photo by: Contributed Photo

Dr. Thomas Marcellino was appointed as Douglas County's health officer in 2012 by the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Board.

Story updated at 7:49 p.m. Tuesday:

Douglas County Health Officer Dr. Thomas Marcellino, who has played a prominent role in the community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, plans to resign in the coming months, according to the leader of the county’s health department.

At the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Board’s meeting on Tuesday night, health department Director Dan Partridge said Marcellino was planning to resign sometime in the next couple of months. He said there was no specific date yet, but that Marcellino had suggested that he could leave in March.

Marcellino has taken a lead role throughout the pandemic in implementing public health orders, such as the ongoing indoor mask order. The state of Kansas grants county health officers the authority to issue “stay at home” orders and cancel public events and gatherings, and Douglas County had orders restricting mass gatherings and other limits on residents and businesses earlier in the pandemic.

According to the health board’s bylaws, the county health officer is hired by the health department director but must also be approved by a vote of the health board. Partridge told the board he had already begun to consider the next steps for replacing Marcellino. He said that might involve having the deputy health officer, Jennifer Schrimsher, take over Marcellino’s duties — but he also said he had not yet reached out to Schrimsher to ask her about that idea. He said he hoped to have a more solid plan to present to the board at its next meeting in February.

Marcellino has served as Douglas County’s health officer since his appointment to the position in 2012. Schrimsher was brought on as deputy health officer about a year ago, Partridge said.

Partridge said he thought it would be important to maintain a deputy health officer position even if Schrimsher were to take over Marcellino’s position.

“I’ve felt like the deputy health officer has brought value,” Partridge said, “not only because it’s a lonely job to do this on your own, and to have at least somebody there beside you, I think mentally, emotionally, there’s a lot of benefit to that. So I want to keep this a team effort.”

Partridge said he would also be looking at how to recognize Marcellino for his service.

“Dr. Marcellino has been our health officer since before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and I have just seen him grow tremendously through the last two years,” Partridge said.

In other business, the board retroactively approved $180,000 in emergency COVID relief funds to cover the cost of 3,000 COVID test kits. Partridge said the purchase had been made in advance and the tests arrived in Douglas County on Tuesday. It wasn’t clear at Tuesday’s meeting how the tests would be distributed in the community. Board member Stephen Fawcett asked whether there would be a process in place to ensure “equitable access” to testing, and Partridge said the health department intended to make that a “focus.”