Saratoga County taking over inspection duties from state

BALLSTON SPA — Saratoga County’s steady growth means it must take on inspection duties that were handled by state government.

To help cover the transition, the state Assembly budget proposal would provide the county’s health department with $1.6 million, said Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Saratoga Springs, who is pushing to make sure funds are included in the final state budget due at month’s end.

It is included in both the executive budget and the one-house Assembly spending plan, she said last Friday in a statement. Woerner noted the county’s population gain that has put the county in a category where it must take over some duties handled by the state, such as restaurant and lead inspections, she said.

The county has been working for several months to expand the public health services department into a full Department of Health, said Clifton Park Supervisor Phil Barrett, who chairs the Board of Supervisors’ Health and Human Services Committee.

Barrett said by April the county will have accepted responsibility for four state programs as it builds out a new Environmental Health unit.

The state money would help recruit, hire and train staff and pay for equipment and supplies, he said.

According to the U.S. Census, Saratoga County’s population rose from 219,607 to 235,509 between 2010 and 2020.

The Center for Economic Growth noted last year that after a census study, Saratoga County had the state’s third-largest total population gain, 1,670 people, between July 2020 and July 2021.