A five-year, seven-tenths mill property tax renewal was placed on the November 2 ballot by the Four County ADAMhs Board at its June 10 meeting. The issue was first approved by voters in Defiance, Fulton, Henry and Williams counties in 1982 and has been extended every five years since then.
If renewed by voters this fall, the millage would generate $1,850,779 a year based on the four county property tax valuation of $4.01 billion, according to the Defiance County auditor’s office.
The ADAMhs Board relies on two, seven-tenths mill property taxes to support a variety of mental health, addiction and family violence treatment and prevention services as well as primary care medical, pharmacy, dental and chiropractic services that are offered to all residents by Health Partners of Western Ohio at their community health clinics in Bryan and Defiance.
Last year, 3,093 adults and 1,051 children and adolescents received services that were funded by the ADAMhs Board on a sliding fee scale that is based on family size and income.
Additionally, 6,315 persons received some type of service from the Health Partner’s offices. So, the total number of residents receiving ADAMhs-supported services was 10,460.
The board approved a Title XX contract for the current fiscal year (January 1, 2021 through June 30, 2021) with A Renewed Mind Behavioral Health for up to $65,000 to be used for crisis intervention services.
With the new fiscal year starting July 1, the board approved an office budget totaling $665,000 (about 10 percent of the total budget). Office budget expenditures include personnel and office rental as well as operating costs and services that the board provides to contract provider agencies.
The board also approved the following contracts for the new fiscal year.
-Recovery Services of Northwest Ohio, $205,000 for counseling and residential programming at Serenity Haven, a 20-bed women’s residential treatment facility near Fayette.
-Henry County Family Court and Fulton County Common Pleas Court, $15,000 each to provide assessments of individuals and families who are before the court to determine whether they could benefit from community resources that are available and, when appropriate, linking them with those resources.
-Jammie Rchmond, up to $2,500 to serve as a mental health consumer advocate and support group leader.
-NAMI Four County, $7,000 to provide behavioral health public awareness and education programs for the community.
-Adolescent residential placements, $110,000 to be used as the ADAMhs Board share of residential placements for youth who are served by multiple agencies, such as county jobs and family services, juvenile courts and boards of developmental disability.
-Henry County family court and Williams County juvenile court, $25,000 each to support treatment interventions for offenders and their families who are part of the courts’ specialty docket initiative.
-Fulton and Williams county common pleas courts, $35,000 each to support each county’s drug court.
-Common pleas courts in all four counties, $5,000 administered by the Fulton County common pleas court to support a program called “parent coordination.”
-Mercy Health Systems, $125,000 to provide adult inpatient psychiatric services for four county residents with limited income and inadequate or no health coverage.
-University of Toledo Medical College, $250,000 to provide inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric services for four county residents whose families have limited income and inadequate or no health coverage.
-Promedica Health System, a three month extension of their current ADAMhs Board contract (through September 2021) using unspent board funds that had been allocated to provide inpatient child, adolescent and adult psychiatric services for four county residents with limited income and inadequate or no health coverage.
-Pillars of Success program in Napoleon, $15,000 to assist with transitional housing and support services for individuals in early recovery from a substance use issue.
-Oak Haven Residential Care Center, $10,000 to provide residential placement for a client.
-SARAH’s House in Defiance County, $15,000 to support victim advocate services, primarily for child sexual assault cases.
-Carry-over of unspent Ohio Addiction Treatment Program funds totaling $211,615 for treatment of individuals diagnosed with opiate and other substance use disorders to the fiscal year starting July 1. This amount represents unused state allocations from several fiscal years.
Board CEO Rob Giesige reported that complete state allocations for behavioral health services, including the status of some state funded grants have not yet been received; however, he anticipates more details in the next few weeks.
The meeting concluded with an executive session so the board could be updated on the status of the sale of property and to discuss the employment of a public employee.
Following the executive session, no action was taken on the sale of property. However, the board voted to extend Rob Giesige’s contract as chief executive officer of the ADAMhs Board for five years through June 30, 2026.