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DOH staying through summer

Effort to keep them in Sullivan continues

Joseph Abraham
Posted 2/25/22

SULLIVAN COUNTY –– “We cannot have a County that’s second to last in health care rankings ... losing a Department of Health field office,” said NYS Assemblywoman Aileen …

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DOH staying through summer

Effort to keep them in Sullivan continues

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SULLIVAN COUNTY –– “We cannot have a County that’s second to last in health care rankings ... losing a Department of Health field office,” said NYS Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther at a joint press conference with NYS Senator Mike Martucci on Tuesday.

“What kind of message does that send to everyone working to make this community healthier …” Gunther continued. “This administration is leaving Sullivan County right out in the cold ... we are not going to sit idle while the State makes such a monumentally poor decision ... There are no parties today. There’s only people that care about people, and I’m one of them.” 

At Tuesday’s presser, held inside the Government Center, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) and Governor Kathy Hochul’s Administration drew the ire of Gunther and Martucci for the recent decision to move the DOH district office from Monticello to Middletown.

DOH district offices, like the one in Monticello, enforce regulations that protect the public’s health, safety and environment related to food, water and indoor air quality in restaurants, camps, pools, beaches, hotels, motels and fairgrounds for the 21 counties/cities in New York State that do not deliver that service. They also investigate concerns about hazardous or unhealthy conditions in and around homes and workplaces.

In recent weeks, local and elected officials, including Gunther and Martucci, regardless of their party lines, have been united in urging the State to reconsider the move.

The bi-partisan efforts appear to have caught the eyes of those in Albany.

Just hours after the press conference, Gunther received a call from the DOH who informed her that they were going to stay and look at things until at least after the summer.

The move was originally scheduled to take place this Spring.

Gunther explained that in the summertime, the County population goes from 70,000-plus people to over 300,000 with many camps and bungalow colonies opening, as well as people coming to stay in area hotels.

“We have to make sure that we have the DOH there to make sure that we have a healthy environment to welcome people,” said Gunther. “So they’re going to do a stay and hopefully, I’ll keep pushing and see if we can keep [them] in Sullivan County.”

Adequate space?

As the Democrat previously reported, the reason given by the DOH for the move was “difficulty in finding adequate office space in the Monticello area.”

This is a notion Gunther and Martucci have both challenged.

“Everybody in this room laughs because it’s totally not true,” Martucci said Tuesday. “Before I came here, I Googled office space in Monticello and pages and pages of available space came up.”

He added that the Governor could easily fix the situation by issuing a directive that the DOH, “needs to stay here where it belongs.”

Martucci explained that he and Gunther both represent parts of Sullivan and Orange County, so this isn’t an issue of personal preference, but one of fairness.

In January, he told the Democrat that as a rural county with only a small department of public health, Sullivan County needs the State here, while Orange County does not, because it has a larger, full-time health department headed by a physician.

“What’s important is that the State Department of Health maintains a presence here,” said Martucci, “to deliver good quality care, good quality supervision for the folks here in Sullivan County … because you deserve nothing less. I’m proud to fight along with my colleague Aileen Gunther and all the folks who stand up here to make sure that the Governor hears us loud and clear, which is that this isn’t fair, and this shouldn’t happen.

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