News photo by Kayla Wikaryasz On Tuesday, District Health Department No. 4 (DHD4) board members met in Alpena for the board’s monthly meeting.

ALPENA — District Health Department No. 4 (DHD4) solved the department’s budget deficit of approximately $500,000 through administrative actions, additional funding, and layoffs.

In January, the DHD4 leadership team and health board met in Rogers City for a special meeting to discuss ways to curtail their budget deficit. To bring that amount down, board members voted to eliminate one IT position and to reduce another IT position from supervisory pay.

This staffing change went into effect on Sunday.

The board also passed a motion to eliminate two environmental health positions as well, which were eliminated based on seniority.

Despite the layoffs, the board discussed the possibility of raising wages in the future, though the board decided to table the discussion at the meeting in January. On Tuesday at the health department’s monthly meeting, the board voted to discuss wage increases at a future date.

Following the recent layoffs which eased the department’s financial burden, Chelsea Engle, DHD4 health administrative officer, told board members that the department will receive $150,000 in Environmental Health grants that come from fees and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). She told The News that these sources of funding are annual grants.

Engle also told the board that the department is expecting to receive $175,000 from two one-time-only grants: Local Health Department Sharing and Emerging Public Threats grants.

These grants are expected to be awarded by March 1. The health department has been approved for the grant money, but it has not been received as of Tuesday.

Following the grant updates, the board further discussed the possibility of increasing wages of current DHD4 employees in the future.

Mary Hardies, Montmorency County commissioner and DHD4 health board chair, said that the board had tabled the original discussion because the status of the department’s finances was still unclear.

“We still don’t know what’s come in,” Hardies said. “We still don’t know where we’re at. So how are we going to make a plan for it?”

Robert Brietzke, Presque Isle county commissioner and health board member, also suggested that the board waits to see how financially solvent the department is once it receives the expected grant money. The proposed plan was to increase wages by 4%, effective June 1.

“We got a ways to go before June 1 … and to have a better idea where we stood with the grants, so forth. I think it was wise to table it,” Brietzke said.

Michael Newman, Cheboygan county commissioner and health board member, justified the wage increase, noting how the health department had hired more people during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was more grant money available for public health.

“We didn’t let those people go when COVID-19 money dried up,” Newman said. “If we have to lay some people off to give other people raises, I think the general consensus is that’s somewhat understandable … that’s just the nature of the beast.”

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.