Health District Faces Changes Panhandle Director Larry Belmont To Retire After 27 Years Of Leadership

The man who nursed the Panhandle Health District from infancy to adulthood is moving on.

Larry Belmont, the health district’s director for 27 years, will retire at the end of the month. The district’s fiscal officer, Jim Fenton, will act as interim director until the Board of Health selects a new director.

“Mr. Belmont has grown up with Panhandle Health District,” said Marlo Thompson, chairman of the district Board of Health. “Whether it’s budgeting or health care, he just knows it. It’s coming out of his fingertips.”

Belmont was hired to run the five-county district when the Legislature created the seven health districts across the state. Prior to that, the state ran a three-county health department out of Kootenai County.

Since then a lot has changed.

“It has grown into a much bigger, more comprehensive organization,” Belmont said.

“We’re now dealing with things that did not exist when I was in public health school: AIDS, chlamydia, the Superfund. It’s an ever-changing field.”

And Belmont has encouraged the district to adapt and grow with the changes, colleagues said.

“Larry has historically allowed a whole bunch of creativity under his tutelage,” said Ken Lustig, director of environmental health. “He allowed us to provide new solutions to old problems. He gave us the opportunity to think outside of the box.”

The district blazed new trails in environmental health. When he first became director, the state’s Division of Environmental Quality didn’t have any staff in North Idaho.

Belmont hired Lustig in 1972 to help close the Panhandle’s 55 open-burning dumps. In 18 months, the health district worked with the counties to close all the dumps and open eight landfills. Rural areas were served with 10-yard drop boxes.

Panhandle Health was the first health district in the state to close its open-burning dumps, and was the first in the nation to use the rural drop boxes for garbage.

Aquifer protection is probably the health district’s most famous contribution to environmental health in the region. The aquifer management plan has received nationwide recognition.

But the state Board of Health was at first reluctant to endorse the health district’s proposed regulations for development over the aquifer.

“That was a pivot point for the board,” Lustig recalled. “Larry said to them, ‘Look, you know that you’re right. You have the documentation to prove it. You need to stand up and say we know this is appropriate.”’ The district board sued the state, and the state eventually agreed to approve the aquifer regulations.

But Belmont’s focus has been equally trained on the physical health duties of the health district.

Under Belmont, the district built health clinics in every county, bringing more services to rural areas.

“When we opened those clinics, they just exploded with people,” said former board chairman Jim Burns. Burns said Belmont encouraged the start of many innovative programs, such as Senior Companions, which brought help and companionship to isolated and indigent seniors.

“He really looked at the needs of the people, and he had a heart for the poor,” said Carol Couch, former director of physical health services. “He wanted to get services to everyone who needed it.”

The health district board is looking for a candidate who has a background in public health, has knowledge of the Idaho political system, can have a good rapport with the county commissioners in all five counties, and someone with executive officer experience.

“He doesn’t have to walk on water, but it wouldn’t hurt,” Thompson quipped.

The new director will be faced with the challenge of delivering public health services in a time of shrinking budgets.

County and state funding has not increased for the health district in recent years, and federal funding has decreased. District employees did not get raises last year. While statewide, health districts are asking the state for a 12.7 percent increase next year, it’s questionable whether the Legislature will appropriate the desired amount.

The board hopes to have Belmont’s position filled by March 1.

“They can hire another individual to take his place, but they’ll never replace him,” Burns said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Finalists The Panhandle Health District board has interviewed five finalists out of a pool of 18 applicants. Two of the finalists now work for the health district. Jeanne Bock is the director of family and community health. Kay Kindig is the district’s home-health administrator. David Reese, the executive director of the Cabot Westside Clinic, a private, non-profit health center in Kansas City, Mo. David A. Dube’, a deputy health officer with the Garrett County, Md., Health Department. Robert A. Sims, CEO of a two-county health district in Wenatchee, Wash.