The City of Warren is responsible for inspecting and licensing food establishments in the city.

Changes this week approved by city council will dissolve the existing Board of Health and contract with a new provider for inspections that is anticipated to see fees to establishments lowered.

Director of Codes and Planning Randy Rossey said the city’s current inspector has become “less dependable.”

Further, he explained, they’ve heard from state officials with the Department of Agriculture, that oversees food inspections, that reports from the current inspector are not being “filed on a timely basis or at all.”

City staff have also had trouble contacting the inspector.

Rossey then proposed a new contract with Jennifer Challingsworth for inspection services that “will allow the city to reduce fees for retail food establishments.”

That change, he said, would be approved next month as part of the city’s fee schedule.

Another facet of the change is to abolish the city’s existing board of health, which hasn’t met in quite some time, and vest city council with those authorities.