DIXON – Local restaurant and bar patrons no longer need to see the kitchen to know how clean their favorite restaurant is. Curious Web-crawlers can scour eateries' insides without leaving their homes.

The Lee County Health Department has launched a Web site showing the scores local restaurants received during health inspections, dating back to October. It lists specific infractions, which could vary from dirty counter tops to expired meats.

Although officials hope the site will make operations more transparent – both at the restaurants and in their department –  some restaurant owners say the site will hurt their business and the local economy.

Health department board member David Schreiner is a proponent of the site, which he hopes will increase the efficiency of the inspection process in the name of healthy eating.

"If the consumer has the ability to go out and look at those scores, as they do in other parts of the state, it makes the owner work harder and makes our department work harder as well," Schreiner said.

The idea is part of a larger movement within health-related agencies to make their practices more open, Schreiner said.

For  example, the "Home Health Compare" Web page, maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides ratings on home care agencies, he said.

"We've worked very hard ... in trying to say we want more of a consultant role [with restaurants] than someone who comes in and is looking for something wrong," Schreiner said. "We want to try to improve it."

Restaurant worker Nick Dalipi, thinks restaurants in Lee County should be given more space.

"I think it's the worst thing that they could do," Dalipi said of the new Web site.

Dalipi, who moved to Dixon from Chicago last year to manage the Basil Tree Italian Restaurant, said the Lee County Health Department has so many rules that it's one of the least business-friendly health departments in the state.

"I would have never opened a business in Lee County if I had known the laws of Lee County," Dalipi said. "They're pushing it too much and they're moderating it too much. The whole state of Illinois doesn't have all the laws Lee County does."

The health department's Lee Trader agrees that the county has regulations beyond the state requirements, but said that practice is typical of most health departments in Illinois.

Dalipi, however, said his experience with the health department led him to advise a friend from Chicago against opening a restaurant in Lee County.

"You want to bring more people in town, not chase them out," Dalipi said. "I'm here to raise my grandkids; I'm here to make a living. But the way they do it in Lee County, I think is ridiculous."

Mili Dalipi, Nick's son and Basil Tree's co-owner, said the site doesn't bother him because health inspection results already are public information.

"Looking at it from the government perspective, I think it's a good idea," he said. "I mean, I would want to know about the places that I'm eating at. ... I think they just have to make [any violations] clear, because the forms they give us, personally, when they come in here to try to check to see what's wrong and what's right, it's not clear enough."



Understanding the data

It's essential to make sure the site's visitors understand exactly what, if any, violations last occurred, Trader said.

The Whiteside and Ogle county health departments have similar Web listings, but Lee County's site goes an extra step by including specific infractions.

That's an important supplement to the overall scores, Trader said, because scores alone often are misleading.

"Essentially, a score really doesn't tell you a whole lot," Trader said. "For instance, a 91 could be a facility that has no working refrigeration, which would be a problem. But a 91 when most of us went to school was an A."

Health Department Administrator Cathy Ferguson said serious violations are fixed immediately.

Although restaurant owners might not want violations that have since been fixed to be made public, the Web site isn't introducing anything new, she said.

"It's already public information," she said. "This simply makes it a little more accessible."

County officials have discussed posting the scores online for several years. The idea became reality this year thanks to $50,000 in supplemental state aid the Illinois Department of Public Health gave to every county in the state in 2008.

The money covered costs of things such as tablet computers used during inspections and training on new software that posts inspection data onto the Web as they occur.



Reaction

Bill Spratt, 71, of rural Dixon, said that kind of "nickle-and-diming" hurts business owners.

"When [the health department] writes someone up for an infraction, unless it's really bad and they shut them [down] on the spot, ... then I don't think it's fair for them to stick it on a Web site," Spratt said.

"I mean, if they go in and find someone's heat table or steam line is a couple degrees low or something, you don't write it up or stick it in the paper that they're ... bad. But if you find a cut up, bloody chicken on the table at 4 in the afternoon, well, now's the time to start talking."

Brenda Spratt, Bill's daughter, manages Books on First in Dixon, which serves coffee and tea as well as assorted snacks and pastries.

She said she probably won't view the Web site much since she's already confident of the cleanliness levels are her favorite haunts.

"I probably wouldn't even look at [the site] because we've been going for years," she said, "so, you know, we're going to go whether they had bad reviews or not."

Bob Lee owns First Street Pub in Amboy, which serves pre-made pizzas and is subject to inspections.

"I think if restaurants don't abide by [the health code] and they get hit too many times during an inspection, people should know about it," Lee said.

"OK, a thermostat doesn't work, then you're 34 degrees instead of 32. People aren't going to die from it. But if you've got rodent hairs in your ice or your food ... that's different."

Want to view restaurant health inspection scores for Lee, Ogle or Whiteside counties?

Lee County

- Click here to view the inspection database

Alternatively, you can find the same page by visiting www.LCHD.com
- On the lefthand column, drag the mouse over "Environmental Health," then click "Food Program"
- Near the bottom of the page, click "Public Viewing of Food Inspections"

Ogle County
- Visit www.OgleCountyHealthDepartment.org
- In the lefthand column, click "Food Sanitation"
- Then, click "Health Inspection Rating"

Whiteside County
- Visit www.WhitesideHealth.org
- In the lefthand column, click "Environmental Health"
- Below "Environmental," click "Food Inpections"