Council approves emergency funding for supplies while county awaits federal dollars

<p>Supplying masks, gloves, gowns, sanitizer and wipes for first responders, health care workers and county employees during a public health emergency is not cheap, and costs are piling up as the coronavirus crisis continues.</p><p>The Johnson County Council this week approved additional funding for the Johnson County Emergency Management Agency and Johnson County Health Department, which will allow the agencies to buy more supplies for the departments they are responsible for assisting, county leaders said.</p><p>An emergency response of this scale is not typically budgeted for, said Stephanie Sichting, director of the Johnson County EMA. Each budget year since the 2008 floods, Johnson County EMA has kept a $1 line item in its budget to fill if another large-scale disaster struck the county, she said. </p><p>Now, in the midst of a public health emergency, that line is increased by $10,000 from the county’s general fund, and she expects she will likely have to ask for $10,000 more next month, Sichting said.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>“I didn’t think we would ever need it,” Sichting said. “I didn’t think we would have another flood like the 2008 flood. But now, here we are in another kind of disaster.”</p><p>Since the Health Department has never had to participate in disaster response, Swearingen had to ask to create a new fund within her budget, she said. The $10,000 for the health department was moved from its health fund to the new emergency fund.</p><p>With cases still rising, both departments may have to ask for more funding.</p><p>“We anticipate asking for more. It is fluid right now,” Swearingen said. “We don’t know where we are with the curve. We don’t know how many more cases and fatalities we will see. We will just have to take it day by day and stay on top of it.”</p><p>The local health department is responsible for helping hospitals and long-term care facilities, while the EMA is charged with helping first responders, including police and fire departments, and county employees.</p><p>This additional $20,000 is not the total amount the county is spending on personal protective equipment. The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office has spent about $30,000 already on supplies to protect deputies, correction officers and inmates. So far, the sheriff’s office has been creative with its funding and has not had to ask for additional monies, Sheriff Duane Burgess said.</p><p>As costs continue to pile up, county leaders are relieved they will not have to foot the bill, they said.</p><p>Since a disaster has been declared for all 92 Indiana counties, each county will receive funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Sichting said. The Request for Public Assistance grant is a reimbursement for personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and employee overtime that’s needed to respond to the disaster, she said.</p><p>Burgess is also applying for Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding (CESF), a $58,000 grant through the U.S. Department of Justice, he said.</p><p>But even with the additional funding, supplies are hard to come by and must be closely vetted, county health and public safety officials said. To make the most of the county’s money, Sichting and Swearingen are tasked with investigating potential suppliers and keeping an eye out for price gougers.</p><p>Calls are out to local stores and suppliers all over the country, Sichting said. The county’s EMA has memorandums of understanding with local retailers that allow them to get first dibs on shipments of wipes, sanitizer and other items needed for disaster response, she said.</p><p>“I don’t get them all. We aren’t greedy. We just take what we need and get more when we are down to a few containers,” Sichting said.</p><p>The only stockpiles the EMA keeps on hand are wipes and sanitizer. Everything else is immediately distributed to agencies that request it, she said. And cleaning supplies are doled out on an as-needed basis to make sure agencies are using supplies wisely, she said.</p><p>Low supply and high demand means personal protective equipment is more expensive than usual, so the $20,000 emergency funding has less purchasing power, Sichting said.</p><p>Surgical masks are the least costly to obtain and run about 95 cents a piece. N95 masks, on the other hand, are a hot commodity and can range from $4 on the low end to $25 from price gougers, she said.</p><p>Plastic gowns are nearly impossible to find, and local hospitals are waiting for more on back order from their go-to suppliers, Sichting said. Those are costing anywhere from $4 to $11 a piece, she said.</p><p>“It can buy a lot of sanitizing wipes from Kroger and Walmart, but for the PPE—N95 masks, surgical masks and gowns—those are more expensive,” Sichting said. “You have to look at the best price.”</p><p>She and Swearingen are continuing to check with their sources while preparing for the possibility of a later resurgence of the virus.</p><p>“They are talking about another surge, so we want to be ready,” Sichting said. “We don’t want to be behind the 8 ball.”</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="How to help" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Any resident who has supplies to donate may call the Johnson County Health Department at 317-346-4365 or Emergency Management Agency at 317-346-4655 to arrange a drop-off.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]