Board of Health: June 8, 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.

0:00 So before we start, I want to talk about Michelle for a second. I want to recognize you. Yeah, well, I want to recognize you for your 12 years of service to the Board of Health and to the town. And, you know, it’s hard to believe that tonight’s your last meeting and, you know, we’ve worked, the three of us has been a team for 12 years. It’s a long time. And, you know, your enthusiasm, your knowledge, your innovations have all been invaluable to us and we’re going to miss you. And, you know, wish you best in your future endeavors and you know, you won’t be far. You can always come to our meetings, but it’s kind of the end of an era. And I just want to thank you for all that you’ve done, you know, a long time. All right. So was it her turn or my turn? Your turn. I’ll go last. I’ll get the last word. All right. Well, I didn’t want you to, you know, to get anything. Well, I’m truly going to miss you too, because we women have been, what many times we don’t have other colleagues of the same gender. And I’ve enjoyed working with you. Not that I haven’t enjoyed working with Dr. Belfecker and Dr. Belfecker, Senior and Andrew Petty and Carl Goodman. And it’s been nice to have all you as colleagues, but especially I’ve enjoyed working with Michelle over this last dozen years. So it’s been wonderful. We’ve seemed to have gotten closer during the COVID. We’ve gotten to know each other a lot better.

1:38 We’ve been in it all these past years, three to four weeks apart. The meetings have been three to four weeks apart. Now we started out meeting last March every week. We went for a full year or more every week. Oh, there he is. Now I’m going to cry. We have to recognize Wayne. We have to recognize Wayne. But it really, I think we have gotten closer. We’ve worked hard. I have to say that I think we did. We were very important card in the wheel as this pandemic has been going on. I’d like to say in a lot of ways we led. We led the community and a little bit behind Andrew Petty, but we were there right up front sometimes pushing him sometimes he’s pushing us. Sometimes Michelle’s pushing us and putting everything out on social media for us. I don’t know who’s going to do that now because I certainly don’t have those skills. And I don’t know if Dr. Del Feca has the time, but we’ll figure it out. Maybe we’ll have to learn some things or pull you in. We’ve worked very well at the table. We have different strengths and I think all those different strengths together have really made for excellent committee. Now you’re going to be on the other side of the table. So please tell us when we’re falling down and pull us up.

3:14 And we are looking forward to our new colleague coming on. And it’s not to say all these things that we’re saying that we’re so great with working with you and the three of us together. I’m looking forward to working with our new colleague. And I don’t know if it’s Joanne because she’s unopposed, but I just don’t want her to feel that we’re not looking forward to having her come. And I want to thank you, Michelle, for finding her because I understand from many people that she’s a real find. And thank you for that. And Wayne, I think it might be your turn. Maybe it’s Andrew’s. I apologize. You can’t tell. I’ll go before Wayne gets to say some last words. But obviously, Michelle, it’s been a great almost 10 years with you. Now, just kind of thinking about all the different experiences we had together. But the one experience that really sticks into my mind was a phone conversation. It was during the landfill closure and I was on vacation and you were kind of left in charge. And so here I am up in Canada and you call and you’re like, you know, I really need to talk to you. We have this issue of the contractors going nuts. He’s over next to Pete Highlands and the neighbors are going nuts. And I could just hear the screaming in the background, the swears being tossed back and forth. And here’s Michelle between John Fiore of Maverick, his excavator, and the neighbors on Pete Highland

4:50 and trying to keep the peace and doing the best things she can do. And she did a great job. But I think that’s probably my most memorable story of Michelle. But please know that you’ve left a great mark on this community, obviously for the better. We’ll never forget you. And you really put your heart and soul into doing what you believed. And the community should really be thank you for all your dedication and hard work. And we’ll never forget your perseverance with the wellness committee and all your extra stuff that you really wanted us to continue on. So we will always continue on with that stuff for you. Wayne, you’re on mute. Just remember that.

5:38 I’m here, please. Yo. Yo, there you go. The good thing we didn’t have this when I was there. The meeting’s going to have been five hours long. Michelle, wow. You are an awesome person. You’ve done an awesome job for the town of Marblehead. And I truly appreciate the work you did when I was there. You and the board, and especially Andrew, have done yeoman’s work in this vaccine-crazed world that we live in. I don’t know what more to say, Michelle, other than best wishes and good luck in whatever you do. I guess that’s it. Short and sweet. I like it. It only took me two and a half hours to get on here, but it was short and sweet. All right. Yep. Turn. The floor is yours. All right. Well, I want to thank all of you for so many years of your dedication and being amazing colleagues. Andrea, you’re quiet over there, but I know you’re there. You’re not really quiet, but you’re going to be quiet in this forum, I know. But I will miss all of our times when I come into the office or when you send me all your gentle reminders if I forget something. And you’re always a pleasure to work with, and you always have a laugh and a smile.

7:12 And at least we share a religious community, so I know you’ll never be far away. And Todd, it’s just interesting all of the different styles between all of us, and I think that’s what makes us a good crew. Todd, he’s got his sarcastic humor, but he’s quiet and deliberate in his style. And Helene and I tend to be a little bit louder and a little bit pushier in our styles. And we have our kind of balancing acts and how we work. And there’s just so many funny dynamics between us. We haven’t met in person in a long time, but Helene still manages, whether it’s Zoomer in person, to know every single person in the town and their children and their parents and their first cousins. And as somebody who’s new to town, it was always funny to experience that, and it’s true. We have become closer and compatriots through this hard time. And Andrew, I had forgotten that experience. I guess we block out the most stressful things. But you went right from the landfill situation closure and all of that right into a global pandemic.

8:43 I never thought that we’d look back on the dump as the easy days, the good old days, before moving into a global pandemic. So who knew what we’d be up against and what we’d be experiencing. And you’ve really been unflappable through it all. And Wayne, I really never, you know, you started out just as health director with me serving on the board. But now I consider you one of my good friends in Marblehead. And whenever I come back and we’ll be back soon for a longer period of time, we always sit by the ocean together and have a cup of coffee and talk. And those are the most treasured times. And you even taught me how to go clamming. I mean, I even had a clamming license because of you. So I treasure all of those experiences. And I think about what we were able to accomplish together as a board. I mean, the bread and butter of what we do, whether it be vaccines, not just COVID, but all the other stuff. And then, you know, waste and recycling and composting and, you know, the other things we do. But then the plastic bag initiative and the polystyrene and all the other things that we’ve been able to accomplish that I think were at the forefront.

10:14 And I’m so excited about. The one regret that I have is to be stepping down. And I just posted this on my Facebook page with those darn polystyrene trays still in the schools. But I hear that Todd told me he just had a meeting about that. So you have not heard the last from me because now I’m going to be a loud and boisterous citizen. And I can come to your meetings and, you know, be a rabble rouser from the outside. So I’ll still be around. Don’t you worry. And no more plastic, no more polystyrene trays. And, you know, we’re moving into a new era where, yeah, we the work is not done. We live in a coastal community and we’re facing a changing climate. And the work of the Board of Health is going to be ever more important. So it’s been an honor to serve these past 12 years. It’s been an honor to serve with all of you. And the work continues. And I’m so very excited. I wish Joanne were here today, but I wish her the best because she’s getting married today. But Joanne Miller, when the town, I hope, elects her since she’s running unopposed, is going to be the most fabulous addition to this board. And she will go on to do fabulous things.

11:48 And I know you will all work great together. And for the two citizens who are here that have been, I wish we had more. But Sandra and Pam, thank you for coming to all of these meetings. Pam, you’ve been a tireless advocate in all of your waste reduction efforts. I have never seen anybody work so hard on that. And Sandra, you have been at all of our meetings throughout the pandemic and working on the reopening committee. So thank you. And John, thank you for coming and recording all our meetings. Nobody ever used to attend our meetings. And now we’re like public celebrities, right? So thank you to all of you. And I wish that our last meeting wasn’t Zoom, but I look forward to our in-person gathering when we can give each other hugs and clink glasses. So thanks to all of you. Well, a virtual hug to you and a toast to you. So thank you very much. Hot chocolate. Wayne, thanks for coming. That was great. I hope we have coffee with you in a couple weeks. Awesome. Nice to see you all. Nice to see you, Wayne. You want to do the business part, Wayne? No, that’s okay. You’re on your own. Bye, Wayne. Thanks for dropping by. Thank you. That was special.

13:20 I might not leave for another hour, but… He doesn’t know how to get out of it. Get your wife. Where is she? I’ll get my seven-year-old granddaughter. I can kick you out if you want me to. Andrew, why don’t you dump me out of here? All right. Adios. Bye. How can we continue meeting after all this? I know. How do we meet again? We should have done that at the end. Well, I thought you were, but you were cheering, because I was prepared for the end. Yeah, I can’t prevent that. Then how would we ever get Wayne on here? That was really special. Did you know Andrew’s… Yes. No. Did you know Andrew? I did not. It was good to see him. It was great. Wayne on a Zoom. That’s crazy. All right. So we have a really positive COVID update this week. Yes, we have a very positive COVID update. So our last COVID case, last positive COVID case was May 25th. So we really hope this continues. During the last meeting, I did talk about potentially stopping the weekly report. Todd and I discussed it a little bit. To tell you the truth, I’m going to continue on with it. For those of us that have unvaccinated people in our families, either our kids or our elders, this report is valuable to us.

14:54 And the reason why it’s valuable is that we need to be able to understand what the caseload is in Marblehead so I can make educated decisions. If the caseload begins to go up, I need to take extra precaution with my kids. Obviously, we’re still wearing face masks, any place that we go into, any stores and stuff like that. But I need to be paying attention to that stuff. And I think there’s a bunch of people in town that are also paying attention to that, or I hope they’re paying attention. So at least it’s a way for people to understand how many positive cases there are, what the viral load is in town, and then we can make more informed decisions. So I will continue with that. I’ve pared it down a little bit. So you’re just going to get, it’s just going to be a couple pages. It’s not going to have all the vaccine information on it. It’s really going to be the weekly, or for the last two weeks, what the case reports have been and kind of what’s trending with some of that stuff. Obviously, the mask mandate is going to be on there and people can understand that stuff. So I will continue with that. I think that’s a good reminder for the community. Yeah, I do think it’s a good reminder for the community. So, you know, when we were just kind of talking about it, and I was thinking about my kids and how, you know, obviously, I’m using that information, so I felt that everybody should be using that information to make informed decisions. And that’s the most accurate and probably the easiest way for everybody to get it. Yes, you can go onto the state website and figure out all the information,

16:25 but I’ve put it all in one spot. So we will continue on with that. Our vaccination rates continue to go up, so that’s really, you know, that’s great. Currently, we have 68% of the community is fully vaccinated. I have just over 14% who are one dose away. If you add those two together, we’re at 82% that could be potentially fully vaccinated. We’re actually being vaccinated in the next two weeks. So those are great numbers. Just to kind of share what other communities are out. So we, through a grant, we are actually doing some outreach and some social media campaigns on being vaccinated. So we’re working with a company through MAPC, and we have developed some flyers, and we’re working with, you know, trying to promote businesses and some flyers that they can hang up in their stores to say, you know, we want people to continue to wear masks, or if you’re unvaccinated, you’re allowed to come into my store without a mask, and therefore, so I do have some kind of updates. So as of June 3rd, 59% of the residents across 10 participating communities are fully vaccinated. The 10 communities are Beverly, Danvers, Gloucester, Hamilton, Marblehead, Nahant, Newburyport. Peabody, Salem, and Swam Scott. So obviously, we encourage widespread vaccination among residents,

17:57 business owners, and employees, and work toward a full, safe, and uninterrupted reopening for our local economy. So obviously, the economy was hit really hard, our small businesses, and we want to continue to support them. They are part of our community. So through this, this is our way to kind of support them. So as of June 3rd, 59% of the residents across the 10 participating communities are fully vaccinated, and 68% have been received at their first dose. So we’re doing very well. Obviously, we’ll continue with this campaign to try to get more people vaccinated in the surrounding communities. So the information is very, very basic. You know, we support the North Shore Coalition’s Safe Summer, masked or fully vaccinated, effective May 29th. And so store owners, if they want to participate, they have a, you know, kind of a poster that they can hang up in their winter. And so, and some of the stores, if they want to, you know, they can give out discounts to people that are fully vaccinated. That’s up to them. And obviously, we’re supporting that. We’re not paying for the discounts, but that’s an incentive to try to drive business. Some of the other topics that we’re looking at currently, oh, some of the businesses that we have visited so far that are willing to participate are Blue Canoe, Worldly Pets, Mayflower Cleaners, Eat Well Kitchen, Shoebies, Terry’s Ice Cream, West Marine,

19:28 Positively Marblehead, Marblehead Pediatrics, Ace Hardware, Marblehead Obstetricians, Pint Size and Up, CVS. They’re not allowed to post, hang the poster, but they’re still going to participate. Java Sun, Get in Shape for Women, Marblehead Bank, Animal Hospital, Tony’s Pizza, National Grand Bank, Starbucks, Howling Wolf, Sale in Five, and 7-Eleven. We still have another strip of the downtown area that we need to hit. So hopefully this list will continue to grow. Who’s going into these places to ask for that? So we have volunteers through the MAPC and through MRC. They’re going around speaking with business owners. Do you have a copy of that poster? I have a copy in my office. I can send out a copy of what we have. Or do you want the poster? No, I’m curious to see what it looks like. Yeah, I’ll send it to you guys. It just got dropped off in my office today. Some of the other information that we’re talking about, obviously, is for summer activities and camps. So we just received an update on recreational camps and programs. And really, we want to take a look at their MASC guidelines and stuff like that. So just a couple of big updates on how camps are going to work for the summer. So camps will follow, per the CDC guidance. Fully vaccinated individuals do not need to wear a mask indoors or outdoors, do not need to socially distance while at camp,

21:00 and do not need to quarantine after exposure to COVID-19 unless symptoms develop. A definition of a fully vaccinated individual is fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series, such as Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine. Camps must provide campers with an orientation at the start of session to review COVID-19 protocols, encourage and educate on reporting of symptoms and not coming to camp if sick, and how to request replacement masks if needed. Advise best practices. Camps should congregate unvaccinated staff campers in a way that allows for three feet of distancing between masked individuals indoors. Social distance should be maintained during indoor meals. Limit or promote activities to those that can maintain social distancing. Make enrollment capacity decisions based on the ability to maintain three feet of distance between unvaccinated individuals in all camp buildings where campers, staff are anticipated to be during the day, and in temporary emergency shelter locations. Non-essential visitors who are not vaccinated, including parents or other individuals with no essential purpose for coming on site, should be limited to the maximum extent possible. Essential visitors could include, for example, instructors, vendors, parents picking up children,

22:36 local boards of health, DPH, or accredited members. Designate a senior staff person responsible for responding to COVID-19 concerns. Employees should know who this person is and how to contact them. So it goes on. Obviously, they have their incursion, cohorting, hygiene, hand-washing best practices, personal protective equipment, face masks, and coverings, screening and monitoring, and the mandates. License rec camp staff conducting COVID-19 screenings must be trained by camp health care consultants. COVID-19 vaccinations should be noted with other immunization records. They have advised best practices. They obviously go over isolation and quarantine, transportation and travel, food service and safety, and then additional guidance for certain activities. So they’ve done a good job with all the camp stuff. Obviously, we will have four camps in Marblehead this summer. We tend to have six. We have two camps that are not going to be active this summer, but there should be a lot of normal activities going on. But obviously, there’s still concern about unvaccinated individuals, which is a lot of people, obviously, under 12, and we want to make sure that we continue to have precautions for them. Any questions? What are those four camps that will be open? So we have the JCC. We have Island Roots.

24:08 We have, and then two others that I don’t remember. JCC, I consider one, but it’s kind of broken down into two. What about the sailing ones, Pleon and BYC? The Eastern Yacht Club used to run a sailing camp. They’re not going to be running the sailing camp this summer. The Pleon does a race week and stuff like that, and so all that stuff is normal activity. Other than race week, Pleon’s not having… I think they must be operating a camp or just sailing lessons and stuff like that. And since, well, what about the Y there at Children’s Island? Isn’t that a marvel of a camp? That is not. That’s a sail, that’s permitted by Salem. Oh, it is? Okay. I know that Y itself is, but I didn’t know that the camp… Children’s Island is also in actually Salem, technically. I’ve got a question. I might have missed it. So if the end of a 12-year-old that has to be masked, the counselors, if they’ve been vaccinated, are not masked? Yeah, they do not have… So obviously camps can have their own policy, but counselors that have been vaccinated do not have to wear masks. Because that’s kind of different from what I’ve heard in other places. It’s a good example for the adults to be showing the kids to be masked. It seems to be a better choice, but that’ll be up to the camp, I guess.

25:39 That is up to the camp. And yes, I do agree with you that it is good to lead by example. I’m doing the same thing with my kids going into the store. I’m vaccinated, they’re unvaccinated, so they have to wear the mask. But I’m wearing my mask along with them so they don’t feel kind of left out or whatever. So with outdoor activities and kids under 12, I guess they do not need to be masked at camp? They do not need to be masked, correct. So you have very similar to school guidelines for outdoors. And then in general for… They just came out with a new announcement. So if you’re unvaccinated and I’m going out to dinner with a group of unvaccinated people, and I’m sitting at dinner outside and we have a dinner and stuff like that, and obviously we’re closer than six feet to each other, they are no longer considered a contact if one of us becomes positive. The state has set up new guidelines for outdoors and you are no longer a contact if you’re within six feet for longer than 15 minutes of a positive individual. But if you’re sitting at a table with them unvaccinated through the meal… Outside. Outside, that’s longer than 15 minutes. Correct, it is. And they are not considering that a contact anymore. Because the breakthrough cases are so rare compared to people who are protected by the vaccine. Yes. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but obviously the science is showing that there is not a concern.

27:15 So then that’s up to the individual person to make a choice? Correct. I mean, if we wish to go with unvaccinated people, those of us that are vaccinated. Yeah, but now that you’re vaccinated, you don’t have to quarantine anymore if you’re a contact, regardless if you’re indoor or outdoors. Have you said… Do you have someplace else to go with the COVID report? Because I’ve got a question that seems to be… I’m all set, go right in. Just leaving. I wanted to know about the restaurants in town. Have any of them stopped serving outdoors? Are all of them still doing it? How is that going? So we’re obviously encouraging people to still continue to eat outdoors. All the people that have requested outdoor seating are continuing to do that. We’re actually looking at permanent outdoor seating for establishments. But nobody’s discontinued. None of the restaurants that were doing it have discontinued. Not at this time, no. And are any other, like, smaller places started to serve outside this year that didn’t last summer? I don’t believe so. I think all the establishments that were serving outside last summer are continuing. I don’t believe there’s any new ones. I think that… What’s it called? The kitchen next to Mayflower. Did that have outdoor seating last year? They did. Eat well, kitchen. Yeah. I know my granddaughter likes that. I didn’t really remember them having that little side area. Maybe they didn’t look…

28:48 Well, that’s good. I’m glad they have it now. And that they had it last year. I just didn’t realize it. Sandra has a question. Yes, I was… Is this how your question related to the COVID report? Related to COVID in general, but I can wait till the end. It’s whatever you’re comfortable with. We’re wrapping up the COVID part, so we can just… It’s a small crowd, so why don’t you just ask your question now? Okay. It was just two quick questions. Andrew, I think when we had talked a while ago, I think you had predicted the zero to 19 population in Roblhead. I think it was like 4,500. So based on those numbers, it sounds like most of our eligible 12 and older population has been fully or had already received one vaccine. Is that a good assumption based on those numbers, like the actual breakdowns? I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but yes. When we looked at them the other day, we were very pleasantly surprised about the high numbers from 12 to 19 that have become vaccinated. Yes. And then my second question, and I don’t know… And this is something that I heard, and I don’t even know if the health department is involved in this, but I know that Newton Public Schools had made a comment a couple months ago that if Pfizer gets fully approved, that they were going to mandate it as a vaccine for kids. I know obviously if Governor Baker does, like when he did with the flu, that’s completely different.

30:20 But is there… Does the school committee, can they mandate that, or is that something that you guys are also involved in, if a town… Because then the question is, if that is something that does happen that will influence whether or not they’ll be mask mandates for possibly the middle or the high school. And I’m not sure if that’s even something that you can even comment on. I was just curious. We haven’t looked at that. We haven’t been getting to look at that, Sandra. Okay. Is that all, Sandra? Yeah, that was it. I was just curious what the process for that was. I mean, obviously, like, you know, a lot of colleges, I think I saw the other day, a very high number of colleges in Massachusetts are requiring the COVID-19 vaccination. So, but we have not heard from the state about, you know, are they going to be doing a similar mandate to the flu that they did this past year for COVID? It really depends on when Pfizer and Moderna, you know, is it going to become eligible this summer? We haven’t heard a lot of timelines for those two vaccines yet. But a town themselves cannot mandate it for public school, right? It would have to be mandated by the governor? I would have to look into that. No, I think the Board of Health might be able to mandate that. Okay, I wasn’t sure if it was a mandate from you guys, the Board of Health. Like I said, I just happened to read an article, and the superintendent from Newton had said, once Pfizer gets fully approved and it’s no longer emergency use, that he was going to mandate it.

31:59 And I just wasn’t sure what the process was. If that was just taught, or if that’s actually something that the Health Department or the School Committee actually can do without the governor’s mandate. And obviously, we, so the Board of Health, you know, would be able to do something like that during, you know, obviously during the pandemic. Obviously, we’d have to make sure we know we would need legal guidance from our, you know, our legal team at the state, you know, that’s been working with us the whole time during COVID. And obviously, you know, we would be speaking with the state before we would be looking into doing any of that stuff. So we don’t have enough information at this time to really, you know, I will comment on it, but that’s still something we’ll be looking at during the summer. If that’s even something that the board would be considering. I was just curious. Thank you. Yep. Okay. Michelle, would you like to give your mental health task force up to date? What’s that? Time for your update. Yeah, the Mental Health Task Force. Yeah, so we met this last week and we continued talking about the resource mapping, posting, and we spent a good part of the meeting first hearing the results from the, the watching the video from the high school mental health survey that they had done, which I don’t know who has seen that.

33:37 Andrew has seen that now. Absolutely. In the meeting and Helene has shared it with all of us. I think she shared it with all of us. Yes, I shared it with her. And, which was really, really good to see and kind of the bottom line was that there, you know, are some concerns in the high schools. Certainly with regard to mental health and kind of lack of lack of connection, I think, with some of the students, particularly some concerns about students who identified that they didn’t have an individual, either a teacher or a mentor or somebody that they could connect with. So there were some, there were some points of concern that I think that the survey revealed that will be really important for the community to follow up on and the school community to follow up on. But in general, I think there were also some encouraging results that the students, a lot of them, you know, were doing okay throughout the pandemic and, you know, had found sources of connectivity and, you know, were finding, you know, that there were some hopeful future sources of hope and, you know, looking forward to things and good indicators that most people surveyed were feeling pretty good about their futures.

35:12 We hadn’t heard or seen any of the results from what folks at the middle school level, we didn’t know, we don’t know any of those results. So, and we didn’t hear from the students directly. It was just through this video because those students were graduating, but we’re going to follow up on that on a future, at a future meeting. But then we focused a little bit on trying to figure out kind of where those resources are going to live and how we’re going to be able to make all of these, all, collate all this information and make it accessible to the community. And so we have a couple of our representatives who have identified somebody who’s tech savvy and are going to put us together because what we found is that we have a group of people who are very well versed in mental health, and we are missing that kind of technological know-how of trying to figure out how we’re going to navigate the web piece of this. The other thing we identified is that we are resource poor in terms of, you know, it’s not like we’re sitting on lots of financial resources to figure out how we’re going to be able to make this, once, a lot of the resources sit on a school website, but it’s going, that reopening website, but it needs to transition to something more global for the whole community.

36:48 But Moses Grader, who’s on the selectman, has made a commitment to try and try to figure out how to navigate this and if there’s funds that are available through, you know, COVID resources, etc. You know, he has this on his radar, so that’s good. Of course, I know he’s up for re-election, so, but he’s on the committee and is committed to that. And then at our next meeting, we ran out of time, so our next meeting is going to be largely focused on what kinds of events and activities and kind of other things beyond this resource list we want to focus on. So, what’s the next meeting? The next meeting, I believe, is next Monday the 14th. Yeah, at 7pm. Michelle, will you continue to chair that until the changeover to Joanne? What’s your thoughts on that? I’ll continue to chair that, and then I’m, you know, Joanne’s been out, but I’m going to check in with her. I’ll chair the meetings that are going to happen before, you know, she’s officially elected. And then, you know, if the committee and Joanne are amenable to it, I’m also happy to, you know, serve as a citizen and help with, like, that transition period as she takes over, if the committee’s amenable to that, since we’re still all meeting virtually.

38:20 I’ll also be back in person if the committee is meeting in person. We also decided that even though the summertime is busy for people, we’re going to continue with biweekly meetings. And then, if people just can’t come, they can’t come, come when you can, despite vacation schedules, you know, some people will be there, some people won’t, but we feel like trying to ramp up for the fall and trying to schedule some events and stuff. We didn’t want to lose momentum. Well, if you’re still on Zoom, people could make a choice whether they want to be on Zoom. I think it would be great if you stuck on for a little while and just kind of help you. Yeah, and I’m happy to do that. It’s just a matter, and I can’t imagine anybody saying, like, let’s boot her out of here, you know. Do we need to, like, once we were organized to vote Joanne chair, did that happen as a vote for us, or was it? I don’t think we did an official vote to make me chair, so I don’t know if that’s anything official we need to do. I think the committee itself would have to decide that, not us. Yeah, and the committee was also very informal in terms of how it was organized. Like, I don’t think, like, they didn’t vote me the chair. I just, you know what I mean? Our language said that it was going to be Board of Health directed, and that you were going to be chair. I mean, a member of the Board of Health was going to be chair, so. So we, as a board, can just designate her. I don’t think we need to, like, officially take a vote.

39:55 Do we need to add a citizen, or could she just be that large? How do we, because we did identify two people as citizen, you know, as such. I mean, obviously the meetings are public meetings, so Michelle can participate as a citizen as much as possible. Yeah, although, you know, we do, that might be a little awkward just because we have a specific time for public participation if we want to actively participate in the organization of the meeting. But what we did, you know, with Bob Picarello was just said, you know, how does the committee feel about another, you know, about Bob joining until he is, you know, and everybody was like, we’re fine with it. So I think if you’re all comfortable with this, I think the committee is probably going to be comfortable with Joanne at her first chair meeting saying, how does the, you know, I’d like Michelle to stay on to help with this transition, you know, as a citizen. And I presume people would be happy for that to happen. You know what I mean? I think that’s probably the best way to do it. I’ve got a thought about the high school student survey. I thought that their project, as I told you before you even saw it, was most outstanding. And I think if, and it’s very pertinent to the entire community, I don’t know whether we need their permission. I imagine we do.

41:28 And their supervisor or the superintendent, I would love it to be shown on MHTV. I think it really is important to the entire community to see what they’ve done. Because it does, it’s mostly about the student body, in fact, all about the student body. But I think the parents community and the community at large should see not only what these students have done, but what the entire school community is living through. And don’t forget these students are in the workforce during the summer, and they are at places where they may have certain needs or issues. And they may even have to be excused for health appointments. And from work, I think that just people have an understanding of what is going on. I would love to have it on MHTV or any place that it can go. So does anybody have any more knowledge? I actually think, I mean, I think having it on MHTV makes sense, but I think just including a link, like on the website and on our Facebook page is good, because then people can watch it at their leisure. They just click on it, and they can watch it whenever they want. It’s just a… Do we need that permission, or is it already… But I think we reach out to Gina. I think that was the faculty advisor, and ask her what she thinks.

43:00 You know, I… I’d like me to take that on, because she wrote to me initially on that. Yeah. I’ll take on to see whether it can be, if the students need to sign off on it, and I’ll get back to you and to the rest of the committee. And whether… If we send it over to MHTV, will we be able to ask you to show it, John? We’d be happy to run it. Okay. It was outstanding. Yeah, 16, 15 or 16 minutes, I think. And then, yeah, do you want it to be a link both on the mental health page and the board of health page? I would like it to be wherever it can be. Okay. I mean, I… It was very well done, so, yeah. Outstanding. I mean, if it had… If it was more relevant to other communities, I think it should be statewide, but it’s only relevant to our community. But it’s excellent. Yep. Todd just froze. Uh-oh. Look at him. He looked like he fell asleep. Fell asleep? Your computer fell asleep. My computer just froze. Was it my computer? Yeah, it was your computer. All right. So, thank you, Michelle, for the report, and time for Andrew’s second report of the night.

44:35 All right. So, Director’s Report. We… I have finished an application, grant application to DEP for recycling. This is kind of an annual application that we’ve been doing to them. We received $16,000 last year, just over $16,000. We buy… You know, this year, we’re purchasing a 40-yard container for cardboard. We’ve purchased a lot of our larger cycling containers at the transfer station, and we’ll continue to look at things. So, you know, we’ve put in the application. We’re estimating that we can receive another… a little over $13,000 coming in this next fiscal year. So, that’s in, and we won’t… Usually, we don’t hear anything until… We usually don’t get the official letter until October, but usually it’s not a problem. We just received another grant through the state of Massachusetts for… to continue on with our North Shore Shared Public Health Services grant. This is with Swam Scott, Lynn, Nahant, Salem, Beverly, and Danvers. This is a three-year grant, and this totals $300,000. So, we will be looking at hiring an epidemiologist to continue on with any kind of trace… case tracing, you know, contact tracing that we will need to do. We will be looking at potentially using it for social media. We’ll use it for inspections. We’ll use it for other, you know, other public health areas

46:09 that we need to improve on, where some communities are kind of lacking in some of those services. So, housing inspections, food inspections, any other inspections that we need to conduct, and due to the workforce, they’re unable to do that, or the demand of the, you know, of these inspections is so high that we’ll need to, you know, contract with other people. So, we are looking to hire a grant coordinator, some inspectors, and the epidemiologists. We will be working to write up these, you know, agreements in the next couple of months. So, I’ll share more information about that. But the big stuff is that, yes, this will continue another three years with a total of $300,000 to be shared between all the communities. We had a meeting today at the high school for what’s called Planning for Success. I believe the school committee is meeting tonight to meet with parents. The idea today was that department heads got to meet with the superintendent to go over what we thought we would like to see in the school system in 2026. Obviously, you know, Michelle, this goes back to a lot of things in the lane that we always wanted to see. You know, we need the formation of the Health and Wellness Committee. We really want that resource officer back in the schools. Obviously, we want composting in all of the schools, not just the high school. We want the removal of the styrofoam trays, and ideally, it should be a compostable tray.

47:41 We also want them to install dishwashers in all their schools so that they can reuse utensils, so they’ll have real silverware and do that. We also want them, and I’m pretty sure this is going to get implemented sooner, is that YRBS survey. So, through Gina Hart, Gina is also working on the YRBS survey, and my understanding is that the school committee has agreed to implement that again. So, that’s really good. So, you know, obviously, like we were looking at, you know, sustainability, capital improvements for the school, you know, long-term mental health strategies, so mindfulness, yoga, any of that stuff that’s, you know, very popular these days. Obviously, you know, through the pandemic, one of the biggest things that we’ve counted on is technology. We all thought that we had robust technology, you know, robust internet service, and that’s not the case all the time. And so, we definitely saw some gaps, and so, how do we fix that? You know, yes, maybe we need internet access across the whole community. You know, I should be able to, you know, be in a park and be able to get, you know, internet access to be able to do some research, but we want to make sure that, you know, there’s internet access for all. So, we talked a lot about planning and money and technology. So, those are some of the ideas that came out of the meeting today. I think the idea is that they gather all these different things, and they continue on with this planning for success strategy. So, that’s what we did today at the school. I gave you guys the update on PAMPS and masks.

49:15 Juneteenth. So, the state of Massachusetts has adopted the holiday of Juneteenth, which is going to be June 19th. It’s a state holiday. It’s recognized by the Employees Union and by the town. We will be observing this holiday on June 18th. So, on June 18th, we’re asking that the transfer station be closed. We will still have curbside collection for trash recycling, and then we’ll have to have two attendants at the transfer station to work that day to deal with the trash truck, but general business will be closed at the transfer station on June 18th for the observance of Juneteenth. Does the board have any concerns or questions about that? We’re always closed on holidays like Martin Luther King Day. Correct. But also, on state hall. Is this being determined as a legal commonwealth holiday? Yes, it’s a legal commonwealth holiday. They’re also observing it June 18th at Abbott Hall. I think they’re going to raise another flag. I was incorrect last week that it was at a different date, but it’s going to be on the 18th. So, the transfer station will be open on the 17th, regular hours. The transfer station will be open on the 19th, regular hours. The office will be closed on the 17th at 1230. We close on 1230 on Fridays.

50:45 They need to give us a full day. Therefore, we’re closed at 1230 on the Thursday the 17th. So, obviously, we’ll put out notification for that. That will be on the town website. We’ll make sure people know that’s regular collection, but we will be observing this as a state holiday. We have household hazardous waste collection. We’ve been closed. Wait, I thought you just said, you said, can you repeat that because I thought you said that it was, that the transfer station was going to be closed on the 18th, but regular pickup. But you just said regular hours on the 18th. So, did I miss you? Okay, so the transfer station is closed on the 18th. Okay. We will have regular curbside collection on the 18th, and the transfer station will be back open on the 19th for regular hours. But they will be closed on the 18th. We have household hazardous waste residential collection event tomorrow. The event is full, so we got over 100 people participating between Marblehead and Swamp Scott. We will have another event in September. So, if you’re unable to set up for this event, we’ll have another event in September. We will work to get the date in the next couple of weeks, and I will post that date shortly. And that’s it for Director’s Report. Do you mind just mentioning the pizza box changes?

52:18 Oh, yeah. So, recently the state of Massachusetts has changed their policy on pizza boxes. There used to be a concern that the grease in pizza boxes would contaminate the recycling stream. They did a research project. They did find that that’s not the truth, or is not the case. So, pizza boxes can now, with no food, so no cheese and no other crust in the box, can now be placed in your recycling bin. A lot of us who have compost collection were putting it out curbside for compost collection, and recently that stuff was not picked up if we were sticking it under our container. But you can put that in your recycling bin. It should go right in your bin. No food waste. Yes, some of the grease smudge on the paper and stuff like that. But yes, there’s going to be a lot of confused questions about that over the last couple of weeks. But if you go to the Recyclopedia, which is through Recycle Smart, where you input, you ask, you know, can I recycle this? Can I recycle that? You know, can I recycle a light bulb? No, you can’t recycle that. This is where it goes. Pizza boxes now come up with yes, you can recycle that. And it has the reason why. Thanks. For those listening, could you tell us what YRBS stands for?

53:53 The YRBS’s Youth Risk-Based Survey. So that’ll come back, yeah. Good. And you’ve suggested the Health and Wellness Committee again. Correct. And obviously, having a board, a health member, or, you know, somebody from the department sitting on it. But that actually is mandated by the state, isn’t it? Yes. It is. Not that a board of health member sits on it, but that there is a wellness committee. So if there isn’t one, then the school department is out of compliance for that. Another question just about that, about the school meeting that you had. I know you said, you know, if you’re advocating for dishwashers in all the schools, that I would say ideally then if it’s possible, if there’s dishwashers in the school, then I would say reusable trays are the best way to go versus compostable trays, if that’s possible. So we have to do a little bit of research on that, Michelle, because one of the complaints you always get with the composting and the trays is that it’s actually easier to just take the whole tray and throw it away, rather than getting the kids to scrape the food and putting the tray over here. So we need to do a little bit of research on that one. Okay. Yeah.

55:23 I mean, and the research is out there, I’m sure. So, and then the other thing I wanted to say, just to put on your radar if you’re having these conversations, is up there with all of these other important things in the environmental health area is to keep the kind of green cleaners on the radar and because I know that’s not always front and center and make sure they’re using like the best possible green products. You know, because I think, you know, the pandemic, I think, waylaid some of the, you know, like, I think a lot of communities, a lot, I think people across the country kind of like during the pandemic got like crazed about cleaning and there’s a lot of now good resources that, through my work, that I have access to about, you know, how we can still be COVID safe and promote safer chemicals. So I’m happy to share any information, just to make sure that stays on people’s radar. So, yeah, so that kind of came under Healthy Schools, Healthy Students, using healthy products that are, you know, like you said, organic. So do remember that even though during COVID, we still try to use healthy products. So, you know, yes, we’re using spic and span and stuff like that on doorknobs,

56:56 but when we were fogging buildings, that was a totally organic product. That was a time, as in time, the plant-based product for killing COVID. So we tried to keep that in, you know, there was a lot of other people that were concerned about it, not just students. So we definitely, you know, we were making sure that we were doing that right up front and having a product that was safe for all. We had concerns about pregnancy and long-term exposure to this stuff. So we wanted to make sure the product that we’re using was safe for all and not just COVID compliant. Good. And I think there was one other thing. Oh, and how was the reception to all of this? So obviously the reception was like, it’s just a one-way right now because they’re just gathering all the information. You know, it’s just called planning for success. They take all, we wrote it all down and gave them a quick presentation and they take all the sheets and they’re going to obviously collate it and all that stuff and figure out the direction that they can, are able to go into. Great. So the health area was just one part of this. Yeah, the health was really just one part of it. So other departments made other presentations, other town departments, or just the rest was within the schools? No, so it was, you know, other town departments, you know, we all worked together. So different pieces came out. Obviously like capital improvements, you know,

58:27 we’re investing a lot of money in these schools. We need to make sure we do a lot of maintenance and that needs to be high priority. And the maintenance can be very, you know, part of that healthy schools, healthy students. If we’re not taking care of our buildings and we’re getting leaking, you know, then we’re having moisture issues and that’s contributing to mold or the potential of mold. So those are all the things that you have to keep in mind. You know, obviously a big piece that we’re talking about was sustainability. That’s, you know, that’s been a big piece that we’ve been talking about a lot recently. So we want to make sure that they are looking at sustainability. Yes, technology. I mean, obviously, you know, through COVID, we used a lot of technology to get through this. There are a lot of benefits to having these Zoom meetings. We reached a lot more people. And just the fact that we need to do a lot of more cross sharing. It shouldn’t be just about the town and the school. It should be about the whole community. And so the schools have some great resources. And maybe, you know, when we’re looking at some of these school spaces, maybe the school has great meeting rooms that we can all use, obviously after school hours and stuff like that. So we need to make sure that we’re looking at stuff that it’s not just good for the schools, but maybe it’s great for the community as well to use other areas. It’s good that there’s a beginning of a back and forth. Well, not a back and forth yet, but the beginning of a dialogue. Yep. Are you going to be giving a beach testing report? Have you done it testing yet? We have not become testing.

59:58 We’ll be getting tests in the next couple of weeks. So as soon as I have reports, I will start to talk about that. You know, the only thing about the beach right now is that we did get a couple of concerns about some seaweed on the beach over the weekends. We have this red seaweed around again. Obviously, you know, this red seaweed is something that we’re going to be dealing with forever now. You know, it has taken hold in our waters off the coast of Marblehead. There is some odor to it. So we were getting some concerns. I have spoken with the conservation agent about the potential to try to do something with it. So we’re going to continue to look at that and kind of see what some of the issues are. Now, right away, some of the issues are odor. And so we want to see how quickly does it break down quickly or is it going to disappear in this next high tide? And it’s not really going to be a problem. Or is it going to be, you know, what we don’t want to have happen is what’s happening in Lynn, where that odor becomes very strong and now they’re actually removing it. So if it’s something that we do need to remove it, we do need to get conservation permission, but we can begin that work now. And so in years to come, we will be ready to deal with that. Weren’t they using some kind of a product for that odor in Lynn? No. So in Lynn, I believe, well, they might have been using a product, but I think the best, you know, is using a bulldozer or a loader to scrape the beach and then remove it. So they’re removing it off-site. Because it’s been…

1:01:30 It’s the same species that’s now coming to Marblehead that’s been… Yeah, it’s the same species. Well, we don’t need that. Yeah. This is just a small question, but the recycling issue today with the trucks, was that just a pocket of downtown that that was a problem? Yeah, it’s something that we’ll have to continue to pay attention in that area. You know, so today we got a complaint that the recycling was being thrown with the trash into one truck. So it’s something that we’re obviously… Obviously, we don’t allow. And we need to… You know, what happens a lot of times is that the two, the recycling truck and the trash truck, are, you know, very similar. So sometimes people get concerned, they look out their window, oh, that’s the trash truck when it’s actually the recycling truck or vice versa. But we want to make sure that trash or recycling is not being thrown in the trash. And so, yes, we will continue to pay attention with that. I always speak with the route manager. I was able to speak with the driver. We do have a new recycling driver in town. And the best thing for people to remember is that make sure when you put your recycling out that it’s in, you know, it should be in a container that says recycling. Make sure there’s no styrofoam, no loose or thin film plastics. If these guys see it’s a contaminated product, they’re going to leave it behind. Or it’s going to get thrown in the trash.

1:03:01 They just take the whole… They’re going to take the whole thing, it’s contaminated. It’s in the trash. Well, those are all good things to know because I was the one that called you about that after I got the call. Yep. Thank you for that. But, yeah, so we’ll be over there again next week to just make sure it’s getting sorted out properly and that the recycling is not being thrown away in the trash. As long as it’s being done properly. You know, it’s very refreshing to be talking about some other issues other than the COVID, isn’t it? It is. So I wish we had more people at the meeting because they now can see what we can do when we’re not bogged down with the pandemic. I mean, we are in the middle of pandemic, but we certainly have a little bit more time to pay attention to all our other areas that come under our jurisdiction. True enough. And thank you for taking all of them on because you’re just replacing all the work you’re doing in the pandemic with all these other areas. So it’s… Which is good. It’s a good change. It’s a good change, but it’s a lot of work. Thanks for that report. And Sandra, Pam, John, any public participation? Okay. So any parting words, Michelle? No.

1:04:31 Thank you very much. I look forward to attending as a citizen. I still have some task force meetings. So if you all decide you want to attend as a… I don’t know how that all works. So hopefully I’ll see you there. And thank you for everyone’s hard work. And I look forward to seeing you in other spaces. Thank you, Michelle. Thanks very much. Was Tom not here for a reason? Tom’s at the League of Women Voters thing tonight. Oh, it’s their annual meeting. Yeah, I forgot about… I mean, I didn’t forget, but yes, it’s… Because I’m on that… I’m on the lead. Yes, the annual meeting tonight. So should I make a motion to adjourn? Of course. I’ll make a motion to adjourn my last Board of Health meeting. Second. Ms. Gottlieb. In favor. Ms. Aislet. In favor. Dr. Balthaker. In favor. All right. Thank you, Michelle. Bye, everyone. You’re on, Michelle.