SALISBURY — Salisbury and Amesbury are halfway to approving a regional public health agreement allowing the two towns to join together in providing services, from flu shots to restaurant inspections.
After Salisbury approved the deal last week, the next step on the path to implementing the bi-community regional health service agreement is getting the approval from Amesbury, which is expected to happen within the next few weeks, according to Salisbury Town Manager Neil Harrington.
Once all parties sign off, Harrington expects things to move along very quickly, with Salisbury and Amesbury sharing the cost and personnel to deliver health inspection for local businesses, public health and animal control services to those communities in a "60/40 split," hopefully by early October.
Salisbury's contribution to the agreement will be $43,000, less than the $62,000 the town spent last year, and much less than the more than $80,000 it spent when it had a full-time health agent on payroll.
In addition, Harrington is hoping that Salisbury will have a better and more consistent health inspection program than it has had in the past, when many issues — like restaurant and rental property inspections — often fell through the cracks.
Under the new regional agreement, experienced health inspectors with specific expertise will be hired as independent contractors to inspect septic systems, restaurants and rental housing. The cost of the inspectors' services will be paid for by an inspection fee system being established, Harrington said. As a result, health inspections will be self-supporting and paid for by those whose property is being inspected.
Harrington is optimistic that Amesbury officials will approve the contract, which is much like the previous legal agreement that would have had Newburyport joining in a tri-community health service pact with Amesbury and Salisbury.
Although Salisbury and Amesbury approved that agreement in late July, the Newburyport City Council rejected the deal, leaving Amesbury and Salisbury at loose ends.
But at the July 30 Newburyport City Council meeting that nixed the three-way split, Harrington tapped Amesbury's Kendra Amaral on the shoulder and ask her if she still wanted to try to work together. Amaral, who serves as Amesbury Mayor Thatcher Kezer's chief of staff, agreed and the two have been working together ever since to structure a new agreement.
In the interim, while Harrington and Amaral work out the new details, Newburyport's Mayor John Moak has allowed the city's Health Director Jack Morris to continue supervising Amesbury's and Salisbury's health departments. In addition, Salisbury's animal control officer Harold Congdon has taken over the same duties in Amesbury.
According to Amaral, Amesbury's Municipal Council has done its first reading of the new agreement and referred it to committee. After the ordinance and finance committees review the agreement, they will send it back to the council, which hopes to meet the second Tuesday in October with the issue on the agenda.
"This new agreement was built off the foundation of the (tri-community) agreement the council already approved," Amaral said Friday. "All the issues of concern were previously worked out. I don't expect we'll have any problems at this time."
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