Rochester’s Board of Health met on January 10 to approve an FY25 budget of $109,760 that is a 7.8% increase over FY24.
Rochester Health Director Karen A. Walega, however, emphasized that more needs to be done to boost employee hours to complete the tasks of a full-time board now under the constraints of a part-time work schedule. She said the new budget features a 2% cost-of-living increase for Public Health Nurse Connie Dolan to $33,516, but what Dolan and other Board of Health staff need is more work hours to do their jobs, she said.
“I’m hoping in the future to add more hours for her (Dolan) to 25 per week,” Walega said.
Dolan, she explained, is currently at 15 hours per week. “And that’s not enough,” she said. “We have to look into ways to get more hours for the people who work for the Board of Health.”
Dolan, Walega noted, does not even have her own work desk out of town hall. She works entirely out of her home. Dolan said she was fine working that way for now, but this admission came after she and Walega reminisced that she has had desks at Town Hall that she has slowly been downsized out of since 2019. She said lately she’s shared an office at the Council on Aging Senior Center with the SHINE director. But right now neither of them has that office, as it is being used for income tax counseling.
Following this discussion, Dolan’s report to the board featured updates on COVID rates and a pilot program utilizing opioid court-case settlement funds. Dolan said last week alone there were five COVID cases in Rochester. Her office has been distributing COVID test kits around town, including at the Senior Center. “It’s the season for it,” she said. “A lot of bugs going around.”
Dolan also announced that a Narcan education pilot program is scheduled for the Senior Center on February 7. The town’s share of funding from a federal court settlement against manufacturers, distributors and retailers for their actions that contributed to the current opioid epidemic is being utilized for this effort to teach the public CPR and Narcan treatment for overdoses. In February, a select group of participants will be so trained at the COA. If this first such training is successful, the program may become available to the public on a regular basis, Dolan said.
In other action, Walega reported that a complaint regarding 515 Rounseville Road pertaining to a mobile home causing unsanitary conditions is being referred to the state Attorney General’s office for further investigation.
The Rochester Board of Health did not schedule a future meeting date at adjournment.
Rochester Board of Health
By Michael J. DeCicco