The Marshall County Council members reviewed a grant application request from Health Administrator Faith Freed concerning a Crisis Co Ag Supplemental Workforce in Schools Grant.
“This will employ a contract person to work with the schools on COVID numbers, COVID testing, vaccines, and report back to the state,” said Freed.
She said more people could be employed to work with the schools and other people could be at the LifePlex for testing and vaccination purposes.
The grant would be for a year beginning July 2022 and all portions of the salary would be covered by the grant.
The federal pass-through grant would have funds coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Marshall County Commissioners unanimously approved the grant application request at their meeting last week.
Councilman Jesse Bohannon said upon looking at the CDC’s website the recipient of the grant would need to “comply with future directives of the Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding the spread of COVID-19.” Freed responded saying that the Marshall County Health Department already follows guidelines provided and local health officials would not impose more guidelines.
Bohannon said he was concerned about language concerning future guidelines and said he would not support the grant application.
Councilman Heath Thornton stated that a directive could come where vaccines could be mandated for everyone which gave him “some pause”.
Council President Tim Harman said he could not support the application based on the uncertainty of future directives.
Councilman Jon VanVactor made a motion to approve the grant request, but the motion died for a lack of a second.
