Camden awarded $1 million grant for new health department

Camden County Board of Commissioners announced Wednesday that it will receive a $1 million grant to construct a new health department building.

The county commissioners approved the grant application at their Nov. 2 meeting for the construction of a new facility.

The emergence of COVID-19 underscored the need for a newer, more modern facility to safety serve the healthcare needs of the community. Hurricane Irma, among other recent storms, also revealed the vulnerabilities in the current building, located at 905 Dilworth St. in St. Marys, which houses all of the hard copy records maintained by the health department.

The project, which will be largely paid for by Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) 8, is expected to cost a total of $4.5 million.

The Community Development Block Grant (Coronavirus) is a federal grant program administered by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and it requires a 10% match.

“The county has partnered with the Department of Public Health to provide the match,” said a document in the county’s Nov. 2 agenda packet. “The remainder of the project costs will come from other sources, including CDBG-CV grant funding, SPLOST, the Department of Public Health, the Camden County Board of Commissioners, the city of Kingsland and the city of St. Marys.”