In his 44 years overseeing public health in Johnson County, the community has changed and so have the threats to people’s health.
When John Bonsett began as a sanitarian at the Johnson County Health Department in 1972, the county’s population was just over 60,000 people, and has since more than doubled. The northern section of State Road 135, which is now filled with restaurants, had only a handful of places to eat.
The threats to public health have also changed. In recent years, biological and terrorism threats have become a key part of the training for Bonsett and his staff.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Click here to purchase photos from this galleryHe’s seen Johnson County through a massive flood, concerns about anthrax, H1N1, West Nile and Zika, and a whole lot more.
“Public health doesn’t take a break when there is a crisis,” Bonsett said.
Bonsett is retiring from his job as Johnson County public health administrator. This week, he was given a Sagamore of the Wabash award for his work.
Elizabeth Swearingen, an environmental health specialist, will take over as public health administrator in 2017.
Bonsett still remembers one of his first calls as a sanitarian.
He had been asked informally to assist with a dead cow which had become trapped in the middle of a river. Bonsett and another sanitarian left work early and went out on a boat and managed to remove the cow from the water. The next day, he was called into his boss’s office, where he thought he might get a reprimand. Instead, Bonsett was told that he had made the right choice, a message that has stuck with him ever since.
His advice to those in his field: Your job is to serve your community.
Bonsett was raised in a suburb on the east side of Indianapolis and attended Indiana State University, where he received a degree in environmental health and sanitary sciences. After brief stints working in Pennsylvania and Minnesota, he returned home to Indiana to work for the Johnson County Health Department.
“When I started I was told this was a great place to live, work and raise a family, and I found that to be true,” Bonsett said.
Bonsett was hired as a sanitarian, a position now called an environmental health specialist. But the work is the same — inspecting restaurants, pools and septic systems, as well as responding to public health crises such as the flood of 2008. The number of environmental workers has more than doubled from three to seven, he said.
Even as administrator of the department, Bonsett still does that work. He conducts inspections, including one in his last month on the job where he went to help a contractor look for a drainage tile at a new building site.
“I started as a sanitarian; I’m still a sanitarian,” Bonsett said.
Bonsett cited the flood of 2008 as one of the major crises the health department has had to deal with on his watch.
He’s proud that the health department was one of the first government agencies on the scene. The flood took place over the weekend, but by Monday, the employees had a temporary office set up, and were giving out tetanus shots by the middle of the week.
“John was one of the most dedicated public servants I have ever met,” County Commissioner Ron West said. “He had a sincere, earnest desire to make Johnson County a great place to live.”
West, whose relationship with Bonsett goes back decades, described Bonsett’s experience as an invaluable asset to the county.
Bonsett is thankful for the 44 years he has been able to serve the community in Johnson County.
“I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to be here,” he said. “I’ve met a lot of wonderful people. This has been a great place to live.”
