The Jefferson County Health Department Board of Trustees decided today (March 15) to lease the building at 1275 N. Truman Blvd. in Festus that previously housed a Schnucks store and before that a Shop ‘n Save store.
The board, which will lease the building for six months to hold large COVID-19 vaccination clinics, also agreed today to hire a temporary staffing agency to provide 60 people to staff the site.
Both actions were approved by 3-1 votes, with Chairperson Dennis Diehl and board members Tim Pigg and James Prater voting yes and board member Suzy Davis voting no in both cases after questioning whether there was a need for large-scale vaccination clinics and whether there was enough funding.
Health Department Director Kelley Vollmar said CARES Act funds will cover the lease, which will cost $4,000 a month and will start today and end Sept. 30, 2021.
Board member Amber Henry was absent from the meeting.
Pigg said the Health Department is leasing the 60,000-square-foot building from Jones Festus Properties LLC.
Vollmar said the temporary staffing agency will hire 20 medical and 40 non-medical staff to work at the vaccination clinics. She said FEMA will reimburse the Health Department for the cost of the temporary staff.
Vollmar said the specific temporary staffing agency had not been selected as of today, but now that the board has agreed to hire an agency, one that has been approved through a state bidding process will be chosen.
She said the cost of using the staffing agency will be about $70,000 to $85,000 a month.
The board held a special meeting today to approve the lease and temporary staffing agency because there was an “immediate need” for the Health Department to secure a large site for vaccination clinics.
“We are in the process of significantly growing our vaccine efforts and are in need of the additional space,” Vollmar said.
She said she hopes starting next week to be able to vaccinate 1,000 people a day, Monday through Thursday, at the new location.
Vollmar said she also hopes the National Guard can help one day a week, which would allow about 2,400 people to be vaccinated at the site on those days.
She said not only would the site allow the Health Department to vaccinate more people, but also the clinic would not have to be packed up and moved every day.
She said appointments still will be required to receive vaccinations.
Anyone who wants to get the vaccine through the Health Department must first sign up for it by completing an interest survey at jeffcohealth.org. Then, the Health Department will contact those people to make an appointment when they’re eligible and a vaccine is available for them. People without internet access may call the Health Department registration line at 636-789-8941.
Today’s meeting was held via the Zoom videoconferencing app because of COVID-19 health concerns. The meeting was livestreamed on the Health Department’s YouTube channel and may be viewed there.
