Board of Health Looks to Hire Full-Time Position

The Monday night gave the the green light to turn a part-time administrative role into a full-time position.

The move comes after the Health Department's previous administrative assistant left for another role in the private sector on Aug. 4, Health Director Linda Shea said.

"It's hard when you lose one-fourth of your staff," Shea said. "We needed to request that we fill the position, but also wanted to ask if we could request that it be full time."

Shea is currently the department's only full-time employee. Alongside her to fill the department is the administrative assistant role, which filled 20 hours per week; Cheryl Kelly, the town's Sanitarian/Food Inspector, who also puts in 20 hours per week; and Mary Beechinor, the town's Public Health Nurse, who fulfills 32 hours per week.

The full-time position is considered a Grade 5 position, Shea said, meaning that the yearly salary range would fall between $19,000 and $22,000. The role would increase to a 35-hour-a-week position, from the normal 20 hours, which it has maintained since 1996.

"Since then we have grown incredibly," Shea said. "There was no emergency preparedness back in 1996, and that alone, we could have full-time people doing that job."

But even the matter of 15 extra hours a week would be a substantial help to the department, Shea said, as the person in the position does a large amount of work with emergency preparedness and keeping database information in check.

"I would hope that we could start somebody in October," Shea said. "To start over and train someone new to catch up with what we're doing is really going to be a strain, but we'll do what we have to do."

The Board's approval came after some reluctance, as it wasn't clear if a full-time position could be funded in the long term. One of the main concerns was in regards to the town's budget for Fiscal Year 2013, and whether or not the town would be able to afford to pay a full-time staff member in the administrative role.

"I'd hate to do it and then 18 months from now say we can only do part time," said Selectmen Third Member Phil Shapiro. "I don't have a great simple answer here. It's not a huge amount of money. It seems as though we might sort of roll the dice with this."

Shea said she could contribute $5,000 in funds accumulated from recent flu clinics, acknowledging that it was early in the budget cycle to make the request.

While there were concerns over the funding for the position, the Board understood the demands of the job and whether

"We're in agreement as to the need," said Selectmen Clerk Nancy Hyde. "If we approve this, you just have to understand that with everything in the town budget, there's a little bit of the instability because of fiscal times. I don't think anybody going into this job should expect long term job security."

Added Selectmen Chair Pat Ahearn, "If you go to any of the flu clinics that the Board of Health sponsors, we need police details up there to handle the traffic, and those are services that help us be a healthier community; they really help our senior citizens who may be the most vulnerable to those influenza situations. I think they're doing a lot of work."

The Board's approval allows for Shea to advertise for the role and fill the position for a full-time employee.