The Starke County Commissioners and Starke County Council met with Indiana Senator Mike Bohacek last week regarding Senate Bill 4.
Senator Bohacek said the bill still needs to go through appropriations. He said once the appropriations are final he would share the updated bill with Starke County. He said overall, this bill would expand a list of services in Starke County. He added it does not take local control of the Starke County Health Department.
Senator Bohacek stated this could be a four to five year project before it is implemented. That is, if the bill were to be passed. The proposed bill adds members to the executive board of the Indiana Department of Health. It would also require the state department to provide district or regional services to local health departments. It would also require the state department to make annual local health department reports available to the public.
The bill would change the qualification requirements for a local health officer and require certain training. The state department would also need to identify state level metrics and county level metrics and requires certain local health departments to report to the state department activities and metrics on the delivery of core public health services.
No decision was made as this was an educational workshop allowing Starke County government officials to learn more about the bill and to discuss it with their Senator.
A full list of details involving Senate Bill 4 can be found here.
