The lowdow: Racine County officials have proposed creating a public health department that would replace the services currently provided by the separate Western and Central Racine County Health Departments. Western Racine will disband on Jan. 1, 2015. County officials said the proposal will expand services for most communities and cost the same or less than current services for eight of the prospective 14 participants.
Editor
In August 1984, Norway Town Chairman Jean Jacobson was a Racine County Board supervisor, voting to disband the Racine County Health Commission to let local municipalities decide how best to provide state-mandated public health services for their residents.
“And it worked very, very well for many years. It was an excellent decision at that time,” Jacobson said in a telephone interview April 22.
Now, in 2014, Jacobson favors the idea of Racine County once again getting back into the public health provider business.
“I think we as municipalities are right now at the point where there aren’t many choices for us. I commend the County Executive (Jim Ladwig) for his foresight in stepping forward to offer us this opportunity to join together once again with a health department for municipalities outside the city.”
Waterford Town Chairman Tom Hincz sees things differently. “I don’t see how this can be for the benefit of the Town of Waterford,” Hincz said in a telephone interview April 21. Hincz said he doubts the costs of a county system will stay affordable, and questioned the level of service that can be provided by covering all the additional municipalities.Even if the town’s level of services and fees are frozen at current levels for the first three years of a new county plan, “then what?” Hincz asked.
The Town of Waterford and Village of Union Grove left the Western Racine department several years ago and both now have public health contracts with Central Racine County Health Department through 2015.
Union Grove President Mike Aimone said that, with the village’s contract with Central Racine running through 2015, he expects to have a voice in the outcome of decisions being made in 2014 and 2015. Village officials want to make sure Union Grove continues to receive the quality of services it has seen with Central Racine Health Department if a county-run service takes over, Aimone said. It would be nice to receive additional services at less cost, he added.
For the full story, see the print editions of the April 25 Waterford Post and Westine Report.
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