Ellenton Clinic to receive stimulus funds

Kevin Hall

April 17, 2009 10:28 pm

— MOULTRIE — A press release from a state agency says the Ellenton Clinic will get nearly $80,000 in federal stimulus money, but health officials aren’t making big plans for the money just yet.
Carolyn Maschke, public information officer for the state’s Southwest Public Health District, said the clinic doesn’t have the money yet, and no one knows when it will receive it.
“We’re excited to hear they’re going to give it to us,” she acknowledged gratefully.
The State Office of Rural Health — a division of the Department of Community Health, which is different from the Department of Public Health — sent out a press release earlier this month saying it would receive $436,057 in funding through the Increased Demand for Services grant, which is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The money would be used to expand services at six existing community health center programs that serve 21 counties across Georgia, the SORH press release said. The Ellenton Clinic, which serves farmworkers in Colquitt, Tift, Cook and Brooks counties, is slated to receive $79,671 of that, according to the release.
Maschke said the money would be used for outreach services, but exact plans have not been made, pending the actual receipt of the money. She said the health district had sought the funding for two years.
Other agencies receiving stimulus money through the SORH are:
• Migrant Farmworker Clinic LLC, which serves Lowndes and Echols counties, $93,989.
• Decatur County Board of Health, whose farmworker program serves Decatur, Seminole, Grady, Thomas and Mitchell counties, $147,879.
• East GA Health Care, which serves Tattnall, Toombs and Candler counties, $30,707.
• Sumter Regional Hospital’s Ellaville Primary Care, which serves Schley, Crisp, Sumter, Macon and Taylor counties, $52,841.
• South Central Primary Care, which serves Atkinson and Coffee counties, $30,970.