By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
With Western Racine County Health Department making plans to disband at the end of this year (see related story in this week’s print edition), many west-end officials are looking for another agency to offer flu clinics, immunizations and public health-related screenings and education programs.
Through a unique public-private arrangement, Aurora Healthcare has been managing most of the operations within WRCHD. Each participating municipality pays Aurora a specified amount of money – determined by such statistics as usage and population.
Currently, the towns of Dover, Norway, Raymond, Burlington and Yorkville; villages of Waterford and Rochester; and City of Burlington contract with WRCHD for public health services through 2014.
Previously, the Town of Waterford and Village of Union Grove contracted with WRCHD. But, in recent years, these two municipalities switched to Central Racine County Health Department, based in Franksville, with officials citing better costs, accountability and services.
Aurora recently notified the eight participating municipalities that it will no longer be managing WRCHD by the end of this year.
State statutes require each municipality, regardless of its size, to provide some form of health department to ensure residents’ basic needs are met.
Typically, this is offered at the county level. But Racine County is one of a few in the state that has a splintering of departments.
As its name suggests, Burlington-based WRCHD serves many residents in the western end of the county.
The Franksville-based Central Racine County Health Department generally serves people living east of I-94 (Town of Waterford and Village of Union Grove are recent exceptions). The City of Racine has its own department.
At the March 25 “Super Board” annual meeting for Waterford-area municipal and school district leaders, the future of public health services was discussed. The meeting was held at the Waterford Public Library.
Rochester Trustee Chris Bennett, who serves on the WRCHD board of health, said preliminary talks are underway to join the Central Racine County Health Department.
If thesr talks do progress, then Racine County will likely have two health departments in existence – one for the county seat (in the City of Racine) and another for all the other communities.
Bennett said the WRCHD board of health just recently engaged in talks with Central Racine “For the time being that’s where it’s at,” Bennett said. “There really isn’t a Plan B or Plan C, and there won’t be one unless this is denied.”
Bennett and other representatives from surrounding municipalities expressed surprise at Aurora’s recent announcement. “It kind of came out of the blue,” Bennett said.
Town of Waterford Chairman Tom Hincz told the meeting that he has no regrets about the township joining Central Racine a few years ago.
“They’re doing an excellent job for us,” Hincz said. “They’re going above and beyond what we’ve asked for, and their fees are below what we’d been paying with Western.”
Health department services were also a hot topic in Union Grove two years ago as officials expressed concern with mounting costs. Ultimately, the Village Board also voted to leave the WRCHD agency.
Hincz pointed out that Central Racine offers additional services not covered by WRCHD. Case in point: Central Racine performs routine inspections of restaurants. Communities using WRCHD need to find another source for the inspections service.
Bennett said efforts were made to have someone from Aurora attend this week’s Super Board meeting to discuss the company’s decision to end management of WRCHD. Bennett said no one was available to attend the meeting.
While health services after Dec. 31 remains up in the air, there is one certainty: “We have a statutory requirement,” Bennett noted. “We have to provide the services.”
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