Area residents soon may have access to local restaurant inspections on the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Web site as the state offers its technology to standardize the process.
The Mirror already posts all food inspection for Blair, Centre, Cambria, Huntingdon, Bedford and Clearfield counties in the For the Record section of its Web site.
The state posts its restaurant inspections online, while municipalities conducting their own do not.
A municipality can choose to inspect its own restaurants. If it does not, the county may do the inspections. The state takes over if neither chooses to inspect.
State inspectors last year began using tablet computers in each restaurant, reducing paperwork and enabling them to post to the state Web site faster.
The state is courting municipalities to sign on to provide better efficiency and inspection consistency.
Fifteen municipalities and health departments across the state, including the City of Johnstown, have begun using the state’s technology, the Garrison Digital Health System. Eight more are joining.
The inspection computers cost $2,000 each, and the state’s cost to use the digital system is $75,000. A federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant covers all costs.
Mark Ernest, director of Altoona’s Department of Codes and Inspections, said state agriculture representatives have not spoken to his department about using the tablet computers and posting online.
‘‘If the state comes in and talks to us about it and wants us to make changes, we’ll comply with that,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re going to continue doing them the way we’ve been doing them.”
Ernest’s department inspects nearly 200 restaurants each year, using an inspection form similar to what the state uses.
‘‘Ideally, we’d have everyone in the state participating in this program,’’ said Chris Ryder, state agriculture spokesman. ‘‘It would provide users with the opportunity to come to one place and be able to see all restaurant inspections in the state, no matter who performs the inspection.”
Tyrone recently handed over its inspections to the state when its only certified inspector, Tom Lang, left the position in August. The borough’s 30 restaurants already were inspected for the year, so the state will take over in January.
James Dell, regional food safety supervisor for the Department of Agriculture, said it’s not economically feasible for some municipalities to continue inspecting their own facilities.
“PDA is ultimately responsible for all eating establishments,” he said.
“If a local health department called us up and said, ‘As of Jan. 1, we can no longer do it,’ PDA has to say, ‘Thank you, and we’ll work with you to transition.’ That’s what Tyrone did,” Dell said.
Other small boroughs in the region, including Westmont outside of Johnstown, have done the same. The state will conduct their restaurant inspections using its technology.
Gov. Ed Rendell and the Department of Agriculture support a bill calling for an inspection standard for all restaurants and making reports available to the public in a common format. The bill awaits a committee vote in the Senate, after the House passed it in July.
In the meantime, Ryder said the department will continue trying to bring municipalities on board with the digital program.
‘‘I know we’ve gotten a lot of feedback that says people are appreciative of this move to put the local inspections on the Web site,’’ he said. ‘‘There is some training involved, and we have to get the equipment. It’s not an overnight change, but it’s definitely something we think is a good program.”
Because the program is new, Ryder said there may be only a few local inspections online so far. While the inspector’s name is listed, the online form will not show whether the state or municipality inspected a particular restaurant.
Mirror Staff Writer Jessica VanderKolk is at 946-7465.
