The Lamb County Commissioner’s Court held their regular meeting on Monday, Jan. 23rd, in the Lamb County Courthouse to discuss a sseven-item agenda.
Judge James M. DeLoach called the meeting to order at 10:03 a.m. and there was no one present for Public Comment.
The Consent agenda items were as follows: Consider and take appropriate action on minutes from previous meeting(s); there was one set of minutes and Judge DeLoach said that they were in order; Consider and take appropriate action on budget and salary amendments and/or line item transfers, which Gina Jones said there were non; Consider and take appropriate action on bills presented by the County Auditor, Gina Jones, in the amount of $645,719.24; Consider and take appropriate action on payroll presented by Jerry Yarbrough. She requested approval for Lamb County Payroll ending on Jan. 13, 2023, totaling $151,224.67 and Lamb Healthcare Center Payroll ending on Jan 14,2023, $182,541.62; Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports, none; Consider and take appropriate action on Tax Deed R19819.
“This is Lot 5 in Block 10 of the original town of Littlefield in Lamb County, Texas, Judge DeLoach said. “This is a vacant lot with the address being 716 W. 2nd Street in Littlefield. The bid on the lot is $700 by Johnny Williams and I recommend that we approve the bid.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Short to approve the Consent Agenda Items and it was seconded by Commissioner Lee Logan. The motion carried.
Item four on the agenda was Consider and take appropriate action on Soil Conservation work in Precinct #1.
“We’re going to be spreading some Kilechie for some constituants,” Commissioner Cory DeBerry said. “It should take about one to two hours.”
The motion was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Short to approve the Soil Conservation Work in Precinct #1. The motion carried.
Next up on the agenda was a discussion of Lamb Healthcare Center operations, which were presented by LHC CEO Cindy Pope.
“At the end of the month, 12/ 31/2022, we had $3,290,913 in the County account,” she said. “Our in-patient revenue was over the prior year about $85,000 and our out-patient revenue was under the prior year $651,797. Our revenue deductions are under prior year $476,000 and our other operating revenue is over prior year $376,000 and our non-operating revenue is over prior year $15,283, and that is because we’re getting a little more tax money this year.”
She added, “Our salaries and wages are under the prior year $189,067 because we had more agency revenu then actual employees. We have two more people who are wanting to train in OB, so I’m hoping once we get those two trained, they will work at night and we won’t have any more agency back there. That doesn’t mean across the hospital, but in OB that would be great, because they are the most expensive.”
Pope stated, “Our group health insurance is under the prior year by $18,000. Audit fees are under the prior year $15,000. Pharmaceuticals are under prior year $177,725. We don’t have as much Covid, as we did in the prior year, so I think are numbers are going to start matching a lot better after January or February. Purchased services are down $183,129 partially due to SleepTek in the first few months of last year. Equipment rental is down $11,978. Total Operating Expenses were reduced by $601,059 from the prior year. Total expenses for the year are under the prior year $536,961.”
She added, “Our actual income for the month was $1,027,377. Our Cash Flow was $3,290,912.54. for the Clinics; LHC Family medicine, revenue before contractuals was $181,611. Total expenses were $194,024 with a net revenue and expense of ($12,417). They had 1,623 visits, 4,696 procedures and their revenue with labs was $349,321.08. Our Revenue was right off $277,997.17 and the receipts were $131,251.70.”
She continued, “On the Profit and Loss Statement for Olton RHC, revenue before contractuals was $14,782. Total expenses was $15,463 with a net revenue and expense of ($681). They saw 150 office visits and total procedures 336. Revenue with labs was $25,734.09, Revenue with writeoffs was $22,801.24 and receipts were $9,604.”
Judge DeLoach discussed future agenda items, saying, “I’m still trying to get the ball rolling on the Ag Barn. My plan is to go out for bids for heating and air conditioning and electrical and get that done. We will also have to have some plumbing work done as well. I expect that to be the first one that we get done, and probably the least expensive. I don’t know that for sure yet, but I expect the heating and air conditioning and electrical to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $ 200,000$250,000.
He added, “The plumbing I don’t have any idea, but when we get those two steps done, we’ll start dressing it up on the inside and possibly some on the outside. One of the things I need y’all to start thinking about is that we’re going to be looking at about $75,000 to $80,000 to put a sprinkler system in that building. We don’t necessairly have to, but we’ll have to jump through some hoops if we don’t. It has been my intention to put sprinklers in that building, but the way that we’re doing it, we don’t necessairly have to. If we do this construction project and we don’t put the sprinkler system in, and we have an incident out there, it is just going to put more liability on us. We’re going to have to make that call down the road, so a good time to do it might be while we’re doing the plumbing.”
With there being no further business to come before this Commissioners Court, the motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to adjourn. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 10:42 a.m.