Winfield - After receiving no public comments on the proposals, the Putnam County Board of Health approved two measures at its Tuesday night meeting that establish more rules for food service workers and fees for not following the county's health code.
Stan Mills, director of environmental services for the health department, said that his office will implement the fees slowly over time since people still might not know about fees.
Mills said that some of the fees, like the $50 fee to re-inspect a food establishment, were meant to coerce certain restaurants that regularly don't follow the rules to come into compliance or pay a fine. He said that if restaurants don't meet the health code, they would have to come into compliance and then pay $50 to be re-inspected.
An inspector present at the meeting said this fee was unpopular among the restaurant owners he has spoken with.
"If things were up to par, they wouldn't have to be re-inspected," said board Chairman Mike Keiffer. "I mean, I don't understand the blow back on this."
Pending a review from Dr. Rahul Gupta, the state Health Officer and commissioner of the state Bureau for Public Health, the health board is increasing the fees for 25 different types of services.
Though the health board received no public comments, Andy Skidmore, a Putnam County Commissioner and member of the health board, said he had spoken with some restaurant owners in the county and that they seem to understand why the food service worker regulations are needed.
Among other things, the food service worker regulations require any person who prepares food to complete a food service worker course, or be prohibited from working at a food service establishment.
If a health inspector discovers an employee handling food without the food service worker card, the employee will have 30 days to get a card.
Originally, the proposed fees included a $0.35 fee for copies of public records and a $75 charge for record searches that take longer than 10 minutes, but the Mills advised striking those from the proposal since Gupta had not approved similar fees for Kanawha County.