Inspections

Protecting the health and safety of all who eat at Mercer County's food-service establishments is a top priority of the Mercer County Health Department. The health department routinely provides food safety training for the county's restaurant personnel, in addition to conducting at least two unannounced inspections each year. Key items of concern during inspections include employee practices and cleanliness, food protection during storage and preparation, cleaning and sanitizing of equipment and utensils, insect and rodent control, and the storage and use of toxic materials.

Because not-for-profit businesses currently are not required to apply for a business license or business license inspections, public safety concerns were raised during a Winchester Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday. Winchester Fire Marshal Maj. Rob Carmichael appeared before the board asking them to consider a draft ordinance that would require not-for-profit businesses to apply for all local building, fire and electrical inspections as for-profit businesses do. No business operations would be allowed until inspections are completed and deficiencies corrected, the draft ordinance states.

About 70 mobile homes between Ashgrove Pike and Tates Creek Road are being inspected and will possibly be torn down in a joint effort between Jessamine County Fiscal Court, county planning and zoning, code enforcement and the health department, Judge-Executive Neal Cassity said. All the homes have been identified as abandoned and/or posing a health and safety risk to residents in those areas. “There are some (mobile homes) in each of those trailer parks that are not suitable for people to live in,” Cassity said.

Lincoln High Principal Tim Godbey said Monday that though there is understandable apprehension to the wide-ranging inspection of his school by Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) officials this week, he feels that the faculty, staff and students are prepared and, regardless of the outcome, the school will benefit from the state visit. LCHS was named a Persistantly Low Achieving School (PLA) last year and state and federal regulations dictate that the school's leadership be assessed by a team of current and former educators, parents and others from outside of the district.

Protecting the health and safety of all who eat at Boyle County's food-service establishments is a top priority of the Boyle County Health Department. The health department routinely provides food safety training for the county's restaurant personnel, in addition to conducting at least two unannounced inspections each year. Key items of concern during inspections include employee practices and cleanliness, food protection during storage and preparation, cleaning and sanitizing of equipment and utensils, insect and rodent control, and the storage and use of toxic materials.

Protecting the health and safety of all who eat at Boyle County's food-service establishments is a top priority of the Boyle County Health Department. The health department routinely provides food safety training for the county's restaurant personnel, in addition to conducting at least two unannounced inspections each year. Key items of concern during inspections include employee practices and cleanliness, food protection during storage and preparation, cleaning and sanitizing of equipment and utensils, insect and rodent control, and the storage and use of toxic materials.

The Clark County Detention Center is now completely up to date with paperwork submitted to the state following its first annual inspection in May. The Kentucky Department of Corrections identified nine non-compliance items during its May 18 inspection of the Clark County jail. Seven of these issues had been corrected and the department accepted the jail's overall corrective plan of action. Two of the items - the absence of a fire alarm test and a cell's failed smoke evacuation test - needed more detailed documentation to show corrective plans.

Of four surrounding counties, one jail had more non-compliance items than Clark County following Department of Corrections inspections. According to state records, Montgomery County had 15 non-compliance items, Madison County had six, Estill County had five and Bourbon County had four. As previously reported in an Aug. 13 Sun story, Clark County had nine items to address and provide documentation for, including three repeated from 2010. DOC officials accepted Clark County Jailer Bobby Stone's resulting plan of action, but said more documentation was needed to prove two problems were corrected: the absence of a fire alarm test and a cell's failed smoke evacuation test.