Why Windsor Should Not Join the Regional Health District Right Now

The Windsor Town Council on Monday, May 16 discussed joining the West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District (WHBHD).  The proposal was to have the various services performed by the Windsor Health Department moved to the WHBHD, in an effort to regionalize services.  

Regionalization is when several communities pool resources to perform a public service such as the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) for water and sewer, and Conneticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA) for trash. 

Windsor's longtime santiarian retired and to continue the required restaurant inspections, the town contracted with the WHBHD to provide a sanitarian.  This brought about the question of whether the town should consider joining the WHBHD. 

The consensus of Monday night’s meeting was that at this time Windsor should not join the Health District.

I do fully understand that we will have to regionalize many of the services provided to our community for economies of scale.  Windsor will have no choice but to seriously entertain these regionalization concepts, options and opportunities.  The signs are on the wall.

I voted against joining the WHBHD at this time.  I took the position that regionalization is a good thing, I hope, but for the Health Department this was not the year to move forward. 

Why?

1. Economic:  The savings of going to the WHBHD would be $12,000 out of an ~500K budget.  Not a significant savings, granted future savings might be larger.  The permit fees would be lower for some, but 1 to 2 times higher for many businesses.  Also, our Boy Scouts and other civic groups would have to start to pay $50 for temporary food permits.  Lastly, permits are issued on a different cycle than the WHBHD.

2. Services: Levels of service would be reduced, meaning it may take a day or two longer to get an approval for certain services, such as a swimming pool permit.  Windsor has a Development Team including the Health Department.  How that might change was not clear.  This Team approach is the envy of many Cities and Towns and is one of the reasons businesses want to relocate to Windsor.

3.  Inspections: A Council member brought up that annual food inspections are a learning process, and there was a concern of how that might change with a different inspector every year.

4. Staff: I had a concern for our Town staff granted they would be guaranteed employment by the WHBHD.

5. Governance: We would be provided 3 seats on the WHBHD Board of Directors, however West Hartford would have the largest presence on the Board.

The WHBHD does some things Windsor can’t do, such as inoculations.  The District also receives State Aid while Windsor does not. 

The District would cost us $8 per resident, and if they received no grants the cost would be $14 per resident.

In Council deliberations a comment was made about CRRA which Windsor did not join, and the MDC.  CRRA has had its many legal issues with its member Towns, at great expense to the Towns.  The other is the MDC, that is run well however it has also had its fair share of issues.  Politics and its motives sometimes steer the direction vs. doing what is best for all member towns economically.

I do realize that we must look at regionalization.  I agree we must look at the WHBHD or a similar district, however this year was not the year.  I also think we should start to adjust our fees and renewals as we look towards to the district in the future.  

Change is difficult, and incremental change might be better.