By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — An advisory health panel in Kosciusko County is assembling information as officials consider preparing an ordinance that would establish guidelines for inspecting tattoo parlors.
While some counties in Indiana conducted inspections, that’s not the case in Kosciusko County.
Dennis Woodward, a member of the county’s health advisory committee said the county’s health officer, Dr. Eric Waldo, is helping collect information to draft a potential ordinance that might be considered as the county moves forward to establish such a policy.
“You want to be able to inspect them in order to prevent blood-borne disease spread,” Woodward said. “A lot of the tattoo people agree with that because there are some who are good and some who are not so good.”
Woodward points out that the county health department already has an employee who could do the inspections.
He said the ordinance would likely be drafted by County Attorney Ed Ormsby and eventually considered by the county commissioners.
He was unsure how fast the proposal could be considered.
Details of a potential ordinance were not discussed during the advisory committee meeting Wednesday night.
No decisions were made at the meeting.
The advisory committee was created to consider recommendations from Health First Kosciusko.
In a related matter, the committee also voted to use money from Health First Kosciusko to cover the costs of distributing Narcan and harm reduction kits — an effort being implemented by LITE — Living in Transition Effectively.
LITE is in the process of finding locations throughout the county where Narcan can be distributed free of charge through what is known as a Naloxbox.
LITE is the biggest source for NARCAN distribution in Kosciusko County.
Narcan can be used to reverse certain overdoses if applied quickly and is credited with reducing the number of overdose deaths in the past year in the county.
Tammy Cotton, executive director for LITE, said her goal was to place Naloxon boxes in every township in the county, including certain high-risk areas.
The self-harm kits include typical first aid items, along with condoms, Narcan, antiseptic and saline. Resource information is also provided for local services such as Fellowship Missions.
The advisory committee’s recommendation to provide LITE with $26,000 to cover the cost of distribution of Narcan and self-harm kits now goes to the health board for consideration.
Wednesday’s meeting was the first since the county fired Kurt Carlson who was serving as the Health First Kosciusko Coordinator. He was terminated because his policy approach was not in line with those of county leaders. Officials declined to provide specific examples.
Assistant Administrator Liz McCullough was named interim coordinator and took a lead role in the discussions at Wednesday’s meeting.
The county is now looking to fill the assistant administrator position.
