SALEM — The health department is preparing for its annual Health Resource Fair in June.

Health Commissioner Chelsea Clark told the health board that she is preparing for the department’s fifth annual health fair at Waterworth Memorial Park on June 20 at the board’s May meeting. Clark said that the health fair will be held from 10 a.m. through 2 p.m., coinciding with the annual Art in the Park Festival.

“We will be in the green space behind Art in the Park this year, which is exciting,” Clark said.

Clark said that she is looking for a sponsor to support a pop-up bike path and obstacle course, which she noted will also be beneficial for accreditation under the active living category.

Board President Pro-Tempore Judy Sicilia asked if the department will be handing out bike helmets in conjunction with the course as in years past, and Clark said that they intend to and that she is checking if a potential event sponsor might cover the cost of the helmets as well, noting she intends to reach out to Youngstown State University’s active living program.

Sicilia said that in the past Akron Children’s Hospital had sponsored obstacle courses for the department and that Walmart had donated bike helmets to be distributed in the past.

Clark said that the department will also have an inflatable slide and bounce house at the health fair which had been donated by Pastor Hery Salamanca.

Clark also told the commissioners that the department had passed its surprise emergency preparedness drill from the Ohio Department of Health on April 22 without any issues.

During her report Clark told the commissioners that the department was still only receiving about one inquiry for tuberculosis vaccination a month, and that often by the time enough inquiries have been received to open one of the multi dose vials, they have already had to refer the earlier inquiries elsewhere.

“The vial is also going up in price. I’ve talked to other providers in the area, too. They’re $126 per vial now. So, to give that one dose would cost us $126 and we would get reimbursed $20 for that,” said Clark.

Clark also said that the department had been invited to attend the Salem Community Center’s senior health fair on Sept. 21, and that the department has seen “a major increase” in the number of dog bites being reported since the state made it mandatory to report all bites, including those from a person’s own dogs, as more people have been reporting bites that occurred within their own homes.

Following an executive session for the discussion of personnel matters, the board voted unanimously to offer a temporary contract for a sanitarian-in-training position.

The meeting concluded with another executive session for the discussion of legal matters with no action to follow.

The board of health will meet next at 2 p.m. on June 17.