Casey Mellin, who officially becomes our Town’s new Health Director when he starts on October 20, said he “looks forward to working with our community. “

“I already know a lot about the issues having worked at the Metrowest Shared Public Health Services, a state  program, for the past two years.  I know many of the people I’ll be working with, including the select board.”

The job at Metrowest, paid for by the state, had Casey acting as the health inspector for the region.  “I’m excited by this opportunity in Maynard, it’s a good match,” Casey said.  “Instead of working across nine different communities, I can now focus on one!  I like the fact that Maynard has diversity and needs that I can work to address.”

Steve Silverstein, Executive Director of Municipal Services, said “in municipal government the Health Director holds a key position tasked with ensuring public safety and welfare. In Maynard, with its dense population and geographically proximate residential and commercial districts. This translates into responding to and managing hundreds of housing cases and food inspections, on top of licensing and permitting everything from body art establishments to summer camps.” 

“Given the breadth of the work demanded and the technical nature of much of that work, having someone with experience in handling all that is thrown at them is critical. That is why the town is happy to announce that Casey, with his long track record of service in the public health field in Massachusetts, is joining Town Hall,” Steve concluded.

After college, where Casey focused on environmental sciences and natural resources, Casey spent two years in Ecuador with the Peace Corps working on their natural resources with a tree nursery and a trout farm.  Now with 20 years as a health inspector/Public Health Agent, Casey said that much of his work will be on routine inspections, everything from restaurants, schools, camps, and pools to ensure the state sanitary codes are kept to reduce communicable diseases and promote prevention of diseases.  

Besides the full-time Health Director, Maynard also has a part-time nurse that focuses on micro work like vaccine clinics.  Casey is responsible for the big picture and supervising his staff.  “While I’ve done similar work in similar communities like Dracut, I was the assistant before.  Now,” Casey said, “everything that is local health is everything that falls under my responsibility.  I need to develop in my new role to see where we want to go.”