County extends health department educator, approves hiring of volunteer coordinator

The Riley County Health Department will extend its community health education position for another year and hire an additional staff member to coordinate its volunteer program.

Functioning as the Board of County Health, the Riley County commission on Monday unanimously approved both personnel requests from health department administrator Julie Gibbs.

The county will use opioid settlement money to fund the community health educator through 2025. The position currently requires 30 hours per week, and Gibbs said the extension will allow department officials to evaluate the need for a potential full-time employee.

When she originally proposed the position, she described it as part-time, but she said that number went up to 30 hours a week by necessity.

“These hours would match up with the school hours, which this individual does a lot of education at the schools,” Gibbs said. “They’ll be doing more curriculum work with education in the schools.”

The salary plus benefits for the 30-hour-per-week community health educator will be a little over $49,000 in fiscal year 2025.

“With the education that we’re currently doing, it’s basically a presentation,” Gibbs said. “This will be more of a curriculum.”

The commission also approved Gibbs’ request to fill a part-time Medical Reserve Corps unit leader position after it became vacant in the beginning of June.

The MRC is a volunteer-led group that helps respond to floods, wildfires, tornadoes and other emergencies affecting public health. The unit leader coordinates the volunteers.

Gibbs told the commission that funding for the position comes from the Respond, Innovate, Sustain and Equip grant from the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Riley County’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness program is among the 71 entities that received the grant..

“It’s an extension of a previous grant,” Gibbs said. “So we’re able to, with those funds, be able to hire an MRC unit leader. Salary and benefits are covered through that RISE grant through June of 2025.”

Gibbs said the county used to have an MRC unit, and the health department hopes to bring it back and kick-start a self-sustaining unit for the future. Many non-profits use the model of having a trained paid staff member mobilize a team of volunteers.

“That model isn’t completely unheard of,” Gibbs said. “That’s the same model that the Red Cross works on and the United Way. You basically have one paid person, which we’ve got staff, but you have leaders who enable it.”

The commission approved the temporary position to last through June 2025.