Linda Day is just more than 20 days away from retirement.
At least, according to others at Morgan County Health Department.
Her coworkers set up a sticky note calendar on the door of her office, counting down the days until she officially retires from her role as food program manager and environmental health inspector. In her 27 years in those roles, she inspected county restaurants and taught the food certification course for managers.
“I’ve enjoyed my time here,” she said. “It’s a wonderful place to work. Everybody seems to help each other and we’ve grown together.”
Day was hired by the health department after a 20-year career in the food service industry. Since then, she said, the department has grown and changed in several ways, ranging from a new administrator in Dale Bainter to a new, larger building on the former MacMurray College campus. The way she perform her inspections also has changed.
“Our forms … that we used to do an inspection (changed),” she said. “The way that we do an inspection changed. We now look more at high-risk areas in a restaurant or food establishment.”
Despite the changes, area restaurants have kept themselves as clean as they could during Day’s tenure as an inspector, she said. Though some might have had issues with the verdict their establishment received, they were willing to sit down and talk with her about what they could do better, she said.
“That’s always been my goal,” Day said. “My goal has never been, ‘How many violation can I write?’ My goal has always been, ‘How can I help them?'”
Her experiences also helped impress upon her the importance of food safety, whether at a restaurant or when cooking at home.
“Sometimes, when you go in and you see things at a food establishment,”
