Final straw

Mar 7, 2010 — Commercial-News

Brian L. Huchel

Mar. 7, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- DANVILLE -- The level of enforcement of state-mandated standards in several areas will take a hit if Vermilion County loses its health department.

Feeling the effects of the state's budget crisis, the Vermilion County Health Department continues to wait for money from Springfield to keep up its state grant-funded programs.

In a budget cuts plan laid out to the Vermilion County Board earlier this year, health department Administrator Steve Laker indicated the final straw for the department would be to cut the Health Protection Grant Program, which includes inspections of restaurants and other eateries as well as inspections of private water and sewage systems.

Cutting those services would eliminate the department's ability to maintain its certification as a health department in Illinois.

The cuts could have long-reaching effects on a number of levels. For example, Melaney Arnold, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health, said state health officials would take over the restaurant inspections.

How the restaurant inspections are carried out, however, would undergo a complete change as the currently random and unannounced inspections would instead be done simply on a complaint basis.

"Anything that is mandated, we'd have to do on a complaint basis," Arnold said of the inspection services. The same complaint basis would be used for the private water/sewer system inspections.

High-risk operations, such as restaurants, are inspected as many as three or four times each year by the county health department. As many as 1,500 inspections are done annually.

The inspections cover restaurants, taverns, catering services, school cafeterias, hospitals, jails, grocery stores, gas stations with a deli, food vendors at festivals and church dinners where the public is invited.

In December 2002, the county health department took over inspections of city establishments after the cash-strapped city decided to eliminate its health department.

Laker said, in theory, Danville could attempt to re-establish its original inspection program and take over the inspections within the city.

"I don't know if the state health department would allow them to start a program," Laker said, calling the idea "questionable."

For Mayor Scott Eisenhauer, Danville should not exist without a regular inspection program. The mayor said he believes "there is no way a community of our size could go without doing inspections of our restaurants."

Arnold said two counties in the state operate under the complaint system method: Edwards and Richland. Both counties are vastly smaller compared to Vermilion County, with populations in neither Richland County (15,532 people as of 2008 census figures) nor Edwards County (6,501 people) topping even the city population of Danville (32,248 people).

If state grant funding woes do force the county out of the restaurant inspections, Eisenhauer said the City of Danville would look at options to assume the inspections within city limits.

"We would need to have a more focused inspection program than what we believe the state can provide," he said.

Eisenhauer stressed no decisions have been made on how the inspection program could work or what options would be available.

"But we certainly recognize the potential exists that we may be faced with making that kind of decision," he said.

More than 80 percent of the health department's budget consists of grant funding. Formulated scenarios, at worst, call for the most drastic step of dropping nine programs and 53 employees from the health department. That option is one step away from the department losing its certification and being unable to provide the state-mandated services.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0433-42654173