Letters to the editor, January 27 to February 2

DOH move to Middletown a serious error

By LISE KENNEDY
Posted 1/25/22

Who in Sullivan County is happy about our Department of Health (DOH) moving to Middletown on June 1? The relocation is obviously against the best interests of county residents and our summer …

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Letters to the editor, January 27 to February 2

DOH move to Middletown a serious error

Posted

Who in Sullivan County is happy about our Department of Health (DOH) moving to Middletown on June 1? The relocation is obviously against the best interests of county residents and our summer visitors’ health and safety, many of whom come here to enjoy the beauty of nature.

The environmental services provided by the DOH to Sullivan County will become less efficient and more costly than when the offices were close to the sites of the almost 1,000 summer camps and other businesses, lands, water and homes that the DOH inspects.

I’ve heard a few people try to minimize the potential negatives to our health and safety from the loss of an environmental health services presence in the county by saying that there are other counties that don’t have a Department of Health within their borders. I don’t know which counties those are, but they are not number 61 out of 62 in health outcomes.  We can’t afford to lose or diminish any of our health services. We need more health services, not less, and we need those services in-county.

Perhaps Sullivan seems like a carcass ripe for picking to those individuals who made what seems to be a backroom deal, which only profits Orange County. Certainly, our county’s lack of political stature and bargaining power must have contributed to the ease with which we’re being blatantly robbed of our health resources. How does the move even make financial sense, except by profiting the new landlord or as a payoff? Orange County already has its own DOH, so why take ours?

A stinker of a deal like this just goes to confirm why so many people today distrust their government. Perhaps Orange County’s Commissioner of Planning, our own Sullivan County legislator Alan Sorensen, could explain what happened or help fix this. It’s a great example of a possible conflict of interest for him.

Lise Kennedy

Neversink, NY

Department of Health, Sullivan County, environmental health services, health outcomes, backroom deals, Orange County, health resources

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