3/6/07 Health officials detail need for new facility

(As published by Cortland Standard, Corey Preston reporting)

Regardless of public opposition and political maneuvering that have surrounded plans for a new public health facility on south Main Street, the need for such a facility is very real, a special legislative committee was told Monday.
The committee, formed to look closely at the land deal and the county’s options moving forward, heard from Jackie Gailor, director of the Cortland County Health Department, and Mike Kilmer, administrative director of Cortland County Mental Health Services.
Both stressed their departments face significant space issues.
Cramped conditions have led to serious issues with confidentiality for clients along with a loss of productivity and accessibility problems, Gailor and Kilmer said.
“I think the need is there, and I think that’s something that originally was not conveyed as well as it should have been,” Committee Chairwoman Carol Tytler (D-3rd Ward) said after the meeting. “The issue with confidentiality especially is something that concerns me, and obviously a different space with a different layout could help with that.”
Committee members seemed to agree Monday that the need for a public health facility is significant.
“There’s no question we have a need; these are things we’ve been hearing about for a long time,” said committee member Larry Cornell (R-Marathon and Lapeer), referring to the issues brought up by Gailor and Kilmer. “My concern is that we hadn’t heard enough of this when we were voting on it — it’s unfortunate we’re only getting this info now.”
Exactly how much space each department requires is unclear.
County Maintenance Supervisor Brian Parker broke down the current square-footage at about 18,000-square-feet for the Health Department, and about 17,500-square-feet for Mental Health Department, including Horizon House on Grant Street.
Comprehensive space studies done of all county departments have suggested increases in space for both departments, Parker said, but those suggestions were contingent on other departments vacating already-owned county space.
While the 30,000-square-foot building proposed for south Main Street would have offered less space than the current square-footage of both departments combined, Schrader pointed out that the facility would have had a basement that could have been used for storage, and that the two departments would be sharing some space.
Gailor and Kilmer noted that storage is becoming a large issue, with new state mandates requiring certain records to be kept indefinitely.
“Right now we’re talking about three separate buildings, but when you combine them all, you’re only going to need one reception area, for instance,” Schrader said, noting that conference rooms could also easily be shared. “When you’re analyzing space needs, you have to factor in that redundant space.”
Gailor and Kilmer said they supported consolidating the Health and Mental Health departments into one building.
Gailor painted a picture of offices meant for one person but shared by three or four and of confidential conferences sometimes being forced into hallways.
“I would encourage anyone to come down and take a look at how people are literally sitting on top of each other,” Gailor said. “It causes a lot of problems with confidentiality and it limits our productivity.”
Because of tight quarters at the Mental Health Department, Kilmer said that white noise machines have been purchased to ensure conversations are confidential.