The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department is considering a plan that would allow it to begin inspecting area restaurants for cleanliness and health-related issues.

Dan Partridge, health department director, told Douglas County commissioners Monday that he is considering a new food service inspection program that would allow local inspectors – rather than state inspectors – to inspect restaurants and other similar locations in Lawrence and Douglas County.

Partridge said several Kansas counties have signed contracts with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to have local inspectors do restaurant checks. He said he thought it could provide an improvement in service.

“I don’t want it to sound like the state isn’t doing a good job, but I think we can do it even better because we would have inspectors who are more tied into the local community,” Partridge said. “They are here on a daily basis and live in the community.”

Partridge said he thought the program could be self-supporting from a financial standpoint. He said inspection fees would continue to be set by the state. But the local health department would receive 80 percent of the fee. The state would keep the remaining 20 percent to cover the cost of issuing of a license and any enforcement expenses, such as taking an establishment to court. From a legal standpoint, the state would still be in charge of the program.

Joe Blubaugh, a spokesman with KDHE, said that 430 licensed establishments in Douglas County, including restaurants, schools, caterers and other locations, regularly sell or provide food to the public. Each restaurant and food service location is inspected at least annually.

Blubaugh – who said Johnson, Sedgwick, Lyon, Saline, Geary, Riley and Reno counties have similar contracts – said formal discussions haven’t begun yet with Douglas County.

Partridge said the idea needs some further study before he’s committed to moving ahead. He said if an agreement could be reached with KDHE, local inspections likely wouldn’t begin before 2008.

Partridge – who earlier this year replaced longtime director Kay Kent, who retired – told commissioners as part of the department’s annual report that he had several other ideas. They include:

¢ Increasing his staff’s ability to communicate with non-English speakers. The department spends about $14,000 each year to contract with a translator. Partridge said as he fills open positions on his staff, he’s looking for people who can speak a foreign language.

¢ Increasing the amount of outreach to teenage fathers, in addition to current programs that reach out to teenage mothers. Partridge said he helped create a program in Reno County – where he previously was an executive in the health department – called the “Male Involvement Network.”