Holmes County Health District excited to open new facility

After years of being penned up in the confines of the third story of the Holmes County Job & Family Services building in Millersburg, the members of the Holmes County Health District must be in seventh heaven since moving into their new digs in the health district building on Glen Drive in Millersburg.

According to Holmes County health commissioner Michael Derr, the new facility opens a whole new world of possibilities while enhancing all the services the district offered prior to moving.

“We’re in and figuring out all of the new space to make sure we’re ready for all of the public’s needs,” said Misty Burns, Holmes County Health Department board president. “We’re very excited about what this is going to mean to the people of Holmes County.”

“We’re so excited to finally have a new home,” Derr said. “I guess we’re in, but we’re not totally in yet. That will take some time, and we still have some issues to figure out, but we are in such a much better place today because of this move. It is going to allow us to do so many more important things. At the moment we are already offering all of the services we provided at the old facility, and we are hoping to implement some new services soon.”

Derr said in his first decade as director, the health district has grown immensely, necessitating the need for the new building. He said should the district continue to experience that type of growth, even this new facility will be bursting at the seams, but neither he nor anyone else is about to complain.

“We could experience incredible growth over the next three to five years, but we are now equipped for so much more than we could have possibly provided the people of Holmes County,” Derr said.

The facility sports a meeting room that allows for upward of 100 people to meet together, as well as plenty of county and state organizational meetings and other public meetings.

The new offices provide district employees with plenty of room to grow, as well as more privacy than they had at their prior roosting spot. There also are rooms for smaller meeting areas.

The building includes financial offices, a water-quality program, WIC (Women, Infant and Children) rooms, environmental health cubicles that could support up to 10 members, a commercial kitchen area, a nursing staff area, health education programs, a new lobby, and plenty of growth potential for practitioners and doctors or clerical support staff.

One of the biggest improvements will be in providing ample educational seminars and health-related meetings. Derr said he can’t help but think back during the COVID pandemic and how immunization shots were administered at the former building, with people crammed into tight spaces and the process itself being such a challenge.

“We now have four state-of-the-art clinical rooms creating much more privacy, and we’re even set up perfectly for a drive-thru under the awning in the rear of the building, which would allow for a great traffic flow that would get people in and out quickly if the need would ever arise again,” Derr said. “With two nurses we could probably inoculate 45-60 people an hour.”

The facility also features a full health screening lab, complete with a well-secured vaccine refrigerator area in the correct climate — which wasn’t possible in the former building.

In addition, Holmes County Emergency Planning Agency has its offices on the first floor of the facility, meaning collaboration between the two organizations will be made much simpler.

“We do a lot of collaborative work with EMA, which is a huge plus for us,” Derr said.

The basement features a large storage area and even allows for additional expansion, and the blueprint includes the possibility of adding a new wing someday.

The building also will serve as the county’s new heating and cooling station for when inclement weather rears its ugly head and community families are forced to seek refuge away from home during dire heat and cold weather issues.

The new garage area allows drivers to quickly pick up and drop off water samples, materials and products, with an elevator providing easy access to the basement storage units.

Derr said the public will be pleased with all the new comforts, privacy and services available at the new building.

“It’s a game-changer for sure,” Derr said. “Public health means economic health. We’re blessed to have this incredible staff here in Holmes County, and now we have a facility that allows them to truly perform their duties. We’ve got the right team in place, and now we have what we need in a facility, and we are in a great place to do the right things for our community.”

The move has brought with it excitement among the staff, and Derr said the hope is the community will share that excitement as they continue to provide more services on the local level.