New health director

Yesterday I was in the basement of City Hall and noticed that the health dept. was all closed up. Like a vault.

Just now I read in today's Daily News that the Board of Health has hired a new director but that the public health nurse resigned last week.

In addition to a new health agent, the city will also be advertising for a new public health nurse after Melinda Gibbons resigned last week. Also, an independent contractor who was hired to do food inspections will be leaving at the end of the month, Blair said.

The new guy has his work cut out for him, especially with issues escalating at the landfill. I hope to talk to Mayor Holaday today about her meeting yesterday with the DEP. She told me yesterday that she got a pre-meeting fax from DEP and that she was quite happy with the "strong language" in the fax.

Ward 5 City Councillor Brian Derrivan on Monday stood up at the end of the City Council meeting and said he thought it was time for the city to think about hiring an environmental lawyer.

"The odors have been worse than they have been since the capping began," Derrivan said. "I find myself doing more of DEP work than the DEP is doing."

I'm happy to see Holaday take such immediate action about this issue. The city really needs to step up its enforcement, not just at the landfill but in other areas. I know money is tight, but there are some issues that if left to slide, already do or will have a serious impact on residents.