Letters to the editor for Tuesday, May 10, 2017

Restaurant inspections could be made far more valuable

I concur with a recent letter questioning whether the Health Department has the authority to close down a restaurant which gets an extremely poor rating. If it can legally do so, how can the department in good conscience not close down such a restaurant? If it cannot legally do so, there needs to be a change in our laws.

Without naming restaurants, I have noticed a few which are in perpetual swings between very poor ratings and higher ratings as well as others which get consistently low ratings but stay in business.

I read the Health Department restaurant inspections every Wednesday in the Appeal and know which restaurants to avoid because of poor ratings. But what about the people who do not have access to this information? These people should also be protected by having the inspection reports and ratings posted on the restaurant premises. Why is this not done? I suspect the answer to be that the restaurant industry has unwarranted political clout to the detriment of the public.

Randy Grossmann

Carson City