Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 7, 1994 TAG: 9402070019
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RENEE SHAFER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I think it's a stretch of the imagination," said Herbert Clegg, vice president of the Richmond-based Virginia Hospitality and Travel Industry Association, which has 3,300 members. "To have volunteers do the work of health inspectors is not in the public's best interest."
Bob Hicks, director of environmental and health services at the state Health Department in Richmond, voiced similar doubts. "I can see where volunteers might be used to lead education classes; but when it comes down to assessing action, I don't know if a volunteer could fulfill that kind of a responsibility."
The Health Department is advertising in public libraries and senior-citizen centers for volunteers to make preliminary and follow-up inspections of the county's more than 400 eating establishments.
Dick Tabb, who supervises inspectors for the Roanoke County-Salem Health Department, said the department tries to visit all eating establishments at least once a year. "Ideally, in my mind, we should be doing inspections every month."
Virginia law requires that all establishments be inspected annually. High-risk establishments - those serving young children or senior citizens, and full-service restaurants - should be checked monthly, Tabb said, "but we've basically thrown that out the window."
The county hopes to alleviate its backlog by contracting eight volunteers - four with science backgrounds to help with inspections, and four with education backgrounds to train food-service workers in food safety and hygiene.
The volunteers will attend a two-week training program in Richmond for certification in food safety. Tabb said the program is identical to the one provided for new Health Department employees and local food managers. Volunteers will study Virginia food and health regulations, which will allow them to become health educators and do inspections.
"They are not getting into enforcement of the laws," Tabb said. "They'll go in with guidelines for what to look for, and alert us to any problems they see. They will also do follow-up inspections, but qualified inspectors will resolve the legal issues."
A fully qualified state health inspector must have a degree in science, environmental health or environmental science in addition to attending the training program.
Clegg, with the Hospitality and Travel Association, who went through an intensive three-month course to become an inspector, said two weeks of training does not qualify volunteers to make inspections.
"This might be all right by Health Department standards, but it's not all right by my standards," Clegg said. "They'll lack the knowledge of what inspections are all about. It's about employees, ventilation, restrooms, floors, table tops and utensils. There are a lot of rules and regulations involved."
Dan Bordett, food and beverage director for Krisch Hotels Inc., which operates four hotels in the county, is concerned about the motivation volunteers might have. "There are certain people who might have a prejudice," he said, "and there are those who might just like a badge and the authority that goes with it."
The volunteer coordinator for the county, John Shone, is a retired chemical engineer. Over the summer, he volunteered to carry out inspections of motels and swimming pools for the department as a way to keep active.
"They provided me with an ID card, and nobody questioned my qualifications," Shone said.
Shone did not go through the training program in Richmond; instead, he followed inspectors on their routes. "My professional experience as an engineer helped me," he said. "I pretty much knew what I was looking for."
Tabb, the health supervisor, said that restaurant owners have legitimate fears, and the department plans to carefully screen each of the volunteers before sending them out on their own. "We're not looking for people who want to be police officers," he said. "We'll make sure they don't overenforce the guidelines or allow their egos to get involved."
The county got the idea to use volunteers from the Norfolk Health Department. Norfolk has been using volunteer city-code inspectors for a month in the areas of environmental health and waste management. Their duties include investigating general complaints and issuing notices for garbage and refuse violations, abandoned vehicles and overgrown grass and weeds. They do not do zoning or building inspections, but refer qualified inspectors to violations that they see.
Norfolk puts its volunteers through a screening process that includes a police-record check, an interview and a drug test. A badge identifies them as Volunteer Code Enforcement Agents. "They started going out on inspections this January, and there have been no complaints," said Karen Gulley, Norfolk's environmental health supervisor.
Like Roanoke County, Norfolk adopted the volunteer program to cope with budget and manpower constraints.
The county, Salem and Vinton have only four qualified field inspectors. "To do the job that we are required to do by law, we need at least two more permanent inspectors," Tabb said.
The Health Department is responsible for monitoring eating establishments, ranging from restaurants to day-care centers to snack bars. In addition, it is responsible for testing soil and inspecting wells and septic tanks.
"It's amazing that we don't have more food-borne outbreaks of disease than we have," said Dr. Molly Rutledge, director of the Alleghany Health District, which includes the county. The Health Department has a limit on the number of full-time positions available. "Even if we were allowed to hire more staff, we couldn't afford to."
This year, the state did not allocate enough funds to cover the Alleghany District's current staff, Rutledge said. The 1994 budget was cut by $16,000; at the same time, the district was forced to increase personnel and add programs.
Every district has limited resources, the state Health Department's Hicks said. His office will see cuts in its own budget of 5 percent to 10 percent next year.
"Thirty years ago, this office had five inspectors," Hicks said. "The area has grown, and we have more responsibilities and one less inspector."
by CNB