Board of Health: July 21, 2020

Transcript machine-generated with Whisper speech recognition (the source video has no caption track). No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:00 Let’s call the meeting to order. Okay, so on a poll vote, Ms. Aisley? Yes. Ms. Gottlieb? Yes. And Dr. Belkpecker? Yes. All right, go right ahead. So as you can imagine, the health department’s a little busy right now, so there’s still no minutes to review. We’ll get them when we get them. So we’ll just go right into our COVID-19 update, Andrew. So sounds good. So we had a case count that came out on Monday. We’ve had a total of 243 cases so far. We are doing relatively well. We have less than five or five and less cases actively right now. So of these cases, the majority of them have contracted COVID during travel to outside New England areas. Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and other locations like that. So it’s very important that when people travel outside of New England, that when they come home, they need to isolate themselves in quarantine for 14 days. Now, we understand this can be inconvenient and you know, we’ve gone through a period of time where this wasn’t necessary, but this is necessary again. So we need to remind people to do this.

1:30 And Todd and I talked about doing another Code Red to remind people of the requirement to quarantine. Obviously, it’s urged through the governor’s office, so we will use the same language to the governor’s office. We have a lot of activity, you know, it’s summertime, so there’s a lot of outdoor activity going on. With the weather being really hot, we’ve had a lot of people at the beaches. We have people at yacht clubs or at the pool. We have one camp operating that’s doing very well. So we have a lot of summer activity going on. One of the issues, we’ve gotten some complaints about the beaches with the amount of trash. So I have spoken with Peter James, just you know, that we need to be paying attention to it. They have a trash collection for, you know, the beaches and around town, but Devereux Beach is collected in the morning and in the afternoon. We are seeing some heavy dinner traffic at the restaurant down at Devereux Beach. We will be conducting an inspection tomorrow to take a look. It looks like they have some outdoor tables. If they have outdoor tables, their restrooms need to be open and we’ll discuss trash with them also. They need to be responsible for trash that’s generated by the restaurant and we just need to do a better job to make sure things don’t end up in the ocean and other areas like that. We have gotten a couple complaints about that and yes, we understand that. With our cases low right now, we are not have a very loud voice,

3:04 but if we do start to see an increase in cases and we feel that it’s potentially coming from beach areas or that we need to increase enforcement, we will start to speak louder. We’ll do more code red calls. We’ll push out more information and we’ll go back to a lot of the standards that we were using kind of during the height of COVID. We already have signs printed up to remind people about social distancing at the beach and in parks and to make sure that they can take care of the trash. So as people are walking up from the parking lot to the beach, we can quickly deploy signs to say please remember to social distance yourself, wear a mask, and to make sure the trash gets into the appropriate receptacle. So just dealing with some of the summertime issues, we do often get complaints about trash during the summertime, but we just want to be on top of that. Go right ahead. No, I thought you were finished. You took a pause. I’ll let you finish. No, that’s it for that. I mean, obviously, we’re doing there’s still a lot of as we go through these different phases. So we’re in phase three and we’re going through these new steps. So it’s going to be phase three, step one, phase three, step two, phase three, step three. We will never get to phase four until we have a vaccine and people need to understand that. So it’s not going to go back to normal until we have a vaccine. So we’re going to continue to be

4:35 doing all this stuff. We have weekly, you know, two calls with the state weekly to go over any new issues. It gives us an opportunity to ask questions. We always have a contact with the Department of Labor Standards to ask any kind of questions. And we also have other contacts at the governor’s office. Obviously, there’s been a tremendous amount of discussion around school reopening and the requirements that the school has to do at this point. They need to come up with three different approaches to reopening the school in person, virtual and a hybrid. One of the concerns that we have and that it came very obvious today during our conference call is that the public health standards that we are using today are not going to be used in the school system. So like Colleen, you’ve mentioned this before, they are considering the separation. We look at six feet, they’re willing to go down to three feet. We’re not necessarily okay with that. One of the other concerns that came up today is if I am a contact of a positive case and the public health nurse calls me to say I am a contact, I’m under quarantine for 14 days, the DESI guidelines state that if you are a contact of a positive case, after four or five days, you get a COVID negative test, you can go back to school. That is not in line with our public health guidelines today. And when we asked the question

6:06 of the state today, they had the Department of Early Education online and they said, well, we’ve done the research, we’ve noted that research in our documents and that’s where we’re going to stand. So public health and the school department or not the school department, DESI are not going to be in line with this. And so today Todd and I kind of talked about, you know, it would be great if the health department or the Board of Health could kind of put their stamp of approval on any plans that the school department goes through with. Unfortunately, if they stick to the DESI stuff, I don’t believe we’ll be able to do that because they’re not going to be aligned with public health. Oh, go ahead. It’s so crazy that the Department of Public Health controls medical office, dental office, restaurant stores, every aspect of life. So why don’t they have control over the schools? It’s very frustrating. Well, I don’t think that we have to necessarily abide by it. I had a couple of questions about the COVID update and then can we go into the schools after that? Yeah. Let’s stick to the COVID update. I can give you some other updates on that stuff too. I mean, we don’t always see great public health guidelines for what’s coming out of the Governor’s office. You know, I can go out to dinner with six people, but I have to, I’m not allowed to go sail racing with more than, you know, a couple people in the boat, you know, during certain times. So not everything always lines up. And we do often push back to

7:38 the Governor’s office to say, hey, why are you doing this over here? But you’re not doing that over there. And I’m going to speak to that because I sent all of you a video that the Governor said the local communities can make their own guidelines. And I sent it to you Sunday evening. And I believe that. So I don’t think that we need to necessarily go along with that. And I don’t, we’d have to have a vote of this committee, I would imagine. But he said it loud and clear. He said it up a half a dozen times in that video. So I’d appreciate you if you looked at it, because it was pretty good. In fact, it was very good. You lost my train of thought on that one. Also, I’m jumping around because the way you gave the report, but on the six people, six feet distancing in schools, on the health and safety list they had today that I received, they mentioned six feet and they didn’t mention a word about three feet in the Marblehead schools. We’re not supposed to publicize that agenda that they sent out or minutes, but we’re here alone right now. And I would appreciate her stay out of the minutes, but it isn’t a minute. We’re on TV right now, just so you know, we’re being recorded. No, we’re being recorded. John’s here. Is he? Yeah. Where is he? I didn’t see him.

9:12 Oh, all right. Well, then, anyhow, that’s just one item, okay? They didn’t mention anything other than the six feet. The DESI guidelines say, which, you know, I mean, whether we choose to endorse them or not, the DESI guidelines say six feet is the ideal. If six feet can’t be adopted, then three feet, you know, has been shown to be, you know, safe, particularly in that younger age group, you know, at least three feet, but six feet is ideal. That’s what the DESI guidelines at least say. Well, then, so that’s about that. As far as the COVID, I was wanting to know, when you gave the number of 243 cases, how many current cases do we have? Less than five or less. Well, I thought those, oh, what are the deaths? Thirty. So, I just got another copy of the death certificates from Robin. So, I will be going through those the next couple of days to just make sure that I haven’t missed anybody or, nobody, if people have been updated and need to be added to the COVID death list also. The other thing is, isn’t the Y open for camp? The Y is not in Marblehead. Oh, it’s on the island, but they’re not having, and even at the site,

10:43 the island isn’t Marblehead, nor is the site. Nope. I see. Okay. The Y is open. Yeah. Okay. But the JCC is the only Marblehead camp. The JCC is the only Marblehead camp. Okay. That was the question I had. So, I don’t know whether we wanted, as a committee, be up to where, I mean, I’d be happy to make a motion that we, our local community, the governor suggested that we can have our own guidelines. If you haven’t read the article or listened to it, I think that you should. I think Michelle might have listened to it, but. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my feeling is like, I did appreciate hearing that. I did listen to it. And I think, you know, I think what I understood the governor to be saying is, you know, that he understands and his administration understands is that, you know, that they can’t be the voice for all the local communities and that they, that local communities are the ones that understand what’s happening on the ground and that local jurisdictions need to be the ones to respond to local situations. So, I don’t think we would want to, my feeling is that I don’t necessarily think we would want to make a blanket kind of motion that would cover all situations.

12:17 You know, I’m not sure what you’re suggesting. I think, obviously, when there’s a, if there’s a particular thing that we’re responding to, if you are suggesting that there’s something about the school public health versus DESI guidelines or whatever that we want to respond to, if there’s a document that we’re reviewing, then certainly this is an area where I think it’s clear that we have some leverage to respond to local situations and make our own recommendation. I think it was comforting to hear that we have some leverage to make our own recommendations, but I don’t think it’s something, you know, I think we want to do it on a very case-by-case basis as much as we can, as Andrew has been guiding us, listen to the governor, take the state guidelines, and then when we need to, I think this gives us some comfort in saying what’s going on in our community and how can we best respond to that. That’s how I understood the the video. You are correct. I just didn’t know whether we wanted to make a motion that there could be time to time to time that we may have to follow our own guidelines, but as long as we understand that and the governor stated it, I think that we’re, I’m fine with that. Me too. But I just want everybody to know that he’s given us the option to do that and it’s not a cut and drive. Yeah. Okay.

13:51 So, you know, I was thinking that, you know, if there were state guidelines that, and I unfortunately did not get a chance to watch the video, but I was thinking, you know, we could reach out to a lawyer early. We could try to push this a little bit so that the DESI guidelines were more in line with scientific study, but it sounds like that we as a town have more control than I realized. So we don’t have… Well, and we now have a voice on some of the committees. So I think that that some of the school department committees. So I think that our voice would be helpful. I mean, it’s only our voice among several other people on the committee, but I think that it’s a good thing that we are there. And Todd, based on our conversation with the state today and our conference call, there will be a lot of towns that push back to the governor’s to say, public health regulations and DESI regulations need to be in line with each other. It does not make sense to have be pushing public health. And then, oh, for our kids, we can use a different set of guidelines. I’m sure there’s many communities that will be pushing back against that. Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, yeah, it seems like, you know, in other states, from things that I’ve read, it’s like health, you know, it’s like the, you know, the health, the education department comes up with a plan and then goes to the health regulators to say,

15:24 review, put your stamp of approval on it, review and provide guidance on it. Like that’s the proper, you know, kind of line of communication, not, you know, to be in completely different silos. That makes no sense. Good. Is there anything more Andrew? The only other piece with that is that the directors on the North Shore have met with the metro area planning council to express some of our concerns and how we feel that, you know, there’s a tremendous amount of manpower across the state that’s going in to create all these guidelines across the state where you could reduce that manpower by quite a bit. If you have the state form a committee that can be pushing these guidelines down to the communities rather than each community creating their own guidelines, it really should be the other way around. We’ll see what happens with that. When would that, I mean, August, end of August. Oh yeah. So, yeah. So, so can you speak to that a little more? Like in, in what way? Like how much more granular would it be versus what Jesse has put out? Like, so, so with the public health guidelines, so each town didn’t come up with their own guidelines for camps, you know, long-term care facilities. The state formed the committee to create all these guidelines and push them out to each community. So in the same sense, the state would form a committee that would be forming all these guidelines for the schools. Same exact thing.

17:00 I thought that the superintendent was supposed to be coming forward with his plan the end of the month. He is about how the, you know, online learning, getting back to school, stuff like that, but there should be some better guidelines about why would we ever have different guidelines between contacts and the amount of time that that person has to quarantine versus school and saying, well, they can turn after five days with a negative test. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean the superintendent. I meant the commissioner. Which commissioner? The education. He’s supposed to be coming out with something end of the month. That’s what they’ve said on one of the governor’s reports. Okay. They said, because we’ve had nothing about, from the governor about the school’s opening, reopening, just that he’s working toward it. He hasn’t made any public statements. Right. But you have all these, these desk guidelines that you’ve already been given. Which is what the school is basing there.

18:08 Well, maybe he’s not going to make one, but I would imagine that the commissioner is going to make some statements. I mean, he said he was. I only know what I hear and read.

18:24 Yeah, that’s all I have for COVID, you know, reopening. As far as other reopenings, you know, the last meeting we had with the plane and I sit on this other reopening committee is that trying to work with retail establishments to possibly do some events sometime in August to do like sidewalk sales and some other events that would sponsor retail establishments. Have you heard anything this week since our meeting about how the retail establishments are doing? I have not heard. Obviously, there’s been a lot of promotion of trying to shop local, but I have not heard exactly from, from Beth about how all the retail establishments are doing. And the restaurants are doing fine except for the three days of rain last week. I mean, obviously it’s challenging for any of the restaurants, you know, even in this hot heat who wants to sit outside. So, and they’re obviously using, you know, they’re not at full capacity. So yeah, they, you know, they’re people using them. They’re people sitting there. I think they’re surviving. I don’t think, you know, I’m not so sure I could say that they’re thriving. Did anyone close yet because of the fact they had low, low senses? Um, I don’t believe we’ve not had any closures at this point. Good. Okay. Bobby, I spoke to Bobby the other day. She said she was encouraged that it looked like everybody was who wanted to say what was going to be able to.

19:56 Yeah. I mean, everybody’s been trying to do their part by going, you know, shopping local, trying to dine out as much as possible, even if it’s just for takeout, trying to remember, I want this business to be here after this is over and therefore I need to support them. Do you have anything to say about the, I got that inquiry about the social justice team that’s having the fair in the beginning of August? I just heard about that this afternoon, Helene. I need to know a little bit more about that so I can, we can potentially guide them in the right direction. Well, I, I, um, called actually you on Friday and, um, Bobby answered the phone and I said, you know what, it’s really your department because they wanted to sell some food. And she said, have them call me because she had certain, you know, protocol for them. And, um, that’s what’s happening. I guess they’re going to be using the, uh, the parking lot of the Lutheran church. What is, so what is the event? I haven’t heard about it. The social justice team is a group in town that, uh, is really, it meets at the library during the, well, it’s been meeting at the library, hasn’t been meeting at the library for four months, but, and they have a group that talk about, uh, various racial issues. I’m familiar with them. I just didn’t know about their events. And they want to have an event and, uh, that they’re going to have booths,

21:27 which are going to be socially distanced and at the, I’m not on the committee and they just gave, called me for an inquiry. So, and they wanted to serve, serve some kind of, uh, food. So I immediately said, if even if you’re allowed to do it, which I don’t even know, I didn’t really know. And what the up to the minute decision was, I said, but you certainly can’t have, uh, a food bar, you know, salad bar or things like that, open food, pass food. So, um, I, I called Bobby and she said, just have them call her and she would have to have them get a permit and see what they’re doing firstly, what they’re doing and then get the permit. Talking about that. I had some comments or questions about, um, the farmer’s markets. So, so, I mean, my one concern about the social justice committee is, you know, I need to fully understand what they’re doing. Um, if you’re going to have face to face contact, contact of greater than 15 minutes, I need to have an attendance list. All right. Well, their committee is going to be calling you, I’m sure. Okay. And yeah, we’ll discuss that with them. And they asked me a particular question about the food. I called Bobby. I spoke to Bobby. Bobby said, have them call me. So maybe what has to happen now is that Bobby needs to know when they call that you have some other restrictions. Yeah. I spoke to her this afternoon and we discussed it a little bit, but you know, that was at the end of the day. So we’ll continue to discuss that tomorrow. So since we’re still talking cold, can I mention something about

23:02 the farmer’s market? Please. Um, I was at the farmers. I’ve been at the farmer’s market every week except for one week. And last week, as the, as the weeks go on, there’s more, more produce, more products and more people. And last week, so happened that there were also less vendors. There was some, there was a death in the family in one place. There was a person who had another commitment and then, um, side of Hill farm I heard isn’t coming at all anymore because they have a problem with their, uh, with, with, with their pickers and their people that weren’t able to enter into the country. So I understand that they’re not coming at all. And so it was very sparse and the lines were tremendously long at one particular place. Um, and I, I’m just wondering if our farmers market is needs some kind of a shot in the arm, um, because, uh, it, it seems that it was, I don’t know how long people are going to stand 20 minutes outside to get in and then another 20 minutes to buy their produce. So, and I, I, um, spoke to Steve asked him if he, you know, had any suggestions or was I then thought about that he could, I said, maybe they need a few more event, you know, a few more salespeople behind the,

24:33 their counters because they, the one particular one that had the most products had only two people, one at the, at the, at the computer taking the money and it wasn’t even a computer one wherever they were at a shoe box. And the other person, um, was, was getting the product for everybody. And people were saying, well, I’ll have two of those and three of those, you know, and it was very lengthy cause you can’t touch anything. I mean, I know that this is a, you know, a pandemic and we’re lucky to even have them at all. But then I was talking to Michelle because I, she’ll talk about something about the reopening committee in a few minutes. But when I was talking with her about that, I said, maybe we can get some teenagers to help these people. And they would sell more product and we would have to have a quicker turnaround. So, um, she suggested that maybe the Boy Scouts who used to sell the coffee might want to do it for, you know, for credit. So, um, then I spoke to, to, to Andrew and he seems to think that really it’s not our purview, but, um, I, I’m not too sure about that. I think it’s not our purview to tell a farmer how to sell his produce or how to grow it or how to do anything about it. But I think that it’s our purview. If we want to have a successful farmers market, which is, which really is a benefit to our community. And, uh, it’s also a benefit to some of the people

26:06 who are on, um, what’s it, what’s it, wickets called the stamps? WIC. They take the, um, the stamps there. So, um, that’s another reason that it’s, it’s helpful. So, um, I’m just throwing that out there that I think that our farmers markets in trouble.

26:34 I think that, as you said, they’re, we’re lucky that it’s open at all right now. It’s a, it’s a pandemic. Um, so, you know, it just, everybody’s just got to frequent it and weather it and hopefully that it keeps going. Yeah. And, you know, obviously they have guidelines that they have to follow. We’re the ones to make sure that they are following them. Um, it’s our understanding that the governor’s office is working on another set of farmers market regulations. And once they come out, we’ll make sure that they are following those also. Um, but that’s our role in the farmers market. Well, um, I don’t know what other, if they, if the governor comes out with other rulings, I don’t know what, you know, he would do other than what’s happening right now. There’s still going to be lines everywhere unless they have more staff, but, um, or less people, you don’t want less people. I’ll tell you that. The hardest thing is with all this is that there’s still gathering orders about the number of people that can be in a certain square footage and that’s what they have to abide by. Um, we are in a pandemic and so we have to try to keep everybody safe. And the last thing we want is people to be, you know, shoulder to shoulder getting vegetables and stuff like that and potentially spreading the virus around. Yeah. We have to be concerned about that. I just thought that the lines could move a little quicker if they had more staff, more help. That’s what, that’s what they, they need, but, um, everything’s been good. The food’s been beautiful. It’s, you know, it’s been great.

28:06 And it’s a wonderful asset to our community and I would hate to lose it. Yeah. And obviously the governor has been a tremendous amount of work to make sure, you know, to deal with food insecurities. Uh, so that is one of the reasons why some of those farms are not there is that they’re doing other issues. He’s, you know, I believe the number is about $20 million that the governor’s office has invested in food insecurities to help out families and stuff like that, which includes getting, you know, wholesome food from farmers. And, and the CSA is stronger too. So they can get those people are, are, you know, weekly people that get the same amount of food each week that, you know, the pay for that, they pay a good price because I’ve been part of that at times when my kids were, you know, when I had a bigger family. Yeah. All right. Well, that’s what is, that’s what’s going on. Okay. Do you want to hear, you’re on to the next topic? The reopening committee? Yeah. Go for it. We’re sort of on it. Yeah. We’ve been kind of starting with it, but yeah, let’s hear your, I spoke with Todd in the beginning of the week because I had approached Andrew about the reopening committees for the, the schools. I didn’t even know they had started to form, but I, there was something in the, in the newspaper and the globe or something that they was talking about reopening in the schools. And I said, you know, I think we

29:40 better see what’s going on in the schools because I think we should have a voice at the reopening committee. So Andrew was very kind to introduce me to the new superintendent who immediately responded. He’s a great guy. And I just informed Todd or asked him, I said, if I go to the meeting, do you want me to go as a guest? Because I have really haven’t been voted in to the reopening committee for the, for the schools. I’ve been on the reopening committee for the town. So I said, maybe we could stretch it, but it’s the same thing that both town committees. So he said, no, you’re fine. Go ahead. So the meeting was yesterday and it was so happened that there was a mixup and I didn’t get the zoom number and I tried very hard to get it. Andrew, Andrew even went down to the offices to try and get it, but they were all in the meeting. So I didn’t go to the meeting, but I am on the committee and he, the superintendent informed me what’s going on. So I think that we’re, he’s doing a great job and I think that everything will be fine. And I’m very appreciative to have been invited to be on the committee. And as a result, there were two other committees that he asked if, or that he asked if we wanted to be on. And then I said, well, maybe Michelle would want to be on the health and safety committee. And I think she went to a meeting this evening. So I think she had to step away for a minute,

31:12 but so she can tell you, I just had to go off video for a sec. Oh, all right. So she was at that meeting. There’s also a facilities committee that seemed to be pretty under control. They’ve got a lot of the custodians taking care of that. I don’t know whether a board of health members should be on there, but the superintendent said that I could step on any time that he felt that it was an issue. But Todd, if you feel that you have any time to serve on these committees that happening to meet during the day. And I know you’re extremely busy. Not, not right now, but I’m glad that you’re serving and representing us. So, but I did speak to, I did speak to Michelle. So I don’t know if we want to point both of us to these committees. So no matter whether it’s fine. So I’m on the reopening committee, the other reopening committee. So I think I’m okay. Right. You’re, you’re, yes. And, but, um, I think that you just all one blanket, you, you’re already on the first committee. You’re, you’re, you can be on the second one as well. The health and safety committee, Michelle, you, you want to be on that? Is that, yeah. I mean, well, Elaine asked if Elaine was the one that suggested that I, that I sit in on that. I think it’s just a lot of meetings for Elaine to sit in on. There’s three, for instance, this health and safety committee is, um, you know,

32:44 is three different meetings right now for, um, they’re having a meeting for the high school, middle school and elementary school. And so I told her that I was, you know, happy to, happy to fill that role. Um, I think it’s important for us to have that presence. And, you know, I know this all happened really quickly because they were, you know, like kind of meeting in real time. But when I got connected with, um, Deanna McMahon, who’s the, um, high school nurse, who I happened to know, who is the one who’s chairing that committee, she was so pleased to have a board of health member to connect with because that, you know, I mean, she, you know, like, I think she said it was just, it like makes so much sense to have that connectivity between the board of health and the, um, and the school department. I mean, they’ve got, you know, physicians and they’ve got the school nurses, um, and they’ve got some teachers and parents, but it’s like kind of a no-brainer to have the board of health, um, who ultimately, right, will be the, you know, obviously there’s the overarching committee, but it’s this health committee that, I mean, you know, I just sat in and really just to kind of listen, um, cause I hadn’t even really connected with all of you, but I just sat in on the high school one. I mean, they’re talking about all of the stuff that is so relevant to us. They’re talking about, um, you know, what’s going to be happening in,

34:18 you know, in the hallways, what’s going to be happening to, um, you know, in, you know, with regard to washing and sanitizing and like how they’re going to be doing, um, education, you know, which is so relevant to us because, um, they were talking about like, oh, you know, people, I think parents were piping up and saying, well, like, should we, um, you know, should we ask all of the students to wipe off every surface, um, you know, and have stuff underneath the desk since we sent home messaging that includes this and that. And it’s like, it’s important, I think for us to lend our voice about kind of like the very simple messaging that we’ve been trying to give all along, which is around hand washing, wearing a mask, don’t touch your face. I think like we’ve been kind of steeped in this all along and have a lot that we can offer even in these sub, in this particular subcommittee, which is really squarely in our wheelhouse. Um, so I think at this point it makes a lot of sense for, um, one of us, either me or Helene, to be sitting in on these meetings, um, since Todd right now, I don’t think your schedule will permit it. So, so are they looking for you as a member or you just want to attend the meetings? Is there, I mean, it’s a, it’s a, I mean, there’s no difference. It’s a member, you know, it’s not, she needs to be appointed because she needs to get the minutes and have her name on

35:51 the list because I’m on the reopening committee. We have the names of all the people that are on the various committees and, um, the reopening committee is really the committee that’s driving all these other committees. We, we got, I, I got the minutes, so we got the reports, even though it wasn’t the meeting, I got the reports of all the various committees and what they, what happened. So, um, I think that it would be appropriate for her to, if you want her to be appointed or just to say, go ahead and sit on it. Okay. Because I think she’ll be taking some votes. So then, yeah, it’s unclear to me exactly how this committee is going to operate in terms of voting or like this particular, um, it doesn’t matter. Do you hear me talking right now? This, um, particular meeting was, um, was, was, um, very like informal, like chatty, like sharing of information. It, it didn’t seem very like procedural. Um, my guest, Elaine is like the meeting, the, the opening committee that you were a part of is, is like the more official committee. And I, it’s unclear to me how these subcommittees are operating.

37:22 This felt, and it will, I’ll go to the other, I’ll go to one tomorrow and just kind of see how it works. But it felt very like kind of working group ish and not like there were boats and things that were going to be taken. My guess is that they bring things up to the reopening committee. That’s what, that’s what I’m guessing. So it’s subcommittee. It’s a subcommittee. It is a subcommittee. It was definitely a subcommittee. And then wait, do you, how many subcommittees are there? They’re probably half a dozen. And then there’s the facilities, there’s an education, there’s the, um, technology, um, transportation, I think is one. I can look, I’ve got them here. Do you have that there? I don’t have it with me now. I’ll look it up and let you know before the end of the meeting, but it’s about a half a dozen meetings. Okay. So, Michelle, you have the time to, to the attendees? Um, you know, I guess I will have. You’re gone. We’ve got to start over. Michelle, we can’t hear you. Let’s pause that for a little check with Deanna. Can you hear me? We didn’t hear anything till Deanna. Oh, I will check in with Deanna and see how often they’re going to be, um, how often they’re going to be meeting. Um, you know,

38:56 I would say, you know, if it could be, um, I, you know, I, I think it should be fine. My schedule is usually very flexible. So I’d be happy to attend any that you feel are important that I would go to. Yeah. I think that would go to another three meetings a week. No, right. Yeah. That’s a lot of lane. Not for Elaine. That’s nothing, but but to add three full meetings, I think would be a lot. So that’s my, you know, willingness to jump in and help out with this. Thank you very much. We don’t, Andrew, we don’t need to take a vote. Do we? No, that’s fine. You guys can do it the way it is. Yep. All right. So, uh, uh, should we move on to Mosquito season? Uh, yeah, I just put mosquito, you know, um, Mosquito season 2020 update on there. Again, I didn’t, Michelle, I didn’t know if you had any questions. Obviously we have the Northeast, we’re part of the Northeast Mosquito Control Program. Um, they come out to Marvel head to do frequent visits. We do trapping in town. Um, and they’re testing for mosquitoes that could be, um, have West Nile virus in Tripoli. Um, if anything comes up, they contact us. Uh, we will send out messaging, but they said the standard protocols. And like I said last time, yes, this is going to be, you know, for the state of Massachusetts, um, this is going to be another rough season for Tripoli, potentially. Um, Tripoli runs in these waves and we’re on the upcycle at the, pretty close to the peak of the upcycle right now. Um, so yes, there is potential to see quite a bit

40:30 of Tripoli activity. Um, I know this is a lot for people. Um, this is something that we have discussed actually last fall at the end of the season. Um, you know, just knowing that we’re going to be back into it again this season. Um, so I just wanted to remind people that we are part of the Northeast Mosquito Control. Um, but you need to do the fault, take the following measures. If you’re outside after dusk, you need to wear mosquito repellent. Um, we have a list of repellents that you can use on our site. Um, if you have any vessels or anything outside that can collect water, these are grounds for mosquito breeding. So you should tip them over and make sure that they aren’t collecting water. Obviously it’s been very dry, um, but we can see these heavy, uh, downfalls of rain, um, and can form these puddles very quickly in, you know, many different items, you know, outdoor, uh, five gallon buckets, anything like that. So you need to do a good job of walking around your house and emptying all that stuff over and ideally, ideally not just empty them out, but remove them so they don’t, we continue to fill. Um, we did have them back into, uh, the transfer station to make sure we’re covered in those areas. But like I said, they are around town. They treat all the catch basins to make sure that we don’t get any growth in those also. Um, so that’s really it for my mosquito season 2020 update. And as we go through the seasons, you’ll, you’ll hear me have other updates of how it’s progressing. We, you, you already mentioned, um, a code red about quarantine and informing people, reminding people about travel. Um, would it money the waters to also mention, be aware of,

42:03 you know, mosquito risks and just protect yourself or is that too much in one call? Do we want to just kind of keep it focused on one thing? Uh, no, we can add that into that. You know, we can add some simple messaging about, you know, reminding people to wear mosquito repellent and to dump vessels and stuff like that, collect water. So yeah, I can, I can look at some of the basic language and get that in there also. Okay. Um, Pam, are you here because of our plastic bag ban item on our agenda? Or are you just here? Todd, I want to say one more thing about the mosquitoes. Sure. Um, sorry, I was going out for a second, but I just, um, I will, um, put the materials that are on our website on our social media. Just to have our meeting first and talk about it. But are those the materials that are on our website are the best ones. Andrew, you think for us for me to put on our social media? Yeah. And I said, Yeah, they’re definitely appropriate. I sent you some of the newest pamphlets that just came out. Okay. I’ll post those. Great. So the plastic bag ban, Andrew, what is. Yeah. So at this point, the governor’s office has rescinded the reusable bag ban. So people are allowed to use reusable bags. Um, you will probably see some different procedures

43:35 dependent on where you go to the grocery store. You might see procedures like if you’re bringing reusable bag, you need to bag it yourself. Um, some of the establishments are saying that they’re just protecting their own employees and that they have a right to do that. Um, so depending on where you shop, you might see companies telling you that you have to bag your own groceries if you bring a reusable bag. Um, but I really wanted to talk about the grace period. Um, so the governor’s office is, you know, essentially telling us that, yeah, we wouldn’t, you know, that we should allow a grace period for these establishments to use up some of the plastic bags that they have currently. Um, so what do you guys think about a grace period? How long should it be? Um, and what are your thoughts about that? Well, did they buy you? Did they buy new bags for this period? Are they using up the bags from earlier before the, they bought new bags. And why did they do that? Because they had probably didn’t have any more. Why did they buy paper bags and not use the plastic? I mean, I don’t understand what they might do. Uh, some of them bought paper and some of them bought plastic because they could. Yeah. Cause they couldn’t it’s cheaper and they’re in a pandemic or losing money. Like did say, I’m just saying cross, but you don’t have to say about cross use, but today by six months worth today, by one month worth, were they planning like in general, not, not a specific place. If you don’t want to mention any places, but were people buying for a year? I don’t, I don’t know.

45:06 I assume people are buying for a pretty long period of time and you wouldn’t just buy, be buying months because we were having issues with supply chain. So you’re probably, we’re buying close to six month period of supply at the time. So could we say the end of the end of the end of this year, 2020, you can say whatever you want. You can give them a month. You can give them, you know, well, I would say 2020, I would say, you know, a three months would be, we, we, we’re so hard to change the mindsets of everybody. And I know the pandemic through that out the window, but I think that the less we can do the better. Um, August, September, October. So also, you know, we don’t know if things are going to shut down again. If things, when, when, when the fall starts, people get back from college, from all around the country. If we’re going to, I don’t say we’re out of the first wave at this point, but if there’s going to be a, what if we say, what if we say three months and if you have a special, like if you need special dispensation, you know, please, please see the board of health or something. What I was, I was saying is that we don’t know if, if they’re going to recreate the band. Um, so people probably want to have a stock in their back room. But if we said three months and then, and then, uh, come to us, if there’s a problem, I don’t, not sure that would be good. They’d probably buy a

46:40 whole bunch at the end of three months and then have a big stockpile on their hands. So I don’t know if we should have a, tell them to come to us with a problem. Why don’t you just give them a month and say, Hey, you know, the bag van is over. The reusable bag van is over. We’ll give you a month to use up your supplies, whatever you don’t use up. You know, we suggest you hold on because there’s a potential that we’re going to go backwards. I think that makes perfect sense. So just a month. Yeah, just a month. So, all right. You know, that would be till August 21st or, you know, you could, you could give them every year. Let’s do September one. Let’s do September one. That sounds good. Yeah, September one. There you go. And then they’ve, they’ve already seen it coming out from the state, I’m sure. So it feels like then, like we’re giving them a little bit of a grace period, you know? Yep. So we will send out a notice to all the establishments that are using plastic bags. We’ll be using our, our food permit software to do that. So obviously we’ll have to try to figure out retail establishments, but we will notify all the food service permit establishments about plastic bags at this point. Let’s make a motion about that. Do I have a motion? All right. I’ll make the motion first. Okay. I second it. All right. Halle and Hazlitt?

48:13 In favor. Scott Leib? In favor. Dr. Palfrecker? In favor. All right. So September 1st.

48:30 Okay. Is there Tom, Pam, your, your attendee? Oh, so please, guys, I post that on social, should I post that on social media? Yeah, please. Okay. Anything that you’d like to ask or add? Yes, I would like to ask. I actually have Andrew and this may be probably something that’s been discussed with the schools. What is the, from my reading, the relative effectiveness of face shields and masks are pretty good. And are the schools really considering that because those are, in a sense, a lot more easy to wear all the time versus having a mask on all the time. I guess my first, my first thought is like, so we look at face shields and masks as two different items. So a mask is protecting yourself and others from droplets coming from your mouth. The mask is protecting your eyes from the droplets. So we’re not allowed to say, you only need to wear the face shield because that doesn’t provide adequate protection. You have to, if you’re, you have to actually wear, you’re supposed to wear both of them. So that’s the, that’s the concern with that, Tom. I mean, obviously I’d like to discuss this more with you and see what your thoughts are about that. But that’s kind of what we hear from the state is that it’s not a one or

50:03 the other. It’s, you know, you must have a mask and the face shield will add additional safety for your, you know, protecting your eyes. I think they’re discussing this at the school level too. Good. I just think it’s really important, especially for younger children, that it, this is just my thoughts that, that they would be more likely to wear those and be able to see each other’s and, you know, there’s this whole thing of educators needing to see people’s faces and especially young kids and kids seeing, etc. That’s why I thought that that would be a particularly important in that sense. And probably they’re talking about it and there would be, I think it’d be interesting to look at the actual research about, you know, how the effectiveness of them, especially the young kids. I’ve seen some mixed stuff on that, but like I said, I would love to hear and read more, but I have seen some mixed results on that. So would be very interested to see more or whatever, you know, we can dig up before making any kind of, you know, weighing in on it because I don’t, but I know I’ve seen some skepticism on that, but I want to see more. And I also think that there’s been a lot of, you know, you see a lot of advertisement or some ideas about using plexi shield. So they now make a table. So a round table that’s divided up by plexi shields where each kid is kind of in their own divider.

51:39 And so, and none of them are wearing masks, but unfortunately, I think some of the concern is how airborne is this virus? And how concerned do we have to be about that versus really droplets? I had another separate question, and it’s more just historically. Do we, has the town actually had cases? And if so, how many cases of triple E? I always think of it as being associated more with Southern Massachusetts than up here, especially along the coastline. So I was just curious. I don’t believe we’ve ever had a case of triple E in Marblehead. In West Nile? So we’ve had positive West Nile mosquitoes in the area. And like I said with West Nile before, there’s probably the chance that most of us have been, you know, infected by West Nile. And, you know, it’s very minor symptoms, a low grade fever, and that’s it. And we’re done with this. So we, you know, we do have a chance for West Nile, we have a less of a chance for triple E. So there’s a down in Southern Massachusetts is the hot spots for West Nile and triple E. There’s a large swamp that they have a very hard time using pesticides. And they sit in this area and those surrounding communities always have a hard time with that. Now we do have some horses up in Essex, and we have had some horses passed away from triple E. So we know it’s in the area.

53:14 And obviously the mosquito bites the horse that has the triple E and that’s how it, you know, that’s how it, right, right, right, right. The transmission goes. So there is always the concern. And in the past, the mosquito season has been very high, you will see the school starting to implement, you know, curfews for sports and stuff like that, that can be pretty rough and drastic. They are warranted because of, you know, the concerns about triple E. So it’s just one of those things that we had a bad triple E season last year. We know it runs in these cycles. We have all this data. Tom, did I send you the whole report? I don’t think so. I’ll send that. I have this big report on triple E that I’ll provide. That’d be great. I’d like to read it. Thank you. Yep. That’s it. Anyone else have any? Yeah, I just have a couple other things. You know, some other business to take care of. So we will be purchasing or we will be leasing a loader, a brand new John Deere loader. It’s a seven year lease. So I need the board to authorize us to enter into a lease with John Deere for a 624L loader, which will be for seven years. Payments approximately $26,079. Is there a motion? The total payment. No, so it’s seven payments. So I don’t have the final numbers until the machine gets here, but we need to authorize the lease and go forward with it.

54:48 Todd will sign the paperwork for the lease. But, you know, until the actual machine is here, that’s when they set the prices. So they can’t go up, but it potentially could go down. It’s $26,079.25 and there’s seven annual payments of them. Each year, $26,000 plus stores. Yep. That’s correct. Do you want to make a motion to purchase? Yep. I’ll make the motion. Motion to the lease. Lease. A motion for the lease at the approved price in those installments that you mentioned. Yeah, for seven years. Second the lease. For seven years. It can be no higher, but it could go lower. That’s correct. Second. All in favor? Miss. In favor. In favor. Dr. Belfinger. Okay. Second piece is that we have a part-time transfer station employee that runs the scale house. Unfortunately, that position is now open. That person has left for another job. So we are advertising for that position. Part-time. It’s Saturdays with fill-ins for sick time and vacation in the scale house. I just want to make sure the board is aware of that and we are advertising for that this week. Well, good luck. Thank you. And another little piece is that if people do have complaints about any COVID-related activity

56:24 around town, obviously you can contact the health department. If it’s an emergency, you can contact the police department. If you want to make a complaint to the police department, but you want to remain anonymous, there’s now a MyPD app that you can get. So it’s MyPD. MyPD. You download the app. You can put in Marblehead and then you can make a complaint and it goes directly to a server and the police department pick it up and it’s all anonymous. So you don’t have to call in. Moving on. We have a contract with the Marblehead Counseling Center. Obviously, this is the $60,000 contract. So we need a motion to approve the contract for this year.

57:19 And this will be signed by all members. So I just need a motion to approve the contract with the Marblehead Counseling Center. So moved. So? Second. Do you know if he’s bringing any more people on to help with this during this time? I believe his plan was always to bring more people on regardless that we’re in COVID. But yes, I believe he is bringing more people on. Okay. So a poll vote, please. Ms. Tazely. In favor. Ms. Gottlieb. In favor. And Dr. Belkbecker. Dr. Belkbecker. Favor. And that is it. Any other questions? Yeah, I have a question when you’re talking about the police. Is there anything going on as far as any kind of reorganization? As far as what the community is doing based on the discussions around the country? Are they having any kind of mental health officers? Are we having any funding for that? I know that you felt that we needed to get maybe more funding from this department as opposed to them. I don’t know what the story is. Is there anything going on? Obviously, for our department, we’re always looking to increase our budget. We need a full-time public health nurse. We need a full-time inspector. So we will continue to pursue those items. Obviously, due to COVID, we are being funded for a full-time public health nurse and a

58:53 full-time inspector using the CARES Act. So that is happening this year, but we would love for it to continue and not go away. And there will be a lot. There’s still a lot of information to come. Obviously, everyone’s really busy with COVID. But I believe the state will start to look at mental health issues in general and how we best need to deal with them. And I’m sure that’s going to involve both the police department and health departments. So you think that that’s down the road. It’s not happening now in your discussions, your director’s meetings, or anything like that? We’ve touched on it a little bit, but we’re all so busy with COVID that I think that’s kind of the main focus right now, but we’ll continue to discuss it. Well, it’s an important issue, which sort of goes hand in hand with COVID. It definitely goes hand in hand with COVID. And obviously, we understand there’s a lot of mental health issues. Right now, it kind of seems like it’s going in waves where we get to these tipping points where people are very aggressive. We have a lot of different issues that come into either the police department. I feel like we’re kind of in one of these waves right now where people are just struggling, obviously, with the idea of going back to school. That’s adding a lot of stress to people right now. So people are short-tempered, quick to judge, and people just need to relax, take a breath.

1:00:26 We recommend not watching as much news as possible. Try to take a break from that. It’s really important to get exercise and eat well. I really recommend going for a long walk. We live in a beautiful community. Get out and enjoy it. But really, try to get away from the news. The news can cause a lot of anguish and concern. Yeah, a lot of anxiety. So you need to take some personal time for yourself. Take a break from your kids. Make sure your kids can have some good enjoyment with their friends. And just kind of concentrate on yourself and your family. Good advice. I heard one of the journalists say, if you take care of your, you go to the doctor six months for a checkup and for a physical, you need to take care of your mental health also. If you have a sore back, you go see somebody for your back. You have a sore throat, you go to a doctor. If you have some mental issues, you really should seek help. But if our mental health center is really working hard, I hope that we can handle the people. That’s all. Yeah, and obviously they’ve done a lot with telehealth, and obviously now they’re able to do Zoom health. And so that has been helping out. Oh, that’s good. Yeah. And I make both guys. Because you always have phone calls. And also, yeah, take a break from the computer. I’ve been on Zoom for 12 hours today. I’m starting to lose it.

1:01:58 Let’s just choose our next meeting date. With all this going on with the school opening, I really think that we should still, school opens, we should meet weekly. Because this was a long time. Yeah, I agree. How about, yeah, next Tuesday? I think Pam has some comments that she would like to make. Oh, damn. I’m just listening. I’m listening. I’m just going off video because I just can’t look at a screen anymore. Okay. 12 hours. I just wanted two comments. When you’re talking about mental health and all that, I’d like to say that the Council on Aging has been excellent. I mean, they’re doing shopping. They call me regularly to make sure I’m okay. And this lunch and the Zoom exercise programs are exactly what you get at the Council on Aging. They even spend time so that we can socialize before and after. So just want that out there. Yeah, I mean, the reason I tuned in tonight was I did have some questions about cleaning up Devereux because sustainable model that is doing a fair amount of that. And how cool would we interact with that? You answered the question that it’s Peter James. And I know Anna is planning on talking to him. And I have your input, Andrew, so leave it at that. But then that, everything is, from my standpoint, this is good as it can be, and that works for me. So, Andrew, to follow up on that, Pam,

1:03:29 because I was thinking about it when you were talking about the beach. The carry-in carry-out is not being requested now. No, it can’t work. Is it because it didn’t work, or is that just because it’s another phase? No, because it did not work. Okay. We would have loved to stick to it, but it did not work, unfortunately. That’s sad. We sad that there’s people that don’t want to cooperate. You know, and fortunately, we have some great people in town, like Pam Roberts, who really care, Anna Hoffman, and Connor Ryan has a great team of high school students. They have a green team, and they’re going to continue to work during the summer. They’re doing different cleanups at different beaches, parks, and other areas around town. So, you know, we really want to thank them. I also want to thank all my staff at the transfer station. They’ve done an incredible job during all this time. They’ve come to work every day. So, I want to make sure that they’re not forgotten also. Does spur work during the season to clean the beaches? They just do that first cleanup. They do some stuff, but they, you know, I tend to see them really during the beginning of the season, do that early cleanup of the beaches.

1:04:49 But we sponsor the high school, you know, Connor Ryan’s green team. So, we provide instruments and bags and gloves to them. And they will operate all summer long and into the school year. Do you know if Magic Hat’s going to be open anytime soon? Or is that going to be open? Yes. Magic Hat can reopen. They will fall under the retail establishment guidelines. So, they have to follow the guidelines, but they are allowed to reopen. But does anybody that works here knows that? Yep. We’ve had the conversation with them about making sure that they have to follow the governor’s guidelines for retail establishments. So, they’re not ready to do that yet? You know, I know they’ve had some conversations with Todd, and I know there are some issues about entrances and exits, but they cannot access, they can’t get into the school, which I think is a little bit of an issue. Do they have to get into the school, or do they have a key to that door? No, they do not have a key to the door. They can get into their facility, but they might not be in compliance with one way in and another way out. You know, so many people cleaned out things while they were homebound. It’s a shame because I think people now are trying to say, should I hang onto it or should I pitch it? And that’s too bad. Yeah, I mean, obviously, our clothes bins at the transfer station were overflowing during that time when everybody was home.

1:06:24 Todd, could you ask Andrew? Or do you know about beach testing? So we’ve had great beach sampling so far. Beaches are sampled on Wednesdays with reports posted. If we have any issues, they will be posted on Thursday. So even with this hot period, we’ve been okay. Yeah, the hot period is okay. It’s the rain that we usually have a hard time with. So if we had this really hot weather, then rain, that will drive the numbers up because all the items are just cooking on the ground, and then they get washed into the ocean, they usually cause problems. Back to the magic hat and the transfer station bins. Are there, do you know anywhere that you can donate books? Yeah, let me look into the book donation, Todd. Is there a place that they will drink church? Is that still there? No. No? Let me try to find a vendor for a book donation. It’s always, we’ve been looking for a little bit and I want to continue on with that. I don’t want to see books be thrown away into the paper bin and stuff like that at this point. I’d love them to be reused and stuff. So let me try to find a book recycler. I also had conversations with a vendor today regarding household hazardous waste. We’re trying to find a new company and actually we found a great company. And we’re looking to expand our services with that.

1:07:55 And we’re exploring the idea and we’re pretty sure it’s going to happen that we will do household hazardous waste day four times a year and they will come to your house to pick up the material. Oh, that’ll save you a lot, huh? Yeah, that will save me a lot. But it’s also been the idea is that it’s going to capture a lot more material. It’s easier for residents and we can, by adding the two additional dates, we always get people to say, hey, I’m moving, what am I supposed to do with this? And it’s like, well, you can contact Clean Harbors or you can wait till our dates. But so with this idea is that we’ll start quarterly. And if there’s a need, we can increase the amount of the frequency or we can decrease it. The place in PPD that was supposed to be year round, is that not open or not open? It is not open, no. But you know, those things could change their eye, but we’re looking now. Yeah. Well, this is great. It’s a great service. Did you have a household hazardous waste on the books? We were supposed to have an event in June, but we could not have it due to COVID. Oh, you didn’t have it. All right. Well, if there’s anything further, anybody? Otherwise, we’ll adjourn until next Tuesday, same time, 730. Yep. Motion to adjourn. So moved. I’ll second. Ms. Hazlett. In favor. Ms. Gottlieb. In favor.

1:09:25 Dr. Belts Becker. In favor. Have a good week, everybody.