Union County Health Department (UCHD) officials are now better equipped at spotting health code violations.
At a meeting Wednesday morning, board of health members received an educational session about what is allowed in a food service operation and enforcing food codes. Marcia Dreisseidel, UCHD director of environmental health, led the discussion on what the board should be looking for with inspections.
“When we go to do an inspection, if we get there and there is, in our professional opinion, an immediate threat to public health, we can close the restaurant with a quick call to (UCHD Health Commissioner Jason Orcena),” Dreiseidel said.
She informed the board of what to look out for at a restaurant that could cause unsafe conditions for patrons, such as improper food temperature, infestations and other factors. She outlined what exactly leads up to a restaurant closure and the steps in between.
Orcena said this education is a part of the board’s required health education its members must receive every year. He said this meeting fulfilled half an hour of the board’s required two hours of education a year.
He said today’s education was not a certification in food safety.
Orcena said the topics of education are generally based on what the community asks the UCHD. In this case, he said the community has raised questions on health safety for restaurants under construction and food trucks.
“The community periodically asks questions, especially as we’re going into fair season,” Orcena said. “We have mobile units coming in and people ask if they’re inspected… and then as we have restaurants being remodeled, the community asks the same thing.”
Also at the meeting:
-The UCHD is working on removing itself from a civil suit between a builder and a contractor.
The plaintiff is listed as Lazer Excavating and the defendant is MCM Home Builders, LLC. The UCHD is listed as a third party defendant.
“We met our obligations and what they’re asking us to do is not within our authority to do,” Orcena said. “There’s no reason to include us in the suit.”
-The UCHD has begun its accreditation process.
The department was accredited in March, 2017, and it last for five years. However, the department has to start working on gathering evidence of its work for future accreditation now.
The department is listed among 20 other accredited health departments in Ohio, and there are currently 114 local health departments in the state.
-The department is working with its project manager to work down its construction project bill to be lower than what its lowest bidder proposed.
The contractor is Johnson Laux Construction Ohio, and it proposed a project cost of $640,000. Orcena said he’s negotiating to see if he can get the cost down to $500,000 by cutting out certain aspects of the project.