Board of Health: October 6, 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.

0:01 The signs are lovely for reminding people about the masks. So I put some out, and I guess Todd’s put some out, and you’ve put some out, Andrew. Yep. Are there any left? There are a few left. I think I believe I have about five left. Well, that would be better served on the side, so maybe we should pick a couple up. Sounds good. Yeah, there are people, there’s a lot of positive comments I get on those. Yeah. And I love seeing Gary downtown on all the signs. So that was a good one. I got good comments on all of them. Yeah, they turned out very nice. Where are they? Oh, they’re at the National Grand Bank, where I put two at the Marblehead Savings, at Shoebies I put them, at my daughter’s house, my house, two good locations. Another house that someone asked for one at the JCC. There’s one, there’s one of those nice large ones. I put one at the information booth. So, where else did I go? Shoebies. There was one at Abbott Hall, they are at the Transfer Station, the Mary Alley Building.

1:31 At the intersection at the COA in the high school. There should be one on Abbott Hall, on the grounds of Abbott Hall. Michelle apparently can’t get into the meeting. Is there a way you allow her? Yeah. There we go. So, ready for the minutes? We were just talking about the signs that are around town. Gary and Glover wearing masks. Nice. Yeah, it was Glover, it wasn’t Gary. I’m sorry. Gary and Glover, we have two of them. Sorry about that, guys, I was having connectivity issues. That’s fine, it happens. So, did you look at the minutes of September 29? I did, and it looks like the changes that were proposed that Helene sent all look good to me. All the edits look good. So, we have a motion to approve. I’ll make a motion to approve as amended. Second. Okay, Andrew. Ms. Gottlieb. In favor. Ms. Hazeltt. In favor. Dr. Velfbecker. In favor. And now, let’s go to our COVID update, Andrew. All right, so case reporting. So, we’ve gone up four cases from last week. We’re at 276 cases so far.

3:02 As far as traveling goes, all travelers arriving in Massachusetts, including Massachusetts residents returning home are instructed to self-quarantine for 14 days. Except travelers from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. If you had close contact with a person who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, get tested, self-quarantine, stay home, and monitor your health for symptoms of COVID-19 for 14 days after your last contact, even if you have a negative test result. If you have any questions, please contact the Marblehead Health Department. So, the states again were Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and D.C.? That’s correct. Those change every week. They change every week, and this is one of the lowest weeks we’ve seen in a long time. Colorado’s off. Yeah, Colorado’s off. Wyoming’s off. Mexico’s off. So, we are seeing a shift around the country. We have 454 newly reported confirmed cases in Massachusetts today. We have a total of 133,359. If you look, so there’s an infection rate page that you can go to. It’s capital R, lowercase t, and they have the infection rates for every state across the country. Our infection rate is going up. We are now at 1.24. So, RT is the average number of people who will become infected by an infectious person.

4:39 If it’s above 1, COVID-19 will spread quickly. If it’s below 1, infections will slow. So, we are now above 1. And so, people need to be reminded of that. The virus is in the area. It’s in Massachusetts. It’s in the community, and we can now see it infect more people a little bit more rapidly than it has been in the past. So, that’s something you can also take a look at. Some of the other news, the CDC has now posted on their website that SARS-COVID-2 and the potential for airborne transmission. So, this is nothing new in the state of Massachusetts. We’ve looked at this quite a bit over the past six months. Yes, we’ve always talked about droplet spread, but we’ve also talked about the potential for it to be spread through the air. So, as we enter inside, we just need to remind ourselves about that a little bit more. Always wear a mask. Try to socially distance yourself. But that’s something new that’s now posted on the CDC website. We are looking to enter into, or we have entered into phase three, step two, which the governor has gone into recently. And this is for only communities that are non-red communities. So, if you go onto the state’s webpage, you look at their weekly numbers on Wednesday after 6 p.m.

6:11 They will post a map of Massachusetts, and it shows every community in the state and what level they’re at. Green being good, yellow being cautious. Actually, gray is the best. Very low transmission rate. Green’s very low transmission rate. Yellow, you’ll start to see some upper transmission rate, and red. If you’re in a red community, you cannot switch over to phase three, step two. Currently, we are green. There’s some potential that we will be shifting over to yellow tomorrow, based on the number of cases that we’ve seen this week, and potential for additional cases in the next 24 hours. So, stay tuned for that. As far as the phase three, step two goes, there’s some additional gatherings that you’re allowed to do. So, please make yourself familiar with that. Increasing the outdoor gatherings, increasing, you know, keeping the indoor gatherings still small, but making some changes over that. So, low-risk communities, as identified in COVID-19, Order 51, gatherings at events, venues, and in public settings, as defined above, are limited to a maximum of 100 persons in a single venue or space. If you’re not able to go into this risk level, you’re stuck at 50 people. So, make yourself aware of these changes, and we’ll make sure that this is obviously posted on mass.gov. Excuse me, so the yellow and the green are the same,

7:44 as long as we don’t go into red. That is correct. Yep. That is correct. It’s really about being a red community and having quite a bit of transmission in the community. That’s really about the update for the COVID numbers, phase three, step two. The last piece of big information that we wanted to talk about is Marblehead Halloween. So, today I sent out a document that covers low-risk activities, safer activities, and trick-or-treating, and higher-risk Halloween activities. I’m going to try to share my screen, if possible. Got it. So, in the Marblehead Halloween 2020, your low-risk activities. So, Carving Pumpkins. Great family fun event. You can do this just your family, very low-risk. Andrew, the document didn’t open. It’s just your screen. It’s just your menu. Can we press on that? No, he needs to. He’s got it highlighted, yeah. He has it sharing.

9:16 Yeah, I mean we’ve got it. But it’s not opening. Yeah, it’s your drop-down menu. That worker, no. We got it. So, Marblehead 2020. Obviously, Halloween is occurring on a Saturday night this year. So, low-risk activities, Carving Pumpkins, decorating your house or apartment, all low-risk activities. Physically distant Halloween scavenger hunts, and virtual costume contests. Obviously, those are all pretty, you know, family events, by yourself, all low-risk activities. Safer activities are trick-or-treating. Stay home and do not hand out candy. If you are sick or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, keep your lights off so people know not to come to your door. Excuse me, just a typo. You saw that it says do not have out candy? Yeah. Okay. And can we send you, like, let’s, we’ll discuss, like, the overarching principles of this, and then we can send you some edits afterwards or something? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Keep your group as small as possible. Groups should be no larger than 10 and stick together. Don’t mix and mingle between groups. Use hand sanitizer before and after choosing pumpkins or picking apples.

10:47 Take it outside. When celebrating with others, do it outdoors. Remember the three W’s. Wear a mask that’s at least two layers thick and fits snugly but comfortably over your nose, mouth and chin without any gaps. Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially before eating candy, or carrying used hand sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol. Watch your distance by staying at least six feet apart from others. Trick or treating tips. Leave individually wrapped goody bags lined up at least six feet from your door for kids to grab and go. Do not hand out candy from a bowl. Go trick or treating with your children to make sure they do it safe. Encourage one way trick or treating and wait until other groups have moved on before approaching a home. And obviously we have the higher risk activities for Halloween. A traditional trick or treat knocking on doors and reaching into a communal bowl of candy is a high risk activity. Indoor costume or Halloween parties, walking through an indoor haunted house and group hay rides and tractor rides. So all these have actually come from the community. All these have actually come really from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the CDC. So yeah, this is obviously a document we want to finalize and get out to the public. Helene mentioned maybe having this in the newspaper so people can take a look at it. We can email blast this out to our large listserv

12:19 and try to get on the webpage and all different things. We can even consider doing a Code Red. I think a Code Red is a good idea. I think all of the above is a good idea. I like the document. I have some little suggestions here and there formatting things. But in principle, in all the general points, I think are good and make sense. We could even put in a couple of links to some other, if we know there are some good websites with good tips, we could link to them. But I think we’re better off putting out some guidance like this than completely ignoring the issue completely because we know people are going to go out and do some form of Halloween. I spoke with Andrew today because I had a lot of reservation about this. I still do. If I had children, if I had say about my grandchildren, I don’t think that I would be happy if they went out. I see that this would be a good alternative. I hope that parents who feel that they do not wish for their children to go out are not going to feel that they need to follow these guidelines.

13:51 I hope that parents who are not going to be able to follow their children are not going to throw one family up to the other parents. That’s the only thing I’m worried about. Kids are looking at the other family. These are guidelines. I hope if parents have their own decisions to make, that they will make them independently of whatever we send out. I read that after I spoke with you, Andrew, I pulled up the CDC issue. One thing that I would like to tell everyone, because the other things that I saw are very small kinds of things. They said, say we’re a mask. They say a costume mask is not a substitute for a cloth mask. That’s correct. I would like to suggest that that be in there after that sentence. That would be helpful, I think, for people to understand. Wherever we can put this out, I am in favor. Code red, add in the reporter. If you have the funds, you must have COVID funds, don’t you? We have some COVID funds that we can utilize. I like the orange on it.

15:22 Orange is good. I see Sarah is on it. Do you mind if I ask what the school department is putting out? Sure. You can answer that, Sarah. I haven’t had any conversations at the school department level about Halloween. I had some friends earlier today who were asking about Halloween. I reached out to Jackie Belf Becker, she informed me about five minutes before the meeting started that I could jump on. I did. I think this document looks great. I think it’s the best course. Just in kind of how things have played out at the public school level as well. I think that’s a great document. I think it’s a great document. And that issuing guidance is probably. Better than issuing edicts in, in my humble opinion. And so I think at the school level, I can certainly talk with dr. Bucky about also getting behind. This document that you guys have put together in our supporting. I think, yeah, it would be, it would be great to have. I think it would be that much more adopted. Yeah, absolutely. And I think there’s going to be plenty of parents. If I already have friends asking, you know, just amongst each other that this is going to just become a bigger

16:54 and bigger conversation. So I think it makes a lot of sense for the schools to be able to use this as, as what they put forth as well. Maybe to your principles and. You know, if this was attached to their emails, they send out all the time. I was going to ask though, if it to speak to your concern though, about, you know, there will be parents who are going to feel like, you know, wait a minute, I don’t, I don’t want my kids going out at all. I mean, we could consider some kind of sentence, like, you know, of course, you know, what’s best for your family. If trick or treating is not, you know, best for your family or something, you know, some kind of, you know, some kind of overarching statement or something that, you know, that, that gives, that gives families the out to say, you know, the, as a way to choose something, you know. Would, would the Todd and Andrew mind if I took make, made a stab at a phrase like that? I mean, I would, I mean, I know we’ve been sent this by Andrew, but we haven’t discussed it until tonight, but I would be happy to approve it tonight so that we can get it out and get the word out at the beginning of October rather than later on. So if, if, if we were smooth it out, I’m totally fine with that.

18:25 And we can just try to try to finalize it. If it doesn’t work, we’ll do it next time, but I’d like to see what we can do tonight. Okay. Can I ask a question? Do we have to. Protocol wise, are we able to word Smith? Can we, can we adopt, can we vote on the document and do any wordsmithing offline? Is that possible? Because I would prefer, I wouldn’t prefer to have a little time if we, if we endorse the flyer and the principles and the, the idea of the flyer and just make like small, edits to like the formatting and whatever, if we could do that, I think we’ll just have a better document than China word Smith on this call. Andrew, what’s the protocol on that? You know, obviously I think if the, if the board approves the overall arching idea to have a Halloween risk category based document, I think it’s okay to add in, you know, if you want it to add under low-value, you know, if you want it to add under low risk activities later on, watch a Halloween movie or like you said, Michelle, some of these, you know, the candy shoot links and stuff like that. We can add some additional links. It’s not really getting away from the content of it. We’re just increasing some of that content. Yeah. And like shifting the bullets around like the format. Maybe we just got Elaine’s overarching comment now because maybe that’s a little bit more controversial. Like we approve that piece, but like not spend time on formatting and other things right now or links or things that are going to take too

19:59 much time out of our meeting. I just wrote, I jotted something down. So let’s see how this works. As with all decisions, families have to make Halloween is a family decision. How was that? You’re smiling at the camera. What is, is the smile. No, I’m sorry. Yeah, I think that’s fine. Elaine. Or as with all how all family decisions do its best for your family. I was instead of Halloween, I didn’t say trick or treat. Not Halloween. I was not trick or treat because we’re not, it’s not just trick or treat. I was just trying to make it a little bit more of a different thought of Obviously I’m just trying to figure out the right way to make a family decision. Which ever, as with all decisions family have to make or actually I don’t need to say have to make as with all family decisions. Halloween is also is one. Yes, say it’s one that families have to make is one is one. That individual I have a hard time looking at I, I’m the kind of person that’s going to need to go back and look the document and the wording. Well, so I have a hard time wordsmithing. So what if we will, and I and that I would put as an asterisk at the bottom of the paper.

21:31 I wouldn’t put it in any place other than that because it’s like an agenda. Okay. So why don’t we work with that phrase, and it’ll be something like that as an as an agenda with an asterisk. My only question substantively is the number of 10 people. Was that a CDC or Commonwealth recommendation? So that was a Commonwealth piece. Okay. I’ve got it in front of me, so I’m going to see. It seems a bit high to me. The groups. So you have to remember where we are. Yeah, you have to remember where we are with Commonwealth statements based on what they’re allowing people to do with their outdoor activities and stuff like that now. Right. So it was in keeping with that, right? Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. One other question that I had left me. Oh, this is just for my own interest. Or is when you leave the candy out spaced out on the you put it on the ground or you put a picnic table out or what do you how are you? I mean, if you pick it up off the grass or I mean,

23:01 Yes, you can have it picked up off the grass. So that these are some of the hard things. So obviously, you want to socially distance yourself from the trick or treaters. So you need to create space with from them. So how are you going to give them candy? So the idea is that you place the candy in a location you back up and then they can come up and pick it up. But you don’t want it just all in one location. So you can spread it out. So for you, people come to your side door. You can have candy lined up in front of your garage. They can take it and leave and then you could go back out and refill those locations. So a lot of people would either do single pieces in those locations or little bag goody bags that they’re going to be doing. Now, obviously, so for us, it’s easy to think about doing safe food handling. So people need to remind themselves of obviously washing their hands before they’re starting to prep all this stuff for Halloween. Use gloves in the food industry. We always talk about gloves. Obviously it’s wrapped over the last month. There’s less of a concern of COVID stand on items and more of a concern of transmission between human to human through droplets, bread and aerosols. So the COVID is not staying on items as long as we thought it was. But we still need, you know, it’s always a good idea. So if my kids are going to go out trick or treating, when would they come back? You should really leave the candy for at least 24 or a good 48 hours before they dive

24:32 into the bag and start consuming it. You know, CDC guidelines at this point does not believe that the virus will last long onto the packaging. You better have some candy home for the kids if they’re going to leave it. Yeah, so if you do a lot of reading about the Halloween, they recommend that you actually provide some safe candy to your kids when they go out trick or treating so they’re not diving into their bag. So yeah. Well, one thing I was thinking we should add, that’s a little unclear there, is you know, you know, you talk about keeping the mask on, you know, washing your hands, sanitizing, whatever. I mean, the typical pattern for kids when they’re out trick or treating is to be shoveling the stuff in their mouth as fast as they can while they’re trick or treating. So we should really be explicit. And I know it’s inferred there, but it’s not explicit. And so I think maybe we should add something about like, do not eat your candy while you’re trick or treating, you know. And obviously, like, you know, that is a general Halloween rule. Right. But obviously, most people do not follow that. No one follows it. So this year, more than ever, we should like impress that upon people. I mean, of course, you know, you can’t necessarily enforce it unless parents are with their kids and they can do the best they can.

26:02 But with older kids, they’re not going to have their parents. I mean, you know, I have a 12 year old. I’m sorry. My 12 year old, you know, past the point of wanting a parent right at his side right now, an almost 13 year old, you know, he’s probably past the point of really wanting to trick or treat, but he’s on the edge. So like, impressing upon parents, like, you know, if you don’t eat your candy while you’re trick or treating, you get an extra three pieces when you get home or bribery or something. Twenty bucks. SwitchWitch. This is the year for the SwitchWitch. This is definitely the year for the SwitchWitch. I suggested giving every kid $20 instead of going trick or treating and bringing them to the supermarket. Don’t let them in. That might be a family alternative. So wait at least 24 hours before consuming any candy. Or when I began with cleansing wipes. Yeah, you can definitely get into that if you want to. I’m personally more concerned about the chemical exposure from those wipes than I am about the fomite. Yeah, if you’re asking them to wipe their hands after they take the candy and then they start eating it, they’re going to get a little loopy. Okay. All right. So should we need to go about this? I guess we should use more. One other thing I have to ask, in reading the CDC, you have low risk and higher risk,

27:37 and in their statements, they’re calling it moderate risk instead of safer activities. Would you want to follow that? Sure. I have another document that has that too. So low risk, moderate activities in trick or treating or? Moderate risk. And you can say, and safer activities, put the moderate risk in. I don’t care how you date it. And the other thing I saw in there, they called it trick or treating, you’ve got trick or treating tips, and they called it trick or treating safe alternatives. I don’t know. Yeah, I find with tips because that’s specifically about what it talks about. All right, I’ll let that one go, but I just thought that moderate risk might be a good format since you’ve used the low risk and higher risk. So we will vote then to approve a document with guidelines, but pending final draft. Well, does that mean he can put it out? Do we have until Thursday to give him recommendations and he can send it out to us? Or? Yeah. I mean, nothing more than what we’ve discussed, but so that the data is. You sure Andrew, we don’t have to vote on the exact wording that we’re going to send out as a board? No, I mean, you can give me creative authority to change the document if you would like. That way the board doesn’t have to make the final approval.

29:10 If the board wants the final approval, we need to come back to a board meeting. Right. So let’s give you the creative authority. So I’ll make a motion to approve the Halloween document, giving Andrew creative approval on the final draft. Well, after hearing from the committee, is that what you want to say? Yeah, that’s fine. And when we want to start dispersing this, I mean. So the idea is to try to get this finalized in the next couple of days and get this out there as soon as possible. And I think that’s what we’re aware of it. Share it with the school department. Hopefully Sarah can share this out through their listserv also, but we’ll share it through our listserv. And I’ll talk to Chris Stevens at the Marblehead reporter. Great. So she’ll have to have it by the end of the day Friday. And probably that would be good. And we could get it to everybody by then. So you’re showing me the motion. Hillel and you second. Yes. All right. Michelle got lead. And I’m going to say it. In favor. Dr. Belfecker in favor. And nice word putting this together so far, Andrew. Yeah. Thank you. Of apples and razor blades seems so easy. I know. Right. Just give everybody a toothbrush and you don’t have to worry. You know what? I passed the mouth before. I’m sure you. It’s not a joke. All right.

30:41 So the next thing we have time meeting is a week from Saturday. And there are three, as we discussed last week, there are three articles that could be. I’m. I’ve been to the border health and the people may. Want our opinion on them. So I had sent Andrew a couple basic drafts of what I thought. And I’d like to just discuss if we want to make statements about these articles and. And if you want to change what I put together. I’m going to share that with Andrew. So are you able to share that Andrew? Yep. It was the articles 25, 29, and 30. That I would like to talk about. All right. Did that work? Not yet. I think. See that. Yep. So again, these are just drafts that I sent Andrew with the intent. That the three of us can discuss tonight. If we want to even have prepared statements, which in my opinion, we do. We can have the. And we’ll. When you say statements, will we. You will verbally share these at town meeting. Yes. I think, or. I think it would be better to just say something rather than have somebody say, what’s the border health opinion? We can just preempt that. And have our. Our position out there.

32:13 So that’s what I want to do is just kind of. Don’t we normally. We don’t have a meeting. We don’t have a meeting. It’s not written though. We just do it verbally. Right. But what we say verbally, we approve beforehand. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, no, I agree. I just didn’t. I didn’t, but I didn’t think there was any process for submitting it. Oh, no, no, that’s. You misunderstood. That’s. I just want to have. Ready and that we can. Agree. So the first one 25 is the leaf floor article. My opinion. Which I put forth here is that we do not support it. I want to know if either of you agree or disagree. You want to change wording. Let’s let’s start with that one. I would like to change. And you have the power to edit this like, or to write over it or. I don’t think so. Let me let me try. Let me try something else. Maybe I do. Yeah, I think you can. You should be able to. Yeah, I think I can. So just to give you my overarching feeling on this. And honestly, we’ve been on this leaf blower carousel so many times that I shared with Todd that I couldn’t even remember. Like the latest iteration of where we landed, but I do know that. In our last kind of go around.

33:46 I know that this language that’s in article 25 is similar to where we landed. When we attempted to develop a joint. Citizen slash board of health article. So. And I honestly can’t remember why we did that. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t remember why we. Backed out at the last week. I can’t. It’s escaping me and maybe Helene and Andrew, you can remind me why we wound up kind of not moving forward with that joint piece. Cause I know there was something that held us up and we wound up not coming forward with that. But. I think that’s something that we have consistently different from where we landed with the joint articles. So. To say that it’s not. Based on scientific findings. And that we have consistently declined to support banning them. Doesn’t. Sit well with me. So. I’m comfortable. With not supporting this because I think we have consistently said that we have consistently declined to support the joint. And that is a joint. Joint with the board of health. And I would prefer not to support something that is a citizen article that is not done with us.

35:17 So that’s. So I’m I’m I’m. I think I can, I think I can maybe. I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I think. Let me just finish my sentence. So, so I’m not. So I’m comfortable with not supporting it. I’m not comfortable with the language as it’s written. And I’m not comfortable with it. Because I still feel personally as a board of health member. In support of the language that is, is here. I. Personally would like to see a seasonal ban on leaf blowers. At some point. There are a couple of things. Two, two. Two town meetings ago, regular town meetings ago, we spoke to the. Proponents and said that they had not come to us. They had not come to us. They had not come to us. And so they come to us. We would work with them. And see if we, if we could come up with something. They did come to us and we could not come up with something. So we had made a decision. As a group, we couldn’t even. Taylor of a. Statement that would be. Acceptable to the entire committee. And one of the things that Todd brought up, brought up. Was the seasonal. He said. That’s a good thing. Like, why is it good on Monday and not on Tuesday? Why is it good on in October? And not in. So that was one of the things. The other thing that I seem to gather from the woman from. Brookline who had done so much work, I think for kind Cambridge, wherever. One of those cities.

36:49 That’s a good thing. And I don’t know what kind of. Brooklines of town, but. Anyhow, it was more for the landscapers than for the. The residents that the, the homeowners. Seemed to me that the noise factor was bothersome to. Homeowners, but it was really. Affecting the health of the landscapers. So. And I don’t know what kind of precautions they’re taking. But I think that’s a good thing. And I think that’s a good thing. And I think that’s a good thing. The landscapers. Getting new equipment. Whether we should do it over with a notice over a period of time. If we told them they had two years to do this or something like that. Because they needed to buy equipment and as they needed new equipment, they could buy. The electric instead of the gas. So those were the things that I recall. And I think that’s a good thing. And I think that’s a good thing. And I think that’s a good thing. And since Dr. Beufbecker wrote this. That was his primary reason. So I think that there were other reasons. But. If we wanted to do that. If we wanted to add those other statements. So that’s my answer to your question. The best thing. Yes, but I am not comfortable with saying based on, I think that there are. I, I, I, I’m not sure I agree with that because I think it’s.

38:20 I mean, I think that’s where we disagreed. Two town meetings ago that, you know, Todd felt if it, if you can’t ban it, you know, completely. Then why ban it certain parts parts of the year. And, and we disagreed on that. So. I think that there is a scientific rationale for some seasonal bands on this. So, and that you are creating health exposures. Both to the workers that are using it and to the community. And so. Well, what if we strike that not based on scientific findings and use the next sentence and say, we have consistently declined supporting the band for various reasons. I’m comfortable with that. And then I say, and I think maybe if we add something to say, to say, which I think is something that. Where I think we all agree is that. Is that if we were to support a ban on leaf blowers, we would want it to be a joint article. I think. I think that’s a good question. I think that’s a good question. I think that’s a good question. So this is a joint article. I don’t want to, I don’t personally want to open that door. I think. You’re on your own on that one. This is. Okay. For getting any personal views about. Yeah. Leaf blowers, you think about the town meeting itself, this has failed twice in the last five years. I believe that.

39:51 I think that’s correct. So. We don’t want to keep beating this dead horse. I know that. that can be addressed, but I think that I don’t want to invite the speculation that we’re going to bring this up next year as an official Board of Health. And I feel similarly, but I feel that we did ask them to come, and in good faith we listened to them and worked with them for several months, for many months. And I think that we came to a decision. I don’t want to open, like Todd used the word, open the door, but we’ve gone down that path, and I think that’s, we’ll end up in the same place. All right, so I support that for, you know, to say we have declined to support them for various reasons, and taking out the not based on scientific findings. Uncomfortable with that. Now, if somebody, since I’m going to be presenting this, if someone asks the questions, will you be satisfied with several of my statements, or should I just say that we have no more to say? I think you should get into it at that point. I think you should say if somebody wants to come to, you know, to have a conversation with us, or come to a public meeting, we can discuss it further. I don’t think, I don’t think it makes sense. Okay. Yeah. We don’t need to debate it, Tom. Okay, great. Thank you.

41:24 So the board, I, so unfortunately, I cannot edit for whatever reason. It’s telling me it’s okay. And we trust you. Andrea, are you here? Um, but I can, we can edit. I just want to make sure we have this finalized. So the board of health does not support article 25. And I’m going to get rid of, which is not based on scientific findings, correct? Right. We have discussed leaf blowers many times over several years, and we have consistently declined to support banning them. We should, it was consistently declined for various reasons to support banning them. We’ve consistently declined. Sorry, there’s put at the end, supporting. To support a ban for various reasons. To support a ban for various reasons. Good. I’m not even sure we need the last sentence. Um, and just period there. So to strike our position has not changed at this point. Yeah. Short and sweet. Short and sweet. Maybe. Now, this, are we going to make this statement before we even ask for it, right? Yeah, I think that we just go up and speak on it when the article comes up. Okay.

42:54 Do you, what do you think Andrew, or should we wait till we have it on in our pocket in case we’re asked? I think you have it in your pocket in case you’re asked, but you know, that definitely should be a decision that the board makes tonight. Well, I just don’t want to be that. If I, if a board, if an elected official stands up, they will be asked to be, they will be recognized first. And I don’t think it’s fair to speak before the person speaks on the issue, on the article. So let’s have, let’s have the statement ready. And if we need it, we have it. And if we don’t need it, we don’t need to use it. Okay. If anybody, sorry, it’s one more thing, question. Maybe we should go to vote on this because I was going to say one more question. I am going to be physically there, but are people allowed to speak from the Zoom or not? There is no Zoom. There is no Zoom. Well, there isn’t. In person only. Todd, you’re not going? It’s a work day and it was announced way too recently. I talked about it Saturday. Yeah, it’s a work day. Oh, I think it’s good for the dentist. Big day. So if they’d give me more month’s notice, I could have done something, but so I will not be there. Let’s vote on the language that we drafted and also that we don’t need to vote when to say it because we have the language when we need it. Are we voting on each individual one?

44:24 Yes, we’re voting on it, yeah. So the language for this one is the Board of Health does not support Article 25. We’ve discussed leaf blowers many times over several years and we have consistently declined to support banning for various reasons. Support A-SAN. Support A-Man. Thank you. All right. We have consistently declined to support A-Man for various reasons. Period, done. Period. Yep. So we’re moving to the conclusion. All right, I’ll make a motion to. Approve the language for Article 25. For Article 25 as we’ve decided. Second. Ms. Gottlieb. Approve. Ms. Hazlett. Yes. Dr. Belkert. Yes. All right, next is Article 29, which is brought forth by Sustainable Marblehead. And you can see my thoughts here that, I mean, how can you, in my opinion, how can you say no to trying to make the town more sustainable? There’s no financial implications, so I’m personally comfortable supporting that article. I would just, I agree. I would just switch the order. I know this is just a technicality, but I would prefer to say this article addresses an important issue, and as there are no immediate financial implications,

45:56 just put important issue first and no. Yeah, fine. So say the whole sentence, Mr. Tod. Right, so. This article addresses an important issue, and as there are no immediate financial implications, the Board of Health, as this is an important issue that supports the wellbeing of the town and its residents, and there are no immediate financial implications, comma, the Board of Health supports Article 29. Great. That’s fine with me. Do we have a motion? I, a motion to approve that. Second, Michelle. Okay, thank you. Miss Hazlet? In favor. Miss Gottlieb? In favor. Dr. Belspecker? In favor. And the third one, I believe that the town’s finances are tight enough to put it mildly that I don’t believe that $50,000 is well-spent at this time, so that’s why I would be personally against Article 30. But if you look at the language, it does say, I hear what you’re saying, but if you look at the language of Article 30, it says, town, to see if the town will further vote to raise

47:29 and to raise an appropriate or transfer from available funds. So now, of course, the likelihood of being able to raise such funds is not necessarily a given, but there are various funds available just for these types of positions, and it is possible that the town will be able to raise funds for a position like this that couldn’t go to any other type of thing, but for a position for climate change, for climate and energy, I forget exactly what the position is called, but I think that there’s no skin off of our back for supporting this if it’s not coming from existing funds. So if we could say something about, if it’s possible to raise funds for this and not take it from limiting existing town funds, I think that this is super important, and I think the money that the town ultimately saves from this kind of thing, it’s upstream prevention, the money that we ultimately lose from the impacts from climate change, we have some smart person come in that’s doing good planning, that’s helping us achieve these benchmarks that we’re supporting in Article 29.

49:01 This is money well spent. So obviously, we don’t have the money right now, but if the town can secure those funds, absolutely the Board of Health should be supporting this. But you’re saying raise the funds through grant writing, is that what you mean? Well, I mean, they put the language in here themselves that says the town will further vote to raise and appropriate or transfer. So I’m say, why not say we support the vote to raise and appropriate? I mean, if we’re not comfortable supporting existing resources due to what you say, Todd, then, but I fully support the town being able to go after funds that are available from state or federal resources, absolutely. I also think that we could support this, we could support Article 29 through our own, the current staff that we have in the various departments, because each department is going to have, whether the electoral company or the Board of Health has ways in which to make a greener community. I think that they’ll all be working together. I don’t know whether necessarily they need an individual to be hired. I think that they’ll all be searching for their own funding. So I don’t know whether, I’m not sure if it’s necessary to have an individual.

50:31 I think it’s very necessary to have an individual, somebody being in the environmental field who’s working with hospitals on sustainability and energy efficiency, I can tell you that this is super complicated. And we, as a town, as much as we have the best intentions of being able to be forward thinking about this, having somebody dedicated to really thinking through these things is money well spent and we will reap the dividends for years to come as a community, particularly a coastal community. It’s almost crazy to think that we wouldn’t be moving in this direction. And you think you’re gonna get someone for $50,000? It’s a really low ball amount of money, but there’s a lot of young, smart people out there that would probably be happy to come and put their smart minds to this, just out of school and whatever. I think, and there are increasingly resources out there to fund these kinds of positions. So I don’t think it’s crazy to think that the town will be able to secure some kind of funds for this. And if they can’t, they can’t. So I don’t think it’s really puts us in an uncomfortable position to put our support behind something

52:04 that could be resourced through other funds. I don’t see the doubt. Well, maybe, should we say that as the town has no surplus of finances at this time, the Board of Health supports the expenditure if the money can be raised through federal and state funding? I mean, we don’t even have to say federal and state. We can use the language that’s there, that they use. I think you make good points. Michelle, my concern is just when any citizen article requests money, I think that there’s an issue with that. And if they wanna go back and work with the selectmen or the finance committee or whomever, I just, I’m uncomfortable with articles that ask for money in any way without really understanding how the overall budget works. That’s my main hang up here. It’s not the philosophical issues which I completely agree with you on. It’s more just the nitty gritty of it. Well, maybe we don’t have to take a position on this. Then in theory, we approve it and let the finance committee make a decision on the Article 30. I mean, I guess I just feel like this is such an important issue and such an important issue for our town and for us to not support sustainable Marblehead in being proactive on something that has such huge implications for,

53:34 climate is going to be one of the biggest drivers of health and is one of the biggest drivers of health for us to not support, and I hear what you’re saying, Todd, so I’m perfectly comfortable recognizing and being very overt about not supporting something that’s gonna divert funds from other town resources, but if it’s not diverting from other town resources and we’re not saying, and we’re not getting into the technicalities of, select men or things, mom, we can let them work that out, but I think we’re just philosophically supporting something that is smart in terms of a health perspective and a climate perspective, and that’s our role as a Board of Health. So I feel pretty strongly that I think sustainable Marblehead is smart to put this forward, and I really wanna support it. I think it’s important. So do you have a suggestion for the language? I’m just gonna say that. Yeah, so I guess I would say, I’m sorry, I’m toggling back and forth between the two documents. So where is this? The town,

55:06 what is the town, the vote to raise and appropriate. Okay, so let me just go back to your document here. As the town has no surplus of finances at this time, the Board of Health supports an expenditure. I think we should start with a sentence that says something about, the Board of Health believes that this is an important position or something I can, let me think of a sentence there, but say, but as the town has no surplus of finances at this time, the Board of Health supports this position if the funds can be secured, if the funds can be secured through, if the funds can be raised and appropriated through outside funding. And I would say something, the Board of Health believes that this position will help the town of Marblehead achieve its commitment to achieving 100% carbon-free,

56:38 carbon-free, I’m just trying to think how we can say this succinctly. It’s carbon-free goals, energy goals. Would you feel comfortable with that if we still keep in the stuff about not supporting any expenditures of existing funds? But then again, just to be literal that, well, I think that’s a good statement. I don’t think it addresses the actual article which is asking for the money. Well, but it doesn’t, it says both. It says, it’s a good policy. But if we say, I mean, I think it’s a good mission statement. I think it makes sense. I just don’t think it’s gonna help people understand how to vote based on our opinion. So do we vote for it or do we not vote for it? Well, I think the finance committee is gonna get up and say that there’s no money in the budget at this time and the town should come back and make a request for the money. And I think, and that it’ll be done and over with. I don’t even think we have to take a position. Well, no, but I think what there, what Sustainable Marblehead is saying is we want the town to support looking into this position. We want this position to exist and we want help from the selectmen or whoever it has the power to be to write an RFP

58:13 or whatever it is to get these funds. Sustainable Marblehead can’t go and hire someone. They need town to support it. So they need somebody at the town level to write up a job description, to go to the state level or the federal level, but most likely the state level and say, hey, are there funds available? Let’s get these funds into town and hire somebody. And they’re not saying it has to come from existing funds, but they’re saying this is a priority for the town and we’re not gonna be able to do it without, or we’re not gonna be able to achieve these goals without having a position in order to help support this. So they’re actually being smart. They’re saying, we’ve got this article. We want to achieve these goals. We are saying as a board, we want to achieve these goals. And then they’re being smart and saying, but you know what, we need a position to support this. And they’re not saying we’re, the only way to do this is to pull from existing resources. But- Except for, it does say or transfer from available funds. So that, so we as a board of health are saying, we recognize the town does not have such funds. So we’re not supporting that part. And so if it gets voted down, it gets voted down, but at least we put our weight behind the piece that we support. Yeah. The other thing that’s lacking in it is there’s,

59:44 it’s unclear who this person would report to. It’s not a well written article, to be honest. Because would he, that’s a huge thing because they can’t just be sort of out there on their own. And so, there’s been discussion whether or not, funds could come from the light department, for example. And the person might report to Joe Kowalik there. There are other options that are being kind of discussed about this, but that is clearly something that isn’t in there. And that probably should be for a good article. I think that’s a great suggestion, Tom. I think that, as I said before, I think this is up to the finance committee. And I think that we should say we believe in this in theory and that we need the finance committee to go forward and find out, to determine where this job description lies. The other thing is most grants are not grants for, usually grants for salaries. That’s another problem. There may be funds, but most grants are not salary grants. Well, it could be program grants, though, couldn’t it? Yeah, but this is written as a salary grant. Yeah.

1:01:14 So, I’m just saying that, philosophically, I think everybody’s on board here. I mean, from what I’ve heard, I’ve been in another discussion, a long discussion about this, that philosophically, it’s just given the circumstances right now and kind of needs to be tweaked a little bit. But I don’t know. So, I’ll shut up, but those were my comments. No, it’s helpful to hear your comments, especially if you’ve been in other discussions about it. And it would be helpful to have an article that gets us to where we need to be. But I still would like us to have some language out there that supports, and maybe it’s just enough to say that the Board of Health supports the existence of such a position, you know, and yet, but we- And we look toward the town to provide for it. I think that’s okay. So, we don’t support the article, but we say we like what the article stands for. Okay. Can I make another comment? Yes, please. Back to Article 29, we knew, because I took the note, took minutes on this, discussed this whole leave thing so extensively

1:02:48 for two meetings in January and February. I mean, all we have to do is go back to those minutes for all of the reasoning that went into it, including when we had the landscapers come to, I think Nash came to talk about his, what sort of things it would present for him, et cetera. So, it’s, and we heard about all the noise types of things. We, meaning you, like I was there, talked about all of this in huge details. So, going back over those minutes would probably be helpful in any kind of discussion. Yeah, that’s what I was referring to. I just think it’s like COVID put a memory block on all of those, it’s like everything that happened before COVID, like somehow, like we can’t remember. And it’s shocking to me that that was in January and February because it feels like it was a million years ago. So back to Article 30. Todd, can you rewrite a sentence? So, the, while the Board of Health does not support this specific article, the wording of this specific article, we do endorse the, philosophically endorse what it stands for.

1:04:20 Do we have to not support the articles? Well, you can say, yeah, I would turn it around just like she did with the Article 29. Put the positive first. Yeah. That the Board of Health endorses the theory of whichever philosophy of the article. Well, we just be more specific and say, well, we would like to see the position, this position

1:04:50 supported by the town. We recognize that the town has no surplus of finances at this time. And look to, maybe say something like you said, look to the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee to determine the appropriate resources to fund such a position or something like that. I would be in favor of that if you struck the, recognize this, no surplus. That’s not our business. We’re here to promote and let them decide. So just keep that out and just say, and so then we don’t even need to say that we don’t support the article. We just say we recognize the importance of such a- What if health recognizes the importance? Yes, and we look to the Selectmen and the Finance Committee for their, To find a way. To find a way to support such an expenditure. Great. Yeah. Support the article. I’m just thinking if we should refer it on, like to say, hey, you deal with this. Well, it really isn’t our business to support- Well, I know that, but I would be more comfortable

1:06:22 just more comfortable saying that we do support missing theory. Great. And hope that the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen can find a way to support it. Yeah, I think that’s appropriate because it’s putting our weight behind it in the way that’s appropriate. We support the existence of the position and the financing is not our business rate here. What was the first phrase of your, what was your first phrase you just said last, Todd? We support this in theory? Yes. I don’t think we need to say theory. Like I think we should say we support the, we are, as the Board of Health, we support the, you know, we are in support of this, the hiring of this position or the existence of this position. The existence of this position. Theory, I think that’s clouded. Right, existence of the position. And we hope that the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen can find a way to support this article, or the article. Maybe not the article, because that’s what I think Tom is saying. I appreciate the nuances of it. They can support, you know, finding a way to support the position and we can get out of saying anything about the article specifically. Okay, great. Going forward, we should make that.

1:07:56 Andrew, can you read that to us? No. No, Andrew. It’s nothing.

1:08:05 He’s gone to bed. You’ve got 16 years of people’s education here. So you have everything from the Board of Health to recognize the importance of this position, but does not support this in theory, or usually you would just say the Board of Health does not support this as written. No. And moves on. No. Because you don’t support it as written. That’s very negative. Yeah, we don’t want to make it as- That’s what I’ve been saying all along also is- Yeah, so we don’t agree with that. My qualms are not with what it’s asking for, but with the specific article. So the Board of Health supports the idea of a sustainable coordinator, but due to the financial situation in the town, we cannot support it at this point. No, we want the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen to find a way to support the position. That doesn’t get you anywhere. It tells them to go back to the drawing board. Is that what you’re trying to do? Yes, we’re saying we’re not gonna get them the money at this meeting. So the Board of Health does not support the article as written. But that means we’re not interested in that. That’s like a dead one. We can say both. We can say we do not support it as written while we do think this is an important issue that should be addressed further. You know, we don’t support it as written. We’re just saying it’s not, what we’re supporting is the idea of the position

1:09:38 and we don’t have enough information really. Which is why we can’t support the article. Because this is a legal town meeting article. This is not a policy discussion. Do we support this as written or not? I know that- You have to say, although we support the idea of a position, we do not support the article. How’s that sound? But then we’re not explaining why we’re not supporting it. Because of the financial implications in the current climate of the town. Climate’s a bad word because it’s muddling. But the current situation- Financial state of the town. Well then I still go back to the idea, despite what Tom’s saying about finding resources elsewhere, because I still would support that. Maybe what Tom is saying is true, is that there’s never any funds for salary positions, but maybe there are. And so I still would support that piece and not, because I don’t, I’d like not to close that door. Right, but you have to concentrate on what’s written. The article of town meeting. That is what’s written in the article. No, so- Or the- To vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds. Right. The sum of $50,000. And raise funds, I support that.

1:11:09 I support raising of funds. That’s what I said from the beginning. I don’t support the transfer of funds from existing town funds, but the raising of funds I’m perfectly comfortable with. But it says raise, inappropriate, or transfer available funds. So if you vote for me, you’re going to transfer- Right, that’s what we support. But you’re not gonna know, so you’re asking the board of health to make a change to the article at town meeting. So, no, I’m saying we can clarify what we support or at least clarify why we don’t support. That’s what we’ve been driving it all along. So I think, and I think we should wrap this up because we’re starting to go in big circles. But I think that we cannot, in my opinion, we cannot support the article, but we can also say why we support the idea behind it. So the board of health recognizes the idea that the board of health recognizes the importance of the position and would like the, would like the select one to investigate this further? Yes, but they have the finance committee. Well, the finance committee just takes recommendations from the other departments. They don’t have the actual authority of anything. So then we should say more exclusively,

1:12:41 we would like to see an article that, can we say that we’d like to see an article, a future article rewritten that would more explicitly, I don’t know what Andrew said earlier. Do you remember what you said, Andrew, just now? The board of health recognizes the importance of the position and would like the select one to investigate it further. Fine. Fine. Fine. We have a motion for that statement. A motion to support as amended. No amended. What I wrote, those aren’t. That’s what I mean. A motion to support Andrew. Yes. Yes. Yes. Second. Andrew, after you don’t forget it, write it down in the minutes. All right. Ms. Gottlieb. Ms. Heasley. Ms. Heasley. In favor. Dr. Belfbecker. In favor. Okay. Tom, you need wraps. So is there any new business? No. Any public participation? Tom, Sarah? Nobody’s, everyone’s afraid to speak. We exhausted them. All right, so our next meeting is a week from Monday, but that’s after town meetings. So we can talk about how town meeting went next time.

1:14:13 Good luck. And I will have had a reopening committee meeting that morning. Right, Sarah? Great. And so we’ll have some information on how the school is going. How are the first two days? I mean, you know, they went well. No big hiccups. So I think, you know, it’s a work in progress, but it’s great to have kids back in buildings. My boys both came to me separately on Sunday saying how excited they were to go back to school. So that was awesome. They had both the Monday, Thursday. They were both on Monday, yep. But the school has had each group excited. Yes. Yeah, great. I have one more question for you, Andrew, about town meeting actually. Yeah, go right ahead. So if we go to yellow, there’s no change in how they’re gonna have this. It’s gonna be same as it was May outdoors. Yeah, so regardless of where the state is, so government can have, take an exemption for holding town meetings. So we could be in the red and we could still hold town meeting. Obviously, you know, people need to come with their facial coverings on and everything will be spaced out socially distant, you know. So chairs will be separated very similar to last town meeting. Can you limit the number of people who will be that can attend? No, there is never a limit on the number of people that can attend. I believe that the selectman might be taking up the issue of quorum tomorrow,

1:15:43 but I’m not positive about that. At the last town meeting, They already set it for 30. Are they gonna need a temporary? Yeah. So they are gonna, you know, at last town meeting, we did reduce the quorum so we could move forward with the town meeting, but they’ll have to decide how they wanna play that out for this one. But the same rules will apply the meaning that as things are brought up and voted on, then it’s whoever’s there, correct? That is correct. So that’ll be very interesting depending on how strongly some people feel around these issues. That is correct. Andrew, could you get the words out to all of us tomorrow just so that we can see what it looks, the language of the three articles before you send it in? I mean, we’ve gone around and around with this. Yeah, I mean, I will work on that, but we have until, obviously, until town meeting the day out, we won’t be sending these in. These will be read on town meeting floor. That’s right. On a notebook and then you read it if you need to. That’s all. Yeah, that’s right, we’re not sending it in. Okay. And then the Halloween document, we just need to send you edits in the next day or so. Yeah, let’s try to work, yeah, next day or so and get that finalized so we can get that out to everybody. Okay. All right. Motion to adjourn? I’ll move to adjourn.

1:17:14 Is there a second? Second. Scott Lee? In favor. Ms. Hasley? In favor. Dr. Beth Becker? In favor. All right, good night everybody, thank you.