An ongoing push to see Jackson County consolidate its health and social services departments will come to a head during a public hearing on the issue scheduled for Monday, Jan. 29, with a vote possible the same day.

Jackson County will pursue a plan to consolidate its health and social services departments following a special-called commissioners meeting held Thursday, Nov. 16.

Jackson County will spend $10,000 on a revised plan to renovate the Health Department building off Hospital Road after commissioners decided they’d like to see the building house the planning and code enforcement departments as well.

After years of discussion, Jackson County is ready to move forward with plans to address the needs of its aging health department building — but the resulting project will likely affect the planning and code enforcement departments as well.

When the Jackson County Commiss-ioners met to discuss construction needs in the health department Aug. 8, the goal for the afternoon was clear.

The Jackson County Commissioners got some food for thought during a meeting last week exploring the possibility of consolidating some of the county’s health and human resources services into a single department.

Upgrading the Jackson County Health Department could prove a much less expensive undertaking than originally anticipated, if estimates contained in a recently completed study prove correct.

Jackson County’s health department is gearing up to start millions of dollars of construction for its animal shelter and health buildings, but before those projects get off the ground leadership will change with the coming of a new health director. 

For more than 50 years, Mountain Projects has been known for helping the most vulnerable in the community, but with a resolution passed by the Haywood County Board of Commissioners on June 20, they’ll be helping themselves — and the county.

As of Nov. 1, 2015, Macon County Public Health took on the additional responsibility of overseeing animal services in Macon County, including animal control services, the animal shelter and rabies control programs.