Two Towns To Join Health Dist.

By John Voket

Municipal leaders from Roxbury and Bridgewater dined with members of the Newtown District Department of Health and First Selectman Herb Rosenthal last Friday, but the main course served up at the special meeting was news of a likely merger between the two neighboring communities and Newtown.

The merger would create one multijurisdictional health district with Newtown staff members serving the needs of all three communities and the part-time sanitarian becoming a full-time district employee.

Roxbury First Selectman Barbara Henry and her Bridgewater counterpart William Stuart dined on a light lunch served up by cafeteria workers at the new town office complex in the Kendro Facility, while chatting about the implications of the pending merger. And within an hour or so, the proposal was made official pending approval by residents of each of the neighboring communities.

Mr Stuart said Bridgewater’s endorsement of the merger would likely occur at a public hearing preceding the town’s September 13 selectmen’s meeting, while Roxbury could ratify its participation as early as September 6.

During discussion, Mr Rosenthal said he supported the plan, which is being encouraged among numerous small communities statewide by the Connecticut Department of Health. The first selectman said his only reservation would be if the merger subsequently reduced the overall level of health district staff covering and responding to needs in Newtown.

But Newtown District Director Donna Culbert said the effect would likely be the opposite, and that the addition of another full-time sanitarian with three serving all three communities would increase the response and inspection time for projects locally.

“We will still have the former shared Bridgewater and Roxbury part-time sanitarian maintaining regular office hours in those respective communities as he has been doing uop to now,” Ms Culbert said when contacted at her office Wednesday. “But he will increase his hours to full-time which means he may be available to back up our sanitarians in Newtown on some afternoons and on Fridays, when he will be in the office here all day.”

Ms Culbert said that residential and commercial development projects in the two neighboring communities are “a fraction of what we have in Newtown.” She said the added staff member will actually help alleviate any delays in addressing inspections and complaints as well as routine business at the district’s offices at Peck’s Lane.

“Right now the most time-consuming aspects of the sanitarians’ jobs are septic and well repair and installation inspections, complaints about possible pollution violations, illegal dumping, and housing concerns,” she explained. She said the sanitarians are primarily responsible for signing off on all health-related issues and compliance with public health codes before residential and commercial projects can receive clearance for building permits.

The sanitarians also perform inspections at public events where temporary food service permits are issued, like at the recent town tercentennial picnic at Fairfield Hills.

At last Friday’s meeting, Ms Henry said it was important for the local sanitarian to be able to move into a position where he felt comfortable and was able to operate in the manner he was accustomed.

State Health Department Director of Local Health Pamela Kilby-Fox was in attendance last Friday and said based on her work with similar district mergers elsewhere in Connecticut, it appeared that the merger among Newtown, Roxbury, and Bridgewater was a “good fit.” She said that eventually her department would be forced to mandate mergers in communities that could not accomplish the task voluntarily.

“It’s nice that these communities can [affect the merger] in their own time and at their own speed,” she commented.

Ms Kilby-Fox said that the merger with Newtown would also increase avenues of funding to the new consolidated district including a bump-up in state compensation per resident from $1.66 to $1.94 per person annually. She said the larger district could qualify for additional state funding and qualify for a larger share of grants for programming including health education programs in local school systems.

Ms Kilby-Fox also mentioned that the state legislature will be considering a bill supported by the Connecticut Association of Directors of Public Health providing added grant money for outreach on substance abuse and sexually transmitted diseases.

District board member and Newtown Borough Warden Joan Crick asked whether the merger would benefit all the communities overall, and would put any additional burdens on Newtown taxpayers.

But Ms Culbert replied that she believes the level of local budgeting for the district will remain unchanged.

“There will be a lot more components…salaries, the overall cost of doing business, but with increased compensation from the state, and the contribution from the two new communities, I don’t anticipate the local community budget [contribution] will go up,” Ms Culbert said.

However, with Roxbury’s and Bridgewater’s participation in a larger single district, the district’s board will increase with two new board members to represent each of the two new communities. Ms Crick also pointed out that the district by-laws will have to be rewritten to accommodate the new communities, and that the newly staffed board will have to decide whether or not to continue calling the entity the Newtown District Department of Health, or change the name to reflect its new regional jurisdiction of service.

“That decision should be left up to the new board, once it is in place,” Ms Culbert concluded.