Increasingly busy schedule has pushed back restaurant inspections
Short staffing and an increasingly busy schedule have caused the Gilmer County Environmental Health Office to fall behind on local restaurant inspections.
Andrea Mathis, the county’s environmental health manager, gave that news to the Gilmer County Board of Health during a Dec. 13 teleconference meeting.
There are currently 109 food service establishments in the county that must be inspected, but the environmental health staff has only been able to conduct 43 routine inspections since July, Mathis told health board members Charlie Paris, Lex Rainey, Tracy Wells, Dr. Brian Ridley and Nicole Bond.
“With the decrease in routine inspections, we’ve had an increase in complaints — anything from routine-type complaints to food-borne illness complaints,” she added.
Mathis said higher environmental health fees are needed so the office can hire another full-time environmentalist. Permit inspections and other services performed by the environmental health office have increased by 133 percent over the last 10 years, she noted.
“Because of (that) increase in activity, our food service program is beginning to suffer because we don’t have the time it takes to do routine inspections,” Mathis said. “We’d been trying to designate one day a week and alternate, but what we’re finding is that we have so many septic and (other) requests, we can’t go from being in the trenches to inside food service establishments the same day and have enough time.”
Ray King, district environmental health director, said a recent survey showed that the North Georgia Health District (Gilmer, Fannin, Pickens, Murray, Whitfield and Cherokee County) has more activity per environmentalist than any other district in the state.
“There’s 17 more districts,” he added. “It’s a good thing that we’re being very efficient. On the other hand, we’re being pushed back on activities. We just don’t have the time, especially Fannin and Gilmer County. We’re way behind, and we need help.”
If adopted, the fee increases would apply to several common environmental health services including restaurant inspections, sewage management system permits and swimming pool inspections. The proposed changes include raising residential septic installation fees by $100 for all square footage categories and raising annual food service inspection fees by $100 for all size establishments.
Mathis said she’ll speak with health board members before their next quarterly meeting to get feedback on the proposed increases, then revisit the item in March.
In the meantime, one day a week will be set aside for only food service inspections and other services, such as swimming pool inspections, to allow for some catch-up, Mathis noted. Septic services will not be done on those particular days beginning Jan. 1.
“No septic activity, unless it’s eminent, will be conducted on those days. It will take all our installers probably a month or two to get used to this routine, (which) is subject to change based on if it’s effective. If not, we’re going to go back to the drawing board and figure out a way to be effective,” said Mathis.