With the Biennial Election coming up November 4, 2025, the nomination papers are available beginning Aug 4, 2025 for candidates to take, obtain the appropriate number of signatures to get on the ballot.
We are sharing the section of the Annual Report for the Town of Franklin 2024 to help explain what each role entails. The Board of Health doesn't actually have a 'report' so we include the Health Dept report as this is the activity the Board provides oversight for.
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Mission Statement
The Franklin Health Department is charged with protecting the public health and well being of the community, in accordance with federal, state and local laws and regulations. The duties of the health department cover a wide range of public health control and prevention activities, including: disease surveillance; the promotion of sanitary conditions in housing, recreational facilities, and food establishments; elimination of nuisances; the protection of the environment; and numerous other responsibilities.
Board of Health
The three-member elected Board of Health is the policy making arm for the health department. The board members assist in the drafting of public health bylaws and regulations. The board also presides over administrative hearings concerning health department licensed and permitted activities. The board members are utilized for consultation on issues relative to public health as well.
- Chair, Bridget Sweet
- Vice Chair, Jeff Harris
- Member, Kim Mu-Chow
Staff
The current Health Department staff is as follows:
- Cathleen Liberty, Director of Public Health Ginny McNeil, Health Agent
- Alisha Deptula, Public Health Nurse
- Cassia Monterio, Regional Shared Coordinator
Community Resources Provided
The Health Department continues to hold fall and spring health fairs at the library to provide health resources to the community.
The public health nurse spent countless hours attending to the occupants at the EA Emergency Shelter providing nursing and other services. A coalition of key stakeholders was created to provide community resources to the occupants at the EA Emergency Shelter and a dashboard was created to provide information regarding the EA Emergency Shelter to the community.
An interactive website has been created to offer the community updated information on opioid misuse data that can be found on the health department website.
The public health nurse and the fire department continue to offer hands only CPR training for the community.
Communicable Disease
As mandated by the State Department of Public Health, local health departments must report, investigate and track all communicable disease occurrences in their jurisdictions. The public health nurse investigates communicable diseases that occur in the Town of Franklin.
The following depicts the reportable illness activity from July 1, 2023 through July 1, 2024 in number of confirmed cases:
Calicivirus/Norovirus 1
Campylobacteriosis 4
Giardiasis 1
Group A streptococcus 2
Group B streptococcus 2
Haemophilus influenzae 1
Hepatitis B 1
Hepatitis C 4
Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis 1
Influenza 309
Legionellosis 1
Novel Coronavirus 568
Pertussis 8
Salmonellosis 3
Tuberculosis 19
Vibrio sp. 1
Hours of Operation
The Franklin Health Department office is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday from 8:00AM to 4:00PM, Wednesday from 8:00AM to 6:00 PM and Friday from 8:00AM to 1:00PM.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the Board of Health members and the Town Administrator for giving me the opportunity to serve as the Director of Public Health for the Town of Franklin and for their continued support.
Respectfully submitted,
Cathleen Liberty,
Director of Public Health
You can download as reference the Health Department section in the Annual report -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-CKuwS8WkBMPGKlKJMDFvmMdJBZQfXtP/view?usp=drive_link
or dig into the full annual report here ->
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| Annual Report of the Town of Franklin Board of Health - FY 2024 |
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