MichMash County Close-up: Wayne County
“MichMash” host Cheyna Roth puts the spotlight on Wayne County and is joined by Wayne County Executive Warren Evans.
Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans.
For MichMash’s second edition of County Close-up, host Cheyna Roth zooms into Michigan’s most populous county: Wayne County.
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans sits down with Roth to discuss the state of the county, public heath priorities and toxic waste shipments.
In this episode:
- How Wayne County is an indicator for the rest of the state of Michigan.
- The improvements needed at the Wayne county juvenile facilities.
- Toxic waste shipments to Detroit and how they effect local residents.
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Evans believes having one of the biggest cities, along with the most people in a Michigan county, makes Wayne County a great indicator for the rest of the state.
“It’s a big indicator of whether Michigan is growing or not growing,” says Evans.
Earlier this year, Evans held his State of the County address. Among the many topics he discussed, improving public health was one of the main priorities. Evans invested $60 million in Wayne County’s health department using federal funds from the American Rescue Plan.
Read: Poverty, segregation and racism tied to poor health in Wayne County
“[Chronic illnesses] hurt Wayne County citizens, and to a large extent, people in distressed communities and people who are around those industries that we give lip service of wanting to have because they create jobs,” says Evans. “But the truth of the matter is that they also create emissions and other things that are not good for the public health. Hopefully we can sit down with those industries to see what we can do to make it less hazardous.”
The main sentiment shared was that people shouldn’t have to pay a price on their health simply for where they live.
Listen to the entire episode using the media player above.
More from MichMash:
- Congress members Tlaib, Dingell, Thanedar hosting public forum on Michigan waste disposal policies
- Detroit Evening Report: Detroit, Wayne County health officials requesting $227M for mental health care improvements
- Mackinac Policy Conference: Warren Evans on gun restrictions, Wayne County funding, and his career
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