Trumbull commissioners to consider three-year contract for jail medical services

Staff report

WARREN

The Trumbull County commissioners will consider a resolution today that would put Dr. Phillip Malvasi, who provides medical services at the Trumbull County jail, on a three-year contract paying $372,204 annually.

Malvasi and about six of his employees provide medical care on a month-to-month basis, but Sheriff Paul Monroe wished to have a multi-year contract, said Major Dan Mason, jail administrator.

“The sheriff wants assurance that someone will be there,” Mason said. “At the end of the month, he could say he would no longer provide the services,” and then the sheriff’s office would be in a bind, Mason said.

“Dr. Malvasi really does a stellar job of keeping the costs down,” Mason said. The costs are so low that other counties call the Trumbull jail and ask for information to “model what he’s doing,” Mason said.

The cost under a three-year contract will be higher than under the month-to-month arrangement, but it’s reasonable because the jail now houses a much higher number of inmates than in previous years, the administrator said.

In other business, the commissioners will be asked today to authorize a “notice to proceed” with three parts of the $14.2 million “Blueprint For Prosperity” waterline project that will travel from Newton Falls north to West Farmington.

The three phases are $1.2 million of improvements to water lines from the water main to the property line in West Farmington, $1.7 million construction of a storage tank in Southington Township and $696,000 construction of a booster station in Braceville Township.