By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — A new county health officer was approved by the Kosciusko County Commissioners at their meeting Tuesday, Jan. 16.

Dr. William Remington Jr. stepped down effective Dec. 31 after nearly 30 years as the health officer.

It’s the responsibility of the Kosciusko County Board of Health to identify and nominate a replacement for Remington, county attorney Ed Ormsby told the commissioners, who have the right to approve the board’s nomination pursuant to Indiana statute.

The board nominated Dr. Eric Waldo, of Mentone, to be the health officer. Ormsby said the commissioners and he interviewed Waldo on Jan. 4 with regard to the nomination. “That nomination is now presented to the commissioners for consideration,” Ormsby stated.

Commissioner Cary Groninger said they did interview Waldo and they “felt very comfortable with his conservativeness as far as where he stands on a lot of the issues that we feel are important to Kosciusko County. We really feel as though the board put forth a good nominee for us to look at.”

He made the motion to approve Waldo’s nomination as the next county health officer.

Seconding the nomination, Commissioner Brad Jackson said, along with agreeing with Groninger said, “It’s unusual for a doctor to be in his position to have the time to dedicate to it, and that was a real plus for me, too.”

Commissioner Bob Conley, echoing the other commissioners’ comments, said, “This is a situation where you talk to this gentleman, and it’s kind of like with milk, you shake it all up and cream flows to the top, and I think that’s what the county health board has done here. This individual with his family, his family life, the things he has done in his life so far, from a medical perspective, being a hospitalist and being in tune with all the nuances that come along with medicine, almost on a daily basis, he’s in the vanguard of keeping up with that information.”

The commissioners approved Waldo 3-0.

According to WebMD.com, Waldo was born and raised in Indiana. He joined Kosciusko Medical Group in July 2011 and earned his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine in 2008. He completed an internal medicine internship and residency program at Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie in 2011. He is board certified through the American Board of Internal Medicine. Waldo is a full-time hospitalist at Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital.