Fate of Norwood Health Department

While caring for her chronically ill mother for several years, Susan Knox relied on a nurse from the Norwood Health Department to make home visits. “The services they provide are absolutely invaluable and just as important to our safety and security as the police and fire departments,” said Knox, who has lived in the city for 16 years. Now, though, the health department’s survival hinges on a five-year, 1-mill additional tax levy that will appear on the Aug. 6 ballot. • Full election coverage “If the levy passes, the health department will continue,” said Keith Moore, chair of Norwood City Council’s finance committee. But “what people think of as the health department will not exist if this levy fails.” Faced with a financial crisis that city officials blame on reductions in state funding, the recession and job losses, Norwood City Council this year halved the health department’s 2013 budget, to $261,000. Health department advocates, including Knox, were able to cobble together a plan to keep the department running through the end of this year, and they successfully lobbied for a health levy to appear on the ballot. If it passes, the levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 house $30.15 a year and would raise an estimated $374,500 a year. If the levy fails, the city in theory could maintain a board of health, and, if city finances improve sufficiently, reinstate health department workers, Moore said. But he said that would require a sudden, significant increase in revenue “which I don’t see happening.” Norwood, he noted, is not legally required to have a health department. The department now operates with a bare-bones staff of two nurses, an administrative assistant and a medical director, Dr. Frank Perrino, who is doubling as interim health commissioner. He said he hasn’t taken a salary for either position this year. In addition to sending nurses on in-home visits, the department’s services include operating children’s immunization clinics, flu vaccination clinics and senior-citizen blood pressure clinics; inspecting restaurants, grocery stores and swimming pools; offering instruction on use of child safety seats; testing drinking water; keeping vital statistics; and offering dental services to Norwood students in school buildings. If the health department dissolves, some services, such as immunizations, would be picked up by other agencies. But other services, such as in-home nurse visits, would fall by the wayside, Perrino said.