Arapahoe County Public Health Executive Director Jennifer Ludwig addresses those in attendance for an all-staff meeting and orientation of the new public health department, Jan. 3 at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds. Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado

AURORA | New Arapahoe County Health Department staff officially got to work on Tuesday. 

New director Jennifer Ludwig welcomed the employees before they took to new home offices to settle in. The new department picks up where the Tri-County Health Department, which provided services to Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas counties, ended on Dec. 31.

Local and state public health officials alike say residents shouldn’t notice any major disruptions in public health services. 

“Our goal is to try to make it as seamless as possible,” Ludwig told The Sentinel last month.

Tri-County’s conclusion was sealed last fall when first Douglas County and then Adams County voted to exit, driven primarily by disagreements over public health orders put in place during the pandemic, and the counties have spent the last year forming their own health departments and planning for how they will be run.

Adams County and Douglas County have also both set up their own health departments. 

The Arapahoe health department will begin with 155 permanent employees and 40 temporary employees for its COVID-19 operations. Of the 155 employees, 150 are coming from Tri-County, along with many of the COVID-19 group as well. Ludwig said she is extremely glad that so many people from Tri-County, who she described as “experts in their field,” are continuing to serve in their previous role in the new department.

“I feel very fortunate that we have such a great pool of applicants to bring over,” she said. “To be able to open our doors officially on Jan. 3 with that level of expertise is really exciting. I don’t think many startups have that luck.”

One reply on “Tri-County dissolved; Arapahoe County celebrates first day of new health department”

  1. Adams and especially Douglas County used all the aspects of the Tri-County program without contributing much to it. And those two counties are the ones that wanted to dissolve in order to offer fewer services and less expert quality of care to their population, often relying on conspiracy theories to direct their efforts. Arapahoe will be better off on it’s own as it was holding the entire Tri-County program together and also was the main funder.

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