Cascade County Health Board: We Want Answers

The Last Meeting Of The Cascade County Board of Health Got Heated

Words were flying in the Cascade City County Board of Health meeting. KRTV was on hand and caught the meeting on tape.

What we see in the meeting are people asking County Commissioner Briggs to tell them where the grant money for the Cascade County Board of Health is being spent. There is concern over money allocated for the health department being moved over to infrastructure expenses like roads in Black Eagle.

You can watch the report here.

Get our free mobile app

Let's Talk About The CCHD In Great Falls

The board of health meetings are completely recorded and stored on the Cascade County website. You can go to their site to find out when the meetings are and to read the minutes.

The CCHD gets grants from the United States. Grants that can equal a couple of million dollars for Cascade County to do good for the citizens of this county. People want to know where that money is.

How Does Grant Money Work?

According to my source, once a grant is allocated to Montana for a certain year, that money is ours to do with what we need. So far, any monies granted to the CCHD have been received or still coming through either 2027 or 2028.

It's between 1 and 2 million dollars a year. Money that can be used to enhance the lives of those living in our county and it never has to be paid back or given back.

Read More: Here Are All The Food Pantries In Great Falls

One of the nurses that used to work at CCHD asked Commissioner Briggs why he backed out of signing off on a $300,000 UHV grant.  I'm told she was blasted so much from asking the question that she eventually quit.

Jo-Viviane Jones also spoke at the meeting yesterday before tendering her resignation. Jo-Viviane was the person who got the grants, so she's been asking for quite awhile where the money is at.

Where Is The Money Being Allocated At The Cascade County Health Department?

That's the 2 million dollar question, isn't it?

In the last year or so, EVERY HOME HEALTH CARE NURSE HAS QUIT. Our CCHD does not have even one home health care nurse on the staff. 2 people have applied for that position and they haven't even been interviewed. When confronted with that fact, leaders said it was a problem with them seeing they hadn't interviewed them. Not that they hadn't interviewed them

I did notice that they had time to hire a CFO (From Alluvion. Think about that. Alluvion is in financial trouble so pick that person. Decisions like that never turn out poorly. Ask the Great Falls Clinic)

It's almost like maybe someone in power thinks that Cascade County shouldn't run the CCHD. It's almost like a county commissioner has flat out told people that public health offices have no place in the county and should be outsourced to private foundations. It's almost like everyone who works at the CCHD knows of the plan as well.

Show Us The Receipts, Commissioner

It's time to demand receipts for all of this money that is being (perhaps illegally) reallocated. I'd like to see if the rumors are true that money is being reallocated to roads in Black Eagle, instead of taking care of the children and elderly in our county.

The last thing we need is for a privatized CCHD. Get it together. And get to work for the people you work for.

The cat is out of the bag. We, as citizens of Cascade County, can not continue to let the views of a handful of professional politicians continue to decide for Great Falls and for Cascade County.

Again, we need to start looking at people who have been running Great Falls for a long time and have the gall to lip off to people who elected them when they have valid questions.