Guthrie County Public Health has a new man in charge.

Jotham Arber is the department’s new administrator, taking over for the recently departed Lisa Chiodo. Arber has been with the Polk County Health Department the past couple of years, and while he hasn’t even been in his new position for a full week, he says the transition to Guthrie County is going well.

Arber says the opportunity to improve people’s health throughout the local area is what lured him to his new job.

“Here at the Health Department we have a nursing side, we do a lot of home care, we also do immunizations, we do outreach and education–it’s the diversity that this position affords me.  The people that I get to meet, the people in the county… it’s just a great position to have if you want to get to know people and help people.”

When anyone takes a new job, they bring with them goals they’d like to accomplish, and Arber is no different.  He explains…

“My goal is to make Guthrie County the healthiest county that it can be.  I know that we have a lot of areas where we can increase health, both with your senior population and our teenage population.  So, the agenda that I bring is just to create a community and a culture of health here in Guthrie County to make it as healthy as it can possibly be.”

To hear more from Arber as he discusses his new position as the head of Guthrie County Public Health in full detail, tune-in to today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County on K107 during the 9am, noon and 5pm hours.