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Health department announces resignation, recruits replacements; Kristen Chapman named water program supervisor as permitting goes digital
Summary
Administrator Adamson reported that Fiscal Operations Manager Karen Deeds has resigned; the department is recruiting for multiple roles. Director Knoll said Kristen Chapman has been placed in the water program supervisor role, digital septic and well permitting will go live soon, and township water sample drop-off sites will be reintroduced.
Administrator Adamson informed the McHenry County Board of Health on Jan. 13 that Karen Deeds, the fiscal operations manager, has resigned and that the department is recruiting to fill that role and other open positions. Adamson told the board the FY 2024 end-of-year report included in the packet is preliminary and unaudited.
Adamson: "You'll notice Karen Deeds is no longer with us. So I will be doing, she did resign from her position. And so we're already recruiting for that position."
Environmental health and water services: Director Knoll told the board that Kristen Chapman, a licensed environmental health practitioner, has been placed into the open water program supervisor position after a vacancy of more than three months. Knoll said staff are in training with a vendor and will launch an online platform for septic and well permitting in the coming weeks; the change will move permitting to an online process and the department will provide Zoom training sessions for designers and well drillers.
"We have placed Kristen Chapman, who is, one of our licensed environmental health practitioners into our open private solution for the water program supervisor position," Knoll said. "We'll go live with the digital platform for the septic and well permitting that we're working on in conjunction with planning and development."
Township sample drop-off and logistics: Knoll said the department will reintroduce a water sample drop-off program in several southeastern townships to reduce travel for residents; samples will be collected for processing once weekly. Staff clarified logistics: samples collected and dropped off Tuesday morning will be picked up that afternoon and analyzed the following morning; samples not received within the required holding time are invalid and must be recollected. A staff member said analyzed samples must be received for processing within 30 hours, and that if a drop is late an invalid sample will be replaced with a new kit.
"It's an invalid sample. It has to be analyzed within 30 hours," a staff member said.
Operations and clinics: Staff also discussed planned spring clinics (off-site while Crystal Lake renovations proceed), temporary relocation of some programs and ongoing recruitment for other vacancies. Deputy staff described using existing staff for recently approved testing contracts and said current workloads had been adjusted to accommodate grant-funded services.
What’s next: Recruitment is under way for fiscal and other open positions; the digital permitting vendor will complete staff training and then the county will conduct outreach to designers and well drillers about the new online permitting workflow; township drop-off sites will start on a weekly pickup schedule.
