Board of Health: September 16, 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.

0:00 730, so let’s call the meeting to order. And we have a public hearing and we need to go into public hearing. Yes, you’ll make a motion. Well, you can just… how did we do this before? He reads it first and then we make a motion. Yeah, that’s how we did it in the past. So I’ll just read the emergency order. Okay. So Board of Health… emergency order of… 915-20 regarding face coverings with exhalation valves. Effective Friday, September 18th, 2020 at 1201 a.m. Directing all individuals in the town of Marblehead to undertake further precautions to protect themselves and others from the spread of COVID-19. Please read this order carefully. Violation of or failure to comply with this order is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 111, Section 122. On March 23rd, 2020, the Marblehead Board of Health declared a public health emergency in the town of Marblehead. Pursuant to the declaration of public health emergency on March 23rd, 2020, in accordance with Mass General Law, Section 111, Section 95, through 105 and 122, 310 CMR, 11.05, 105 CMR, 300.200, and any other authorizing statutes and regulations.

1:32 We, the Board of Health of the Town of Marblehead Massachusetts, in order to take additional measures to protect the public health during the COVID-19 public health emergency in light of current conditions, including an expected surge in COVID-19 cases, hereby order the following. All members of the public entering an essential business as defined by Governor Baker, COVID-19 executive orders, including but not limited to grocery stores, farm stand stores, pharmacies, home improvement stores, banks, ice cream manufacturers, dairies, government agencies, liquor, beer, wine stores, convenience stores, and the like, must wear a facial covering such as a fabric mask, scarf, or bandana. Over their nose and mouth, a facial covering does not have to be a surgical mask or N95 respirator, which should be left for medical professionals and first responders. See the link for information for making a cloth facial covering, htpswww.cdc.gov, backslash coronavirus, backslash 2019, dash C-O-N-C-O-V, backslash prevent, slash, dash getting, dash sick, backslash cloth face, dash covering, dot HTML. A facial covering with an exhalation valve is prohibited. Respirators or facial coverings with exhalation valves protect the wearer from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but may not prevent the virus from spreading from the wearer to others.

3:08 That is, they may not be effective for source control. If only a respirator with an exhalation valve is available, cover the exhalation valve with a surgical mask, procedural mask, or cloth face covering that does not interfere with the respirator fit. This emergency order shall be effective beginning September 18, 2020, at 1201 a.m. and remain in effect until the Public Health Emergency Declaration issued by the Board of Health has been lifted. To the extent necessary, this order shall be enforced by the Board of Health officials and the Marblehead Police Officers. The Marblehead Board of Health order authorizes the Public Health Director or Public Health Nurse to further enhance physical and distancing procedures or requirements upon discretion and direction. Thank you. That was possible for you. Let’s open this up for discussion between the board. Helene and Michelle, do you have any comments? No, I guess I only had a question about the part where you say, if only a mask with a valve is available, how are we going to deal with that part? Is there any discussion that we need to have around that?

4:45 I don’t know. It says to me that if they have another mask available, why would they even use the one with the valve? They would just use the mask instead of putting one over it. It almost is not necessary. Right. That was my thought. If you have to have one that’s over it, why would you have to wear the other one? Because you’re going to have to have something over it. That’s the language directly from the CDC. Obviously, they’re looking at it for uses across all uses and procedures. A lot of times, if it was a hospital setting and they’re trying to use source control, that’s where some of the language comes in. That’s up to you guys if you want to leave it in there. For enforcement reasons, if we found somebody on the street that was wearing one of these, we would hand them a surgical mask. They wouldn’t take it off. They would place the mask on top of it. Because the taking it off and the presence of the person giving the new one would be a weak link. Except I’ve gone for an outpatient at a hospital and they’ve handed me a new mask, even though my mask was better than theirs. They’ve just handed me those pleated masks. They said, take yours off, which I did. I took it off right in front of them.

6:19 Everybody that comes in takes a mask off in front of these people handing them out, puts the mask on. It’s been at more than one facility that that’s happened. I don’t know if anybody else has had that experience. Not that I agree with it. I see that there is a time when one would want to keep that sentence in. I’m comfortable with that. As long as somebody is putting the other mask over it, I guess that’s fine. I have a question. What is a procedure mask? Is that what I’m talking about? Yeah, it is like what you’re talking about. A procedure mask is very similar to what you were talking about. This is a surgical mask or a procedure mask. Okay, I just haven’t heard that term before. Also, could we talk about enforcement a little bit? Can citizens report a person? Is it only when one of the professionals in the community, the fire police or public health individuals see someone? How is that enforcement going to work? No, so enforcement can be by anybody. We can receive a phone call to say there’s an individual in Crosby that has a mask with exhalation valve. An employee, can you go and speak with them? Yes, so we can go down and speak with them. What if they’re not wearing a mask? What if they’re not wearing a mask or exhalation valve? This is only about exhalation mask or is it also about no mask?

7:53 So obviously we already have an order and the governor has an order and now a law that says you must wear a mask inside. So we’re not chomping any of that stuff. So if you’re interior, obviously like it says in the order, grocery store, farm stand stores, pharmacies, home improvement stores, all those listed, you still have to wear a mask on at all times. I understand that, but I don’t think that we were making a statement that we were really enforcing that. I don’t know whether you’ve gotten phone calls or not, but you have. OK, then people are in the public that’s taking care of that. Yes, so we get calls all the time or not all the time during covid that, you know, I’ve gone into an establishment and the employee doesn’t have it on or somebody in there doesn’t have it on. And we have to go and visit that establishment to make sure that they’re in compliance. And one last question. What about what I have to ask one one is what about on people’s in private homes or private property when when work people or other people that are not part of the family cohorts can come into the picture. So so obviously it doesn’t apply to private homes. So what you want to do in your private home is up to you. But if there’s an employee that comes to the to the property to do work, this would apply where it’s you know, it’s not covering. It’s a one way cover. So it’s covering the individual that has the mask on, but it’s not a source control.

9:27 So it’s not protecting you. So you could say, hey, we have an order that says you can’t wear that. You must wear something that’s proper. Can we also say that you would like you to put a mask on or you say that again, that’s it. Well, it’s an individual choice. That’s an individual choice. OK. All right. Now, as far as anything, you talk about enforcement, but there’s no monetary statement here. Is that at the top, at the very top. So the state has always been very clear. You know, they’ve been trying to give out, you know, yes, they’ve always had a monetary dollar amount, but they have kind of a you know, the first time is a warning. The second time is a written warning. The third time is could be a fine. And it does not have to be it’s supposed to start low and then work their way up. It’s more about compliance and issuing fines. Could you point out to me where it is on the you said at the top violation of or failure to comply with this order is punishable by a fine of up to one thousand dollars pursuant to master of law chapter one eleven section one twenty two. I did read that because I thousand dollars kind of made me sit up straight. And as far as where it says the orders shall be enforced by the Board of Health officials and marbled police officers. If people call the police, would they probably say call the health department or the police? No, the same thing, you know, they’re instructed to remind people that, you know, we’re looking for compliance. We’re not looking to be handing out tickets.

11:01 I believe only one only several tickets have actually been written for non compliance with mass so far in the town of Marvel head. So same thing. We would like our officers to go with a proper mask and hand that mask to the individual. That’s the first step. Yeah, that is the first step. Give them a mask. Yep. Okay. Satisfied Michelle Lane. Yes. Okay. I’ll open this up for public discussion if anybody has a couple attendees to know if anybody has anything to add or ask. Okay, I’ll take that as a no. So we need to have a motion to approve this emergency order of September 15, 2020. I’ll make a motion to approve the order of September 15, 2020. I second that. Okay. Great. And a poll vote. Miss Scottly. In favor. Miss Hazelet. In favor. Dr. Belfbeger. In favor. Great. Thank you. Thanks for putting that together in your. And a problem. Tom, you have a question. Tom. Yes. I’m sorry. I had to unmute myself. This is all posted on the site. This will be posted on the site now that it’s official. Okay, great. And Tom, I’ll just send you a copy of it.

12:34 Please. I would really appreciate that. Thank you. So Andrew, is there any director’s report tonight? Yes. So we have a case count. I had a case count. So we have 265 cases in town, less than five active. And as far as the case count goes, one of the things that is currently happening that we need to, we have to pay attention to all the time is that we have town employees or not town employees, town residents that are away at school, away at college. And we want to make sure that they are classified as they’re positive in the correct place. So we have received guidance from the state to say that if a resident is off at college, we should be using that address as their main address of where they live. So if I get a case, a reported case of a positive case that comes back to Marblehead, I have to obviously, like we always do, do investigation, find out exactly where that person’s living. If I find that they’re living in North Carolina or Pennsylvania, I need to speak with that individual and I speak with that state and shift that case from our town to their town. So it’s active cases in the community, not active cases of residents of the community. So you will see a little bit of shifting occasionally where I get a case over the weekend, I’m unable to talk with the person or connect with that person.

14:08 I marked the case as an active case in Marblehead, but through further investigation, I’m actually going to end up deleting that case. So… It could temporarily skew our numbers until you can verify. All right, that’s important. Yep. So far it hasn’t shown up. We’re still less than five, but that could skew things. I was wondering… So if I didn’t get any cases this week, I could go from 265 and I’ve talked to somebody that’s actually going to get removed from our cases. It could go down or it could be some adjustment. So I just want to make sure that everybody’s aware of that. We have guidance on how we’re supposed to complete that, and we will be following that guidance. And we have been following that guidance for the last couple of weeks as kids have been going back to college. But we have to talk to the individual to make sure that they’re not coming back to Marblehead to isolate before they go back to college. If they’re coming back to the community, I’m going to leave them in the community until they go again. Okay. So we did have, what, two new cases this week? Yeah, we did have two new cases this week. And it may change because of what you’ve just talked about? Yes, there’s a potential that one will change based on what I just talked about. Okay. Across the state of Massachusetts, we had another 286 confirmed cases today. Our total case count is 123,425.

15:42 We have newly reported deaths of six. The total deaths confirmed cases are 9,016. So obviously we’ll continue to monitor all this information. The state puts out this information daily. And then on Wednesdays, they do a larger data release. So you can always look on Wednesday afternoon after 4 p.m. and they will also release Marblehead numbers. And that’s it for the case count. Anything for us? The only other piece is the, you know, we have been talking to the school about their facial covering order. We did get the final language for their order. And exhalation valves are not allowed to be used. So that’s the policy for all school property and buildings. And I don’t think they don’t allow gators either. So they don’t come out and say that you can’t wear gators. A face mask that per DPH and CDC guidance covers the nose and mouth, fits securely and comfortably against the side of the face, is secured with ties or ear loops. And that means that… Allowing for breathing without restriction and does not have an exhalation valve or vent and can be longer to machine drive without damage or change of shape. So when I spoke to the chairman of the school committee,

17:13 she told me that when she says it either has to have, or they say it either has to have ear loops or a tie, that means it eliminates gators. You know, I have seen some gators that have ear loops. So it doesn’t eliminate everything. I think obviously it’s always, you know, best practice. Okay. She seemed to think that. But all right. That’s all I wanted to specifically put what she said. Thank you. No, I forgot what my question was. Oh, Andrew, did you communicate or hear anything back from the private schools about our valve communication? We did not hear anything out back from the private schools. I’m sure they are glad to see this as, you know, as we’ve been talking about, it’s one way protection and does not cover all protection. So we will send out another reminder to all establishments. We’ll be sending out a reminder to food establishments. So everything that’s covered under permitting. Also our listserv that people have signed up for, Marblehead Board of Health information, and we’ll also, which includes all the private schools, food service and stuff like that. And then I’ll post the language on the Facebook page. Yep. Were the private schools made aware of tonight’s meeting? You know, it’s a public, duly public notice. Duly public, yeah. But they didn’t get a notice from us or anything.

18:46 They did not get a personal invitation to attend. In grades? Yeah. All right. Is that? That’s all I asked. So, Elaine, I know there was a reopening committee meeting. There was a reopening committee meeting yesterday. And it was very interesting because the superintendent said, I’m calling a meeting the first day of school. People probably wondering why I’m doing that an hour after school opened. But there was an awful lot going on, an awful lot for people to say because we hadn’t met for two weeks. So he went right down every school and several of the committee. So I hope you’ll be with me because it was interesting and what was going on. I think you might want to hear. It may take me three or four minutes to read it. But he had already at nine o’clock had attended two schools already and taken pictures with kids. In fact, one kid he was very interested in, because it was over at the Glover School. And he specifically said that the child, he asked to take a picture of the child, and the child said, six feet, social distancing. And it was somebody that was in the Glover, which means they were under the fifth grade. So that was pretty good. I thought that was nice. So he had been to the schools, and he thought everything was just moving right along. But as we heard from the various schools, some schools had great reports at the first hour. Other people had some glitches, which they felt that they could really handle.

20:19 The Eveleth actually talked about pre- or case screening, kindergarten screening. And this is the first three days of the week, I guess Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So they had that in person. They had outdoor meetings. They had small groups that they could peek into the room, the kindergarten room. So I thought that was interesting. And the coffin talked about one child said, we’re having more fun this year than we have had before. So that was fun. And the principal said that the teachers had the jitters, but after the classes started, they were fine. So that was good. There were a few technical issues with families right across the board. And they all had materials to pick up a packet. So they had done that previously. So all the schools had something to give to their families. The Glover School, he was painting six foot circles over the weekend. So that was just interesting what people were doing. And he said there were a few Chromebook glitches, but he got that taken care of. He talked about the inclusion group and the numbers, but I don’t think that that’s important. He said the village school students will be doing tours, because some of the kids would go into the school for the first time.

21:50 And he said the anxiety, that’s again, the anxiety was worse than the first day. So all that is good to hear. So the veterans school, by that time it was second period. And he just said there were a couple of hiccups. And there was a conversation about the pickleball course, because I guess the pickleball course, people should be wearing their masks and at the tennis court there at Vets. But I guess they’ve been having a problem with that, but they are now doing what they’re supposed to do. We didn’t hear from Dan Bauer at the high school, because he was very busy putting out fires. But we heard from several of the departments. The teaching and learning said that they had a boot camp for parents with videos for computer learning. So that was good. And Nan Murphy is the one that she is at, and she complemented the subcommittee. She was very impressed with them. So everybody has been impressive. But I’d like to just mention when somebody gave a shout out. The facilities, it’s a big job, because they did the special ed transportation. They are getting new compressors and air purifiers to the HVAC. They’re repairing the vents.

23:24 They’ve got all kinds of sidewalk signs they’re putting up. Each staff member is getting one face shield, and they’re in charge of that. The plexiglass shields are things that they’re working with, and they all talked about the no valves and the no shaders. Technology, they’ve ordered 300 laptops for the staff, and they will be in in two weeks. And everyone does have a device right now, but they want to upgrade them. The health and safety, there’s a little bit more on that. Before sending kids to school, they want the parents to do testing. And if there’s mask exemptions, there will be a temperature taken each day as they enter school. And they talked about how it’s difficult to know whether it’s COVID or not COVID, but they’re going to act on the conservative side. And Deanna was commended by the superintendent. So that was excellent. Then they talked about the mobile unit that the commissioner has determined. Could you explain that a little bit more, Andrew? Do you know anything? Yeah, so the State of Massachusetts, through the Department of Public Health, has a mobile rapid response unit. So school districts across the state are working to implement health and safety guidelines.

24:56 If we find that we are having, if we have several cases of COVID and there’s guidelines for this, we can request that the state comes out with this rapid response team to do testing. So they will show up. So the program overview, the purpose of the mobile rapid response unit is to provide free, optional testing of asymptomatic individuals who are not known to be close contacts. When there is evidence that asymptomatic, when COVID-19 transmission is likely to have occurred within a classroom or school within the past 14 days, mobile rapid response unit testing is not intended to provide testing for individuals who develop COVID-19 symptoms or who are close contacts of individuals with confirmed positive COVID-19 test results. So those contacts are defined as those who have been within 6 feet of an individual for at least 10 to 15 minutes while the person was infectious. So yes, they have this mobile response team that can come out. You know, if we’re seeing a large number of cases, you know, that have to kind of fit into their protocols and it’s trying to capture those asymptomatic people. Well, just one thing that I do see that’s slightly different is that if you say that within a 14 period, if two or more individuals within a classroom, they will report it to the mobile unit who will then determine whether they come out or not.

26:27 Yeah, so minimum conditions that’s determined by the Department of Public Health when a mobile rapid response team may be deployed within a 14-day period, if two or more individuals within a single classroom test positive for COVID-19 and transmission exposure is likely to have occurred in the classroom, a mobile rapid response unit may be deployed for all asymptomatic individuals within that classroom. Within a 14-day period, if three or more individuals, or 3%, whichever is greater of a given grade or cohort test positive for COVID-19 and transmission exposure likely has occurred in the school, a mobile rapid response unit may be deployed for all asymptomatic individuals in that greater cohort. Within a 14-day period, if more than 3% of a school test positive for COVID-19 and transmission exposure likely occurred in the school, a mobile testing unit may be deployed for the entire school population that is asymptomatic. Within a 14-day period, if two or more individuals within the same bus test positive for COVID-19 and transmission exposure likely occurred on the bus, a mobile rapid response unit may be deployed for all asymptomatic individuals on that bus. Thank you. It was more than what I could memorize. So the last thing that they talked about was the fall sports season, and we’ve heard most about it. We’ve heard about it. I’m sorry, the what season? Excuse me.

27:58 I didn’t understand. The fall sports season. And we’ve heard about that right along, but first the date of practice is October 2nd for the state, but we are going to do the first day of school, which is October 5th, the first day of in-person classes on October 5th. The MIAA requires two weeks of practice before any games. There will be no football and no cheering. There will be golf, unlimited soccer, unlimited field hockey. They said that those games will not look like what we’re used to. So I think there’s one other sport that I missed. It might have been lacrosse, but I didn’t get it down. But I did miss one. So other than that, I think there’s a lot of talk about air quality now in the school because that has not been some of the things that haven’t been completed that they’re working on it. Amen. Before students are, the majority of students are in school, in the buildings. I have a question, Helene. Can you go back to the comment you made about, that Deanna said, about parents’ interest in parents’ testing? I didn’t, I want more information on that. Let me get back to where I was, under health and safety. Yes, before sending a student to school, they should be doing testing.

29:31 I guess they’re asking them to take their temperature at home because they didn’t say the word taking a temperature, but they said to test the students. Those were the words I took it down. Test, as in a COVID test. Yes, yeah. So I imagine, I’m imagining, because those words, I didn’t write that down, or I don’t think it was stated. I imagine it was that they wanted people to take their temperature. The people that have mask exemptions are going to have their temperature taken each morning when they enter school. By school officials? In school, so I didn’t say whether it was the nurse, classroom teacher, I don’t know. But it did… Do we have any sense of the numbers of mask exemptions? No. Andrew, do you have any more information on this little tidbit? No, I don’t have any information on the mask exemptions and the requirements for that. I know that you always have to do your… Before you go into any school, and a lot like businesses these days, before you go in, you’re supposed to do the self-certification. So you’re supposed to go down the checklist, do I have X, Y, and Z symptoms? No, no, no, no, no. Okay, and your parents are supposed to be doing that with their students every day or their children every day before the children would go into the school.

31:02 Okay, but the word testing is confusing to me there. It’s not like giving them a test about their academics. No, no, no, no, but I’m just… There’s some implication there that there was an interest in before in-person school, some implication of… or suggesting that people do COVID testing or parents do COVID testing, or something, I just want to make sure that there’s not some conversation about testing happening. I mean, just because I have received a… Like, I did receive an email from a parent asking, like, you know, why are we not doing, you know, COVID testing before the students come back in person, which I’m going to forward to Andrew, like, you know, which we’ve gone around this before about the price of this, and it’s one moment in time in all of this. But I just want to make sure that there was not some discussion about… that’s coming up again about COVID testing before kids go back to school. Not that I’m aware of. Maybe I should just reach out to Deanna. It did not mean that they needed to have a COVID test, a kind of facility. It meant that before sending kids to school, they should see if they’re coughing, if they have a fever, if there are symptoms that…

32:33 It’s about doing the assessment, not any kind of test. Not a literal test. Okay. And then the mask exemptions. I would say all I know is that one of the schools, because I don’t know if this is really public information, but the inclusion group of the whole school was five. So if you have three, four schools, then… and then the high school… I think just you would figure that there’s very few, I would say, in each building. My other question is about, you mentioned that there’s still some unresolved issues around air quality. And I guess I’m assuming that that came… There were conversations in the facilities group, and I’m wondering if there are any concerns that the timeline for the October broader hybrid opening is… And make sure to say that those things are on order. They’re expected before the opening. The HVAC, the new compressor, the air purifier, the repairing of the vents. And actually they’re installing and repairing the vents now. They’re waiting for the new compressor and the air purifier. And there was filters for all… Most of the classrooms that had… Now most of the classrooms have a heater, like an air mover, and all those filters were going to change out to the correct microns.

34:07 So they’re making sure that that will be all… I think the only thing they’re waiting on are the air purifiers. So I commend… I am going to commend the entire school department on the job that they’ve done. They’ve spent the entire summer working on this, and they’re doing the very best that they know how. And they’ve spent a lot of time and a lot of energy, and I don’t think anybody had one minute off during the summer that works in the school department. Well, we thank you also for being… our link between the three opening committee and our board. Well, you’re welcome. I think it’s important that somebody do it, and I’m glad that I’m available. And then the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education also came out with guidelines on reporting cases. So effective Monday, September 14th, whenever a positive COVID-19 case occurs, districts and schools must call the Desi Rapid Response Help Center at 781-338-3500 to report the case. And they need to remember that they always have to report the cases to local public health. What if a case comes up in a staff member or an admin or as somebody, and it doesn’t fall within our district, obviously not in the Board of Health or whatever, is it also being reported to Desi,

35:40 and will we get that information? And what’s the protocol for communicating it out to other staff members? And I ask this because I know there was a concern about that weak lag time where staff members didn’t hear about the custodial staff in the most timely fashion. The staff that worked in Vets heard right away, but other staff members across the district didn’t hear about that custodial positive case for a full week, and I guess were somewhat concerned. So obviously, we will not report. So it’s required that the business has to report to local public health if there’s a case in the business. So a school would be a business or a place of assembly. They have to report that to us. We do not share any case information regarding that case. It’s up to the business or the operations to share that information. The best is they’ve seated three of their attorneys and everybody else. Right. So in this case, it would be the school system that would share that out. So that falls under the jurisdiction of the… So it’s not incumbent upon us. We have our reporting mechanisms through the town, when it’s our residence, and that’s all we do. Correct. And we do not… We don’t want to discuss cases. We purely give the numbers, but we do not want to discuss the case with any individual

37:13 or the newspaper or media or anybody. I got a complaint from a faculty member that they didn’t know, and I told her to bring it up with her principal. And the principal can take it up with the superintendent, but I don’t know whether… Is it something you want to share with the superintendent that we’ve gotten a few complaints on that? I have not received any complaints. Underneath. I’m hearing with you that we’re receiving those complaints. So, Helene, you should bring that back to the superintendent. Yeah, Helene, that would be good. I mean, if you’ve received complaints from faculty members and you’ve received as well, so I think… And it’s like what Andrew’s saying, that it’s not upon us, given that they’re not town residents. It’s the school system that needs to figure out that chain of communication and how to share that. And what I heard from faculty members is, we’re not looking for individuals’ names. We’re not looking for that level of information, but they want timely information on, are there positive cases in the schools that they need to know about among other staff members? And my individual was… I got one person reaching out to me, but that individual was worried because it was just…

38:44 At the end, at the time when they were trying to open up and hear they’re talking about opening up and then all this happens, unbeknownst to… I think what would be important is if the schools can lay out what their process is going to be for communicating. Like, here’s how we’re going to… Here’s what we’re going to communicate and in what timeframe. And here’s how we’re respecting privacy. And I mean, in a lot of those details, when it comes to students are already in their information, like that whole… All the information on if it’s been within… With students within 15 minutes, they spent more than 15 minutes. Like, all that information is already there. But when it comes to other… I think just that among staff, there’s a lot of confusion about it. And I think if they can lay it out with their staff and explain, here’s how this communication is going to go, they might feel more comfortable with that. And I can just see the other side too, because we hear from Andrew, there’s five cases. We don’t know whether it’s our next door neighbor or whether it’s somebody in the school or where that person resides or works. And I can see that to keep it anonymous like that, there is a certain amount that is good about that.

40:18 So maybe that’s why that information did not get out, because they didn’t want to alarm people. And it’s my understanding that Dr. Bucky has been very good about communication cases. Yeah. I believe he sent out notification through the school communication system right away. He sent it. Well, it was a week later. It was a week later. So I think that was where that discomfort was, was like, why did it take a week? And it’s like, if they have a protocol for doing that, and they needed to wait a week for a reason, then maybe they just need to explain what that is so that people know what to expect. And how would they know that it’s a week later? I guess because there were individuals within the veteran school who had heard right away for some whatever reason, and then they knew, some people knew, and then it was like the official communication came a week later. So they knew. I would just ask the superintendent if he has a, not a policy, but a method to notify the faculty. And that would be good.

41:36 So I guess the situation with the school’s opening and with cases still in town, that the Board of Health is still alive and well and working hard. Elaine, do you have any information on general, have you met at all with the general town reopening committee, or has it only been schools? What’s going on with that other committee? That reopening committee was mostly around the restaurants, and maybe we can ask Andrew a question that I have, and somewhat with the retail establishments. I know the retail had a sidewalk sale this past weekend, and I don’t know if anybody else other than myself was downtown, but there was more activity downtown this week than I’ve seen all summer. I don’t think that the activity was very heavy all summer, but people were walking around and shopping. But the question I have is that I think that I was told that the governor’s orders right now are that the restaurants can be opened until November 1st outside, opened outside until November 1st. Do you think he’s going to be extending that? Yes, so he has extended that. We just got word from the ABCC, which controls their liquor license that they will be extending it. You don’t know to when, or…

43:08 I do not have the exact language of to when. It might be open-ended and having the towns decide on when they want to have it. Obviously, we’re all very concerned about the restaurants as we move into colder months. How are they going to handle this? How are we going to keep our social distancing? Obviously, they’re allowed to use tents. They have to be open on two sides. But yes, they could bring in heaters and they can do other things. The building department, the fire department, will all need to weigh into some of these tents and systems, but there have already been guidelines established by the fire departments to make sure safety is a high priority. And obviously, with the tents, the building department needs to take into considerations of snow load. So I imagine that we’ll be having a reopening committee meeting shortly to answer your question. But it was mainly around those two areas of commerce. Well, the heaters behind Michelle, those are the ones that… Yeah, some old one, but yeah. Well, I’m glad I got my two yesterday so that I’m not in a rush. A mess of all the Jewish people are getting them so they can have their outdoor services. Hopefully, the weather will be nice. It is nice, but just a little cool. It’s a little cool tonight.

44:39 But it’s beautiful. Well, thank you for bearing with me. I’m sorry that it was a little lengthy, but it was important. And I think it was a very important meeting. And I think that most parents are very happy with what’s going on and are very happy that their kids are getting some form of in-person education. Thanks for the report. Thank you. Is there any older new business? What’s our next meeting date? Today is the… What is today? Fifteen. My phone is on September 2019 for some reason, so I got confused. Do you want to meet two weeks after some of us have some holiday? Yom Kippur is on the 28th, so should we do the 29th? That’s what I thought. Okay, let’s plan that for a nice meeting. I think that we had a pretty heavy meeting tonight. I’m the one that’s been the proponent for every week, but I think that we could… I think we can wait two weeks unless there’s something emergent that we will call an emergency meeting. Are you happy with… Are you satisfied with that, Andrew? Yeah, definitely. Okay, so I’m deleting the 22nd from my calendar. That’s correct. Okay. We’ll meet on the 29th? Yep, at 7.30. Okay. Same place. Your porch, my dining room.

46:11 Same place. Will you be able to be on your porch in two weeks? I don’t know. I hope so. All right. We have a motion to adjourn. I’ll make a motion to adjourn. Second. All right. Ms. Gottlieb. In favor. Ms. Hayslitt. Before I say yes, I have to say hello to Andrea. We didn’t do that. Hello, Andrea. Yes. And Dr. Belkbecker. In favor. All right. Thank you, everybody.