DANVILLE – If the Vermilion County Health Department pays back half of the more than $300,000 it owes the county, then county officials will support the department returning to a five-day work week, according to Vermilion County board Chairman Jim McMahon.

Health department Administrator Shirley Hicks said the department is getting backlogged since it moved to a four-day work week in May to save money.

"We just can't be a four-day-a-week operation. We just don't think we can meet our statutory obligations," said Hicks, referring to the regulatory programs, such as food inspections, that the department is responsible to perform.

Last year, the health department ran into a serious cash-flow problem as the state failed to pay or paid slowly the money for numerous state programs.

As a result, the county had to loan $300,000 to the department, which eventually cut more than half of its programs and personnel, reducing its operations to core services such as regulatory programs, immunizations and the federally funded Women, Infants and Children nutrition program. For additional savings, the department moved to a four-day work week in late May by closing every Friday.

The health department's proposed budget for the county's new fiscal year that begins Dec. 1 includes abandoning the cost-saving measure of closing the department every Friday. But that budget was not approved by the county board's health and education committee last month, partly because committee members were not in full support of returning to a five-day schedule. Once the health and education committee approves the budget, it would move to the finance committee and eventually on to the full county board for approval.

Health and education committee members also had some objections to the budget including money earmarked for 3 percent raises for employees. And the committee discussed possibly cutting administrator salaries.

Hicks said it has been standard practice to budget for 3 percent raises for employees even when it's unknown how future negotiations would affect union employees' wages.

She said administrative staff did not get raises last year and have taken a 20 percent cut since the department has gone to four-day weeks.

But most importantly, she said, the department needs to return to a full work week to run its programs properly.

"We need our people back doing the jobs that are waiting to be done. It makes it so difficult for the programs that are left," said Hicks, who added that this is a very difficult time for the food service inspection department, because there are so many requests for permits with fairs, festivals and other food-related summer activities taking place. "Those are the things we are spending an inordinate amount of time juggling to figure out how to get them done."

Late last week, Hicks and McMahon and county financial officers met to work on the health department budget, and McMahon said a workable budget will be presented at the next health and education committee meeting on Thursday.

He said there have been concessions on both sides, including a return to a five-day work week if the department pays half of what it owes the county.

Hicks said the department has put in motion a $156,000 payment to the county.

Some other changes include the county reducing from $70,000 a year to $50,000 a year the amount of money the health department pays the county for its space in the county-owned health and education building. Since the program and personnel cuts, the health department is occupying a lot less of that facility and asked the county to reduce its annual lease payment based on that reduction in space.

Also, the health department is paying for more of its employee load, meaning covering more of the cost of its employee benefits. The county has been covering most of those costs, and county administrators would like to see the health department take over that entire cost as Vermilion Manor Nursing Home now does.

If the health department returns to a five-day work week, Hicks said, it likely wouldn't be until October.

McMahon said health department officials are confident they can return to a five-day week without needing assistance from the county.

McMahon said county administrators cautioned that they must feel comfortable that they can meet their salary obligations under a five-day operation, because if they go back and can't, there's no way the county can bail them out. If they retain a four-day week, the county is more willing to help keep its certified health department going.

"But they are totally convinced they can make it without borrowing any more money and can make payroll obligations," McMahon said.