BY FLORENCE GILKESON

Senior Writer

When a county department asks for a change in the service fee schedule, the request is usually for an increase in fees.

So the Moore County Board of Commissioners was startled when the Board of Health asked for a fee reduction at an Oct. 6 meeting.

Health Director Robert Wittmann explained that a new state law does not require the water quality testing of certain wells, and there is no need to collect $98 of a $198 fee to cover this expense. The extra $98 is the cost of the water sampling kit provided by the State Laboratory of Public Health.

The health panel asked the commissioners to reduce the fee schedule back to the original fee of $100. The commissioners had no complaint with that and promptly gave it unanimous approval.

In another public health matter, the board authorized the addition of a part-time processing assistant position for the Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Education Program, known as WIC.

Wittmann said the position is needed to meet grant requirements of the WIC program but was inadvertently omitted from the health department's budget request for the 2008 fiscal year. He said county funds would not be needed and the cost would be covered by WIC grants for this and subsequent fiscal years.

Action on a third request from the health department was deferred. This item was a request to allow health officials to use an unmarked vehicle in communicable disease investigations.

Contact Florence Gilkeson at 947-4962 or by e-mail at florence@thepilot.com.