in a separate category of disbursal.
The number of those who did not receive a payout is unclear. Officials believe it mostly comprises staff of clinics since hospitals and nursing facilities were included in the payouts.
“I don’t intend to vote for another penny of ARPA money to be spent anywhere the rest of this year,” Dickerson said.
Trent Riddle, the chairperson of the committee overseeing the county’s ARPA allocations, said the committee would revisit healthcare allocations before additional funding is provided to other groups, though a large portion has been spent.
The county has $3,123,769 of ARPA funding remaining, Riddle said.
