CareArc administrators will now be awaiting word back on a pair of grants following approval by the CareArc Board of Directors Tuesday afternoon.
The board gave its approval to submit the grant applications during their regular meeting Tuesday. The applications are for a Capital Investment grant through the health center’s primary care association, which CEO Renee Hively says will, if approved, provide additional funding for parking upgrades to the lot located behind the CareArc and Hillcrest Apartment buildings purchased by the health center back in January.
The second application approved is the agency’s WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program grant. This application comes after it was announced back in June that WIC would be cutting its Friday hours of operation due to a cut in federal funding.
During her conversation with KVOE News Tuesday, Hively stated those hours will be resuming now after a reversal of that decision, to a degree.
Hively says there was no “rhyme or reason” stated for the reverse in action at the federal level, but neither she nor her staff are going to argue it.
Hively says they expect to hear back on the status of both grants by mid-to-late October. Speaking of October, KVOE news has previously reported that CareArc was planning its soft opening of its new pharmacy on October 1; however, Tuesday, Hively stated those plans are being pushed back slightly later into the month, specifically October 20. When asked for the reasoning in the delay, Hively stated all of the physical work on the new in-house pharmacy is complete aside from having pharmaceuticals on the shelf, adding that there are still some logistical matters that need to be handled before that can happen.
In addition to these updates, Tuesday’s board meeting also saw another positive financial report for the health center with a better than $13,000 net gain for the month of July, favorable to a budgeted net loss of $51,500. Year to Date, the health center has a net gain of $149,000, favorable to the budgeted amount of $6,000.
Expenses for the month came out to $796,000, below the budgeted amount of $917,000. CFO Suresa Howe says salaries and benefits were the largest contributor to being below budget, noting there are several open and vacant positions at this time.
The CareArc Board of Directors will reconvene for its monthly meeting in September.
