Monday, November 2, 2015

Environmental health staff recognized

Maine law and rules require that before a Health Inspection license to operate can be issued, all restaurants, hotels, inns, B&Bs, campgrounds, youth camps and fairs and festivals must show that they have safe drinking water and proper wastewater disposal. Maine CDC’s Health Inspection, Drinking Water and Subsurface Wastewater programs are co-located within the Division of Environmental Health, which allows for fast turn-arounds for routine applications.  For complicated business proposals, technical teams representing all three programs can be assembled quickly to find solutions for difficult drinking water or wastewater challenges.
Governor LePage recently received a letter from a business owner opening a new restaurant in rural Maine.  This business person wrote that he expected that the process would be equivalent to “…pushing a boulder uphill.”  He went on to say that “… to the contrary, these people bent over backwards to help us get the forms complete, inspect the water source, wastewater system, and the building to get us open as quickly as possible.”

As a result, Governor LePage invited the three staff named in the letter, Haig Brochu from the Drinking Water Program, Sandi Clark from the Health Inspection Program and Jim Jacobsen from the Subsurface Wastewater Unit, to his office to personally thank them for their work. They were joined by DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew, Maine CDC Director and Chief Operating Officer Kenneth Albert and Health Inspection Supervisor Rebecca Walsh. Governor LePage presented each staff member with a Governor’s coin and thanked them for their assistance.