Board of Health: May 11, 2021

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 It’s called the meeting to order. Welcome everybody. First item on our agenda is the minute of April 28th. Do we have any comments or corrections? I’d like to move just to make a motion to accept those. I’ll second. Andrew? Miss Hazlet? In favor? Miss Belfecher? In favor. Dr. Belfecher? In favor. Next item is we have two file permits and let’s start with, just for alphabetical reasons, we’ll start with 36 Crestwood Road and then we’ll do 16 Roland Street Second. So you’re going to ask your normal questions? Yep. So are Jennifer or Robert Panza here? Hi. You can unmute yourselves.

1:00 Sorry, I haven’t been on the Zoom in a while. Good evening. So we have your application. We have the neighbor who’s signed off. We have your plans. Is there anything you want to tell us about your plans? No, I sent a PowerPoint in this afternoon, but I guess that wasn’t necessarily accurate. So we have a coop that’s, I believe it’s 20-22 square feet and then assuming we do get the approval, the plan for the coop will include there’s a space for a run that’s at least 10 by 12. So we’ll box the whole coop structure. It’s a raised coop. We’ll box the whole coop structure in with fencing that goes over it, below it, and around the side. So it’ll be completely boxed in. So we’ll have a 10 by 12 to a 10 by 14 run around the coop itself. Who’s ever eaten, could they mute please? Billy, I’m sorry, that might be my daughter. Hold on.

2:04 Yeah, I mean, we have your plans. We have the neighbors. Everything is in good order. Awesome. We always say, you know, if there’s a rooster by accident, we don’t allow roosters with these permits. Of course, I wouldn’t want it. Yep. And we always reserve the right if there’s any complaints or issues to, you know, inspect the grounds. Of course. But it’s pretty straightforward. This is, we have a lot of chicken permits in town, foul permits in town at this point, and it’s been pretty efficient process. Everybody seems to be well on top of it. Halleanna, Michelle, do you have any questions or comments? No, we’re good. Okay. So you always do a good job. So I make a motion to accept the permit. Or 36 Presswood Road. 36 Presswood Road. I’ll second. Miss Hazlett. In favor. Miss Gottlieb. In favor. Dr. Belfekker. In favor. Enjoy. Yay, thank you. So Jen, just one thing. You need to send in a check and we’ll issue your permit right away. But, you know, at this point, you’re approved. So if you need to order your chickens or collect your chickens, you can go ahead and do that. Do you need paperwork with the check again as well or just the check? So I have all the paperwork. I really just need to check. Okay, you got it. Thank you. Thank you.

3:35 Thank you. And Larry Simpson, I see you’re here. If you could unmute yourself. How about now? Can you hear me? No, yes. Okay, great. So do you have anything you want to discuss? Well, the only difference, I suppose, between myself and perhaps the previous person that spoke is I feel like I’m kind of just dipping my toes in the water. These are, I’m renting the chickens from a group called, they do rent a flock. And other people in town, I have friends who did it last summer successfully. So they bring them in, you know, in mid-May, late-May, I think, and then they pick them up. You’re not year-round. You’re not owners, really. And I have three children and we wanted to try it. And if it’s successful, we might become full-time caretakers. But for now, it’s just a trial. Okay. So Andrew, if the number two, the application says there’s two chickens, if the number of changes, if you decide to do this more permanently, would we have to revisit this or just amend it? No, you would just amend it. And really, you know, the concern would be if you started to get into the dozens and, you know, a backyard flock should know be pretty small numbers, you know, two to eight, you know, something that’s reasonable. Obviously, you’re looking

5:07 to consume the eggs and stuff like that. So it really should be reasonable. They sold out last year. And I know I could not possibly get more than two this year. So there’s no possibility of that. And if I did it again next year, I’d come back, of course. So how many eggs do you get from two? I’m not sure. I think of just, you know, a few a day. Yeah, in a perfect world, you get two eggs a day. I forget how many hours it takes to produce an egg. Yeah, I think that’s right. It’s just a couple of day. It’s more the experience, I think. And my children are all animal lovers. And so it just seems like an appropriate thing with, we’re big foodies, kind of, we like fresh food. And we grow some of our own food. And the kids all have vegetable gardens and grow their own tomatoes and basil and stuff like that. Sounds great. So you heard what we said before about roosters by accident about being able to inspect if we need to. But really, there haven’t been any issues with the permits that we have in town already. So I think that, you know, your neighbors approve, we should be okay. Do we have a motion or any further discussion? I’m happy to make a motion to approve the file permit for what’s the address? Yep. 16. Rollin.

6:37 Yep. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Gottlieb. In favor. Ms. Hazeltt. Favor. Dr. Belfbecker. In favor. Great. Well, enjoy. Okay, thank you all so much. I appreciate it very much. Thank you, Larry. Okay, bye-bye. All right, Andrew, your COVID report update, please. Good evening. So at this point, our, as of last report, and our reports come out on Fridays, so as of last Friday, May 7th, we currently are a green community. So this is a, you know, we haven’t been a green community for quite some time, but we are currently a green community per the Massachusetts average daily incident rate per 100,000 color calculation. We have an average daily incident rate of 8.3 and a percent positive rate of 1.03. We had a total so far through this pandemic of 1,328 cases. We currently, as of last Friday, have 14 active cases. As of, as of vaccination rates, we have 10,139 fully vaccinated individuals in Marblehead, and we have 3,492 individuals that are one dose away. So we’re doing very well

8:07 with our vaccination rate. It was announced today that we should see a new announcement that the federal government will be approving vaccines for 12 and up, and we’re hoping that this announcement comes later on this week, and that we can actually begin to vaccinate these individuals in the very near future. We have many new announcements that are coming pretty rapidly. As of Monday, we have new indoor and outdoor event guidelines. We have new guidelines for large capacity venues. We have new guidelines for restaurants. We have new guidelines for retail, and we have new guidelines for theater performance venues. We will probably see some more updates coming later in the month. We know we have new more indoor-outdoor event guidelines that will be changing around May 29th. So please continue to check the state’s websites for all these updates. Before you go on, could I ask you a question about the 12 and up, if you don’t mind? Yeah, go right ahead. One thing, I thought it was already approved, one question, and the other is, do they have to make appointments, or can they be walk-ins? We were told by the state today that they should be able to pre-register, and once the actual allowance for the vaccination to occur, those people will be notified that they can now

9:43 go to a clinic. So the way a lot of clinics are running right now is that a lot of the mass vaccination sites are slowly shutting down. We really encourage people to pre-register so we know what’s coming in. We’re trying to deal with lost vaccines, so when we have to take vaccine out for the day, we’re trying to account for what we have registration for. So we’re really trying to, you know, so if I don’t have you registered, yes, I can still get you vaccinated, but we’re trying to deal with having less walk-ins and really would like to have pre-registration as much as possible. So where did I get that thought in my mind that you could walk-in, that the adults could walk-in? So there’s always been walk-ins through clinics, so you always have that. But with, you know, since we’re at a point where we don’t have a lot of people getting vaccinated on a daily basis right now, we’re trying to avoid a lot of waste, and you can avoid that waste by pre-registration. One other question, are pediatricians going to have the vaccine, or are you still going to go to the places that have the vaccine that have been doing it? My understanding is that all the regular places that have been given out vaccine will continue to get it. So pediatricians, you know, CVS, clinics, mass vaccination sites until those facilities shut down. So Elaine, what we’re waiting for now is the CDC’s, it’s been approved by the FDA, the emergency

11:23 order, but what we’re waiting for is the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice, ACIP. They have to recommend the shot, so that’s just the, so once they give that go ahead, then then that’s what will allow all of the clinics and pharmacies, and that will activate everybody actually being able to get it. So that’s what the holdup is right now. Thank you for explaining that, because, you know, it seemed, it sounded like it was already. And I think anyone expects that the CDC is going to say anything different than the FDA, but they’re meeting tomorrow, and so that’s what this little, the way it is. Yeah. Thanks for explaining that. So today, you know, the North Shore has opened up a regional COVID vaccination clinic, and this is at the O’Keefe Center in Salem. So today was our first day of being open. This is being run by nine communities on the North Shore. So today the clinic was open from 10 to 2. I know we had registration for at least 50 individuals. On Thursday, it will be open from 2 to 6. There is a link on the town website for Marvel Ed case reporting. It’s in that case report, how to sign up, and if people are still looking to be vaccinated, we recommend that you

12:54 go there. Obviously, you know, we’re trying to get as many people vaccinated as possible, so any clinic that works for you, we highly recommend that. You know, that’s really about it at this time. Like I said, a lot of the guidelines will be changing over the next couple of months with the idea that we are hoping to release all these guidelines by August 1st, depending on where we stand with, you know, rates and stuff like that. Could you just leave you with new regulations and face coverings, please? Sure. So as of… So this was COVID order number 67. This became effective on April 30th, I think. Yeah, April 30th. So face covering requirements, except as provided in section two, all persons in Massachusetts over the age of five years old are required to wear a face mask or face covering over their mouth and nose in the following circumstances. Public locations, A. Indoors. Face coverings are required at all times when indoors and in a public location. Outdoors, face coverings are required when outdoors and in a public location, if unable to maintain a distance of approximately six feet from every other non-household member

14:27 or if otherwise required by sector-specific COVID-19 safety rules. B. Events and gatherings. Public locations, face coverings are required at all times at events and gatherings in public locations. Private homes, face coverings are encouraged but not required for events and gatherings at private homes. If a customer, patron or attendee refuses to wear a face mask or face covering for non-medical reasons, the operator of a facility, business or event may decline entry to the individual. Public locations shall mean any place open to the public, including without limitation grocery stores, pharmacies and other retail stores, public transportation, taxis, livery and other ride sharing vehicles, public streets and ways and any location including hotels, event venues and private clubs that host indoor or outdoor events or performances. Exceptions, the face covering requirement in section one shall not apply in the following circumstances. Where a person is unable to wear a mask or face covering due to a medical or disabling condition provided that a person who declines to wear a mask or face covering because of a medical or dis-isolating condition shall not be required to produce documentation verifying the condition except as provided in section three. Where face covering, so this is B,

15:58 where face covering would impede communication by or with a person who has a hearing impairment or a disability. When a person is inside a personal vehicle alone or with other household members only provided that face coverings are required when carpooling with non-household members. D, where pickable sector-specific COVID-19 safety rules issued by the Department of Public Health, the Department of Labor Standards, the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Department of Early Education and Care or by any agency authorized by executive order to issue such rules permit the removal of face coverings in specific circumstances such as while eating and drinking in restaurants, receiving dental care or swimming. And E, in circumstances or other populations that the Commissioner of Public Health may exempt in writing from the terms of this order. Three, places of employment in schools where an employee or other worker who is required to wear a face covering pursuant to this order or any other applicable rule requests an accommodation so as not to have to wear a face covering at the workplace due to a medical or disabling condition, an employer may require documentation to verify the condition. If a student is unable to wear a face covering because of medical or disabling condition and will be participating in in-person learning, the school may likewise require documentation to verify the condition. Guidance. Four, the Commissioner of Public Health may issue

17:31 guidance subject to approval to implement the terms of this order. Effectivate this order is effective 1201 a.m. on April 30th, 2021 and shall remain in effect until rescinded or until state emergency is terminated whichever happens first. And this wording is all exactly on the mass.gov website. Correct. Thank you for reading that. Yep. Michelle. Well, so I presume when we get to public participation we are going to have some comments and questions regarding what is well I don’t want to presume but but I’m going to presume because I have a feeling we’re going there um regarding what is um uh what what yeah sorry it’s been a long day of zooming for me um for work um what is allowable or what how how face coverings are being enforced the definition of like how social distancing is working for athletes etc on the field and regarding um you know information on um oh my god I just lost the document but you know what what’s considered social distancing when there’s low-risk sports and those kinds of things and um I know this is you know this kind

19:08 of confusing situation where the schools are making decisions and then the schools are saying well we follow what the board of health is doing and then the board of health is following what the state is doing and you know there is information out there on um what is considered a low-risk sport and low-risk because there’s the ability to social distance for instance if you are playing to tennis or if you are running cross-country and so you’re able to keep that six-foot distancing so Andrew what since I have a feeling we’re going to get there in public participation I’m just kind of jumping ahead and just asking what what are what are your thoughts and how are we feeling about this piece because I think that despite some of the information that you just read there there are some nuances in gray zones that I’m feeling a little bit confused about um in terms of how and who is enforcing all of this right so the the youth and adult amateur sports activities was updated Monday May 10th right so that’s for phase four step one but that was updated uh May 10th so the board of health has always you know followed the guidelines set by the state governor and the state of Massachusetts I recommend that you continue to do that now the schools have to choose how they’re going to change their policy on and school property um

20:42 but really you know the guy the guidelines are set forth now we were told today on a our state call that individual teams leagues etc may elect to require face coverings at all times that’s their choice for running the league um and we don’t have anything to do with that that’s their choice um but you know as far as enforcement of the orders we are you know kind of made to enforce the governor’s orders and the state’s orders if we have to be so does that mean if the if the private teams determine that they’re going to be looser than what the governor said that we can ask them to follow the governor’s regulations so nobody can be loose have less be less restrictive than the governor’s orders the board of health can choose to be more restrictive but the only way we can implement those more restrictive orders is to have a public hearing where we have public comment and everybody is aware of those new orders for the town on marvel head now we haven’t done that we’ve stuck to the you know the state’s orders and guidelines so what came out as of may 10th elaine was more specific information allowing um for these you know more guidance on these specific sports which are you know allowing or trying to give more guidance saying like there’s some sports where it is possible for for athletes to you know remove their map except singles tannuses

22:19 yeah yeah which is you know it makes sense right they’re not it’s not a contact sport so yeah so so i can i can read directly out of the youth and amateur uh adult amateur sports activities mandatory facial coverings for all sports facility operators and activity organizers must require facial coverings to be worn by all participants during active play except during swimming water polo water aerobics or other sports where individuals are in the water or for low risk sports when indoors but where a distance of at least 14 feet or more is consistently maintained between each participant during active play or performance e.g. singles tennis or an individual gymnastic performance or for low risk or moderate risk sports when outdoors where social distancing can be consistently maintained this includes for example but is not limited to the following low and moderate risk sports tennis pickleball disc golf golf biking surfing horseback riding individual sailing fishing hunting motorsports gymnastics cross country individual rowing skiing baseball softball beach volleyball and running formats where social distance is maintained for individuals with a documented medical condition or disability that makes them unable to wear a face covering participants for all sports must wear facial coverings on the bench sidelines start

23:54 finish lines at all times and then any huddles or timeouts from active play for purposes of this guidance a facial covering means a face mask or cloth facial covering that completely covers the nose and mouth participants should take frequent facial coverings breaks when they are out of proximity to other players using caution to avoid touching the front or inside of the face covering by using the ties or ear loops to remove and replace this requires this requirement applies to all spectator and chaperones coaches staff referees umpires and other officials so when when you’re on the field a softball or a baseball player may have their mask off that is correct unless your league determines that all massive be worn at all times they may make that choice they may make that choice and then when you return to the bench you put your mask on yep

25:00 thank you i see a hand is raised we’re going to wait till public participation at the end of the meeting to address all questions i don’t have any more questions on that that was helpful i mean i read that and i just wanted to just clarify and um well that’s why i asked him to read it to begin with because i know that there are some questions that we’ve gotten and um that was helpful yeah and i and you know just from our from our perspective you know i don’t like andrew said like i don’t i don’t feel any rationale for us to make any more you know more stringent pronouncements from the port of health perspective i mean all of that seems reasonable to me so yeah our goal the whole time is to try not to create a patchwork of regulations across the state when you go from community to community you have to now figure out what the new rules and regulations are so therefore we’ve been sticking with state rules guidelines and orders and we’ve been doing that for a year now over a year yeah we’ve been doing that for over a year now okay michelle haleen any further covid related queries um i just yeah not query but i would just like to uh give uh a shout out to andrew for all his work that he’s been doing um with dan bower in the senior

26:30 class around senior week and all the senior events um they’ve they’ve really uh been looking toward uh andrew’s assistance in making the decisions they have made their own decisions but they they’ve been in constant contact with andrew and tracy our public health nurse to make sure that all the seniors have a very safe and happy graduation week or senior week and i want to thank you andrew and i think we all should thank you thank you again you know we are just following the guidelines and orders of the state um but yes i’m always here to assist you know make sure that you are pulling the right orders and pulling from the right pile as far as there’s a lot of different guidelines out there we want to make sure that you’re pulling from the right area um and if you have questions about that we have direct lines of communications right to the state we can usually get questions answered right away so it’s been a great you know working relationship with the school i i think that that’s good one other thing that maybe i’d like to just tell the board that was discussed at the reopening uh is about these the mask situation there was some question whether um people need to mask up at uh at the playgrounds and such when they’re there with with people and i think reading the uh new mask order for april 30th was helpful to tell people that you know keep your if you keep your masks on if you’re not six feet apart if kids are on the slide together going up and down i i think that they

28:05 would want to uh maintain that i think the parents would want to set an example that was discussed about parents setting an example um about mask wearing so i um just wanted to mention that that it was discussed okay michelle you do you have an update tonight on the task force mental health task force sure um the task force met last week and we had a good meeting just um the focus our of our meeting was we had collected and collated a lot of information on um mental health resources um based on different cohorts and put it together in a big spreadsheet and um we are kind of continue to review that information and a lot of that a lot of that information already existed in that um website that had been pulled together by the school so we’re kind of cross-checking with what had been pulled together um by um that fabulous mental health um covid resource that was pulled together during um over the past year by the school so just trying to figure out like how not to recreate the wheel but create a town-based resource and kind of central hub for mental health

29:40 um resources that we can kind of pull everything together in one place and figure out how to direct people in the right directions and have ways of having it be kind of age based um and issue based um and so we’re kind of toying with different ways of of doing that so right now we’re in the kind of collection collection phase and analysis of what’s out there and then we’ll begin to figure out kind of what’s the best mechanism for hosting it is this something that is on a you know is it a town website how does it look what resources are out there to do that is this something we need to kind of fundraise for um and then we’re also going to begin at our next meeting figuring out what other what other actions does the task force want to take on we don’t only want to be a clearing house for resources we’ve talked about you know do we want to have activities speaking engagements other things that we look towards um uh for the fall that we want to start to begin to implement that we want to get on the calendar and other kind of safety net things that um that this task force should be paying attention to so that is what we focused on and our next meeting is on monday may 17th at 7 p.m all are welcome it’s a good group and we all feel good about focusing

31:18 on this especially since may is mental health month so that’s our update on next meeting date michelle monday may 17th at 7 p.m it sounds like the group is really off to a good start yeah great when do you anticipate that the uh that the list will be ready um i don’t know malaine that’s a good question i mean we have a good list already we want it to become not a spreadsheet we want it to be interactive usable website etc so um it really depends where it’s going to live who’s going to host it you know we have a lot of unanswered questions so i will let you know as soon as we have more information on that so not sure yet may i suggest that it might be possible to be ready for the summer for people that are taking a little bit of a break and might want to address some of their issues that is certainly a reasonable goal and we would love to be able to do that so um we’re i mean this is our first and foremost priority and folks are actively working on trying to get this to be something that happens soon so i just don’t want to make any commitments in this public space right here before

32:50 you know just because we we we just don’t know the logistics of it so that’s why i’m being a little bit hesitant here well we appreciate what you’re doing because it’s important and um it also uh it’s it’s for the whole community that you’re you’re addressing senior mental health along with school school students yeah and we not this past meeting but the meeting before we had a um a woman who’s a um a visiting nurse that addresses mental health with um senior citizens come and and she said that you know she is seeing um mental health concerns in senior population like she’s never seen before and so we know and and we’re hearing that from um the council on aging as well so we know that you know this while while i think the early impetus for starting this or kind of what lit the fire for us was probably the kind of more adolescent community it’s certainly the aging population is is is hurting in our community and um is absolutely um important for us to be a focus and so that’s why i think we also want to make sure that it’s not just like an online resource isn’t our only focus here like we need to be thinking about other things because um that that you know a portal a web portal isn’t the only way that we want the community to be accessing information great thank you again

34:30 andrew director’s report and i have a question about um beach testing uh go right ahead with the question of beach testing when does that start usually memorial day uh no so it starts middle of june okay yeah um you know we have a little bit of an operating budget for that so we usually add an extra week in the beginning uh and an extra week at the end uh just to get up and running a little bit earlier um my understanding is that the dock at crocker park will be back in the summer so i’m sure a lot of people are excited about that um we have a leaf collection coming up again next week um so please remember to put your leaves out uh should you put should put your leaves out the same as your trash so your same days your trash collection your leaves you go out those are unpicked up for any reason please call the office and we’ll range for those to be picked up our next household hazardous waste residential collection event is going to be uh june 9th so again we will be posting that flyer uh tomorrow on our website so people can begin to sign up for that um that will be shut off 24 hours before the actual event um to make sure that they capture everybody um so make sure you sign up early on um i just want to remind this tends to be spring tends to be a very kind of windy season for us so if you’re putting your recycling out that you should really try to contain it as much as possible that you are responsible for your anything that you put curbside responsible for it you know all the time until it gets into the

36:03 back of the truck um so if it’s a really windy day make sure that you know you’re putting your recycling out in a container that has a tight fitting lid um you know i’d rather not have to recommend regulations to the board of health um but if we continue to have an issue obviously we’re concerned about micro plastics in the ocean uh and trash you know blowing around in our neighborhoods you know people should really be conscious about how they’re putting their trash and recycling out and making sure that it doesn’t cause issues in their neighborhood um obviously we had a great town meeting we had a lot of participants show up and we’re always looking forward to uh summertime and the better better weather of marblehead um i have a couple questions um the hazardous waste may be a statement it’s it’s a pickup correct so people can you remind people of that yeah so it is a residential collection so we’re not having at the transfer station anymore you sign up you tell exactly what you have you put it on your front porch or by your garage on the company comes right to your house to pick it up um we’re able to actually serve more residents so a lot of residents were unable to come to some of these collection events so they’re now able to be served by most residents um yes please remember that at the trace transfer station uh with your transfer station sticker um you can get rid of electronics on a regular basis you can get rid of propane tanks you can get rid of car batteries obviously all the other recycling the clothes and the yard waste but the household you know household

37:39 hazardous waste residential collection events have been going very well and we’ve received a lot of good feedback with them so we will continue the great thing about this event or these events is that before we often it twice a year and the idea with the residential collection events is that we’ll be able to offer it four times a year is there a minimum amount uh in dollars that one has to utilize to have uh there is a minimum amount um it’s the zero to three gallons um and it’s i think it’s a minimal fee of you know either 25 or 30 dollars okay there’s a list on our website of what items would be yeah there’s a whole check down list so when you sign up you check click off the boxes of what you’re putting out there and what’s acceptable and what’s non-acceptable it’s still no asphalt right yeah no asphalt um no asbestos items like that i don’t know if this is in our department or not but i was reading uh in in the local newspaper that uh about fireworks and we have a harbor illumination the other towns around us that cancel fireworks are we having our illumination um we have a meeting coming up to discuss um the fireworks in the harbor and illumination um so please stay tuned because i know swamps gets canceled nahans canceled lens canceled so yeah that’s something that we’ll discuss and um and

39:13 maybe it’s something that we postpone until later in the summer rather than just all out canceling for the fourth of july maybe we postpone later on if it’s possible thank you is that the full report that is the full report okay so public participation so if anybody wants to ask something or say something um just raise your hand i’ll call you in in the order that you do raise your hand okay emily you’re muted yeah hi everyone thank you so much for the updates um i hope you don’t mistake our tone of confusion for anything other than that because obviously there’s a lot coming at us as things evolve and we’re trying to keep up just as well as as you are um i do have a question um you read a portion of the sports that are now exceptional um and let’s just take for example baseball being one of those sports um how now that that is an exception um or tennis or swimming how how is that handled by the board of health to disseminate that information to the schools

40:47 or to park and rec i’m having a hard time following the thread myself because at one point and you said schools have to choose how they’re going to handle the policy on their property and so does that mean that it’s not a board of health mandate or it is that the schools follow it or the schools make their own or i i don’t know where to go with my follow-up which is can we unmask our student athletes who are playing outside and distance safely for the love of god so obviously you still have to follow the youth and adult amateur sports activities for the school grounds now the school has had a policy where all students on school property must wear a mask at all times that’s a school policy and i believe that’s a district policy and that’s up to the school committee to adopt or you know um and at this time so the board of health or the health department does not disseminate all this information we are here to answer questions um and we’re here to enforce the order if we have to that’s kind of our role in it um but obviously if people have questions around it we have you know regular meetings with the state so we can ask some follow-up questions um but really you know it’s not our job to disseminate all the information so do i then bring this up to the school committee

42:22 meeting on thursday night yes okay and then um just another quick question on that um so so with the guidelines so like i said before we can people can or the board of health can choose to be more restrictive but we can’t choose to be less restrictive no but no but the mandate yesterday came out and said that baseball for example is an exception yeah that’s correct that’s one of the you know sports that i listed um and obviously there’s a whole other pieces to the activities but yes that is listed as one of the exceptions so then i would direct my question about unmasking our student athletes with regards to baseball across country tennis to our school committee correct okay and then just another quick question on that to follow up our students for example at village school are allowed to be outside at lunch unmasked eating together how can they not then by that same form of logic run around on the playground unmasked if they’re outside and distanced so obviously as long as they’re distanced that’s another school policy that you could talk to the school committee about okay will do thank you yep michelle yeah i was just gonna say you know i would emily if you’re having that conversation with the school committee you know

43:58 just add that you know you attended the board of health meeting um we you know have reviewed those guidelines and have no you know have no reason to enforce any more restrictive guidelines we you know there’s nothing coming from the board of health that is in any conflict with what what you have read in our passing along that that shows that mask you know unmasking for these for these distance you know socially distanced sports is reasonable and possible or whatever you know that um you know just if there’s any confusion so that you don’t wind up back in this circle of like well you need to go back to the board of health or whatever that yeah i’m pretty sure that’s exactly what’s going to happen right but so just to you know just to confirm um and and i hope my co-board members and andrew will will confirm that that we are staying here at this meeting that we are all in agreement that this information has come out we don’t have any reason to disagree with that we are on board with that and that is we are perfectly comfortable with schools following that you know so okay it’s pretty it’s pretty clearly laid out in the state’s directive that you know baseball when you’re on the field you don’t need a mask when you’re on

45:30 the bench you do and that’s what they say we’re we’re not going to go beyond what they say i think i think it’s well laid out by them it’s just that um our schools and our school athletic director has not given us that um go ahead i guess would be the word like i since yesterday i understand all this information is new and everyone’s reviewing it um but now that i understand that the board of health is in agreement and i am okay to go ahead and ask the school committee and uh as you said it would be okay to reference that you’re all in agreement with that then i’m hoping they will outline those exact things to us so that our student athletes can breathe i’d like to just say i wouldn’t say that the board of health and my own interpretation is uh an agreement with the orders that we accept the orders that have been given we have we are not making any further recommendations um but it is still up to the school department and the school committee to make those recommendations if they feel fit but also i i hear you taking your athletic director task he has to do what the school committee charges him so i i hope

47:04 that you’re not i’m i’m not taking him on fairly i just i just don’t know where to direct these questions well he’s yeah and he’s getting his matching orders from the uh the haleen but we do the reason that i’m i specifically raised this and i know emily has we’ve all experiences has been uh it’s a and i don’t say this with any ill will towards anyone but it is a confusing time and we wind up in this loop of of confusion where things you know do come back to the board you know it’s like okay but we we got to check with the board of health and then we wind up in this like i’m just saying in a different way that we that i have no issue with the with the directives it’s not that i’m an agreement the wording is fine you’re right i just just so you all know the the email that i sent that was ccd to you this week i got a response from bucky that basically punted it right back to you so that’s why this is a loop of confusion and i’m not putting anyone to task i’m just i want to get out of the loop like exactly correct you want to get out of the loop and the board of health has you know is not making any more restrictive guidelines therefore they are accepting these as written yes thank you for saying it that way and it’s not really fair emily i understand where you’re coming from

48:35 andrew thank you thanks so uh thank you very much andrew cremer um seven clifton avenue marblehead can you hear me okay yeah great um so regarding the uh cyclical loop that we seem to be under aside from school committee which hopefully will be amending their face mask and face covering policy um wanted to understand park and rec and i had a conversation with a woman who answered the phone who said board of health determines what park and rec does and you know again you guys get thrown under the bus for stuff that is not of your doing if you’re consistent with state guidelines so i wanna if little league you know is is falls under its baseball it’s a low risk or moderate risk sport if little league changes their policies to conform with this state everything’s fine they go play on gachals there’s no issue correct that is correct okay so i guess the second question is who is responsible for the signage at these parks uh so i mean it really falls under the parks department or so maybe some of the confusion is that you have parks department and school property on some of these parks well the the signage needs to be updated sure and look i’m an adult okay if i want to go to

50:09 vets and play pickleball without a mask with another person who’s an adult who’s vaccinated i shouldn’t have to have a neighbor come out and accost me and obviously we understand the situation with that and obviously right away we would point to the the new guidelines at state that you’re allowed to do that but we will try to make sure that we update all the signs or remove any of the signs that should be removed at this point okay that’d be great because you know so and obviously like mr. graymore if you could send me you know so village street there’s signs at the at the tennis pickleball field there um any other signs that are should be a concern that i need to try to address immediately yeah no you know i can try to think about it i mean i don’t go to gachals very often i don’t know what sign is just there um but i just know that given all the confusion that has happened and will continue to happen it’s important that not only are the guidelines reflected in in practice but they’re communicated effectively across multiple departments yes you know again i don’t know that it’s your job to tell park and rec what changed but it might be beneficial for everybody to be on the same page correct and obviously you know it’s going to be unfair that you guys continue to get the the brunt of you know it was march and you still had school committee members who were saying that the

51:41 board of health’s policy on social distance had changed your policy has been the same the whole time and it’s the only policy actually that doesn’t follow didn’t follow the state guidelines for six feet but you were consistent in that it wasn’t a mandate it was a recommendation or you know your best practice and that’s fine people can take it or not take it so you know again i don’t want to please don’t take my comments to be a um pointed uh you know i’m not taking issue with the board of health i just want clarity and consistency it is also worth noting that the new guidelines just came out yesterday so understood yeah so okay well that uh those are those are my questions any other um observations in regard to athletics and the spread of covet dot any musings there not today thank you well i just want to ask one quick this pickleball isn’t that that also that’s the game that you can play doubles of singles isn’t it so is that something that if it’s if you’re only one person on on a team that you’re you can take your mask off if it’s doubles you have to keep your mask on is that correct vaccinated people i’m not going to ask them for their status well we’re not trying to vaccinate or unvaccinate are we it’s no the the guidelines don’t have anything to do with if you’re vaccinated amount it just no of course well that’s not what

53:11 i heard from uh andy well again i think that there’s enough distance while i’m playing pickleball with two people or four people you know whether you’re playing doubles or singles well you’re making your own rules i’m not trying to make my own rules elaine i’ll follow the rule to the extent that i understand them and it’s time time to move on um thanks uh next hand up is mackluff you could hello can you hear me yep hi yes i just had a question about clarifying with these sports once again so um my son plays soccer my daughter plays soccer um so now uh based on this call i understand that um baseball would be allowed to not wear masks on the field should the the youth athletics determine that because it’s it’s low risk in their socially distanced um i was just wondering i’m just trying to compare with soccer um when you’re tagging a player i mean that’s not really socially distancing and so would would soccer be able to fall under that same standard because i mean they do get close at some points but then again so they also are in baseball um and obviously you’re doing a lot of running in soccer and it’s it’s really um hindering the kid’s ability to breathe soccer just so you know is not on the list of um of exceptions

54:44 yeah you need to follow the youth and adult amateur sport guidelines or activities for phase four step one which were updated on may 10th um and it calls out all the different sports and it gives them the risk levels and what you’re allowed and to do or not do because baseball i saw was considered moderate and so is soccer the list is i’ll just read the whole list it’s tennis pickleball disc golf golf biking surfing horseback riding sailing fishing hunting motorsports gymnastics cross-country rowing skiing baseball softball beach volleyball and running soccer that says for low risk or moderate risk sports when outdoors where social distancing can be consistently maintained and says includes but not limited to so it’s not limited to other sports it’s uh so yeah so under the moderate risk sports and recreational activities are characterized by sports or activities that involve intermittent close proximity or limited incidental physical contact between participants examples baseball softball cruise sailing outdoor track and field indoor track and field running clubs team swimming volleyball dance class fencing field hockey girls of class and soccer um you know then you’re gonna have to go into what activities you’re allowed to do um we are really you know concentrating on the the facial coverings and the exceptions which we went over all right i’ll have to look over that

56:24 again i i guess i when i see that the baseball players are allowed to get close and tag one another then i don’t understand why soccer players who get close at intermittent times and then are alone a lot of times on the field um why that couldn’t also be made an exception as well also considering the amount of uh running that they have to do is uh is a lot um so i don’t know i would hope that we could make that a sport that’s not limited i don’t know maybe make it voluntary to the players so it’s not it’s not up to the board of health the board of health did not write these guidelines the state of massachusetts did um and these were written by massachusetts executive office of energy environmental affairs right but guidelines not law so the guidelines are law because they’re written and fall under the orders which are under the emergency authorization act you know the bottom line is do we want to keep covid at bay or do we want to spread it and if well we have to consider what i’m thinking i’m good don’t yeah let let wings so i think that’s the concern we’re spending an awful lot of time on what we don’t have to do as opposed to what we do have to do i know it’s been a very long time but it’s going to be longer if we start spreading

57:56 this is the first time we’ve been green since when andrew i i i couldn’t even tell you the date the last time we were agreeing to tell you probably the first week of of march last a year ago 14 months ago so i think that we are interested in the public’s health you’re interested in your individual’s health or maybe not their health you’re interested in whether they don’t wear a mask or not and i think we have to be concerned about the whole and interested in my children being able to be children and to be normal i’m not interested in being looking at myself it’s not normal times it’s just not normal times we’ve got a mental health issue we’ve got people meeting uh we formed a committee because there’s mental health issues in the community because of this and i think that the sooner we get out of this pandemic the happier we’ll all be the mental health issues are because of the lockdown because people aren’t able to leave normal lives because of the lockdown not because of the virus itself okay and i would like my children to be able to play and be normal children you’re entitled to your opinion but the fact is that we have no control over what the state’s wording is so this is not the proper venue for these concerns i’m just saying that there needs to be a little bit of a realistic expectations here that people have been going through a lot and we have 70 of the state vaccinated and

59:27 this is going at an incredibly slow rate and we need to be a little bit more compassionate instead of expecting people to keep doing the same old same old when the science has been out there and we need to start paying attention to the science and stop mixing politics and science together when half the country is open and massachusetts chooses to stay closed and people choose to close their eyes this isn’t the right venue for these discussions so thank you for your thoughts and we’ll move on is there anybody else who has anything to add okay toad i’m sorry i do have one thing i i’d want to add to that i don’t know who’s talking right now sorry uh this is andrew cremer uh just one quick thing for the woman who just spoke soccer has been designated as a high risk high contact sport a moderate contact sport the i know massachusetts used soccer is seeking clarification from the state so potentially there there could be some changes with that activity that’s all i wanted to add is that some of this stuff is very fluid because the state has not been consistent with its classifications of different sports that’s all thank you mr cremer thank you okay so public participation is closed so our next meeting is may 25th and should we set june june 8th over here any chance you all are able to meet a half an hour

1:01:01 earlier on may 25th yes yes that’s okay i just have a kid thing so so seven o’clock on may 25th thank you that’s fine with me okay what you say june 8th we’ve got that yep and then we run into town election so we’ll have to um work around that and um do you want to just make it a week later on the 29th that’s fine we can we can reorganize that day yeah i think that would i know we’re gonna miss you i had an opportunity to meet the uh one she’s here to explain no she’s not no that’s it’s a close name but it is not joanne i don’t think great there is joanne joe no that’s that’s our school department person oh that’s funny i saw the name i read it wrong so i had a chance to uh meet her over a bowl of soup and uh she’s very excited that she’s going to be on the ballot and uh we will i’m glad that she has stepped up and she’s unopposed she’s not like not like a lot of other i’m the only one that ever has to run a

1:02:37 campaign in the past 15 15 i don’t know plus years i’ve had my share but i hope everybody who is still on the call goes to the polls and votes for joanne miller she is running unopposed so i have i i would endorse her anyway but i i fully can support her and she will be a great addition to this board and i’m very excited for her her participation on the board and i will be working with her closely as i know you all will to bring her up to speed we’ll miss you michelle but we’re looking forward to working with jane also and i’ll be great but you’ve got two more meetings so let’s not surprise i’m not signing off yet we’re not done yet all right is there a motion to adjourn i’ll make a motion to adjourn second um is scotley in favor miss hazel it in favor dr belf Becker in favor