Board of Health: March 12, 2024

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:07 We’re ready to start our meeting. Continue with our meeting. We have a glitch there. I’d like to introduce Joyce Redford, the director of the KAN Tobacco Control. That’s good. Is that enough? Yeah. Um, I’m here tonight because the new member, um, wait, I Want you introduce you to, uh, I’m sorry, Michael, go ahead. This is, uh, Mr. Tolan Joyce Red. Good. How are you? Good. Um, just for a little background, been doing this for 25 years. Um, we’ve gone from just being the North Shore program to, uh, through evolution and regulations to becoming, uh, north Shore and Cape Van. Um, the collaborative consists of 16 municipalities,

0:54 of which Marblehead is one of them. So, um, my role tonight, I believe, was to go over, um, some updates in the, uh, regulation, tobacco regulation, and also, um, I know that we sent the regulation regarding marijuana fields in non, um, CCC, cannabis Control Commission licensed or permanent establishments, as well as synthetic marijuana, which I’ll talk about after I talk about the tobacco rate. Um, I, I gave you guys, uh, just a menu of items that I’m gonna go over, and I don’t know that I’ll follow them. One a, you know, one through 17. I just wanna, um, touch base with the ones that the town has already adopted.

1:42 So if we start from the bottom up, um, some of these updates are gonna be reflective of what state law is, which went into affect, uh, June 1st, 2020. Um, a lot of changes happened in the tobacco regulation world at that point. Um, but prior to that, your regulation, you folks did have the word shell in your language, um, which is a good thing. That means there’s not a lot of wiggle room and someone, or anyone comes before you, um, with some reason why something happened if it wasn’t evidence. Like, if they can’t produce evidence that the, the violation did or didn’t happen. Um, you have a seven day suspension when there’s a sale to a minor.

2:28 Uh, well, let’s stop by first saying 36 months is a tolling period. So we’re either looking back 36 months or looking forward if it’s a first violation today, we would say for the next 36 months moving forward, you can’t have a viol. If you have a violation, it’ll fall into a second violation and a third violation. If there’s no violation within that 36 months, it goes back, the, the clock restarts. So it would be their first violation, uh, at that point. But if a violation happened today, and we were looking back 36 months, we’d be looking back, has there been a violation at that establishment in the past 36 months? So when we’re talking about tolling, period, that’s what we’re talking about. Um, state law. Now, may I just ask you a question? Yep. So,

3:15 If establishment had a violation on month one, that’s, that’s the first violation. It w if it, if it started today and they didn’t have any other history Yes. Moving forward, we’d be looking 36 months ahead if there was a second or a third. Um, but this is already enacted. So we, we look back at someone’s history. If, if we were out today and we did compliance checks and there was a violation, every one of your establishments has a history with us, we’d be looking back 36 months. I see. Make sense? Yes. Okay. Um, so state law, as of June 1st, 2020, um, state law requires that the Board of Health enact a vi, I mean a, um, a suspension period

4:02 for a first violation. It when it’s a sale to a minor. Mm-Hmm. So previously we would do, uh, first violation was a hundred dollars fine, no suspension. Um, second violation within 36 months was $200 in a seven day suspension. And then it went to $300 within 36 months and a 30 day suspension. So you already adopted here in Marblehead, the seven day and the 30 day suspension. But the state requires that the board make a decision between one and 30 days on a first violation. What, how long you want that, um, suspension to be? I’m recommending to you as I have to all the other boards that I’ve sat in front of within our collaborative,

4:49 and a majority of them have adopted, and I recommend a three day suspension. Uh, the reason for the three days is we already have seven. Um, the retailers have to remove all products off premise, and it, that is kind of a hassle for even me to get out there and double check that they did what they were supposed to do with under a one day suspension committee to get there on the day of the suspension. And did they, or didn’t they pull out all their products? So this would be in line with Salem, uh, Beverly sga. Um, I don’t think Swan Scott has not adopted the three day suspension yet, but a meeting with them this month. So that language will be proposed there as well. So I’m recommending that a three day suspension be the,

5:35 what we are gonna, I’m assuming, Andrew, correct me if I’m wrong, I’m thinking that whatever the board decides to tonight, we’ll do up in a draft. So now yeah, everything will go to town council and they’ll draft everything. Okay, perfect. So, um, just these are just some decisions, like nothing is made concretely tonight, just walking you through what’s changed at the state level and how that will change change at the local level, state law is the lowest threshold. So you can’t go any lower than what state law is. So we, we used to do, uh, 100, 200, 300. And as of June 1st, 2020, those fines are $1,000 for our first violation and a suspension, I’m recommending three days. Um, the second violation is a $2,000 fine

6:22 and a seven day suspension. And the third violation, all of this within 36 months would be $5,000 and a 30 day suspension. And sadly, we have, uh, retailers who have hit the $8,000 mark, which is because they’ve had egregious violations and they were stacked. So we, we are already there with some of our, um, not marblehead. No. Um, so that is a change that has to happen. The dollar amounts have to change ‘cause that’s the lowest we can go. Um, you have to decide on a number of day suspension for a first violation when it’s a sale to a minor. If we found another violation like FLA is in their establishment or some other violation, it wouldn’t be a suspension.

7:08 It’s only when there’s a sale to a minor on a first violation. Um, I just ask you about, so basically you’re saying you, you’d recommend changing this one for where it says one to seven To three to seven. Yeah. No, No. Yes. So for the day, so like, so for the first violation to be a thousand dollars fine with a three day suspension. So That, so this one on the first violation would be three to seven then right? Three. Just three. Just Three. Just three. So there’s seven. Okay. Right. So, and we already have seven. We second marble head Yes. As the second. So three is the first, um, the 36 month tolling period is already in your regulation. I recommend keeping it unless you, there’s some reason to wanna have longer,

7:56 um, tolling period. The only one who does out of our 16 municipalities is Swans. Scott. They look back 60 months. So they look back five years. But yeah, no, it’s unusual. But isn’t that greater than the Commonwealth? And you say, we can’t do greater, you can do greater, you can Be more restrictive. Commonwealth.

8:15 Right. And they had that in even before the state law. Um, the other thing that I’m gonna recommend in the case where, um, we have, there’s only three instances where state law didn’t include things that are, we work on at the local level, blunt wraps. And I don’t see that specifically defined in your regulation from 2016. I would recommend that we add it. Um, blunt wraps are typically just rolled tobacco leaves. Um, back in the day, we knew that those were being used with cannabis, um, illicitly with young people because they were typically flavored. Um, I would recommend that we have it.

9:00 It’s in all the other communities surrounding us that blunt reps are banned. Um, I have pictures of ‘em. Gimme two seconds. Just you can just pass them around. I only have one. Same on the colored ink.

9:16 These are some of the many versions of what a blunt rep is. Um, and typically, even if, if you think about, you know, cannabis being legal now, um, I don’t think there’s a doctor in the world that would say, whatever benefit you’re getting from cannabis, you should roll it with tobacco. Um, it is just whatever benefit you’re potentially getting from it would be undermined by tobacco. So I would recommend including lent reps as part of the band. My recommendation, um, in line with our, uh, neighboring communities, um,

9:54 educational institutes. I feel like we’ve went over this at some point in the past, but I’ll go over it now. Banning the sale of tobacco products in an educational institute, you don’t have one here in Marblehead, it would be like Salem State bookstores selling cigarettes. So you don’t have one in Marblehead. And state law, ironically said, not in pharmacies, but they didn’t address educational institutes. I would say added in. Anyone who, any school that came to be in Marblehead, if ever just wouldn’t be able to sell to Bat ho products to stu Well, to anybody underage. Um, if it’s a, If, if it’s a private, uh, school, if somebody’s like Running any kind of school, any educational institute, Any, if they’re running an English

10:40 SAT program or something Like that, yeah, you shouldn’t have a, what we are recommending is they don’t have a store that you buy cigarettes. Okay. In that, in that location, in an, in an educational institute. Um, the next one up on this ladder is, oh, defining structure. So in the cases of those unique language pieces, one is the educational institute. One is blunt reps and one is cigar pricing and packaging, which you guys didn’t adopt either. Cigar pricing and packaging is aimed at not your cigar or fishing unit where you pay $15 or $30 or however much an expensive cigar is. But it was geared towards youth who were using little cigarillos and cigars. They were selling ‘em before for 99 cents.

11:26 Um, around us all surrounding us. And in, I think all but maybe winham, they adopted cigar, minimum cigar pricing and packaging, which means one item, one cigar or cigarillo would have to be two 50 and two or more. And they come in packages of 2, 3, 4, 5 20 would have to be minimum of,

11:53 and it was really about deterring young people from, for very short money buying these products. So two 50 each, but could be $5 for two. Yep. And this is not typically argued by the retailer ‘cause it doesn’t cost them anymore. They just make more money on it. And we’re looking at the money part. We’re looking at keeping it out’s hands. But the retailer is very rarely opposed to this because it’s, they’re making a more, more profit margin on the one or two that they sell. Can I, can I, if they sell three or four or five, those could be five or $5. No, it would be two for $5. Three for $5. Four for $5. Five for five. Any more than any more than one has to be a minimum of five.

12:39 A minimum of five. Yeah. So there’s something out there now it’s called backwards. There’s five in the package. Most stores sell ‘em for like 7 99. So again, you can go over that. You just can’t sell it for 4 99. You know. So in those three cases that I just mentioned, if they’re adopted, you would have, those are not in state law. And because they’re not in state law, they would defer to your local finding structure, which is the one, two and $300 fine. It’s administrative nightmare to keep track of. ‘cause you could potentially have a sale to a minor this week. Um, next week you have cigar packaging pricing violation.

13:24 So this sale to the minor would be a thousand dollars three day suspension. A month later, a week later, however long later, we go in there and we do an inspection. And the pricing is off pricing packaging, or they’re selling blunt reps. That would be a $200 time. And then if in the following month or year or within the 36 months, they had a third violation, it would be $5,000. So it would go 1,205,000. Because those things aren in state law. And if you just say everything in this regulation falls under the finding, same finding structure, structure the state, it makes it a lot easier. Um, Salem has adopted this. Beverly has adopted this Swan.

14:10 Scott will probably be having this exact same conversation. SGAs is already in past the conversation that we are having here. And they have a draft regulation being presented to them next month. So this is just co we learned by mistakes actually, because it’s, which had a couple, couple others had done it. You know, they, they separated. Lynn being one of ‘em. Lynn separated their violations and it made no sense at all. Like, it, it’s very difficult to follow along. So you could walk into a store and that three violations on the first visit and end up with a 30 day suspension of 5,000 Claim. You could, um, I, we it would be like, in that case, I don’t, my question to the board, would it you that you, well, here’s an example of

14:55 what could happen to Stack fines. We could have one compliance check. We send a minor into a store. He asks for crave a a vape product. He sold a vape product. It’s flavored and it’s 5%. That’s three violations. What, what did you say? Annie’s minor. Yeah. So you have, so he sold to a min, so that’s one he sold flavor or she sold flavor and sold a product that, that nicotine content is not nowhere in Marblehead. Is there an adult only establishment that could sell the higher level of nicotine? Because it would be adult only. And we don’t have any here.

15:42 So potentially if we sent in a youth and they asked for Grave Crave and the person said, and this is a, this happened recently, the person behind the couch that pulled out a box of these that were all flavored and said to the youth, which one not supposed to be selling flavor at all. Um, she was a minor and it wasn’t the wrong nicotine, but that has happened. So you, if you, in Salem, one of the discussions where it was, you know, because someone was actually being fined and stacked, so it reached a level of $8,000. Um, and the argument from his, the retail side was

16:27 that it all was one event. But just like food code, you, if someone goes in and does an inspection for food code, you don’t just find one thing. It’s like, you had this wrong, this wrong, this wrong. Um, and coincidentally there was a, um, not coincidentally, he sits on the board, uh, he sits as a liaison for the city council and he was there and he said, well, that’s a kosha. They go to a job site and there’s multiple violations. They don’t find you for just one thing. ‘cause it was one visit. So that would be a, a decision for the board. And it really helps in terms of keeping track of really egregious retailers. You know, if you have a real problem retailer who is doing multiple things wrong,

17:13 especially when it involves you. Um, it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. So, and I, I wouldn’t see looking right now sitting, looking back at like some of our retailers here in town. I, I wouldn’t say, oh yeah, these three are on my, you know, rate out potentially having a stacked fine. Um, you know, there’s there, uh, regular, there’s been sales to a minor, but none of these, you know, extenuating issues with our retails. But it, it ke gives you the ability to kind of cut them to the quick, like if you’re gonna sell to the kids and you’re doing things you’re not supposed to be doing illegally, you guys want the power to pull them back. And that’s where that comes in the stacking fines. So it could be a one visit and multiple fines stacked.

18:02 Um, or if it’s just one violation, let’s say it’s a sale to a minor and they have 36 months where they, because we go out at least once a year to every establishment within our whole collaborative, that’s 400 approximately. And then the state assigns us somewhere between 40 and 60% that we have to go out and check a second time within a year. And then we typically follow up on someone where there’s been a violation because, you know, it’s only a moment in time and they’ve sold. We just wanna make sure that that was, uh, an unusual circumstance. We, we don’t have that many people that even sell tobacco. We sell the board six, six I I there must I I know we have new board members so far. Yeah. Six. It’s a small amount that we’re talking About. It’s a Joyce’s

18:47 group does the inspections. Yeah. So we don’t do the inspections. They send people out to do the inspections. Uh, they’re generally twice a year. Um, so first half of the year, second. Now, when we talk about staffing fines, that’s not just a black and white Right. That comes before us and we get to hear it and then decides in case there’s any nuance or something. Like they have some case to, you know, I would say that in the, the reasons why, the reasons why we help you guys develop like the shell language rather than the May. But that one definitely is a may. Okay. The board may make this decision. Okay. Um, but it’s because you’ll hear every story and whoever you know has a sad story. And I’ve heard them all. Mm-Hmm. Is what you wanna take out of the mix,

19:34 because legally we wanna protect you guys. And So generally they would go in, they would, you know, the violations would occur. We get the letter. Yeah. Um, we send the letter off to the establishment. The establishment chooses to, um, you know, appeal. Appeal. Then they come before the board. Okay. And not everyone appeals. Like they look at their own video and we No, I just wanted to know that there’s, in case there was some extenuated, I dunno what it is. It’s, I’m sure there Always have the right to come before we have not had an appeal. Yeah. And 99% of the retail is across the whole state have videoed. So they’d on video, you know, so they can check their own video.

20:19 We say, oh, at this date, approximately this time we came in and our youth bought this product. And they go back and they go, yep, It’s not, Um, and now actually, if they came before you and you, they had an appeal and you upheld it and they wanted to appeal it further because it’s the state law, they now go to Superior Court. They don’t go to district court for these appeals. If it goes beyond you that in this history, I haven’t remembered anybody doing that here. No. Um, I’m going to also say we don’t have any adult only retailers. And I think that it, it makes sense in this community to prohibit them before you have them. Um, and I don’t wanna be disparaging to every adult only retailer,

21:05 but, um, they have become sort of our nemesis. Um, we’ve revocated three permits, uh, in the last like year and a half. And there are potentially a couple more on the, in the radar of being permanently revoked because of just such egregious, one of them is not one multiple of them. Uh, were selling cannabis in an unlicensed establishment along with multiple tobacco violations. So those are, in my opinion, bad actors. We don’t want them in our little town or our big cities to corrupt odd kids. So since we don’t have ‘em, it’s an easy one to say zero. We don’t want any. And on that same note, um,

21:54 ban on smoking bars in our ETS regulation, um, I believe it said, we make no exception. It says, you know, we is smoking prohibited and it gives you a list working places, any public place, uh, into a public place. Um, rabble headwind as far as doing some in your Cox and playgrounds certain areas, beaches, the ones that you run. Um, anything that’s run by DCR is smoke free. Um, so having a smoking bar, the, I think there’s 18 in the whole state and they’re in Worcester, Springfield, and Boston. So I say ban them. Well, you don’t have them. Um, we are being explicit where before it was implied because it said, we make no exception for smoking bars. Um, it’s the only place in the state that you’re supposed

22:42 to be able to buy, like, be able to be buying flavored product. But it has to be consumed on premise. So imagine I own a smoking bar. I sell you a pack of Newports, which are banned everywhere at the regular retail level. You have to stay there and smoke 20 cigarettes. Mm-Hmm. Or 10 cigarettes, whatever it is, 10 dependen the while you’re there. It’s not happening. So they’re just walking out the door. It’s just one less thing. We don’t have them, we, it’s easy to just say we don’t want them. Um, and obviously Model Head doesn’t look like any of those communities. Um, the no new, um, retailers within so many feet from an existing, uh, permit retailers like this.

23:30 But, uh, you, I don’t think we’ve seen, you know, there’s been attrition of loss of retailers since this, uh, restaurant. I mean the Smokefree workplace. Um, so I don’t, I don’t think there’s a need for it. If you guys, do you wanna pick an amount of space between two retailers? I’m thinking here’s an example where it, it means new retailers because let’s say you said a thousand feet, and I’m just using this, I have no idea what the actual measurement is, but between, um, village, ma Village, uh, market, I’m saying that wrong in on Pleasant Street market. Mm-Hmm. It is village market. And then I would guess a thousand feet, or pretty close to that is the liquor store.

24:16 Mm-Hmm. So you’re not, you wouldn’t say one of them has to go, it would be moving forward. So no new establishment within so many feet, or you can just leave it and leave it as, I don’t anticipate a big flood of tobacco retailers in the town of Marblehead anytime soon. But if the board felt compelled to do that, another one would be so many feet, uh, close to a school. School. And just off the top head thinking about this, there’s the richdale. I mean, you go down the street around the corner, but it’s pretty close to the high school. And I think there is even like a, is it a private elementary school or something on that side street? Yeah, on the side. Yeah. Yeah. So again, we wouldn’t be getting rid of Richdale, but we in the future wouldn’t want another establishment

25:04 potentially so many feet from a school. Um, maybe the town is too small, maybe there just aren’t gonna be enough retailers. Something to think about. We can add it. Um, even if you go to a public hearing, you can add it. Um, it would mean doing a Google search. Like how far is the distance from point A to point B? Um, a place like Lynn, I would love to see this just because they have so many retailers, but they also have Corner Corner, so they won’t do it because it would take forever to actually get to the point of reducing anything. And in Marblehead, I just don’t see like a big influx of retailers that would wanna come into town. Um, this is a more of a question, Andrew.

25:50 I mean, obviously the board’s decision, but, uh, no permit renewals with any outstanding fines. Um, I don’t know how your, are yours currently mailed out or can they do it online or No, they get mailed out. Okay. Yeah. So that would be an easy enough thing. Sometimes when it’s online, it’s hard to realize who has an outstanding violation. Yep. But it, it, it has not been an issue. So, uh, you know, you could put it in and it just prevents, maybe if you’re chasing people for permits or permit fees. If you’re not, then I say if it’s not broken. Yeah. Um, no permit renewal. This is something for the board. If you had, um, a person within 36 months, a retailer sell to a minor three times, um,

26:39 the permit would not be renewed. I would say it’s unlikely to happen here. It, I can’t remember it ever being that bad. But I would also say you always have the opportunity to pull someone’s permit. You don’t need it in the language to, to specifically state. ‘cause it would almost sound like there’s no wiggle room in that if you put it in the reg, if you don’t, the board always has the opportunity to pull back a permit that they issue. So if you find that they, that an establishment is really a problem, you could pull back the permit. But Isn’t that more difficult than having it in the, in the, uh, statement? Yes, I think so. Yes. So do you, would you wanna say that if you have someone who has three within 36 months,

27:27 that there would not be a renewal and it would be shell not be a renewal?

27:35 Well, you’re asking someone who doesn’t approve of smoking. So, I mean, I don’t approve of smoking, but I always have to leave wiggle room for some nuance. And so I believe that may, you know, I, or would 99 out of a hundred say no, but I, I don’t know those extra in circumstances. Yep. Okay. So so you want that in with the word may if I’m gonna update? Yeah. Okay.

28:00 I do. I don’t know. I, I don’t speak for everyone, So I, I’m, so, so we can, so when we have town council drafted up, I’ll have it set up. So it’s like you go debate the, the mayor the shall Yeah, let’s do that. So you don’t have to make a decision tonight. We’ll have an actual public hearing and we can, you know, go over that. Okay. And at any time that’s you’re capable of, you know, especially when it’s a small nuance of a change, you can do that in a meeting without being a public hearing. Mm-Hmm. If you choose not, um, I, again, my recommendation, it’s you have a, there’s a something we call a simple cap. It’s just cap in the number of tobacco permits that are allowed in a town. Um, and then there’s a retiring cap, which means if we have six establishments now,

28:47 and an establishment goes out of business without it being sold, if it’s sold to somebody they have within 60 days, they can come to the town. And it doesn’t automatically, like there’s no transfer, like a liquor license. I can’t sell it to you, but if it comes back to the town, it goes with the sale of the establishment keeping its value. So if I’m richdale and I’m gonna sell, and tobacco is part of what I’m saying, my value is worth, they can get that permit. Um, but a retirement cap would be, if I go out of business, if my door is closed for 60 days, it just sits there, there’s no sale, then that comes back to the town and it’s reduced by one. Um, Damas has that, um, that type of cap.

29:35 So, you know, obviously we only have a, my memory me right. You have six permits or six establishments currently. Um, when we looked at this last time, we really didn’t think there were any other locations for these establishments to go. And it is way less than when I was a kid here. So it’s, yes. Yeah. I mean, a simple cap seems fine to me. And I imagine it’ll get lower by itself because people just aren’t. So Yeah, you could, you could cap it at six Yep. And leave it at that and see what happens. Obviously, um, if you, you know, using the, if you go with the sale of the establishment so you’re not Yeah. Penalizing, you know, that establishment, that sale. Yeah. Right. And then, but if a, if a business went out of business and sat there dry and you didn’t have any applications for a year, you could revisit that and then just reduce it. Which has happened.

30:21 Um, it happened in land, it’s happened in Salem where there were many more permits, but through attrition and time, you just may it happened here, it’s just we didn’t have a cap. There were probably, Yeah. I think it’s just gonna kind of happen naturally. Yeah. Over the years. Exactly. And if it doesn’t stay sticks, that’s not horrible. Did the community store, um, No, the liquor store has it Right next. Oh, they have it there. They have it, But there used to be places you wouldn’t even imagine, like sale, the place sold sale stuff down by the Landing. They, they had they Cigarettes. Oh my God. And he had violations all,

30:55 I mean, yeah. The Riptide had, I mean, yeah, there was way, way, way more places trying to lost Kind of go. What we lost that, that was, we lost a lot of those through the workplace lot because then bars couldn’t sell it and you couldn’t smoke in there. So it didn’t make any sense for them to own it. But then there were just stores that, I mean, Crosby used to sell tobacco, so there were a lot more CVS did it on their own, I think. Yep, that’s correct. But they used to sell cs. Now that’s stable one. But they did. Yeah. We even, we, we even gave them kudos for being in the industry that didn’t. So a simple cap at six is what we’re saying. Yep. Okay.

31:34 So I have my, I’ll do up this draft Yeah. And I’ll send it to you. Yep. And you obviously can have, uh, time council. Then when the board, because it Gets formatted into our bylaws and stuff like that, that’s why our, you know, our town council will take a look at it. They’ll comfortably. So If, if they, um, this is just my imagination, wondering if there’s a community member who sees maybe what’s happening over here in this, in, in this, this, um, establishment retail establishment. And is there a, what is the protocol? If you have, you know, a complaint, A complaint, We, it’ll either come to the Board of Health, he’ll send it to me. We’ll go out and follow up on it. Okay. Um, sometimes when we’re all doing, so two things,

32:19 we do compliance checks just for language compliance. Checks involve the youth. That means are they not selling to minus, right. Are they doing the right thing in that? Then we do a whole visit at every store just as an inspection. We ensure that they have local, um, permits. DOI permits that they’re not carrying anything. They’re not supposed to open, um, that their huma doors, self-service displays. There’s nothing on the counter that’s not supposed to be there. Um, but we do go signage, like all that. Yeah. And we provide the signage. Yep. Um, and our, our goal is really, you know, we want compliance. It is, we don’t want people to fail. This is, we don’t want businesses to be doing the wrong thing.

33:05 We don’t want our kids to be subjected to that either. Right. So when we go in, if it’s a small whatever, the sign got ripped off, or, you know, I’m not in the go, oh my God, you don’t have to sign. I go, here’s another sign. This has to go up. It has to be conspicuously displayed, whatever. When state law went into effect, we mailed out and I did the visual kind of mailing. Like not just, this is no longer allowed. I, you know, these are some examples of what’s not allowed. The reason is this speaks volumes to people who English isn’t their first language or they don’t even know what these products are sometimes. Um, so that is an inspection. We go out and do those once either two. And part of that is education about what’s new. You know, what they need. Do they have questions for me?

33:51 Um, but sometimes they’ll say, people are coming in and asking me for X, and I know, and they’re telling me they can get it down on the screen. So it’s not a complaint. It’s a complaint from within. And I’ll go and do that as well. So, and we’ll be looking for it. Or if there’s a, someone says, oh, we know that they’re selling flavor at night to kids, go out and do a compliance check. Thanks Chris. You’re welcome. Now, on the other quick, it’s quicker than this because this is every little nuance. Um, the two regulations on, so this cannabis, legit cannabis, um, we have found bags of cannabis like bag, like you’d be selling it in a, you know, out

34:38 of a Ziploc bag like this big. Um, we found mushrooms in a location. Um, so there’s a lot going on out there. Not most of these places are the adult only type places. Um, but not exclusively. So the CCC, cannabis Control Commission does not follow up on complaints to someone who they don’t license. So if I go into Joe’s convenience store here in Marblehead, and I find something that’s listed right on it, that it’s cannabis. Uh, the CCC doesn’t care that it’s not their permanent establishment. What law helps is the police department,

35:26 but that they’re really not. Now, I’m not saying my head is, or isn, we haven’t found it here. I haven’t had a need to call the police, but they have the authority to go take care of this. But it’s easier because when I’m out in the store doing an inspection, where I would find this product, um, for you guys to have regulatory authority to have a fine set. ‘cause really right now, all I can do is maybe notify the police and then ask them to get it out of the establishment. But beyond that, there’s no consequences for them. No one else is coming in. CCD isn’t coming in. Um, we had a situation in Peabody where a police officer actually contacted the health department saying, I went to this store, just violent buying lottery, whatever he was doing.

36:13 And he said, there’s something in the back counter of the counter that says it’s THC. And it was, it’s THC label product for sale. So they, in that case, the police notified. Now he or she, it was a, he I think could have just gone to his whatever, captain or whatever, and just said, we are gonna confiscate this stuff. Um, but it was easy to have the Board of Health come in, identify the product, know what it was, um, and then look at a regulation that gives them the authority to get it out and find them for it. Um, so that’s happened in multiple municipalities and it’s shown up more and more. Um, and then the other product is synthetic marijuana,

36:58 which back in the day, I don’t know how old everybody is, but maybe 15 years ago it was K two and spice, and it was a synthetic marijuana. Um, similar called something else done differently, made differently. So it’s called Delta eight. And Delta eight is a hemp product. And there’s not enough in the hemp versus the cannabinoid plant. There’s not enough THC in that hemp plant. So what they do is they alter it synthetically, and you can get high, but it, it go, it is under the threshold for like the 0.03. You Just, sorry, can you explain, so correct me if I’m wrong, Delta nine is technically THC marijuana.

37:46 Yes. So just say Delta eight. Okay. Just so yeah, Delta eight are the synthetics. Delta 10, they’ll continue to create different deltas. Yes. And the real, even though Delta nine, it’s, it, even if it’s synthetic, it meets the definition could be in cannabis, so it shouldn’t be in a store. And that would go under, like if, if, let’s say I found it in a store, and it was Delta nine, it said right on it, this is Delta nine. We would find them, if you would adopt these regulations, we’d find them under cannabis. But if it was a Delta eight product, we’d be finding them under the synthetic Delta eight. And now Delta eight started out as, uh,

38:32 like hemp rolling paper kind of stuff. Um, and it’s matured into being vape, being drinks, being food. Um, there’s something called Skittles out there. If you’re a parent, you’d look at it and you’d work with Skittles, uh, sour Patch Kids. They have all of the same brand names. Um, and you brought those to us last time, didn’t you remember? Yes. I brought you some of the pictures. I think, um, you lined them all up on the table. Oh, there you go. So the show help. So now my concern about Delta eight drinks is that liquor stores have been carrying it, been found to carry it. It is now in this case. So CCC doesn’t care if it’s not

39:18 one of their permanent places. If it’s not a permanent place, they’re not coming out to do any enforcement. In the case of Delta eight, since it’s hemp and it’s manipulated, that falls under MDA, um, mass Department of Recreation and Agriculture. And they license hemp products for agricultural purposes, like making clothes, um, you know, making fabric. But it is against their regulations. It’s against state law, but it’s MDAR regulation or MA law that Delta eight is prohibited. But no one from MDAR is out debt checking. They have no enforcement.

40:04 Um, um, and they did send us a, we have something in writing and we’ve provided it to the retailer saying it can’t be in food. It can’t be something you eat. It can’t be something you vape because anything flavored that’s favorable falls under the, it doesn’t matter if it’s tobacco or not, tobacco falls under the tobacco regulation. Um, so that’s where these regulations are coming from and why they’re surfacing, because these products are out there. So this Delta eight that’s being marketed toward at least so far, marketed toward liquor stores, which is where we found it. And one like, uh, CBD shop. So my issue with this and to the board is there’s no alcohol in it.

40:49 It says zero alcohol, right on it, it’s Delta eight. It is a legal by MD, but no one’s out there looking for it or finding it. And I’m just waiting for it to show up at a pizza of truck and you’re a parent. And this looks like any other drink that a kid would buy, there’d be no alcohol in it. But it does get you high. And because it’s not controlled, it’s not a specific amount of manipulation that happens. So one drink may have barely an effect on someone, and another drink may have a lot. So I just have been recommending and bringing to the board the things we found, um, in these products and letting you know what’s

41:35 happening out there and there. You know, it’s, we are gonna, this is a whack-a-Mole. We’re gonna do one more thing. And some other industry’s gonna be out there trying to sell something. Is there, I I’m so sorry. Is there any policies, um, being drafted at the state level beyond MDA and their disinterest in No, Not as far as I know. There’s nothing under the legislature that I’m aware of. And probably because it is, people aren’t aware, there’s not enough awareness that it’s happening and it’s rolling out quickly. Like I said, it was little wraps before and now it’s drinks and gummies. And, and when we did talk to them, um, it was myself and the city soli, uh, assistant city solicitor in Lynn, who’s now in Salem.

42:23 Um, they,

42:26 they said they didn’t wanna give up their own power, but they left a lot of wiggle run to say, well, you could always do it at the local level. You know, that was sort of their message. Like, we’re not, we’re not getting enforcement people. And it’s coming fast and furious. So Have you seen it in, in Marblehead multiple? In Marblehead? No, I haven’t seen it in Marblehead. That doesn’t mean it’s not here. ‘cause I didn’t do the last round of, um, inspections here, or one of my inspectors did. So it could be here. If you do, if you do speak to your inspector, would you mind calling Andrew and telling him? Of course, I would Call. Oh, yeah. And yeah, they would tell me, and I would probably go verify it because I’m, I’m like, I know more about it than most of my colleagues even because we are just seeing so much of it. I’m seeing so much of it. So why is the CCC putting blinders on to the, to anything

43:15 that they don’t oversee? I mean, yeah, they’re, they’ve been going ahead and opening up these places, these places of business, and then they don’t care about people that are selling this product. I, that doesn’t, I would just say, well, it, it does because their, their permitees are all doing the right thing. Right. But they determined that they wanted to permit this, the marijuana. They, they’re not just, everybody’s not just buying it. They have to be permanent to sell. Right. And then if they’re not permanent sell, then the CCC puts blinders on. It sounds like to me. I I just think that they’re, it’s, it’s not their, like they’re dealing with a legitimate industry is how they see it.

44:01 The CCC, they’re dealing with the legitimate industry. And these are not legitimate rep, you know, not legitimate retailers of the product. Of, of the product. Right. I mean, it’s like we find retailers, well, we found one. Um, there’s probably several, but, um, they’re selling drugs, some of them in the stores. It’s like it, if, if no one is, you know, it’s, you’re not supposed to be selling drugs either. But some of these retailers, and not all of ‘em, believe me, that we have way, way, way more legit good abiding retailers that we need in our communities. But then there’s these, and a lot of ‘em, sometimes they’ll say they didn’t know, and I believe that they didn’t know. But I tell ‘em like, it’s a Google search way,

44:49 it’s a phone call to Andrew or me, and I’ll let you know what I know. I have one picture I’d like to show you. This just is something recent and, um, it’s the first time I’ve seen this. Um, but here’s an example of something There. Mm-Hmm.

45:11 I just gave my age Away when I was grunting. So this was found in a Store. It’s a plastic package that’s fake, But that’s actual cannabis. Yeah. It’s so scary that they’re making Skittles out of this Delta eight. And obviously they’re marketing too. Oh, Young. Without a doubt. Gummy bears the same names as kids products. I can bring you in pictures to, you know, we have lots of, uh, photographs.

45:41 So, um, that’s really, that’s as simple as it is. I mean, the language is a little detailed, but, um, when it was adopted in Beverly and Salem, um, the binding structure, because it is, um, we don’t permit them for any of these products. So they tied the fine into, like, you lose your tobacco permit. Um, if you were not a tobacco establishment, you’d potentially lose other, uh, permits that the town issues. That’s when you look at the, uh, violation section, it it, at least from their perspective, it tied it into the tobacco permit because it was something

46:23 Page, the the 1000, 2000, 5,000. Yep. So if, if we choose, we can adopt this, whatever, however, uh, legal counsel Mm-Hmm. Incident. Yep. And you, and you recommend It? I do. Because it is the only muscle we have on the street right now. I mean, like I said, M d’s not looking and CT P isn’t looking. So, and it may not be here. It, it may not be something we have to worry about right now, but, um, or warn. Well, I appreciate it. Um, we do a wrong agenda, but you’ve got one more to tell us about this. Uh, this is just a Beverly marijuana, uh, no, this is what we just all Talked about. Yeah. One synthetic.

47:10 Yeah, the synthetic. But I didn’t really didn’t, Marijuana is just the real marijuana, like the Delta nine and marijuana and the other one is synthetic. Right. So we didn’t really go to the marijuana one, but it’s fine. Just their, it’s just their draft. No, it’s the same thing we would Reputational Yeah. Sale Of it. Yeah. Okay. Well, Joyce, it’s always good to see you. And thank you for doing what you’re doing. Um, you’re welcome. Always Nice to see you guys. I’m sorry, I know it took my four meetings to get me here. We have lots of, lots of these bigger issues in bigger cities, So, but we weren’t just sitting here either. So we, we are doing our work. I’m sure you have no doubt about it, But we always enjoy having you. So when, when we get the draft, do, do you wanna come back or, Yeah, well, what I’ll do is I’ll get it to Andrew. You can get it to town council, wherever it needs to go. And then if board sets a hearing date, I’ll, you know,

47:57 just if I know I’ll be here, um, if I can’t be physically here, because the good news is you guys got later than a lot meetings. So even if I have another meeting, I can zoom in. Alright. If you can. And Florida, you can zoom in. Yeah, I Won’t be there that soon. I won’t be there again that soon. Thank you guys very much. Thank You James. Yeah, thank you. So I’ll send this all over to town council. We’ll put a draft together. Once the draft is complete, I’ll notify the board. I’ll send that out and then we can set a date. Okay. Yeah. Perfect. And I would say, if you’re gonna vote yes or no, to move forward tonight with the, at least the idea of moving forward with the cannabis and synthetic that other than the town, there’s really no need to, no decisions to be made.

48:43 No. Altering that. It’s pretty vetted as it stands. Well, we don’t have to make a motion to hit. No, we don’t. We don’t. No. Right now I’ll just bring everything to town council, we’ll create a draft for the tobacco regulations, and then I’ll come back to the Board. Great. Perfect. Okay. Goodnight you guys. Thank you so much. Thank You. So do we have a substance abuse, uh, education, uh, part here tonight? Um, yeah, I mean, I’m ready to just pick up Yeah. Where we left off. Um, did you guys have anything you wanted to? Well, I thought that we were gonna have some people come to talk to us right there. No, I guess, you know, These are the type of people you’re gonna get. These are the people that have real life experience that are live in town. Oh, well, I, I, So I guess, you know, what is your, you know, what are you imagining for

49:29 a venue, the number of people? Like where, where do you wanna have your Life? It, it, it’ll, you know, a venue ideally, I would say, um, you know, that high school I turned, that was my first time seeing it was the Chris Herron, um, thing. I hadn’t seen the new high. I hadn’t been in the new high school, to tell you the truth. Um, I think any venue like that, I think it will start small until, you know, it picks up. Um, I do have a lot of interest in it. I probably get contacted daily by this on this. So, um, a lot of just, you know, some of them want to come up and talk and a lot of them just cheer it on and just say how important it is. And then a lot of ‘em, uh, you know, maybe some of the ones closer to me, I’m very careful about, you know, it’s, um, putting people out there that, I

50:19 don’t know how I’d describe it. They, you know, they, they’re ready to go, but they just kind of wanna see it built. Well, that’s what we’d like to, we’d like to see it built. And I thought, I anticipated seeing some people who were interested in making presentations. Sure. If it’s gonna be in the school, let’s, let’s just Jurisdiction Over the school. Well that, that’s Two, that’s just an idea. Two different things. So like, no, correct me if I’m wrong, like I think what you’re pitching is a, a evening venue. Yeah. When I talked, um, to the school, they said they wanted to see that residents took an interest. Now the school committee has reached out to me since and said they’d like to be involved. Okay. So, um, there, there is somehow a behind that. I also have found out that, um, there are other towns that do this.

51:04 This is, we’re not the first one. And coincidentally, Andrew, which town do we get compared the most to Swamp Scott? Nah, Hingham. Oh Yeah, Hingham does it. Yeah. And, um, as additional support for it, um, Chris Hern supports the idea. This is an email between me and Chris Aaron. Great. So, well, Are you gonna share that? You can have, alright. I told him basically my whole idea. Um, two. No, I bet You can send it off to us if you want. That’s Alright. Yeah. No, it’s, it’s, I it now you wish. Sure. I’ll read it. This is from his, his team. So I reached out to Chris Aaron’s team and they responded within a half hour. So, um, I shared your message with Chris and he agreed that any conversations that are centered around substance use and alcohol are helpful

51:51 to increase awareness and prevention efforts. We know the towns in mass, such as Hingham, mass, who will bring a community, community members to speak in health classes or at school assemblies to ensure students are present. Hear the message. Yeah. So, So like, you know, kind of know going off of what you’re kind of saying. So my thoughts are like, you know, you’d have these evening events and I, and I definitely think, you know, it might start small, but like it Will start small, but it’ll grow. Yeah. Word of mouth, it’ll grow big and then, you know, And the more people would kind of contribute Yes. The more people would wanna listen. Exactly. Um, and there would be kind of a back and forth at times or, um, is it more like, like people sharing their experience? It is gonna be a combination because you’re gonna have people that are, are sharing their experience and then you’re gonna have people

52:36 that can’t share their experience because they’re not here, but their family members can. Right. And there’s a wide variety of these types of people in town. You know, without me naming any, everyone. It’s a small town. Everyone’s gonna, who I’m talking about, I happen to be friends with the person that survived in the car with Hunter. Correct. Okay. You know, and, uh, he has kids that grow up, uh, are growing up in town, um, along with Hunter’s brother and his sister actually, his sister said she’d be Willing to see. Oh, I know. And um, you know, they, they bring a different level. You know, the family members, you know, one of ‘em happen to be friends with a brother who, um, a a kid that passed, uh, from an overdose like early on. Um, actually two brothers. Um, so they’re all around

53:23 and you have people here with direct experience, you know, and uh, they have stories of, you know, being on the sideline, being family members of watching these things happen, seeing it go down the path. And, um, it is so much more impactful than you think to know that it happens here. Right. I cannot describe enough what it was like to show up in high school when I was a senior, when Hunter Craig died. Right. It was different. It rocked everything. But we had heard all the stories, you know, and it doesn’t matter because it didn’t happen here. Right. Marblehead in the safety bubble until it happens. And then when these stories die, which they do, you know, you know, I look at, you know, the rallying be

54:10 behind ante in 10 years. That generation is not going to know who he is unless you keep his legacy going. Where you talk about these situations and you have family members because Hunter Craig, you know, there was the hunter bears in everyone’s car. I challenge you to find one now. Right. They’re just not there. Uh, these cars get sold, these things get lost and the stories are forgotten and then they repeat themselves. And so sharing these stories and, and there’s so many people that are willing to, um, you know, I have a friend that was able to pull himself out of it and uh, he talked about probably being willing to do it because, you know, he has kids and they’re gonna find out eventually. He’d kind of rather them find out the right way, you know, of him share him sharing his story

54:55 to help all of their friends. And he’s one of the best athletes this town has ever seen. So if, um, we’re talking athletes that make, you know, an impact, like the guy I know, um, yeah. He’s the most relatable guy I know. And people know that he’s one of the best state athletes this town has ever had. No, you know, I think it is really important to hear everybody’s story. ‘cause I think every side with the parents, the kids, all that stuff. And then from that, like you could, you know, support groups are gonna come out of that, like Exactly. Mothers, fathers, you know, family members and stuff like that. So it will grow and obviously you wanna make sure that we have people there to that can potentially assist with that coordination. Yes. That would be a really big question. Yeah. That I would, um, like to ask in thinking about this,

55:40 I think of course bringing stories forward Mm-Hmm. Is the way to connect people to issues because that’s the magic of being human and sharing stories. And, um, I can see it, you know, I can see what you’re describing, but my question is, if you’re able to build that, isn’t it important to have a professional mental health counselor because they can help if there’s a trigger or if there things start. I’m not worried about triggers, I’m aiming for triggers trigger because triggers are impactful. I’m not trying to sugarcoat anything for anybody. It’s kind of like when you go to Europe and you watch a commercial about drinking and driving, they show you all the gory details. They’re not trying to, you know,

56:25 dumb it down or anything like that. You know, pack of cigarettes, you go other places, you’ll see a cancerous lung on the back. You know, they’re trying to trigger you. That’s what I think, I think being afraid to trigger is, you know, why I want them to be terrified. We also wanna make sure that we provide The Support that people need. That’s fine. Yeah. We, I mean, that’s great. I can, if they want more, you know, men, you know, to talk about it, it’s great. We have a mental health task force. You know, I can, we can band together, you know, We have a counseling center, We have a counseling center, we have it all. But, um, and this isn’t gonna be built overnight and, you know, there’s, you know, people I’ll, I’ll be wanting to work with and I want it to live, you know, I, I want, I’d like to be the one to build it and, uh, put it together since,

57:11 you know, it’s a three person board. So we obviously can’t do that, you know, similar to your mental health task force. Um, but I, it, I want it to live in the board of house because I want it to live past me. ‘cause I’m not gonna be here forever. Right. So, um, so I would be, you know, as this grows, I would be building kind of a similar task force type thing where there is a group of people that can, you know, come and go where they handle it very delicately. It is, it is an extremely delicate, you know, some people are more willing than others. Some people are more comfortable than others. I know that the people here, you know, they’re very comfortable, but some aren’t. And, and it is very delicate and, uh, and so I need to make sure that the people that,

57:56 you know, handle it appropriately with some of these community members. That’s what I’d like to hear. The, I I think that you’re very passionate about it. I think it’s, it’s, it’s, uh, drug abuse and death is tragic. And it has happened repeatedly, even before Hunter Craig. Um, we’ve had incidents, um, and each time, ‘cause I was very active with the counseling center and also in, in the school department, each time this has happened, they’ve had meetings, people gotten together, they’ve talked, they’ve cried, they’ve learned, they’ve had brought people in, like Chris Herron, like even he was here before. So, uh, and the Walburg young man was here.

58:42 We’ve had plenty of this kind of, uh, education, and it’s very, very important. But I think if it’s coming out of the auspices of the Board of Health, like I said, either we have some kind of a plan. That’s why I thought that you were bringing some people to talk to us tonight. Now I see someone raising their hand, and maybe we should go to, to that after we have a little bit more discussion. But I, I know that we can’t do something in the schools. We can do on our own, like the mental health task force. We can have programs. The Mental Health task force has had wonderful programs. We, we actually did have one, a program in the, in the, um, auditorium in the ca. And, um, well, it’s not the cat there, but in the auditorium.

59:28 And, um, so we can use the facility, but it was under our auspices, but it was planned. We knew who the people were coming. The couple people from San States, uh, psychiatrist, I remember that program very well. And that, that’s the kind of thing, if I’m gonna put my stamp and my name on it, I think we need to all begin on this, not just going off on a tangent. And I have to say, I don’t think that’s appropriate, because I’m gonna say, that’s Not the Board of health. And you can run program outside of, I think that’d be a terrible look if the Board of Health turned its back on Something. We’re not turning our back on it. But we, if we’re gonna be responsible for it, I think that, How long have you been on the board? I’ve lost count. Exactly.

1:00:13 How long has this been an issue, Issue one, or How have you tackled it? We’ve, we’ve tackled it. We have, we’ve got the council. So you fixed it. No, we did not fix it. It’s not gonna be fixed. That’s, see, I don’t think that way at all. I don’t think it’s not gonna be fixed. I think I can make a difference. If you, I, You know what? I think that’s fabulous. If you can make a difference in this whole town, you’re one person. I think that that’s outstanding. I mean, that’s, unless I tell you that’s such b**t the way you just said that to me. No, it Isn’t. I such b**t. I’m saying it right from My heart. No, you’re not, you of st. Why Come. Thank you. I’m Sorry you heard me. That was just the most b**t response I’ve ever heard in My life. I’m very,

1:00:59 You, you, you diminished this whole thing because it’s coming outta my mouth. No, I’m sorry. These people came to talk about it. It, yeah. Let’s, let’s, and let’s let them Landy do. Would you like to? I, I, I don’t if anybody would like to come up. Am I allowed? Excuse me. Wait a minute. If it, I’ve seen some people raise their hand. If anybody would like to come up and address the board. There are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 seats. And there are more over here. If anybody would like to come and address the board, please come up because you are on the agenda.

1:01:32 Anyone else would like to join? Please

1:01:40 Not rehearse. I’m sure a topic like this, you don’t need to be rehearse

1:01:50 anyone else, you can come, anybody later on may come up if they wish. But, um, I’d like to invite the people that came up to, um, address this. We’ve, we’ve invited people to talk about substance, substance abuse education. So my name is Laney Goodman. Um, I’ve lived in all my life, brought up my children here. I have two boys. Um, my younger one, his 23rd birthday was two days ago. I have not seen him since he was arrested in 2020. Went to high school, was removed from the school. Um,

1:02:39 I, I’m not gonna go through everything that I’ve been through, but it’s, it’s been awful. Right? I know Andrew from some committees that I’ve sat on. Um, I worked at Verizon for 31 years, retired from there. And I now am the project director of the fiction services at Lynn Community Health Center. I got, I got there because I’m passionate about substance use. Um, my kid’s from Marblehead, my kid is Jewish, doesn’t happen in Marblehead and it doesn’t happen to Jewish kids. But guess what it did? I took myself to learn to cope, which is an unbelievable organization. Um, got educated, realized that

1:03:27 there was nothing out there. There was no support for parents. We had kids under the age of 18. And so I created my own support group. It was called Focus Families of Children Using Substances. I am not, take that down, Maria, please. I’m not a, uh, healthcare worker. I am not, uh, a licensed therapist. But I am a parent with too much experience, more than I want to describe to anybody. I get it. My goal was not only to have this parent group so that we could meet and commiserate together and exchange ideas

1:04:13 and vent and share things that worked, things that didn’t work. How to tell your kid you love them, and even though you wanna kill ‘em. Um, but my other goal was to set up a

1:04:31 repository, I guess, of other young people who had substance use issues when they were under 18 and they made it to the other side. They were successful in recovery. And I had parents calling me. I still have parents calling me, even though the group doesn’t meet anymore because our kids have aged out. Um, I still have parents calling me saying, Hey, my kid just did X, Y and Z. What do you think? And I hooked them up with someone else. Uh, we had one, one adolescent under age 18 who was also, um, gay. And so we hooked him up with another

1:05:13 young person under the age of 25 who had substance use issues, who was gay, who had found recovery. They talked, that person’s mother talked to the parent that I was in touch with. And I, I remember sitting by Graystone Beach on my phone for hours at a time, just talking to parents, this is what we need in our town because we are not in a bubble in our head. And you know, I see the reports that come outta Lynn for, um, overdoses. Overdoses that result in death. And yes, I work for Lynn Community Health Center, but the first thing I look for is what is their, what is their home address? I looked for the Marblehead kids first

1:05:59 because that’s, that’s what hits me the most. Um, I, I have been to Chris, her meetings, um, I actually called Chris her personally when my kid was under 18 and said, please help me. There is nowhere for my kid to go at 18, at at 1617. But the day that I brought my kid to Mia in Worcester, which I don’t think is even running anymore, it was, it’s a detox for kids under the age of 18. And that was the most awful day I ever had. Um, I dropped ‘em off there and I came back to Marblehead and listened. I went to a Chris, her meeting in the auditorium at the, what is that?

1:06:45 The veterans. And if there were a dozen people, that was a lot. I’ve been to roof meetings, same thing. It it’s, it’s a shame. Yeah. I have been to North Red. They have the Substance Use Coalition. They do all sorts of programming. It is awesome. And it’s not just for the kids who have substance use, it is for the entire community. They have concerts, they raise money, but they have all the information comes out from the North Red Coalition tomorrow night. I’m working, uh, late because I’m going to a meeting in Lynn and anyone is welcome to join me. Um, they’re having a meeting at the Lynn Museum starting at four o’clock.

1:07:31 I believe it’s from four to six. And it’s to discuss what to do with the abatement funding.

1:07:38 Um, I know that we have funding here as well that I don’t believe has been touched. But, you know, Lynn is, is different than Model Head, but they have some awesome ideas. They’ve got Narcan, uh, vending machines, I think, I don’t know, six of them out in the city of Lynn. Awesome. The death rate has gone down 36% since they put them up. It needs to be available. We, I I, I’m happy to answer any question. What, what? Yeah, what, what, Lena, thank you very much per much Thank you much chair. Really, personally, like to Thank you. Um, what is your vision for Margaret bringing me speakers?

1:08:24 You, you’re, you’re, you’re talking to deaf ears. I, I, I would like to see a, a parent group or, or take my name, take my phone number, give it to any client who has an, who has a question, who has an issue, who, who thinks that maybe their kid is doing something. Well after the meeting, why don’t you give it to Marty? And he, if anybody calls the, the Board of health, he can, I’m happy to do that. Happy to do it. I mean, Obviously we, we’d love to work with you and you know, obviously we’d want to connect with our counseling center and work with the counseling center to try to set up a parent, you know, group. Um, but obviously that, that’s, yeah. So that’s gonna say, let’s keep, let’s continue. You know, um, when the counseling center came here,

1:09:10 the last two times I talked to them about groups because when I was president and a member of the counseling center and a member of the board, um, we had groups which were very successful, and they just haven’t had the staff of to do this. And I’ve been trying to request that. I don’t wanna say pushing forward, but I, I’ve been ask, requesting it. And I think that that might be a good thing that we could probably work with, with the counseling center and with people that are of interest. I, I, I think the first, the first outreach is to another parent that has been through this, because I know the first time I went to learn to cope, I couldn’t even speak.

1:09:55 Right. And many people who go to learn to cope have the same story as me. They go there and they look around the room, who knows me. Yeah. Right. I don’t want anyone who, who, who is from Marblehead who knows me to know that I have a kid who, right. So I think, I think the first outreach is by phone or by email to another parent who has been on the same path as me. Right. Just to reach out and say, Hey, you know, can we, can we like go for a coffee and a muffin or something? Or can I just talk to you for a minute? And then eventually it, it it, because I, I don’t think it’s like, let’s have, let’s have a parent meeting and people will come. But you need to make that personal connection first. Well, I think that once you give you a phone number to writing, everything’s gonna ring up the book.

1:10:43 Do you think my idea has legs and would benefit people and Marble it? Absolutely. I, I think it’s always pushed under the rug in Marblehead. And, um, I, you know, and, and I was one of those people, like, I was afraid to go out into town. I was afraid to go to the supermarket, you know, police didn’t gonna look at me and know about my kid. And then, you know, I, I, I wanna say I matured and I realized that if my kid doesn’t care, who knows what he’s doing, why should I, and so I put myself out there and I said, you know what? I need help from me. And then when I felt, okay, I did not feel good. I don’t even feel good today. But when I felt okay, I wanted to be able

1:11:28 to help other people to, were going through the same wanting situation that I had been in, and I still am in. Yeah. So in the past, we know we leave in the same kind of scenario that you do. It’s, it’s great to have a parent that can, so in the past when an overdose has occurred in the community, uh, we’ve an outreach group that would reach out to the family, ideally to reach out to the family. And the person that overdosed, sometimes he can only get to the family. Um, but that was a person that was from town and had similar experiences. Um, un unfortunately, that person has moved on. Yeah. Um, and so we don’t have that person currently. And so the model that we currently use is that we still do this outreach, um, but it’s with a social worker. Um, and so it, it is not the same level of experience.

1:12:16 Um, so, you know, I, I agree with you, but, but it’s hard to find those connections. So we need to continue to work on that. I, I’m happy to do it. Yeah, I know. Um, there’s another gentleman, I spoke to him for an hour on the phone on Saturday, just to catch up with him. He’s out of town right now, but he is absolutely willing to speak. He, you know, his kids grew up here in Marblehead. His son is now doing three to five. And you know, in the past who the individual had great connections with facilities or new model, you know, and she would spend the time to get these people into treatment facilities and try to align the best. I mean, obviously that’s the second piece of it, is try to find really good treatment. Uh, I, I have two recovery coaches who work me at the health center. Laney. Do you think that having a speaker event with, with people similar to you would be a good way

1:13:02 for people in your position before any of this happened to you? To have that opportunity to speak to someone? Because they’d be right there and the, you know, yeah. I, I do. Um, I also went through C-T-I-C-I-T training. C yeah. CI can’t remember what. Um, but I went through training to, um, speak to law enforcement about, um, my experience and how law enforcement can, um,

1:13:31 respond to a nine one one call when there is someone, uh, using substances, uh, with the family. Uh, I listen, before my kid went on this venture, I had never had the police to my house. They all know me by name now. And again, with that, like, you know, we, we’ve, the law enforcement through that training has made some huge changes, right. Um, especially in the northeast. Here it is no longer, it’s just lock ‘em up. It’s like, no, you know, this person needs treatment. We need to get people to help. Um, and so that’s made a huge difference. So, And so I actually, I spoke to law enforcement in Andover. Yep. Um, and, and that, that was a couple years ago before Covid. I don’t know if Marblehead at that time, Marblehead did not participate in that training. I don’t know if they do now, if they don’t,

1:14:16 they know should, I Mean, obviously we’ll talk to Dennis. I mean, obviously Gloucester made great strides. They had the Angel program and stuff like that. And that’s kinda blossomed to what it is now. That’s where kind of the, um, you know, now we have a social worker in the police department, you know, that’s working there all the time. And so a lot of that stuff has come about because of some, you know, all that great work. Right, right. And, and the resources I have now, again, I am not a social worker. I am not a therapist, although sometimes I think I am, but I attend, I don’t know if you are aware, um, but there is recovery court in Lynn. I attend every two weeks mental health court in Lynn. Um, I have invited the judge to the, um, meeting. I don’t know if, um, attended that meeting. Nope. She’s absolutely incredible. Yes. I took one of my recovery coaches

1:15:02 with me. Have you ever been to one of those? I’ve not been to that. Um, It’s every day Gimme a call. Okay. Sounds good. Yeah. Happy to bring you. Yep. I leave there with tears in my eyes, but with hope in my heart, she’s absolutely incredible. This judge. And she travels around the country promoting mental health court to other cities. But these are the things that we, and like you said, instead of locking people up, I, I, I manage two brands at the health center. Both of them are targeting, um, folks who have previously been incarcerated with OUD or a UD alcohol or opioid use disorder, um, that are soon to be released from incarceration, or have recently been released from incarceration so that they don’t end up back there.

1:15:49 And obviously we have a connection to Recovery High As well. Yes, Laney, it’s a sad, tragic story, but you’re doing the best you can. Honestly, I did financial analysis for 31 years at Horizon, and they offered me a severance package, and I took it, and then I said, now I’m gonna do something with my skills and make a difference. And what Tom is trying to do, I, I I, I’ve been to all of those meetings where, you know, the, the big people talk it, it doesn’t hit home. And then when it does it, it’s, it’s too late. Your kid’s already down the path. I think it means so much more when it comes from a parent, or I hope and pray that one day my kid will be one of those who can talk to the other kids who’s

1:16:35 saying, I made it to the other side. I don’t know. But that’s my story That she has done a lot and she wants to do even more. And I, and I want her involved. Correct. All three of them involved. And so that’s Tom, when Tom brought this up on Tom, Dave from Stonybrook Road, when Tom brought this up, last DAY Is that the last D-A-Y-D-A-Y. That’s When Tom brought this up last month, just in the brief discussion that, that you all had here. My first thought was, yes, I’ll do it. And the second thought was, but I’d like to do it in a panel discussion format. And the third thought was, this is the person I wanted to be next to me. And she walked in the room tonight. I haven’t seen Laney in three years, maybe.

1:17:21 Um, but she has been through absolute help. Um, and my story is in, I’ll make it quick because, um, my oldest daughter was addicted to heroin at that time, long before Fentanyl. And, and everything else there, um, I’m using now. This was 1986 to 96, and her age was 18 to 28, starting in college. My wife and I, well, I was exchanging waves. One was going this way, and one one was coming in. So that was a tough time for us and the family. Um, we experienced everything under the sun. Um, but it’s always the same pattern. And I think that’s something that I could relate to, to other parents out there going through the same thing.

1:18:07 It’s lying and stealing, doing poor on your grades in school, falling asleep at dinner, being late when you’re supposed to be home at six, and you get there at 6 45 and you have no excuse. Just one thing after another. Um, and we didn’t ha back in those days, that’s 1986. Um, we didn’t have the resources that are available today, not anywhere near. So we probably made a lot of, of wrong decisions with the right intentions. Um, and I think that’s all I have to say of home. And it didn’t exist. Patty has been in recovery for 27 years And congratulations. And my youngest Tom, I daughter Kathy, is the Northeast regional director for Learn to Cope.

1:18:54 And this, that’s where I met. And, um, even with the Covid restrictions and everything, learn to Cope is still doing a great job of outreach, um, to families dealing with addiction. Where are they located? It’s not a physical location. They have 25 chapters, I believe, across Massachusetts. Massachusetts and Two in Florida. Yep. Supported by the state with grants plus private donations. Um, they have weekly meetings. Um, they were, uh, in person meetings every week. It’s now gone to a, uh, in person and then a Zoom and another person on the Zoom. Um, but they’re still very active. New people are coming in all the time. And it is, you gather in a group like this, everyone has the same problem.

1:19:40 They may all be in different stages of dealing with it, but the exchange that happens in that, uh, environment is incredible, that everyone learns. And what may seem to be a totally illogical solution turns out to be the right solution when you’re in, in the throes of addiction. Addiction makes no logical sense. It’s the only place I know where someone can say, my kid just went to jail and everybody collapsed. Right? Yep. Exactly. Yep. So, Tom, so I think I could relate in a, in a format like that, in a panel discussion. Okay. With other parents coming from a good family. It happens. They get addicted right away. Um, and the downhill,

1:20:28 the downhill journey starts, they may, you know, get a short period of recovery and knock it down again and finally reach rock bottom and came out. I came out of it. You have a good story. So, Tom, you think you have a good story? Yes. Thanks. You think this idea has legs too? Yes, I sure do. Thank you. Just because it’s local. Yes. You know, you’re dealing with people We just wanna get in touch with. Perfect. We have people on online. Online where, where do we get in touch? Learn the number two COPE. So they’re learning to cope with a loved one’s addiction. So you, you find it online, is it Learn? Yeah. So number two, and then CO p.org.

1:21:14 Yes. Org. There’s, and there’s, there’s right to Cope. We have a group that, that meets every other Saturday to, you know, people like the, not just parents, siblings, spouses, you know, whoever. If you, as long as you have a loved one who’s struggling with addiction, um, learn to Cope is the place you go. There’s an online feature. There’s in person, there’s on, there’s, um, there’s a, a a, a board. You can, you know, read other people’s stories and follow their, their, you know, it’s, it’s closed. Um, but I, I was participating in Write to Cope, you know, creatively writing to like, get some of it. And we have our, is it R-I-G-H-T or W-R-I-T-H right?

1:22:02 To Right, right. Yes. WRIT. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right. WIT And the guy who who started the Right to COPE is running on behalf of Martha Cope in the Boston Marathon for the first time. Oh. I mean, it’s just life changing, life savings. Mr. Beta. Yes, ma’am. Um, Barbara Beta. Um, um, we, we, I, I’ll tell you how I got in. I’m a pologic warfare officer, um, and, um, for 30 years actually. And the reason I got into this, um, which is completely out of my MOS military occupational specialty, um, I was at NSA at the time,

1:22:48 and we were fighting the drug war, um, essentially with the armed forces, the military. Um, so I, I was doing a project and my superior Saida get down, they’re having us, um, um, a conference down there, C-I-A-D-I-A, um, you know, all of the alphabet agencies were down there, um, as well as the other military, um, entities. And they said, get down there and see what NSA can assist in the drug war. Drug war. Okay. Um, we were sending planes, we were intercepting, um, um, cocaine coming in, flying in, boating in, and so forth.

1:23:34 Anyway, I went down there and, um, so there, there was one, uh, person from DEA stood up in the front and said, ladies and gentlemen, I’m gonna tell you. And he drew a big circle on the whiteboard, and he said, okay, if this represents all of the drugs coming into this country right now, and this was late eighties, 89, I think, um, um, this is all drugs. Let me tell you, if we turned loose, all of our assets, all of our military police, you name it. And he took, he took the eraser, and he took one little bit out of this circle, okay,

1:24:20 this is all of the drugs that you are going to get out of this effort. Uh, aside from the fact that you’re wasting a lot of assets, it is gonna cost an incredible amount of money. And he said, the only way and the most efficient way is prevention. Okay. We’ve heard that. We, we separated the upstream side is the education prevention side. The downstream side is the issues that you folks have to go through. And, and we’ve seen the results, um, uh, od, um, on the street. Um, I retired.

1:25:06 I, um, there was a, a senior chief, uh, from, um, was on the fire department as a matter of fact. He and I, he was in the reserve. And I said, senior Chief, we’re gonna put together a prevention program. We’re gonna talk to kids, um, about substance abuse. And, um, because this DEA agent said, look, it, you’ve got to work on the education side of this. It’s, you know, you can, um, involve the education department. It’s easy, and, um, it’s efficient and it, and it should work. Certainly is gonna, um, uh, be effective.

1:25:51 Just carry it on. So, uh, senior chief and I went around to different schools. We did Salem, we did Wakefield, um, we did Marblehead, um, anyway, um, and I had to send in reports to my senior, and he was getting all of these reports. So he had called me at the Pentagon. He called me up and he said, okay, Orbe, whatever you are doing, um, up in north of Boston. He said, get down. Actually ordered me. I worked for a two star Admir down there. And he said, what you guys are doing, you’re gonna replicate it all over the country through the naval channels, you know, and two star says, make it happen.

1:26:37 You salute smart to make it happen. Anyway, um, I got, uh, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. They put out a video, the Bruins put out a bru. I had Walt Disney, I had Frankie Avalon doing a PSA, um, and, um, it, it is, it is, it’s a program, um, that has actually, um, is still in effect. Um, and, um, I, I set it up. So I had coordinators all over the country. Um, I retired in 93 out of the Pentagon. They turned it over to another captain. Um, and then I lost track of it because, you know, I came back to Marble Bay.

1:27:24 So fast forward to 2016, and, um, we had two overdose, uh, deaths. Um, two streets from my house, shipyard. I live in the shipyard. We had a big neighborhood meeting. Um, chief Picarillo came, explained, what’s going on? How, where are these kids getting drugs? And so, uh, he, he said, yeah, we had a house under investigation and selling drugs out of it. And this kid od and was found on the, on the sidewalk. So anyway, walking back to the house, my wife says, Hey, didn’t you do something in the Navy, uh, substance abuse? And I said, yes, I did. And I said, you need to get that thing going again.

1:28:11 Um, because the different drugs, same situation. Uh, kids were getting involved with it. Um, and, um, kids were dying. And when I say kids, you know, mostly young adults were into the, into the cocaine, uh, fentanyl. Um, so anyway, I ginned up the whole thing, called down to my headquarters. They moved it down to, um, Norfolk, Virginia. I got a hold of a, a chief down there. I said, chief, we still doing campaign drug free from the Navy. And, um, she said, oh, yes, sir. And we got new posters and handouts and all kinds of stuff. Um, and I said, um, well, who’s the New England coordinator?

1:28:56 Because when I set it up in the early nineties, I had coordinators. And, um, she said, well, we don’t have, um, anybody in New England. How about you? And I said, okay. Um, so can you send me some, some of the gear? And, and about three weeks, I had six boxes of stuff. I mean, really nice, um, uh, handouts and posters. And so I started redoing the substance abuse, um, training, um, and hit schools. Um, and, um, and I had to, I actually visited every naval facility in New England up to Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island,

1:29:43 Connecticut, and so forth, um, and Massachusetts. But just to put a national spin on this thing. Um, and I’ll, and I’m gonna quote a four star admiral, and maybe some of you know him, uh, or heard of him, Admiral Mc, uh, McRaven, maybe. Okay. So he’s been, uh, he, he’s incredible story. He was a seal. He was, um, he was a commanding officer of all of the special ops in the military. Um, and so he gets interviewed, um, just a while back. And one of the questions he always gets asked, what is the,

1:30:30 um, in your, um, opinion is the greatest national threat? Okay. Um, and I’ll ask, I’ll ask anybody if they can answer this question. ‘cause he couldn’t get, he was in an auditorium down in Texas, and no one could get the answer. So what do you think he said was the greatest national, uh, threat to this country? We’re talking about this, it’s drug abuse. I think, I think you had shared this with us, that his concern was that finding, uh, personnel to recruit into the military. No, That, that, that’s, is that the answer? That’s a side issue. Okay. Okay. But he said, he said, the greatest threat is K through 12.

1:31:16 He said, if we don’t have, and it’s too bad, do we have anybody from the education department here? There’s One. No, we have a student. There’s one on that call. Oh, good. Now listen up. And I, um, and I’ll, I’ll give them a brief, because Admiral went through a whole litany of things, and certainly substance abuse, if we don’t get the kids to understand this as a national threat. He said, our really, our country is going to be down the tubes if we don’t get kids educated in math, science. Um, and, and we’re studying and, and all of the, um, the issues civics, which evidently you don’t teach anymore history.

1:32:02 Um, and he went through a whole history. He said, um, how do we expect our kids to make the right decisions to, um, to be productive members of society? Um, and, and he is right. Um, reading, um, good decision making, he was concerned about that kids are not making the right decisions. And, and certainly, you know, some of the horror stories that we hear about kids, um, getting involved in drugs. So that’s, um, that’s his, um, take on it. I, I went through, I, I mean, I can, I could, um, I could brief you for about two hours of things

1:32:50 that, um, that, that we are facing. All of our recruiting, and I think I mentioned, are still down, uh, all of our military, um, recruiting is down. The Air Force, I think was having such a tr such, um, so many problems recruiting. They just, um, the right number, the quota, they just reduce the quotas. Okay. So, and, and, and so you’re defeating the, the purpose of having a military, if we can’t get our military, um, up to quota, um, especially, you know, I mean, you all know who our peer competitors are in the world.

1:33:40 The Chinese certainly, um, the, um, uh, the Middle East is filled with, uh, with, um, what do we say, um, competitors, enemies, certainly Russia is a competitor. Um, so the demographic, and I think this is what you’re referring to, Democrat, uh, um, the age, um, from 17 to 25, only 75%, roughly 75%. Um, and those are the kids that wanna get in the service, have applied because of the benefits. And now they’re paying bonuses. They’re giving you free rise for four years of education.

1:34:30 They can’t make the qualifications, um, poor education, drug abuse, uh, police, um, record, um, very poor health, a lot of it, obesity. The kids are way, in fact, I just heard something. The kids, um, with diabetes because of poor diet Okay. Is in incredible, I mean, you can Google it up. Um, the increase. So we have kids that we have, only 25% of the kids that we have in this demographic would qualify to defend this. Okay? And, and that’s, I mean, that’s a,

1:35:16 that’s a security, uh, issue. And the admiral was saying it starts from K through 12, and that’s when the kids need to get this education. They need to be, they, you know, we used to say scared straight, but you know, they need the facts. So anything we can do to educate and, um, and it, it is gotta stop right up. I mean, you know, the parents have to understand the threat. ‘cause it is a national threat. And they have to understand, our education system has to, has to be briefed on getting to actually understand this, okay? Because, um, you know,

1:36:03 we’re all gonna be retired in the old age, home and down in Florida, whatever, who’s taking our place? Okay? And I say this to the kids in class, I said, see the teacher, you know, usually there’s two teachers and I say, see, miss, miss whatever here, they’re gonna be retired. Who, who’s gonna, and I’m gonna be retired, um, who’s gonna take out place? And the kids are smart enough with me. Yeah, okay. I guess we will. And I said, um, yeah, are you gonna be qualified? Are you gonna be educated enough? Are you gonna be drug free? Okay. Because, um, we have an issue. Um, and who’s gonna defend us? I mean, that’s the other thing. Who’s gonna have the technology, um,

1:36:51 and be able to run, you know, I, I get the Navy, I get the Navy, um, Naval Institute, and this is the, you know, this is our trade magazine. So I always see an article in there about the Naval War College, and they go through strategies and, you know, how are we gonna do this? And so forth. And I’m reading all of this, and I’m going, okay, you guys down in the war college, and I’ve been down in the war college, the think tank for the Navy, basically. And they come up with all of these strategies and so forth. And I’m going, wait a minute, our ships are on demand. Okay? Right now, a lot of our fleet is running with, um, a lower, um, manning. Um, so, um,

1:37:37 and that’s just the Navy, okay? But the Marines are, seem to be at par. The Air Force is down the, the army is down. And even more disconcerting is our reserves are down. So in other words, if our active duty forces don’t, um, come up to quota, they usually tap the reserves and the National Guard to come in and fill the reserve side is supposed to be the back bench. You know, the fill in guys and gals, they’re behind in their quotas. Okay. So may I Just, yes, I think we’re going astray a little bit. Yeah, yeah. But, uh, I think that I would like to ask you the same question that I asked Laney. What is your vision for this, um,

1:38:23 community? As far as I, I, I think, I think you need a, a, a task force to put together the board of health is fine. Uh, I don’t know what your, what your mandate, what your sign, you know, my, my oath as a commission officer is still in effect, I have an obligation to defend the country. Okay? And this is part of it and the citizens. Um, so I don’t know what your mandate is. I presume it is to keep this community healthy and certainly keeping it drug free would make it healthy. Um, and it is gotta be a coordinated effort. That’s why I’m gonna first, well, Do you have a suggestion? I mean, you’re here. Yeah. I mean, we all are trained.

1:39:09 I mean, most of us are. And, uh, are you, uh, do you have a vision? Yeah, a vision that somehow you get the, the, the education folks aboard with this, um, issue because they’re the ones that can make a difference. Uh, uh, I mean, this, a four star admiral said K through 12, that’s the security, uh, threat. If we don’t get those kids squared away, so we don’t have these issues. Um, and, and, and, and good people getting in trouble and getting thrown in jail and, and what have you. And, and you know, when I, when I lecture to the kids, I said, you get involved with drugs, there are only three things that are gonna happen to you.

1:39:57 You’ll have a screwed up life. You’ll be in jail or you’ll be dead. That’s it. That’s all. It’s gonna happen to you. Um, and, you know, Well, I think that we, um, need to move on, but we, we should have a continue. Yeah. Continuous, uh, Ask Bob a quick question. Bob. Yes, sir. Uh, two questions. Two questions. You, you did mention, we all talk about the kids and stuff like that. You also brought up the parents. Do you think the parents in Marblehead take it seriously? Two part. First question. Um, I don’t, I I think that’s part of the problem. So, you know, if I add to, I’m sorry if, if I was to add, the admiral was standing in front of me, I said, Admiral, I understand that you should include the parents in that threat as well, because I don’t think they get any educated. Do you

1:40:42 Think that was apparent at the Chris Heron event based on the attendance there being as low as it was? You know, I, I, I thought it could have been filled a little bit more. Um, and again, it gets to, um, it gets to, uh, the issue. The parents have to take responsibility and they have to ensure that their kids are getting the education. Well, the nursing, the nursing staff would pay, um, uh, should be paying attention because they have that in their curriculum. And it should start with KI mean, you know, right off the bat, somebody’s gotta do it. Do you think the program I’m talking about has legs in this community? Well, yeah, that’s certain. Listen, anything you can do, I mean, you’re in the,

1:41:28 you know, as I said, we split everything. The sort of upside is, um, getting the prevention side, the downside you’re gonna have to treat. And, and some of the downside people can, we can use those to educate. Like, um, having your kid and Tony Musos kid, get ‘em outta jail and your daughter, certainly, okay, those are the people that should be put in front as part of the education program. I agree. Yeah. And this couldn’t be more of a board of health issue. This belongs to the board health. You can see Andrew’s passionate about it. I don’t need to ask how he’s talking about, he’s got kids growing up here. He is the same fear that I have for my almost 2-year-old. You know, I know what, I know what it’s like going through growing up in this town.

1:42:14 And I’m not saying we do anything right now tonight. I’m just saying that we make this as a symbolic gesture. That the board is going to move in this direction to educate the community with community members that will make an impact. And I, this was a wonderful, I wanna make a motion that the board will move forward in a direction to have residents speaking to other residents sponsored by the Board of Health. I, I think that you should make a more, a general motion that the Board of Health will continue to discuss. Continuing to talk is just continuing to talk. I see that at Congress and the Senate all time.

1:42:59 Like, let’s make committees. Let’s do this. Joanne, I’m asking you to do the right thing. I can’t even tell you how many people reach out. And Andrew’s passionate about it. They’re passionate about it. Up tonight, we’ve got three people Here. But you’re blowing it off. You’re saying me to do it by myself. This is where it belongs. This is the board of health at Marblehead. It’s The board of health. And they should come to us and, and talk with us, and then we can form a, a Committee. And this is what I’m saying, we’ll do that, right? We’ll make a symbolic motion right now that we will move forward to make some speaking events. It won’t happen right away. It’ll be slowly built over time. But we’re gonna move in that direction. That’s all I’m saying. Is that simple? I think, I think we learned some things. We had a little workshop last week, and I just would like to say a couple of things.

1:43:44 No, first thing, um, Tom, I think this idea has great legs. I think that this conversation was incredibly moving. And, um, I am so grateful and appreciate your sharing and openness to talk about things that are really, really difficult, because that’s where we all get stuck as a community. People don’t talk about it. And then people that are suffering feel even more alone and isolated. And so I really appreciate you bringing community members who have such an important voice to bring, um, that are willing to share. And I, I really appreciate that. I just am going to say that something I picked up last week at our meeting when we were talking about how to talk to each other, um,

1:44:32 I think you, you know, Tom, you have great ideas occasionally, often, but the way that you scream at people is really the way she spoke to me, right? There was so hollow. And so, but I’m not done. You’re interrupting me. Okay. Go for it. I am gonna go for it.

1:44:53 We spent two hours last week talking about listening and active listening. And when you, I think you use language in these meetings, but I would ask you to refrain from, okay, it is not helpful and it, it, it hurts the work that we’re trying to do here. So if I can ask you Sure. To please make that commitment. Okay. Um, secondly, sometimes when there’s a really good idea, um, and then it’s, you know, something you said again, talking about Chris Harris program, where I think I, I disagreed with you last time that it was well attended, and we can disagree about that. But there are, this is a good idea. And we have these tremendous resources in our town, people

1:45:39 who care deeply and want to support people that are hurting and, and may and prevent more harm. And the value of that is just tremendous. Um, and I’d just like to say that there are, you know, the Chris Herron program, which a lot of people worked hard on and brought value. And this initiative that you’re bringing forward has value. And I would just suggest, and I mean this sincerely,

1:46:13 there’s a lot of really good work that goes on here. The task force, you know, we’re working on these issues as well. The counseling center is working on these issues. And when you have a great idea, inclusive idea to work with your board members, I know we only get to sit at this desk, you know, this table once a month. But I would, I just think acknowledging that there’s a lot of good work going on already, this idea can be a great asset to that, a potentially a tremendous asset to that. And I would just like to say, let’s work together as a board. We’re all, we all have the same goals. What does that mean? That, let’s start with the way we speak to each other and the way we listen to each other. Because we invested a lot of time.

1:46:59 And I really think if each of us feels comfortable bringing great ideas to the forefront, we can be a really more effective board. That’s not addressing the situation, that’s not addressing what these people are talking about. That’s just pushing it off and saying, oh, we all need to be kind. No, I think That was very loud. Think again. Active listening means you heard me say I support this idea. I think that, do you second My Motion? I’m not done. Would you stop interrupting me? Okay. Um, if you were listening, and I think we were taught how to listen, and I thought it was valuable exercise, and I would like to see you implement some of the instruction that we were given by, um, the person that we brought in to ask to help us.

1:47:47 I’m, I’m just telling you, Tom, we’ve got work to do here, and this not listening isn’t helping. And I’m gonna stop off. I think my, my mother had off, but I’m gonna say that if you were listening, which I think you can do a better job of, I did say

1:48:04 I support this idea and I’m very grateful to community members that wanna step up and share stories and have conversations in the community. So there’s no second support. I, I also feel that I spoke kindly to you and to the people that spoke, uh, here tonight. And we, we, I think we’ve spent about 45 minutes on this topic right now. And I think it was important and is important. And, um, I, I, I can’t tell you any more than I’ve already said that I was very, very active at the counseling center. I still, uh, think of them as a wonderful assets for our commuting. I support them with my work, with my dollars.

1:48:49 And, um, I want to do more of this as far as the, um, Chris, her, um, this article was in the paper, uh, and I wasn’t able to grow. I was chairing another meeting and it says, former CEL players share his story of addiction and recovery. It’s three quarters a page. If anybody wants to read it online, it’s from January 17th. I think that I got the essence of this meeting by reading this. He went through everything. He, he gave up what he wanted to do the most in his life to, to be a Celtics player. And he was kicked off the team. And he told his story very boldly and bravely, and it’s all in here.

1:49:35 Um, I’m sorry I couldn’t come over to that meeting. There are other things that go on in people’s lives and days. And, uh, I was doing something, uh, equally as important, sharing the task force against discrimination. And that’s what you should be going to some of those meetings.

1:49:54 So, um, thank you gentlemen. Thank, just to add a couple quick things. Absolutely. But, Uh, just so everybody’s aware, I know this is gonna come up later on the meeting. Um, we did purchase 25. They’re called sandboxes. Um, they’re opioid recovery boxes. Um, and these are around, uh, they have been installed in town buildings at this point. Um, we still have to install one of the COA and we have, like I said, there’s 25 of ‘em, uh, and then will be installed in the schools. Um, and the, the exact same location as the ad boxes. Um, so when you look to go, you know, help another individual, um, recover from our heart attack, um, this will be there. It’s got two doses of Narcan. It’s got instructions on how to use it. Um, it’s got a safety breather. Um, it’s got, you know, other equipment that,

1:50:41 you know, potentially necessary. Um, and we’ll make sure that these are always stocked and stuff like that. Yeah. Can I just ask where else they’ll go? Like, will they go in the places where our kids are using? So we can talk about that? You know, so the first place was, you know, we wanted to make sure that there were in all town buildings next to the a d machines. Um, and you know, I would love to continue to, to work with you. Obviously we’ll continue no matter what. Um, but to talk more about that and um, you know, get your suggestions on that as well. And obviously There’s no in me, There’s No in me. I’m not, I just the beginning. But I do have to ask, why do you think I need to go to the task force for discrimination? You just basically accused me of something.

1:51:27 I think by, by talking to the people that you’ve talking to dis by discriminating against. I’ll talk about that later. No, No, no, no, no. You just accused me of discriminating on tv. So who am I discriminating against? We’re gonna move on. In fact, I’d like to, I’d like to take the, um, meeting out of order a little bit. I know the budget is very important. It needs to be spoken to, but I think it’s important to go into the same, uh, on the same line by doing the American rescue plan first and then through mental health. Because I think, Uh, so the American Rescue plan, the ARPA funds, yes. Um, I mean, so that goes along with the budget itself. So obviously, um, it, it is part of that because when we talk about the budget,

1:52:13 obviously the town is in financial, has some financial issues, we’re level funded. Um, you know, I spoke with the finance committee, I spoke with, um, our finance manager. Um, they did not recommend, they do not want us to go forward with the, an override vote for this additional $60,000. Now we do have an additional, we, we were allotted $200,000 in funds, um, that we want to spend on mental health issues. Mental health and substance abuse go Hand in Hand. Well, with a lot of other things, but hand in hand. So the idea, in talking to Joanne about this, um, obviously we have allocated some funds to the mental health task force. Um, so she, you know, she’s in agreement with this,

1:52:59 that we continue this allocation and take the $45,000 that we have left and contribute that additional to the Marblehead Counseling Center. So we can’t get the 60 over here, but we can give ‘em the remaining 45 that we would have through the, as well as that, obviously, yes, there are opioid settlements funds in town. We would be working with the opioid, uh, group and Marblehead taskforce, uh, Marblehead Counseling Center to see if there’s funds. Part of the opioid settlement is gonna be a big piece of education. Education come, could come through these working groups, you know, this, you know, these focus groups and stuff like that. But making sure that there’s funds available to support that, if a meeting space, all that is kind of falling under the guidelines of education.

1:53:46 Um, so we wanna make sure that there’s funds available for that. So rather than going for the $60,000 using town funds, we want to use what we have currently and continue to go forward with that. You and I discussed that at, um, at the planning meeting when we talked about this. Uh, yeah, this agenda. And I, I am in agreement. Um, I’d like to hear from, um, Tom also, because you’ve heard from two of us, but I’m in agreement because, um, it’s, it is needed right now. I I just hope that they don’t can’t, I hope they don’t depend on it every year, but this is an emergency time when mental health is very high. Um, and I think we cannot put this as part of our

1:54:36 allocation that we’ve been giving them every year. I think the board’s gonna have to look at that on an annual basis and see what the needs of the, of the community are and if the, the need continues and there’s a, you know, huge need for mental health services and the Marble Lake Counseling Center provide that. We need to look at that, But we do need to look at it. But we right now, there’s Correct, there’s this is dry after this, Right. That, that’s correct. But I think that obviously that’s something that we will look at on an annual basis, uh, as a need of the community to now. Okay. So I I, I do think, what don’t you think about the Yeah, yeah. And I think that the mental health, um, challenges that we face now and have escalated over the past several years are not diminishing and are even continuing to grow.

1:55:22 So, um, again, expressing the gratitude of this board for this organization that we have in our community and, um, supporting it. I can’t think of a better use of those dollars. Well, I would second that, but I just, I hope that we can give them more, but I also know that this is a place where we’re not gonna be able, right, right. So do you want a motion on that? Sure. Uh, all those in favor of giving the $45,000 to the counseling center, which is the, uh, rest of the opera defense. Yep. In favor. And so obviously we will get a, you know, put a contract together with the Marble Counseling Center that meet the demands or the requirements of bound, uh, and we’ll move forward with that. So that was bonus. Yep.

1:56:08 Um, one, one last, let’s just take, can we do the mental health task force and Yes. The rest of the budget, I think we need to keep Yep. This off together. Okay. Um, I will be brief. We had a meeting last night, a virtual meeting, and, um, on that meeting we were very grateful to welcome Julia Ferra from the schools and also Gina Hart, who is just so, such a gift to, um, I think our schools. And she was able to update us on the youth risk survey. Let me, she was able to let us know that that is being, um, processed and will be presented to the school committee. And that tho that is just such a important working document for our task force to understand

1:56:54 what are the needs in towns. And we had a nice conversation, um, on the task force, talking to Julia and Gina and trying to understand how can we support the schools, um, respect with, with respect to what the needs are. One of the areas that we talked about was a red, um, wristband program and a purple, uh, project program. And these are initiatives where the school, um, has peer to peer learnings and helps kids understand and train on what to do when you’re in a situation. If you’re at a party or an event and someone’s doing something and you don’t wanna be a part of it, or it’s time to leave and someone’s about to drive away, um,

1:57:41 how can you feel empowered with the right tools to address the situation and remove yourself safely and remove others safely? So, um, I, there’s a lot of evidence that this method can be really helpful because they’re, um, peer to peer, so they train kids on how to have those conversations in. So, uh, Gina said that was, um, impressive. This is something Melissa and Mark have done some work in surveying students, and so they’ve already got working groups in the schools and understanding how to Melissa, mark From your, Yeah, sorry. So from the task force um, Melissa IC and Mark Labon had worked with Gina on some, um, initiatives already, so she was really open to learning more about that. Um, we also have, Melissa and Mark are working on an article right now for, um,

1:58:28 our Marble Head Cares column. And, um, let’s see. There was one, there were a couple other things. Um, oh, well, let’s see. Our next meeting is, is, um, April 1st at here in this building, and that will be in person and virtual. And, um, Dennis did give us, he, he gave us a little, um, a little update about those boxes and, um, talked about the research and efforts being done by the committee to understand how best to, to leverage this resource. So I think that’s about it. Keep it brief. Well, thank you that for that. Um, thank you. And, um, I, I know that you’re, you’re doing good work. And Gina, uh, I think I, I met with the superintendent

1:59:14 of schools and I understand Gina will be coming after she makes the presentation to the, um, school, uh, school committee. She will be coming to our, our board T. Excellent. So terrific. We, we should expect her in May. Great. Yeah. Thank you. So that would be great. Sorry about the taking out of order. No, let’s Tie that all Together and now we can go on the budget.

1:59:55 Uh, so again, we had our, uh, meeting with the kind administrator and the finance director as well as with income. Um, again, the town is, you know, needs to be level funded. Um, so starting with the waste budget, um, obviously, uh, the salaries increase, um, per contracts and stuff like that. Um, in the areas of the waste collection expenses, um, the one area that we did have to decrease, so generally, so the very top of the page is trash disposal. Um, last year we carried 7 25, 4 9 1. We need to level fund that. So we, I had moved it up to 92. Uh, so through what I did was allocate took that money and we’re gonna slide that over, uh,

2:00:41 to the waste revolving fund. Um, so now the total waste revolving account would be 1,000,060 2069. You’re gonna carry $862,000 in trash. So that will cover your total cost of disposal for both residential and commercial trash. So you’ll, you’ll have that plus those two added together, and that’ll be, um, 13,000 tons of trash that we’ll be able to dispose of. Um, so you’re Moving, uh, funds from the, uh, 92,000 owner? No. So you, yeah, essentially since we’re level funded and we had increased that line item, um, and so what I had to do to try to, to be level funded was that I had to take what would’ve been there for the,

2:01:27 you know, for the additional amounts and slide that over to the revolving account.

2:01:34 Um, there are a couple other minor increases along there. Um, uh, grinding compost removal. Uh, again, we do a lot of, you know, that yard lease area is very popular. We do a ton of material through there. Uh, the cost of trucking has gone up and so we have to deal with those costs. Um, and we’re getting those, you know, we can see that like here. Um, my costs were up and we’re trying to, you know, we know those costs would continue to be up. We need to continue to move material out as much as it’s coming in. Um, you moved it by $60,000? That’s correct. Yep. Um, the other area that I moved up is other disposal. Um, other disposal is the cost to get rid of all of our recycling, um, the compost, any other things. So electronics, any other items

2:02:21 that go into that recycling area. Um, hazardous waste data, all of that comes out of, uh, other disposal. Uh, you can see last year we spent a total of $177,000. Um, so I increased that up to 180. Um, a couple other little ones. Um, you know, this leading custodian and house supplies, some very small stuff. Um, a lot of the other stuff I had to level fund, um, diesel fuel had to go up. We now have to cover the total cost of diesel fuel. Um, there used to be an energy reserve fund that would cover some, like once we went to a certain amount, but I need to cover all those costs in full. So we, we’ve cut, carried those lines over. We know exactly what we spent for fuel in the last couple of years. And so we just drive those over into what we actually have to do.

2:03:08 Um, so really straightforward with the waste. Um, but I definitely want to talk about that waste revolving account. Um, so like I said, we will be covering, uh, the trash, the 86, the 860 2069 for the trash. We have to carry the cost of the lease of the John Deere backhoe, um, which is approximately $27,000. We’re doing the feasibility and then the sticker list system. So I’ve been really looking into that sticker list system. Um, I contacted, uh, Truro, we looked at that, um, that’s run by a company called Bonsai Logic. Very, very good company. They do almost all the transfer stations on the Cape and they just started doing, um, Winchester and Rockport in this area.

2:03:54 I had a long meeting with the guy the other day. I’m scheduled to go to, um, Winchester in April. That’s the system that we wanna bring in here. And if we can bring this in today, I would. Um, but we, you know, we, we will get there. So, so that much, that much better than Eagle goli? Yeah, they have all the software upfront. Alright. Alright. So they will have, they will provide the online system where people can purchase their, um, stickers, their stick, you know, their STICKLESS stickers. Yeah. Um, they’re gonna have a system that we could actually, um, make it possible so people could pre-purchase. So if I wanted to get rid of a tv, you could go online and do that and come show up to the facility. But they have all that software as far as the whole package.

2:04:43 Okay. The other piece that they, they don’t own, but they know about and have it works together, um, it’s called Worldwide Access. So that’s the access to all the, um, you know, the dots, the transportation. So if somebody’s license plate comes up, they’re not supposed to be there, we can search up that license plate and see that individual and actually send ‘em a ticket, you know, a bill, um, very similar to, uh, the, you know, the toll system and, you know, mass, Same penalties, like No. So we would establish the penalties and stuff like that. No, No, no. I mean, do would as far as like they, if they don’t pay it, No. Yeah, so that’s a really hard one. And so we talked about that a little bit. Okay. Um, it’s not connected to the registry, they’re just accessing the registries to get the information

2:05:29 of where the person is and you know, where they reside and stuff like That. I, I’ve heard about the steps to do it all, to get more information to connect the two, but supposedly there’s a way to do it. Okay. And we can talk about that. But obviously with the, you know, with, you know, if we purchased the worldwide access as well, that’s a separate piece. Mm-Hmm. You would be able to know exactly who’s coming in. Yeah. Um, and then you could send them a bill and that, you know, obviously, um, the license plate reader system would, you know, would populate all the information. Um, the software is like, you know, tracks everybody that comes in, if you tag a car to say, you know, they don’t have a sticker or they’re a problem, you can track that car over and over again. You can look the cards, say like, why is this car coming in five times during the day? Or why is it coming in, you know, during this time, well, you know, over and over or, you know, this person disposed

2:06:15 of a TV in the wrong place. Let’s watch what they’re doing. Um, so you can kind of tag them. But again, you know, this, this system is being used all across the cave. It’s being used in Plymouth, um, and Winchester and Rockport. So this really is the system that we wanna implement. What about adding something on, like if, if you were to issue a ticket, um, you know, a trespassing warning after, So Yeah. So you could say, you know, this car is not allowed to be here. Um, so as soon as the car came through the facility and ran through the, you know, the, uh, license plate reader, uh, cameras, um, it would ping our phones and stuff like that and you could call the police department to Okay. To move forward with that. Yeah. Yep, yep. Um, so the other piece of that is like, so when somebody does want to purchase a a sticker list system, um, they would have

2:07:00 to provide all the documentation online so you know, your, um, tax bill, your car registration. So that would be get put into the computer, uh, and this is the way it’s done across the state at this point. And then we would have employees that would read that and then we would issue, um, the sticker list system. Um, and obviously because we have a kind of a shared system where it’s both for the transfer station and the beach, um, we can simply have a button to say no, do you want to use the beach portion of it? You know, do you want to use de row beach? Do you want to request a sticker? You could check a box and then we could send that sticker to those individuals that actually those Are the ones that just want the beach. Yep. But not just want the beach that want, you know, that are gonna be using the beach as well as the transfer because The sticker system will be at the transfer station, not necessarily at The beach. Yeah. Oh. But I thought that there was a,

2:07:47 there was an ability to just buy a beach sticker. There is not. But if, so I have no need to go to the beach. I, I don’t go to the beach, but I obviously want my transfer station sticker. Right. So I would say, yeah, I, I want my stick system, but don’t bother to send me the sticker ‘cause I’m not gonna put it on my car. Now, if there was an individual in town that says, I definitely want my beach, I, you know, my kids love Devereux Beach, you could check a box and then when we approve it, we could send out the sticker to that individual. Now, because they’re separate, does the, does the, um, park and rec take the beach? No, it just goes into park. It Still goes in the general Still goes in the general, okay. Yep. Change function, just how you can, yeah, no, I’m just wondering if that can eventually change. I know there’s needs for parks and stuff, like, and then we obviously have our needs, so Yep.

2:08:33 Something Is taken up later where Yeah. You know, it’s, yeah. So the only way it can get split up is that town meeting. Right. And I think at town meeting that would have to dictate, you know, that could go into your evolving account or, you know, however it could kinda, uh, aligned to our facility and stuff like that. Our use is more than anybody else. Mm-Hmm. Um, so obviously that would be the big piece of the Stickless system, so, you know, we would need to increase that. But the 1 million, the 60 2069, you know, yes. I had the feasibility study up at a hundred thousand dollars. I don’t think we’re gonna need that much. So I’m kind, you know, sharing some costs through those two things. Okay. Um, so I recommend the 1,000,060 2069 would be the total expenditure out of the waste revolving account. But these are the items that I would be Going to Now are you ready for a vote on this?

2:09:19 Yeah, I just wanna make sure there’s no other questions or anything. Okay. But yeah, you know, when he was going through it, you know, it’s a really robust system. No, it’s, I think it’s good that other places, you know, it’s tried and true with ‘em. Yeah. You know, I don’t know if anyone’s using Eagle Eye. I know we got good advice on it, but it’s, you know, if we have one that’s in place and working well, yeah. That’s probably the way to go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I need a motion. I Take a motion for the, uh, the waste, uh, budget. Second in favor, we, you’re gonna make a motion. I’ll make, I’ll make a motion. I’ll second. All in favor? Favor. Uh, the next one is the health department. Um, again, you know, very, very small budget.

2:10:06 Um, this essentially covers, uh, salaries, some minor health expenses, and again, you know, great, uh, $60,000 to the counseling center. Um, so there’s one thing that we double counted. Um, so you will see on the second page, um, it is escape travel, and then there’s also,

2:10:26 Uh, total health local travel. So you see those two lines. Last year, um, the state travel was a hundred, and now it’s 1732. Uh, total local travel was 1632. I actually kind of combined ‘EM two, but spoke to Alicia, so we weren’t looking to take it up, know, leave it there. So, you know, we need to continue to build it up. It, it’s little money, but leave it there. Um, and I’ll, you know, talk to the finance committee and say, no, we’re being advised to leave it there. It’s only $1,600 and 32, you know, 1632. Um, but pretty straightforward. Um, you know, no changes in that besides, just wanna make sure the board’s aware of that. And so yeah. Adding need a motion to, to approve this, Um, motion to approve the, uh, health budget.

2:11:12 Motion to approve the health budget. Second. All in favor? In favor. Um, so the Unanimous, So the finance committee meeting for budgets, uh, is March 25th. Uh, it’s an evening meeting generally starts at seven o’clock. Um, it’s not required that the full board be there, but if the full board is gonna be there, I need to post the meeting. So I just need to know, um, you know, if people are interested in going, if you want, uh, it’s Feb, uh, March 25th. It’s a Monday Night. It’s a Monday ninth. You know what time Generally? Seven o’clock. But We don’t know if we’re, uh, I don’t know if we’re first or no. First Or, yeah. Oh, right. Okay. And you guys can think about it, get back to me in the next couple days, I have to say by ear, so, okay. Well, so the only thing is that we have to make the decision

2:12:00 that, you know, so you can, you know, why don’t you mark me down as a yes and to be safe. So the only problem is that if, if I have to have, if I’m gonna post the meeting, that the board’s gonna be there, I have to have the quorum. Yeah. If it’s not there, I have to postpone the meeting. So if it is easier. Yeah. Gotcha. What I was gonna go on, so What’s easier for you? You know, if you don’t, if you don’t think you’re gonna make it, just say no, I’m just gonna send the chair. And, you know, generally, to tell you the truth, I generally do all the speaking at the finance committee meeting. We’ve already met with the liaisons. They do most of the speaking and pa past the budget at this point. It’s not a con, they put it on mht V, right? Yeah. All right. I’ll just watch it. Yeah, it’s a non-confrontational meeting. Like, we’re not gonna be debating, you know, what we have here. Um, we’ve met with the liaisons,

2:12:46 they’re okay with all the costs. Um, and we’ll go forward. He’s not gonna post it. So one of us go, Or you can get back to me on, you know, I just need to know enough time that I, either I’m gonna post or not. Okay. I, I can go, you can go. Uh, and that’s it for the budget. I think Joanne’s gonna go and you’ll post it. Yeah.

2:13:13 Uh, Transfer station, uh, project update. Um, So we had a little issue with bidding. So we put out, um, the request out to project dog. We did receive some file sub bids back. You know, our general was that the contractors were confused. We spoke with our legal counsel, we worked with our architects. We put it back out to bid. Um, making sure that they had enough information, made sure that the subcontractors or you know, the file sub bid knew exactly where they had to put bid numbers into. Um, that wasn’t kind of a guessing game. Um, so fi filed sub bids are due back this Thursday, um, the 14th.

2:13:58 And then general contractor bids are due the t the following Thursday, uh, the 21st. Um, we’ve had a lot of great respo, like a lot of great activity on the website. You can see how many people are looking at the information. Um, we’ve had two minor questions. Nothing crazy. Um, the architect has answered that and they could sent out to all the filed sub bids. So they all have the information, all the contractors and stuff like that. Um, so again, the, the, um, the architects will put together another sheet like this, um, with all the information for the sub filed sub biters and we’ll move forward with that. Any questions on that piece? Okay. Uh, cameras. Um, so our security cameras are now live at the transfer station. Um, we posted all the signs.

2:14:46 Um, we just really want people to understand that, you know, yes, we have security cameras up there. They are live 24 hours a day. Um, they will be going to the tri, um, the scale house, my desk, and to, uh, the police department. And currently they’re just going to my desk. Um, but we’re working to get all the software, the computer’s updated. Um, so it goes to, to multiple locations. Um, we just wanna make sure people understand the idea is that we want the waste to go in the right locations. We don’t want illegal activity as far as people dumping hazardous material and, and locations. We only take hazardous material twice a year. Um, and we just want people to be honest, obviously we’ve always had concerns about, um, off hours when the facility closes. It’s an open facility.

2:15:31 Um, and we can kind of pay attention to that as well. Yeah. Andrew, how about behaviors up at the transfer station? Has there been any improvement with the way the staff is being treated? I mean, obviously there’s definitely a, a change. I mean, um, you know, obviously the staff, you know, always tries to make sure that they treat everybody well. They have an understanding of making sure that the customer understands where the material’s supposed to go. Um, you know, we’re kind of in a little bit of a quiet period and so things will ramp up. You know, now that the weather’s getting nice, things will get a little bit busier, But to be determined, what I’m hearing. Yeah. And your new staff person is working out Well, yeah, my new staff person is great. Do You have a name, a name for that person? Um, Michael Oche. Oh.

2:16:17 And the last thing with the budget is that we are able to hire another person up there, um, through that, um, the waste of all account as well. So that total cost with the new budget. Yep. With the new budget. That’s great. That’s terrific. Um, so that will be like another, you know, the title will be like transfer station operator, um, you know, clerk type job. Um, and you know, yes. That, so as you come in through the residence area, once that is open, um, there’ll be a person there like, you know, the attendant, you can ask some questions if you’re looking to get rid of stuff, you can pay for items to get, you know, and all that stuff. So you don’t have to go through the scale house for the residents that will all Be in that area. Does that take some of the pressure off Marty Marty’s? Yes. That will take pressure off Marty. So yeah, we will be fully staffed up there, essentially. Um, we’re always looking for staff up there, but yeah, that, that will take pressure off our office, um,

2:17:06 if somebody’s out and stuff like that, because that is, Yeah, maybe the community doesn’t know, but he, he so has to fill in when Yeah. So if, you know, we only have a couple of people that can operate the scale. Um, so if there’s nobody up there that can operate the scale, myself or Marty has to go up there to do that And that’ll still happen and No. So the idea with this additional person is that we should have enough coverage now that there’ll be three people up there that can operate the scale. Um, and that should, you know, allow for at least some coverage. But Marty, you, you’re always running into issues. Part of his regular job is to work this database. Yeah. That’s, that’s additional. Yep. Okay. So that’s, um, do you mind if we, uh, postpone the website since it’s quarter? Can we Just have a quick conversation about that? I just wanna kind of understand what you’re looking for.

2:17:53 Um, you know, I, I know you want to have it back on here. I did hand out some information to everybody last time. Mm-Hmm. Um, you know, if there’s things that you guys want us to work on rather not go a month, you know, if there’s things that we wanna start to take a look at. The other big piece is that I did hear today, the town is looking to revamp their whole website. Mm-Hmm. And so I, I believe that will be underway. Um, I’m not, say in the near future, I probably will gonna take some funding, so after, um, July 1st, but I know that’s the idea. I think it’s short money from what I heard, because, you know, yeah, I think I heard nine. Okay. Which is nine. What? Yeah, that’s nothing. I, I looked at the full website and I noticed that there was some other,

2:18:39 some other areas that Yeah. So the information that stuff comes from our North Shore, um, collaborative website that’s not on our website, but there is, you know, So there were five areas other than what Yep. You had given us. Yep. And I, um, I seem to like, yep. All of It. I mean, Tom did reach out to us and make sure that we had AA meetings on that, you know, website. So Yeah. The AA sort, um, you, you know, I thought it was good. Uh, the only thing I say is like, you know, your local resources or your best resources, that’s what I’ve leaned towards is like the mental, you know, you put, you know, you advertise that the YMCA has a mental health, uh, you know, you could put the task force on there, the counseling center. Yep. And then the physical, I, like I said, I like to go

2:19:24 with the local physical, you know, we, we have a couple new pop up and you know, it’s, I mean, I, I think, you know, that’s a big push for any department really is like, yeah, we really want people to look local first. Yes. And then if you’re unable to find something locally, you know, we start to reach out. I mean, we’re all a community. We need to be supporting each other and that includes supporting local Businesses. Yeah. So that’s my push is, is putting the local ones on so people have, Yeah. So unfortunately because of procurement and stuff like that, we’re not able to promote, um, businesses in town. Okay. I mean, obviously the idea is that we’re no, we’re promoting, um, wellness through physical activity and stuff like that. And so, you know, Um, how about, um, a section on there, we can list where we can list what type of stuff we have around town.

2:20:13 So I don’t necessarily need to say the names of them, but I can say various martial arts studios. Yeah. So You could say like, we could have a list that, you know, would say in Marblehead there, you know, there is access to Yes. Um, martial arts, you know, um,

2:20:30 Yoga, CrossFit, you know, all these other, you know, yoga, if we can put a list together Yeah. You know, reach out. Yeah. If that’s the best we can do in fine with that. Yep. Um, so we just need to kind of work together to, to, to make sure we can kind of cover all those topics. Yeah. I’ll, I’ll brainstorm about that. Okay. Uh, before we, uh, go on to the, uh, our public comment, do we have a letter to sign? Yep. Yeah, I give A couple in Here. Um, and so we did put together, I had to put together the IM bill support letter. Um, so I have that for everybody to sign. So there’s four copies going out to the representatives, the other individuals that we are recommended to send to. Um, so as soon as all three of you signed that, that will go out tomorrow. There is also a Anything else before we go?

2:21:16 No, that’s it. Which permit? Uh, You’ll see the, I don’t remember all. Okay. Um, could you just remind us what the next board meeting is? Is the second Tuesday? The date, I think is April 4th. Is that

2:21:33 I’m looking too. It’s the Rept. The ninth. The ninth, Yep. Rep.

2:21:41 Our next board meeting is the regular second Tuesday of the month on April 9th. Okay. Thank you for that. Um, we did hear some, uh, uh, we good, good conversation, uh, with some of the, uh, members of the audience. Anybody have any comments before we adjourn? Um, yes, go ahead. Uh, Just to comment, I was looking at the bid document Yeah. For the all stuff transfer station. It’s really not clear. It appears as though the bids are only gonna be open at Zoom not in Thursday. That’s correct. So it’s, so since you’re filing with Project All, which is an online, um, it’s not an like an open, like you’re not doing it at town hall, you know, it gets all done through Project Dog.

2:22:28 Okay. Yes. To, I just Have a question for Andrew. Yep. Are you able to make any general comment about, um, the bids that are coming in? No. ‘cause I, I don’t get to see them until everybody like till they’re final. Okay. So now, so we don’t know until they come in. So the way it works is that the filed sub bids, so you have, um, roofing, uh, roofing, flashing metal windows, painting, plumbing, HVAC, see, um, and electrical, those are the filed sub bids. So the filed sub, you know, bids will put their bids into those areas, um, to all the required areas.

2:23:15 That’s what we get to see once they do that. And then the general contractors take those and they add those into the general contractor bid

2:23:25 Another week or two. Yeah. Yep. So the 21st is the, uh, the general contractor s Good Luck. Thank you. Any other questions, Steve on that?

2:23:38 Everybody else there? Thank you very much for bearing with us for a late meeting, but, uh, we had a lot of visits to do.

2:23:48 That’s the right.