By gloria stravelli
Staff Writer
RED BANK — The borough is planning to eliminate its Health Office and opt instead to become a member of the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission No. 1, which would provide public health services to the borough.
The Borough Council last week approved a resolution authorizing discussions that would result in a formal agreement with the commission. That agreement, expected to be introduced at the next council meeting, would require the council’s approval.
According to Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels, the decision not to replace retiring Health Officer Fred Richart and to join the regional commission would save Red Bank close to $80,000 and provide the same level of service to residents.
"Residents can make a phone call and get a response just like they’ve done with the health office located here," said Sickels.
Membership on the commission was recommended by Chief Financial Officer Bruce Loversidge, who said the borough’s cost to provide the services being transferred to the regional commission was $242,221 last year, $175,000 of which was paid in salaries.
Roughly 43 percent of that cost — $105,024 — was offset by fees paid the borough by Rumson, Fair Haven and Little Silver. Those towns contracted with Red Bank for services by the health officer.
Based on those figures, Loversidge put the net cost to the borough for the services that will be handled through the commission at $137,197.
Red Bank will be assessed a $72,790 fee for membership on the commission, but that fee will be partially offset by $14,000 received for food licenses, dropping the borough’s expenses for those services to $58,790.
By Loversidge’s estimation, the borough should see savings of $78,407 by joining the county commission.
The borough will continue to provide animal control services and maintain the registrar’s office in addition to paying for public health nursing services by the Visiting Nurse Association of Central New Jersey — a $30,000 tab last year. Those services are not included in the regional commission’s assessment, so Loversidge did not use them in his cost comparison.
"A number of things were involved in the decision," Loversidge said. "You do have an equity interest in the operation of the commission where we’d have a vote, a person on the board. It seemed to us to be the way to go."
Fair Haven, Rumson and Little Silver, are also discussing membership with the regional commission, which has made proposals to those municipalities, according to Sidney Johnson Jr., health officer for the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission. The addition of the four towns would bring membership up to 19 towns, he said.
Richart’s impending Dec. 31 retirement, after close to 32 years on the job, left the borough with three options — hire a replacement, contract with the county Health Department for services, or join the regional commission.
"The Monmouth County Regional Health Commission can provide the same level of service and is located in close proximity to the borough in Tinton Falls," said Sickels.
The commission occupies 4.000 square feet of space within the headquarters facility of the Jersey Shore Chapter of the American Red Cross located at 1540 W. Park Ave.
"We chose to join the regional health commission for a couple of reasons," explained Sickels. "They provide services for some other surrounding towns like Shrewsbury Township, so they have an established presence in the area. They have a board on which we would have a representative, and the commission will take on our sanitarian, Gregory Nagy, who will become their employee and become our primary inspector, and he’s familiar with the borough."
Nagy will become lead inspector for Red Bank and environs, Johnson said.
According to Johnson, the borough would be assessed a $72,970 annual fee for the first year of membership on the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission. The fee will increase by 2.4 percent in the second year of the borough’s two-year contract with the commission.
"The fee is based on records they gave us. We will look at the actual cost and make adjustments as needed," Johnson added.
Fees for towns that had interlocal agreements with Red Bank will be based on data provided by the borough. Fair Haven would be assessed $24,666 annually, while Rumson would pay $31,727, and both fees would increase by 4 percent in year two, Johnson said.
The borough will continue to maintain a registrar’s office which records vital statistics, until now part of the health office, according to Loversidge. The office will now come under the supervision of the borough clerk, Sickels said.
The Monmouth County Regional Health Commission was established in 1936 under a state initiative to regionalize health services. Initially comprised of six towns, the commission currently has 15 member municipalities and would expand to 19 with the addition of Red Bank, Fair Haven, Little Silver and Rumson. The commission had a $786,487 budget for 2002.
Governed by state statutes, the commission establishes policy and reviews and approves procedures; its health officer is responsible for enforcing state and local public health laws, codes and regulations.
"We’re an autonomous agency like a sewer authority or a school board," Johnson explained. "Each town has a representative and an alternate from the local board of health who sit on the board of directors."
The boards of health of participating towns retain jurisdiction in their municipalities, while the regional board exercises supervisory authority.
That’s an advantage over the county Board of Health, which serves 21 towns, Johnson said.
"By statute, the county board is limited to nine members and while they rotate, at any one time only nine of the 21 towns can be on the board. Here, we can expand the board to include each town. They’re stakeholders, and they have a say in the operation, budget and other areas. There’s a lot of give-and-take at our meetings."
Municipalities that opt to join the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission are assessed a fee based on a weighted work-load system, Johnson explained. A computerized system tracks visits, each visit is weighted, and an average assigned. Once data is collected for a three-year running average, the fee will be based on an average work load.
Aside from the registrar, animal control and visiting nurse functions, the commission will provide the same services to residents in Red Bank as the borough’s health office, he said.
These include environmental services like inspections of restaurants, testing well water quality, responding to public health nuisance complaints, tracking communicable disease reports, and investigating leaking underground storage tanks; auditing school immunization records; running flu, pneumonia and child and maternal health clinics and rabies clinics for cats and dogs; sponsoring adult health services for cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease; conducting right-to-know employee training; and enforcing tobacco age of sale regulations. In some member towns, the commission reviews site plans for major developments.
The commission also is involved in county planning for bioterror incidents, including anthrax and smallpox, and has an agreement with the county and the state Department of Environmental Protection to investigate complaints by residents in the areas of air, water and noise pollution; hazardous material incidents; and leaking underground storage tanks.
According to Johnson, last year the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission handled 580 food inspections, 767 nuisance complaints, and 174 communicable disease reports; held 11 rabies clinics at which 528 animals were vaccinated, and flu clinics at which 3,170 flu and 603 pneumonia immunizations were given; provided cardiovascular risk assessment for 2,674 adults; and carried out investigations resulting in eight convictions for underage sale of tobacco.
"We are the first response, 24 hours a day, seven days per week," Johnson noted. "It’s one of the advantages to joining the commission. We try and run it like a group practice with inspectors having different areas of expertise.
"There’s nothing we don’t do," Johnson observed, "and we think Greg Nagy being part of it is a big advantage. We’re looking for a seamless transition."