By Charlie Hunt, Director of the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment

As we make our final preparations for Thanksgiving and look forward to spending time with family and friends, we take a moment today to celebrate Public Health Thank You Day. Public Health Thank You Day allows us to recognize the public health professionals who help make their communities healthier, safer and better for all.

On a personal level, I am honored to work alongside such an outstanding team of 172 incredible, hard-working and passionate people at the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment. The past three and a half years that I have spent at JCDHE have been some of the most rewarding of my public health career, and I owe that to my colleagues who strive every day to improve the quality of life for the people we serve.

While certainly not an exhaustive list, here are a few highlights of the amazing work of our staff over the past year:

Community Health Assessment/Community Health Improvement Plan

Throughout 2023 and into 2024, we completed a new Community Health Assessment (CHA). The results of the CHA were shared at a Health Summit in March, which also served as a launchpad for our new, five-year Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). Work on development of the CHIP has continued throughout 2024, and we look forward to kicking off implementation in early 2025.

Environmental Health

Our Environmental Division team completed major updates to the Johnson County Environmental Sanitary Code and the Aquatic Health Code, both of which will become effective Jan. 1, 2025.

The Environmental Division also worked with the Solid Waste Management Committee to complete a major update to the County’s Solid Waste Management Plan, which will guide our work to increase waste diversion and reduction strategies over the next five years. On a related note, our Household Hazardous Waste team recently launched a pilot “express lane” project to accommodate more appointments for residential customers with small loads.

Sustainability

The Johnson County Sustainability Coalition was formed in late 2023 and has made significant progress in its work over the past year with support from Sustainability Program Manager Brian Alferman. Also under Brian’s leadership, Johnson County received a $1.4 million federal grant to expand electric vehicle infrastructure.

Special School-Age Vaccination Clinics

Our Immunization Program typically sees a rush in August and September as parents scramble to get their kids caught up on required vaccinations for school attendance. This year, to reduce some of that rush and provide better service to these families, we held a series of school-age vaccination clinics. Between the seven clinics held from June through October, we provided services to 349 kids and administered 616 vaccines.

Know Your Neighbor

Our Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Program launched the “Know Your Neighbor” campaign, which helps build social connections among neighbors so they can more easily help one another in case of an emergency. Visit the Family Emergency Preparedness page for more information.

And speaking of PHEP, the team supported four additional child care centers and family child care homes to complete the Child Care Prepared certification process. This program was featured in the Manager’s Memo during the November 14 Board of County Commissioners meeting.

These are just a few examples of the incredible accomplishments of our staff. It is a joy to work with such a terrific team. Thank you!