WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town's outgoing health inspector is not sure of all the reasons his profession has seen a decline in numbers in recent years.

 

"I don't know, honestly," Jeffrey Kennedy said Monday morning. "I'm sure a lot of it could be fatigue. Being a health inspector gets to be challenging because it can become confrontational.

 

"Like any job, if you don't meet someone's specific needs, whether it's in your purview or not, whether it's actionable or not, it can get confrontational."

 

Everyone gathered in Town Hall's Community Meeting Room on Monday morning knew exactly why Kennedy was leaving his post.

 

And while they were sad to see him go, they were happy to have a chance to wish him well in his retirement after 28 years in service to the town.

 

Kennedy was recognized during a meeting of the Board of Health, which issued a proclamation honoring his dedication to Williamstown.

 

The board also heard — not for the first time — that the town is behind schedule in finding Kennedy's replacement.

 

Williamstown is not alone there. According to a March 2023 article in the journal Health Affairs, "nearly half of all employees in state and local public health agencies left between 2017 and 2021." More troubling, the exodus rate was greater for public health officials aged 35 or younger or with shorter tenures on the job; about 75 percent of them left.

 

Though the trend obviously predates the March 2020 start of the COVID-19 pandemic in America, the authors note that the pandemic, "dramatically heightened long-standing workforce challenges for state and local governmental public health agencies."

 

Kennedy said that, for the most part, COVID-19 was not a factor that created any confrontations for him.

 

"There wasn't a large outbreak in the community because the members of the community did what needed to be done," he said. "They followed all the protocols. The Board of Health kept on top of it.

 

"When it came to the vaccination program, the Northern Berkshire [Regional Emergency Planning Committee] stepped up and ran with it. Between them and the Berkshire Public Health Alliance, Berkshire County became a model on how to do vaccination clinics."

 

Kennedy pointed to colleagues like Laura Kittross at the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, Leslie Drager, a registered nurse with the Public Health Alliance, and Amalio Jusino, who chaired the REPC, with helping to guide those processes.

 

"I was only tangentially involved in that because there was nothing to do, they handled it so well," he said.

 

Kennedy also credited a knowledgeable and experienced volunteer Board of Health composed of health professionals with making work more manageable.

 

Three longtime members of that five-person board and its newest member gathered to honor Kennedy.

 

As part of the recognition, the board noted that Kennedy's style over the last few decades has helped to reduce confrontation with the businesses and property owners he has inspected.

 

"He has performed his enforcement duties in a thoughtful and fair manner, preferring to educate and correct, rather than to punish," Chair Dr. Erwin Stuebner read from the proclamation.

 

In addition to praising Kennedy, the board did a little business at the brief meeting. Stuebner was elected to chair the panel. He returned to the post in succession of Ruth Harrison, who stepped down this summer.

 

Harrison's replacement, Sandra Goodbody, attended her first meeting since being named to the board.

 

And the body received an update from Community Development Director Andrew Groff and Human Resources Director Cara Farrell about the process of finding a new health inspector.

 

"We have had the position advertised since late May," Groff said. ‘We have not had the response we anticipated. We've extended the application window twice now.

 

"We do have three candidates we've identified who are qualified. We would like to begin an initial round of interviews within two weeks."

 

After that, Groff said, the Board of Health will have an opportunity to sit down and talk with the two finalists for the post and provide feedback; the town manager, not the board, is the hiring authority for the health inspector.

 

To fill the gap until a replacement can be found, Groff said the town has an agreement with the Public Health Alliance to handle the necessary inspections that arise. The PHA already is the town's backup inspector for times when Kennedy might not have been available.

 

Kennedy, who has been in the inspection field for 45 years, had some thoughts about the kind of transition the town can expect when a replacement is found.

 

"It's been challenging years, and it's been years of learning and growth," he said. "People have been saying wonderful things about me. But they've seen me 28 years on. When I first began … I made mistakes. And my successor will, too, and they'll learn from them and go on.

 

"It hasn't always been smooth sailing, but it's been a challenging and interesting job."