Board of Health: February 11, 2025

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.

0:02 Good evening everyone. Sorry for the little delay. It’s, uh, Tuesday, February 11th, board health meeting. The first item on our agenda is a substance abuse at night that we’re gonna be having in, in a month. Uh, no, it’s delayed. Um, actually Laney came up with a very good idea, um, kind end of the school year. There’s, uh, kind of a window where there’s attention to, um, eighth graders moving up to the high school. And so there might be, um, a little more engagement, curiosity if we waited till that time. And, uh, we met, we met with Mark Levo, Palm and Laney, and it sounded like a good idea. So we’re, we’re just pushing it out to that time. Um,

0:50 Ms. John, are you On? No. Nope. That Tom. Oh, because I was gonna say you didn’t Posted. No, no, no, no. That, Um, So do you Have a date? Uh, no. We, we, I just found out the timeframe that that stuff is going on, so then I’ll have to just coordinate. So, would you do me a favor? Because, um, the, um, the previous event, because it was during the, a holiday weekend, It’s gonna be Wednesday night, it’s not gonna be weekend. And this one, um, people knew that I was gonna be not available because that’s the week we were canceling our meeting. So, um, just can you pass it by me first so I can Yeah. Put it on my calendar. Be before it’s in stone. Yeah. Um, thanks very much. And I just overheard that you’re gonna put Postpone Bill.

1:35 Yeah, the bills came today. I was at work, so I didn’t have time to wrap ‘em up into the way I did, so I’ll just add them to the next batch. Okay. Maybe, well, um, while you’re we’re talking, before we go on about the substance abuse night, I, I had a nice meeting. I met the new, uh, acting superintendent yesterday. I’ve been delaying, uh, since the beginning of the year, because first he was new, then there were a few little things going on in town, um, that I really didn’t wanna bother him. So I found a nice opportunity to see him this week. And one of the things I did ask him was about the, um, the play that we’re trying to get in town. He’s going to give us some dates. I said that maybe, um, after April vacation might be a good time. So, um, he is going to get back to me,

2:22 and then we can speak to, uh, the drug, uh, the play that we talked about, uh, previously, I know Swarm Scott’s doing it, but I think they also delay this. Is that correct, Andrew? So the, they had planned to do it for the high school that’s gonna be delayed into the fall. Um, I believe they’re trying for the audience of the eighth grade as well, um, for the drug story. Um, theater, theater I did not bring, I don’t know if they have a date yet for that. Um, but that’s gonna be sometime this spring. So I’m going to see if e either we could piggyback with our eighth graders, or, or they could come here or we can just open it up to the community and invite them to Swamp Scott or else have our own. But I, I am gonna start to, uh, initiate

3:08 that reinitiate that, because I was waiting for, to speak with the superintendent, because the last time I spoke with the high school principal, she, um, referred me to superintendent. I just ask on that. ‘cause I know, and I’m not saying that I’m trying to discourage anything or anything like that, but is it budgeted? I know there was a tight budget and that The drug story theater is not budgeted. So yeah, we need to take a look at that. Uh, all of these events and everything needs, the board needs to agree to hold these events. We need to plan for these events. Um, you know, so we would need to know how much money that, okay. Well, We’ll, yeah. We’ve talked about the last event that we had, the, uh, the fair. Yep. And now this event, and we’ve been talking about this one as long on

3:55 This one. Yeah. Just to let you, There’s no cost. So the, The, Yeah. Abuse night was not gonna have any costs associated. Right. But there was cost to the fair. Yeah, there was several hundred dollars to The fair. Okay. So I, I, I don’t know how much this is to believe me. I can raise the money, But again, I think, you know, these, these things, the board needs to, you know, bring to the table. The board needs to move, you know, agree to them. We don’t wanna be having these one-offs where one member is working on this and one member is working on that. These need to be board items that the board’s agreeing to put forward and, and putting our resources towards those. We’re very busy in the office, and we don’t have the time or the staff to do all this additional work

4:40 that every board member wants to do. Okay. Well, this is the first thing I’ve done. There’s no any responsibility with, with the office. There isn’t. Okay. I’ve spoken to the assistant superintendent, I’ve spoken to the people that are running it, and I will follow through any other. So, um, that’s, it goes, you, you ready for Community health? Well, no, I was gonna say regarding substance abuse night, I think the title is very creative. Uh, in giving a title, I would have all four words beat begin with capitals. Yeah. Yeah. The, it’s, I should say that it, that title’s very specific because it is substance use

5:26 and abuse, but some of them that, you know, there are tragedies involved where lessons are learned, which wouldn’t necessarily be put, I don’t know, fully under those categories. So it, it leaves a little window open using that. Yeah. No, I think it’s great. Would you capitalize is I would, yeah. I think that I, that’s what we, we didn’t do it on, but anyway, and that’s a, I think a style thing, but, but it’s a great title. It’ll be catchy. People will talk. It is a catchy title. Yeah. Um, uh, community health update. If, if, um, I’ve given my little slideshow, maybe six or seven times now, several boards are considering their support for the program.

6:13 And I hope that at our March meeting we’ll be able to make some, uh, concrete decisions and plan on moving forward. Uh, I’ve actually begun to recommunicate with Dr. Coyle, uh, about things. And, uh, uh, I’m hopeful that March meeting should be really the beginning of, of all of that. Great. And thank the current for the article supporting that, that effort. So, um, you, you’ve been to several other, um, groups that No, no. Fast forthcoming. No. What I hear is the ones we heard. What I hear is boards are, they’re discussing

6:59 how much they Yeah. They just slam the door in your face. Surprisingly not. I, I, on my grid be, I’m, I’m better there than on this board, you know? Well, I think maybe we, uh, I always bring Joanne Miller with me. Can me one We’ll put, we’ll put fundraiser. We’ll put fundraiser in your job description. No, no. It, it, it, I would rather be the fund spender.

7:29 But I, I do think the town, when people hear about it, they see

7:39 the intent of understanding the health status of this community is, is a, is a valid one, and believes that we should move forward. Good. So then you’ve gotten good response. Yeah, I think so. Whether this, a check that follows is another thing, but at least people are thinking that we’re doing the right thing. Yeah. Great. Um, did, did you have a mental health task force meeting or anything? Well, it was on the same night that we met for the, um, last meeting for the compactor floor. Okay. And so I really haven’t had a chance to talk to them about what happened, but it was a fairly full night, but I don’t have a report. Okay. Um, so we’re onto the director’s report. We’ll be right along. Sounds good.

8:25 Uh, so transfer station, update. A couple things with that. Uh, SL Chase Steel is scheduled to come in, hopefully this week. They’re, look, you know, I have emails, they wanna begin work, so demo of the tipping floor this week. Um, so we have plowed all the snow made room for them. Um, so to begin that process, um, their work is estimated to take four weeks. We’re trying to reschedule back the compactor installation and the shoot, um, because of some of the unknowns regarding the tipping floor. The soon as I date I can get for them to come back and install that compactor is March 24th. Yeah. So we’re gonna, obviously, we’ll continue to talk to everybody.

9:11 Mm-hmm. Make sure everybody understands where we are with their projects, um, and see if we can get them back as soon as possible. So the biggest piece of that is open communication between the three of us. So myself, SL Chase for doing the tipping floor and New England Mechanical Data Frazier. Um, for that compactor install questions.

9:37 Sounds pretty Straightforward. What, what had them push it out so far? I thought they, They have a big project that they are into at this point. Yeah. And they’re the only guys in the game, huh? That’s the contract we have right now is with them. So, yeah. They, they are the only guys really in the game. We couldn’t switch and stuff like that. Can we take more time to, um, again, you know, we can try to work with them to see if there’s days that they can slide in. We just have to, you know, you know, they might say, well, this is gonna cost us additional money because you’re reallocating resources. Um, but we’ll, you know, again, we will keep, you know, communications open with them. Um, you know, they’re concerned about the construction of the tipping floor with the schedule of that.

10:23 So obviously the tipping floor will come out. They’re gonna have to look at all the bedding for that steel, make sure that sounds before they can put everything back together. Mm-hmm. Now, we would try to see if there’s any other additional work that we can take care of during some of this time. Um, we have, our new control building came in today. Mm-hmm. So that’s now to the left of the compactor. We’ll be putting a jersey barrier in front of it to protect it, uh, from traffic and stuff like that. Moving forward, we will be working with, uh, a, an eng like an electrical, um, installer to get those up and running. Um, we have contract, we will be installing, uh, fiber optics in town. We need the fiber optic for all the license plate reader cameras.

11:09 Mm-hmm. So that should begin in the next couple of days. The fiber, uh, the license plate reader equipment has been ordered. We’re hoping that we can get a lot of this stuff done in the next couple months. Yeah. Uh, and try to just keep everything moving. And So the cost of the two boost was, was about 13 grand combined the No thir, so it was about 13,000 for one, and about 12,000 or 14,000 for one. I thought it was seven and six. No, that was just the half of that was your, your, uh, down payment. Oh, okay. Okay. And then seven and Six? Yes. Okay. And how much is the installation for them? I don’t have a number from the, uh, okay. The electrician. So it’s 13 for one and 14 for the other. Uh, yeah, less than that, but yes. Yeah. Yeah.

11:54 A little less than one first one. A little more than the second one. Yeah. So about that. Yes. So what about, um, the tariff that’s being put in place from federal? Is that gonna affect Us? We should be good. We should be good. My understanding is that they got the steel order in. Um, again, until I see final receipts, I can’t promise anything. Um, but yeah, I, I, I believe he’s got the order in and, uh, secured the steel beforehand. Um, but Until you get the price, we don’t know. Right. Yep. You know, he’s gonna rip that. He’s gotta do the demo, verify that the sizes are all correct. Um, if he has to change sizes, you know, that’s a different story because he’s asked for a certain size steel at this point. But I’m sure the steel company’s willing to work with him.

12:42 Good. Thank you. So, um, you wanna go, uh, on about the, we’ve got this, um, report that you’ve given us before on the tobacco echo. Uh, I’m gonna go, I’m gonna continue to go down the line. So, bureau of Substance Abuse, um, BS a S survey. Um, we currently are working with, um, we have a coalition, so Marblehead Swamp, Scott, Lynn, and Salem working together on substance abuse. Generally in the high school age. Students, we’re trying to get breakdown more into the seventh and eighth graders. Um, but we are putting out a survey. Uh, the survey is called Positive Community Perception Survey. Um, so this will be going out to all the communities. Um, it’s a very short survey to, you know,

13:29 make sure people are very interested in, uh, the survey and, and not just the bypass and stuff like that. Um, so it’s a very basic survey. So, you know, what city or town do you reside in your age, your gender, your race, your ethnicity, your language. Do you have children? What age are your children? Um, what do you see as the primary challenges that young people in your community are experiencing? Check all that apply. Isolation and lack of sense of belonging. School pressure, academic challenges, mental health issues. Peer pressure. Need to fit in. Inadequate supervision of by adults. Substance use. Easy access to substances need for mentoring adults.

14:16 Discrimination. Bullying. Barriers to service access such as no health insurance or waiting lists. Housing instability, food insecurity, substance abuse use within the family or other?

14:30 Do you believe that most high school aged youth in your community are using substances of any kind? This could include cigarettes, vape products, alcohol, marijuana, prescriptions that are not thorough or illicit. Drugs such as cocaine or heroin. Do you believe that most middle school age youth in your community are using substances of any kind? This could include cigarettes, vape products, alcohol, marijuana, prescriptions that are not their own or illicit drugs such as cocaine and heroin. I personally believe that most teen tobacco, alcohol, or other drug use is just experimentation. And is part of growing up strongly believe. Uh, strongly agree, somewhat agree. Neither agree or disagree? Somewhat disagree.

15:16 Strongly disagree. I believe that most adults in my community view teen, tobacco, alcohol, or other drug use as experimentation as part of f. Strongly agree. All, you know, somewhat agree. Neither agree or disagree. Somewhat disagree or strongly disagree. How upset do you think most parents of high school students in your community would be if they knew their children were using any type of substance? Not upset at all. A little upset, fairly upset. Extremely upset. How upset do you think most parents of middle school students in your community would be if they knew their children were using any type of substance? Not upset at all. A little upset. Fairly upset. Upset. Extremely upset. What type of substance use

16:04 among youth do you believe that adults, parents in your community are most concerned about? Check all that. Apply. Cigarette use, vaping, alcohol use, marijuana use, misuse, prescription drugs, use of other illicit drugs, eg. Cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, et cetera. Or other. Do you think that most adults in your community recognize the risks associated with youth, alcohol or other drug use? Yes. No. Unsure. Do you think that adults in your community know what can be done to reduce youth, alcohol, or other drug use? Yes. No. Unsu. What do you think is needed in your community to help youth make healthy choices about substance use? Check off Any of those you believe

16:51 are particularly important. Social emotional development. Children and youth need more social emotional learning. A sense of belonging and the opportunities to develop better decision making skills. Youth engagement and support. Youth need engagement in social activities, supporting mentoring adults and greater community level support for themselves and their families. Substance use, awareness and prevention. Youth adults need accurate perceptions of substance use. Increased awareness of its risk, and more opportunities to engage in prevention efforts. Parental and community influence Shifting parental and adult aptitudes about substance use along with opport. Other, uh, more opportunities for youth and adults who engage in prevention is essential.

17:37 Other complete this section only if you’re interested in participating in a follow-up focus group to discuss your perceptions and concerns further, this section of the survey will be reviewed separately and will be not connected to your above, uh, survey responses. So very, you know, very deep survey. Um, and again, this is about positive community perception. I think it’s very comprehensive, even though it’s brief. Well, I, I have great concerns. This group has been talking for four months now about doing calm. We hit people with two surveys in a four month period. We’re not gonna get the response that, that I think,

18:23 you know, you started the meeting saying that the members have to be talking to you. Well, you have to be talking to us. Why did we not hear that? There was a another, a survey from a group that we don’t know anything about that’s being prepared. We’ve been talking about doing the comm survey. So Wendy Kent sits on your mental health task force, But, but she brought something like that up and I wondered what was going on. So I assume That that, but that’s not the route of information that I wanna hear when I’m on this board. Wendy is a, is a visitor to the mental health task force. You are the partner to, to the, this board. And this board has been working on comm and now you’re pro providing a service.

19:10 What’s the statistical base? Who’s the people who put this together for you? So the statistical base is BS a S. So the Bureau of Substance Abuse is working to help Marblehead Salem Swamp. Scott and Lynn look at substance abuse in the community. They’d help us do the YRBS survey. It’s all based off of that information. They’re trying to gather additional information. So they, they wrote the survey? Yes. Yes. My, My question is, did they, earlier in it, I saw they made it more granular later in it, in the beginning of it, did they lump together like vaping and cocaine? Uh, so they,

19:52 so do you believe that most middle school age youth in your community are using substances of any kind? This could include cigarettes, vape products. Yeah. So they allow all that stuff to you that, That might not get you the best results. I mean, it’s there a survey. I don’t know how, you know, there’s a pretty big gap between those. I think, you know, Well, I think people will answer those questions. Yeah, but you’re not gonna get that. There’s a big difference between heroin and alcohol. I, I mean that’s, uh, But I just, I mean, they can take the data how they want, but it’s, it’s not gonna give you a great output, you Know? So to answer Tom, Tom RA’s question, uh, who was gonna receive this? How, how is this gonna be disseminated? So we’ll go out through a listserv.

20:39 So we could use the board of Health listserv. You could use It’s the same group. Yeah. It’s, it’s gonna be receiving And the parents of, of of students gonna get the, We would have to ask the school if they’re, they’re willing to send it out to all those, the parents as well. Especially middle school and high school. Yep. So this, again, this is positive community, right? So you’re trying to capture the whole community. So, and what difference is this? Well, I guess only the kids get the other, the survey, uh, during the one that Gina puts up, correct? That’s not from parents. That’s not for parents. That’s correct. It’s interesting that they, that Lynn lumped into this group because it’s a much different cross section of people that the two, it’s that Lynn and Salem, but 2D Cross, it’s

21:25 Just a way from bs a to share resources for having people like Wendy be the facilitator. Wendy, I don’t know who Wendy. So Wendy came to the facilitator for BS a s for this grant. Is is, is she local or She is local? Yes. Well, she’s not marveled. Well, um, it is bs a out of Boston or just Yeah, BS a is out of Boston. Not just These four Communities. That’s, that’s correct. So She, it’s Massachusetts. So she works for a larger group. Yes. Not just this four, these four cities and towns. Yep. She works for Lynn. Well, she, she Works for BS a, she works for Lynn. She works Substance her bases in Lynn. I would’ve to see what her contract says. I mean, I don’t know. I I just,

22:11 Well, I, I move that we delayed doing that so that I can present that to Dr. Coyle, find out

22:23 what the overlap is if we hit the families using whatever list there we have with two. Wait a minute. If you move something, why don’t we get a second for discussion? All right. Okay. So is there a second? Yeah, I’ll second it. All in favor. That doesn’t mean it’s gonna pass, it just means you can discuss. Yeah, I understand.

22:47 But we’ve been talking about doing a 45 question survey here. I think COIL came in October,

22:57 and this is the first time the board has heard about it. And it’s, it’s, it, it’s, it’s redundant. And I, I certainly need to know if

23:13 the data analysis is sophist as sophisticated as what we think we’re buying from UMass Boston.

23:22 I, I don’t know who B PASS is. It sounds like they’re legitimate agency. Are they government agency? Yes. Is there a fee involved for us in This? No. So we, we received a BSAs grant. We’ve had it for the last three years. We’ve talked about this is how the wire VSS get gets done. This is how other programs, substance abuse programs are brought into the high school school, um, through the sprint. Well, we don’t, we’re not involved with this high school. So it that, so that we don’t know about that. Well, that’s why they come and talk about the YBS survey. Right? Maybe,

24:05 I mean, I’m assuming yours, Tom Is gonna be a little more comprehensive than that one. That One’s just too general for me. So the idea with the public health assessment is public health, which yes. Includes this, but a huge bigger range than just substance abuse. No, I understand. But people have only so much time. The, the, the concern about any survey in today’s world is response. People don’t take time to do things. If we hit them with this three months before we’re hitting them with another, I, I wanna, I would at least like the opportunity to talk to, um, the professionals that we’re talking to, uh,

24:51 to make certain we understand how we play it. Maybe we, I, I mean, I don’t know. Well, would you like to, um, withdraw your motion? Just asking to delay this until we have a chance to speak to Dr. Coyle on the, for our next meeting. You made a motion to Yeah, I guess that’s a style issue. I think, uh, I, I think that my concern that we haven’t heard this one and two, several of us just spent an awful lot of time talking about the town report and it, something like this isn’t in it, But it, it’s a tiny grant. It’s a tiny piece that’s really being done through YR Bs and gathering information there.

25:38 Well, So were you, are you joining with, with the GINA to put the survey on or No. So, so Gina is part of the group that’s part of this. Okay. So yes, Gina works on the high school, uh, at the school, putting out the Y vs survey, gathering all the data, bringing it back to us, looking at programs that the BS a s can purchase to bring into the school. Looking at, trying to get down to the seventh and eighth grade. Obviously you’re trying to potentially capture sixth grade, but it’s down in the, you know, in the middle village school. So it’s a little bit harder. They’re not grouped together. But we’ve been talking about substance abuse for a long time. This is though, no, we All, we all did This.

26:25 This is how this all has come About. But a survey has not. That is correct. This is the first time I’m bringing the survey to you. But has Wendy Kent not talked about doing a survey? She hasn’t talked about it to the boy, no. C correct. It, it was actually third or fourth. She talked about two really amazing focused. Yeah. Yeah. And, and this one was mentioned sort of tangentially, uh, as so no, and, and I had no idea of the time I, that, that’s a big survey. I mean, I’ve got A, to us this is a 10 question survey. I thought that one was a lot smaller.

27:10 I, I mean, I wouldn’t, I think it’s, I I see your frustration, Tom, that it’s, you know, coming. ‘cause you have a comprehensive one that’s gonna have way more thought into that. And so it’s kind of like you have this little one that’s, that’s vague. Yeah. I see what you mean. Um, I wouldn’t take this one as almost like taking away from yours except I, yeah. I, I really don’t call that vague. I mean, I think it, I think it asks a lot of, a lot of good questions. I mean, if I gave you a list to your kids and I, and I put those, all those things in there being like, do they, um, can you plea, do you do any of these things? Drink alcohol, shoot heroin, vape, smoke cigarettes, do cocaine? And your kids just said yes.

27:55 You wouldn’t want a little more information to know which one they were doing. Well, I think there’s a, isn’t there a check on each one of those? Not like that. There’s later it’s, right. So it starts out, you know, I personally believe that most teen, uh, most teen tobacco, alcohol, or other drug use, so there, you know, that one’s like three put together, right? Um, is just experimentation. And, and part of growing up, and again, this is what we’re trying to figure out, what the community perception is, when we look at the YRBS survey, which you have all seen mm-hmm. A lot of the times the kids say, I think 80% of my peers are using tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, when the reality of it is down into the 5%.

28:42 Yeah. Or, or less. And so trying to gather information, it’s about education and information and sharing information. What is the best way to do that? In, in July, the board appointed me as Vice Chair of community health. For me to be hearing about a survey to, to go to community in February is inappropriate. So we just ta So the B SAS group has just come up with this idea. So yes, they’ve been working on art projects and other things like that. The survey is new, but it’s all based on the YRBS.

29:27 And we’ve been trying to get Gina here, and she has not come to talk to us about it. They just implemented, We know I’m talking about the last survey. And She’s, we, we had her here last, Not on this last, that was the year before. And we have not had her here since Dr. I think they don’t have A new survey. Do. So the survey, the new YRBS survey just went out to the students. I understand. I’m talking about the previous one. She has not come to us about it. She did speak to the, uh, mental health task force. Joanne brought some of the information there. It was not a full report. I asked Gina to come here in September 1st. She had a new, a new she wanted in August. She wanted to wait till the principal came, then the superintendent come. And then the, the problems with teaching staff and then the problems with the stripes. I mean, now I’m getting upset

30:16 because she has not been here. If I knew that she was tied into this, and then we have some control over it. So G Gita works for the school. Right? But she’s also is working with you in the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, which, where she gets funds. So the school gets funds. Did she implement Yes. That she gets to use. But we would like to know about it. And I’m now it it that I’m not faulting her. I’m just saying we do have some need to hear that. Last year, this is exactly the reason that since the day I became a board member, I said we needed to make clear the distinctions between the Department of Health and the Board of Health. We, we, in the last meeting, I think we came

31:01 to a conclusion about that this, There, there is no conclusion to that. Yeah, Almost. We didn’t vote on it. But we’re, we are coming close. Okay. Well, we have both legal opinion from the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards and Town Council that that’s gonna drive. Yes. The decision we make, this is inconsistent with the ultimate structure of the board according to that. How is that In, in that the board does, has, has had no information about all of these things that are being driven into the, in the community. So We’ve talked about maybe you work here,

31:47 we’ve talked about BHAI Have been here for every meeting since I’ve been on the board. Right. But it doesn’t mean we talk about every issue, everything that I’m doing. I don’t, you wouldn’t do That wrong. But I am the vice chair of community health. This should fall under my territory. Justice as the, the the transfer station. You, you should be talking to Mr. McMahon. I have a background. I I’m a pediatrician. I understand. I’ve been working in public health for a very long time. So, and, and to be bypassed for something like this is inappropriate. There’s No bypassing, I think come down. Okay. Yeah. There, there is no bypassing. These are day-to-day operations that we do in our office

32:33 and have been doing for years. Well then call the chair a, a vice chair of Community Health into your office and explain, explain what you’re doing. So why don’t we, uh, you speak with him further about this, uh, off, off the meeting. But, so When, when Wendy Kent speaks at your mental health task force, ‘cause this is all about mental health as well. W do what do you, what does she say to you guys? Just by the way, it is not my mental health task force. It is, it is. It’s a task force that was started by the board that I report on to the board. You are the representative to that board. Fine. So it’s our, it’s, uh, the board. Yeah, that’s correct. Task force. That’s what he’s trying to say.

33:20 So could we d delay this discussion? Till next time, let Dr. Zaro speak to Dr. Coy and we will discuss this at our meeting, which we will discuss with, we meet, determine which date it is. So we will talk about the date and we will, would you want a vote or do you wanna withdraw your motion? We will discuss these. I I wanna know a little more. Is there any way we can delay this? Yes. Because it’ll have to go out through our lister or the board of health board, the school departments list. So the other towns. And they’ll be, They’re doing their own. You can’t stop them. No, I’m not. No, I I Because none of their people are gonna get the calm survey.

34:03 Is there a way, one of the things we’ve talked about with calm, and one of the things I wanna talk to Coyle about is if in the, in the survey it said, do you have child under 21 or under 18? That, that you go to a subset of questions that seniors might not get and that sort of thing that we could, we could integrate this kind of stuff into the survey that we put out. That’s Up to the board. You, the board’s gonna design the survey that with coil to put all that out. Well, but if this goes out before then it’s preempted. You Just asked me not to put it out and I said, yeah. Oh, okay. But you, you’re missing your opportunities. But I Said we wanna delay it, the discussion till the next meeting. So you found more about it from, uh, from the UMass. Yeah. We, we don’t have a contract with, um,

34:50 But you don’t, you don’t see that. I, you, I I hope you feel that. I feel sandbagged. You don’t think that I have been sandbagged. So, so my understanding, so this is where we disagree. The board is here to set policy and regulation. It’s my job to do all the day-to-day operations working with other communities. I don’t. I don’t. So when you started one On behalf of the board, That is correct, but when you started, you didn’t want this to be the Andrew Petty show, the director of public health. You wanted to run it. So I’ve letting you guys run your meetings. Do you want me to show you everything I’m doing every week? We are the board. The people elected us

35:37 And the board hired me to do the job. Correct. That’s the partnership. I think we’re meeting our partner. We, we, we, two of us have been spending a lot of time helping to try to get you some time because we know how busy you are. I think probably, I mean, you, you hear that Tom just wants more information. So we’ll just, you know, going forward, if you think it’s prevalent to what he, he wants to know on those situations, I’m good with the transfer station. Right? Me and you, me and you communicate about that. I ask questions. You give ‘em to me. I’m good. Um, Tom obviously wants a little more information as things come up. So maybe we just going forward, we just do, We just strive To Do that. As far as this particular thing, I’d like to move on.

36:24 I’d like to see if you could get some more information to satisfy you and the board. Because as I said, I don’t know who Wendy is. I didn’t know anything about this. I even feel more blindsided seeing Gina on the last year’s, uh, uh, survey. But let’s just make it clear communication from you to me through Wendy Kent is not an appropriate mechanism. Right. But So again, you were supposed to be the liaison to the mental health task force. All this stuff is, should be talked about at the mental health task force as well. That was accidental. That why she brought that ups, that’s why, that’s why Wendy Kents on that board is No, it’s not. So why is Wendy Kents on that board? Because she’s a Volunteer. She

37:09 wanted to come to it. Well, maybe she, she was never appointed to the board. She’s not a member, as you know, we’re trying to figure out how to do membership. She’s not, she can’t be a member because she doesn’t live in Marblehead.

37:23 So I, I assume that you guys were talking about all these different things, talking about substance abuse, trying to make a difference. And that is right. But that period, yes, but this did not come under that. And it should have come to the board.

37:50 So, so it’s, yeah, it’s come to the board. We, we’ve talked about BS a s here. We’ve talked about the grants. When, when we’re just gone over three months in meetings. When did BS a s ever come up in any board meeting? We, we’ve talked about the, I believe we’ve gotta be talking about things. They gotta be on the meeting. I

38:12 Are, are we? Why don’t we you meet and, uh, get this settled. Because I think that he understands that we’re not, that you’re not satisfied. That we’re not ready to vote on this. Okay. That’s Been related. Question related, related to that related Gina’s last survey, because I’m, I’m apparently losing track of time. How long ago was That? I thought that was last year. I thought it was too. I thought we were still on that one year. Yeah, no, it’s, so I thought we were still on that. That was the Present survey. There’s one in between. ‘cause I tried to figure, So there’s not one in between. So Gina was here last spring, last, that survey was put out last fall. It takes a long time. And that’s the, but there was A But she was here when Tom was on. Okay. Yeah. No, that’s, yeah, I remember

38:57 She was, but she wasn’t, she didn’t give us the one that Joanne gave a very brief report when she went to the, uh, mental health task force. Yeah, she did. She came here And met with us. I will get the I without us going. She did and she didn’t. I will get the facts. Okay. I, I was under the impression that we’re still under the, that the one that she gave us here is still the most recent one. That is The most recent. They just named one this fall. Yeah. And we’re waiting for the, the results to come back from that. Okay. So she can’t give anything if she doesn’t have the results yet. There we go. I’ll see what It’s easy enough. I’ll see what she did. Because I asked her for something and she said she needed to get all this permission. Why didn’t she just say there was no survey there to report on? She didn’t say that. She said she was waiting to get permission from the, from principal and from the superintendent.

39:44 I mean, the, the school is very close to the vest. It’s Right. So, but that’s not an Andrew fault. That’s, that’s a no, but No, but I’m saying, but now I’m feeling that if she’s tied into the Bureau of substance abuse and that we, she gets money to do this and we’re overseeing that, it seems like, I Thought that was paid for by Mass General. No, The, the survey. The Wired, yes. So they sometimes do a mass general type survey through there. They’ve, but the funding comes from BS a s to complete that work and try to bring other programs into the school to deal with substance. I thought we were having a very brief meeting as we were moving along, so

40:25 Well, but the, well, but we’re talking, we’re defining different. The, the youth risk survey goes beyond substance abuse. So why would BS a s be the funder? So the, the youth, the, i, I used the youth survey in a broader sense in New Mexico. You know, we were a central, everybody did it in the whole state. And, and it’s much, it, it, it it Sexual activity family. Yep. Public health Places. It’s public health. Public health, social determinants of health. Yep. It’s all of that sort of stuff. And so what we do here is much less than that. The town, for a long period of time, the town had refused to do that survey.

41:11 So we had no data. BS a s came to us and said, if we give you this grant, which is a small dollar amount grant, would you go small? I think it’s $10,000.

41:24 Will you make sure that will you promise to implement the YRBS survey? And that everyone came to an agreement at that time to do that. And we’ve been working together with the school to do that since that time. Yes. You were not in town. You did not, you were not in the board. So you were not part of those conversations. But we’ve continued with that work and with the, even with bs a, someone that worked is on mental health. That’s why we did the art project, preventing kids from doing other things through art therapy,

41:59 mentorships, other programs. That’s, they Picked the photo one. Yeah. It’s unbelievable. But that’s mental health and also wraps around into substance abuse. That 10,001 time or is that Yearly? No, it’s yearly. It’s yearly. Yeah. Okay. So we wanna put the survey out there just to make sure you keep that So Well they’re doing way. Yes. So youth survey. Um, so, uh, we have a motion on the floor. The chairman would like the Nelson to be withdrawn. Well, I, Well, I was just thinking that if, if you wanna, I guess we’ve said enough, then Andrew will, uh, and I will meet And we will bring this up at another time when he’s not gonna do anything about, Again, the board needs to understand.

42:45 There’s all these different initiatives that the state wants us to work on that the, you know, we are working on with coalitions. We have public health excellence money. We are so under footed in this town. It’s, and the board should be fighting every day for additional dollars. I don’t see what the problem is. I worked my ass off for this community and all you do is give me help that I didn’t that notify you about this stuff. I think that’s unacceptable. I’m trying to do the best thing for this community and you’re giving me a hard time. We wanna support you for doing that. But we are, I feel I’m the, I’m an elected member by the town to make sure that we’re working together.

43:29 I do not feel we have worked together on this, On This particular issue. We’re Actually working together on every issue that’s out there in public health. That’s my job.

43:43 A 40, you say it was only 10, but I, sending a survey out to the community is a significant activity. I don’t think you do that on a daily basis. That’s not, that’s got strategic and it goes beyond operational. The strategic and policy issue. A about. So you No longer want me to participate in the SaaS group. You wanna be part of that? I don’t, I wanna know what the Board of Health is doing. The umbrella of the board of Alpha Board of Health. Didn’t know anything about this. The, The board did know about this. We just haven’t talked about it at at this. He’s Bringing in and now we haven’t heard about the survey.

44:29 No. Correct. That’s why. Yeah. That that’s why it’s being upset. You. We need more time. Cannot. Yes. I’d like to move on. That is fine. And and we need more time. And would you please, um, withdraw your motion? I withdraw the motion. And we know we understand your feeling and we understand our feeling. We want to have more time in here about this next time. Just so you know, I met the grant person in town for the first time Saturday. And I’m gonna learn how to get money. I, no, I told, I told her I wanted to learn. I met, she’s gonna call me. I told on Saturday also. Yeah. So there I’ve

45:04 money. So don’t Did you read That? No, I just stopped in there and someone introduced me To her. Oh. ‘cause I was, I I had a nice long talk. So I’m gonna try and get money again. I, i, I don’t know how yet. So, So, um, okay. Um, I invited her to a meeting actually. Yeah, she was nice. She was very nice. So regulations, uh, in the past we talked about updating tobacco control. So I have provided a copy of the most recent tobacco con control regulations that need to be updated. There’s highlights in it in areas about menthol and flavors. Please read through all that. Let me know what questions you have. We’ll need to set a public hearing

45:50 and we’ll need to go through all that stuff. So if we set up a public hearing for the next regular meeting, Which is board, no. So the board needs to read through all this stuff, come back to the table. There is a meeting in between Sure. Answer questions that we need to post it for two weeks out before we can have the publishing here.

46:15 Right. And what about the, uh, body Art. Body art, uh, take a look at the body art regulations again. That was worked on the coalition, the North Shore Public Health Shared Coalition. Uh, on bar to the art regulations. The current regulations are older. Uh, and these need to be updated. Are the current ones in here? Uh, the curtain ones are not in there. No. Which, would you mind sending those up? Sure. Because they were much briefer than this. Correct. I mean, they were very Yep. This is permanent makeup. There’s a lot of new things in body art, Not just, um, tattoos. Tattoos, correct. Well, they’re all tattoos, but the tattoos that we think of as a tattoo. Yep. I think before I was on the board, I was in the back.

47:03 I, I remember last year, we don’t have any body art in Marvel. We, we do Not currently. But that does not mean, so we have a lot of people don’t wanna come and do permanent makeup.

47:15 Now can physicians do that without Yes. Physicians can do permanent makeup without. And what other, uh, just physicians? No, They’re Under the guidelines of a physician. You can Yep. Physician. But it has to be under the guidelines of physician. Yep. Okay. Um,

47:38 so you don’t think that we could bring that up and probably until as a, a ary Meeting? Well, again, there’s a lot of information there. I want the board to take a look at it, read through it, ask questions, and then we can move forward with it. We have two meetings a month now. We’ll have one more in February and two in March. Right. So that’s Great. You guys have to understand that. This is the only thing that I’m working on too. So I can’t drop everything and just work on this. Rewrite it. He wants us to be able to give him questions and he needs to rewrite this if we want. And you can re this is, this is a sample or whose is the So that was put together by the North Shore Public Health Coalition, but it also has to go to town council to be written. So for our Okay. Um, format. So town council has to write it before it goes to public hearing.

48:23 Yep. The public hearing doesn’t come before it. Correct. Alright. All right. So, um, is there anything else in the director’s report? Yes. So we did put out notification to foul owners. Um, so yes, we have, we were notified by the Department of Agriculture. Um, the state environmental and health officials are informing the public that highly pathogenic avian influenza, which is very rarely infects. Humans is suspected to be the cause of over 60 deceased Canadian geese, swans, and other birds in Plymouth, ma Plymouth, Massachusetts, the division of Fisheries and Wildlife. Mass Wildlife, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, MDAR and the Massachusetts Department

49:08 of Public Health are advising the public to refrain from handling birds or other animals that are dead or appeared sick, reporting wild birds. So we’ve post, we’ve posted this news on the town website and we also sent out, uh, the similar information to all our foul, uh, permit holders. Um, so, uh, deer animal permit holder, this just went out January 29th. As you may know, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources has a nice announced that highly pathogenic avian influenza has been detected in poultry in Essex County. All domestic poultry in Massachusetts may be at risk for of exposure. Avian flu, also known as bird flu, is a common influenza strain that can spread from birds

49:55 through humans, through saliva, nasal persecution and feces. Water birds, including shorebirds and waterfalls, especially dab uh, dabbling ducks like mallets are most likely to carry the virus. Again, it goes on to include all this information, but we sent this out to, uh, foul owners. Do we Have any incidents? No, we have not. So what we do have is that we do have beaches. We do have the potential for, uh, wild and birds to be dead on the beach. And we need to make sure that people report those. We have it have reports. Um, last, uh, last winter. At the end of last winter.

50:36 Is it accurate that genetically or these, this, this avian flu is somewhat different than the same? That, that we are using eight five n one for livestock and others? This is, this is a little bit Different. This is a little bit Different. Yeah. Correct. And so it’s, it it’s a subset. It is a subset. They’re both influenza viruses. But this one, this one has been, This one has been around for quite a while in this area. Yep. When Bush was The Yes. Young bush ear, early Bush, Harris Bush. Yep. It was a, that was a vaccine failure sort of thing. We nobody got it. We spent a lot of money on vaccine and,

51:21 and it, it set everybody back. Yep. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well thank you for updating us and thank you for getting that. Onto, onto the, uh, follow that Anybody decided not to have? Uh, No. Not at this time, no. And we have not report heard or we have not received any reports of dead birds on the beach or anything like that. And You’d only hear about people that don’t, uh, chickens is, is if they don’t No. People will call us if they find that birds on the beach and other areas like that. What I’m saying as far as the files Yeah. That they have in their Property. That’s correct. If they don’t re-up for the license, that’s the only way you’d know. That’s correct. Yep. That they don’t have it. Okay. So, um, I don’t see the, um, the town report in here or I yeah, I do not have the town report in there.

52:07 Yes. Um, but we have, you guys all have copies of the town report. I think we’ve seen the final, final, final, final. Yep. So You guys have copies of the final, final, final. And I think that, um, I’ve just shown, um, uh, town Mayor, we, did we add the new person? Yes. I just showed that. Yep. Correct. And that was, And he, yeah. So, so one thing we, we all need to be very recognized is that when we’re working on documents and sending them around, you need to be working on the most current documents. Yeah. Tell me about it. Because what happens is that I spend time to format it and bring it, you know, I received it from you. I took that formatted, made corrections and sent it back out. We need to continue to work on the same one. Otherwise, I’m just duplicating work over and over and

52:55 I, so, um, I think it looks great. I think it was a lot of hard work. Um, she’s gonna put it in as it is, which gives us extra space. I don’t know if you can cl clean that up. Yeah, it’s gonna be an extra space. So I try to go through the whole Kyle puts it in as is. Yeah. I try to go through the whole document and shift things around so you don’t try to decrease the amount of page breaks as possible. Um, So can c go under number 10? That’s all I’m asking because it seems like C going under number. It’s on probably what, two, three? The fourth, the fifth page. So I can slide that under, but you’re not, it’s like, it’s gonna separate out some of that other information.

53:41 So I try to break it up. Yeah. So you don’t have these bizarre page breaks at times. That’s a good thing. So, um, thank you. Um, do you also, well, could you do one other thing on number four and a af after that? See, can you give us a space at that? No, it was reduced. Yep. Let me just, those, the rest of the pages that was, we’re not going through any promise or anything else,

54:13 I think was fantastic. Thank you very much. It was a group effort, which took a week. It, it took too much Time. It did, yeah. It take time. So now we have the minutes, but so Generally, you know, we will receive, you know, again, we’ll be doing this again next June. Uh, we often get, you know, Kyle will send it out to say, hey, you know, it’s the same format, the same everything every year. Um, it’s generally due about the same time. So it’s generally due the first week in February. Maybe It goes to one member at a time so that we don’t have that problem. That’s why I was standing by waiting for the very last one to Happen. Well it usually the members don’t get that involved.

55:01 It’s usually correct. Pretty, it’s pretty, um, In the past I have written the report. It’s just a copy of all the different mm-hmm. Different groups and numbers that we’ve compiled over the year. It gets put into the report and submitted. Well, and I volunteered to take that job because of all the bad stuff that’s happening at the transfer station. And I did take longer. Probably been a lot longer than you would’ve taken. No, but when I stuck my nose into it took three or four more days. Yeah. But that’s just the way we work In which If we had had more time, then we wouldn’t have been under the pressure. The two of us could have done it. Well, usually when I’m at, when when my husband was, uh, more active in his field, we were always at the demo meeting

55:47 and we, I was going in when I was out of town. That so seems that it was, it’s always at the bad times. So, and I, and this isn’t the only one that I do either, so, um, but thank you everybody for doing it and thank you Andrew for, um, putting up with all the the final and the final and the final final and the final final final. Um, so there’s no need to vote on it because No. I will submit it as I’ll make that space change and submit it. Thank you very much. Um, and she’s expecting it tomorrow. Yes. And that was very nice that, uh, Kyle gave us to, to our meeting to see it. So we do have, um, minutes. Has everybody hooked them over because we’ll go up one at a time to approve them.

56:34 And we’ll just start with October. Are these in? Are these in order, Marty? Yes. We’ll start with, uh, October 8th. And I’m gonna ask for motion to approve the meetings of elector eight. Motion to approve. I second. All in favor? No, I wanna talk, I wanna make some changes. I didn’t see this one. Okay. The nu what I’ve, I think the, the most logical thing to do is just eliminate, uh, number one charter commission discussion because most of it is, has nothing to do with the charter commission. I think that if I were speaking clearly and quickly at that time, I would’ve been saying that the board will meet with the town charter committee and that’s all should. It would have nothing to do with the board oversight

57:21 and all, all of That. Actually, you know, we’re gonna do it. We’re gonna put this one on hold. No, no, you can’t. You cannot. Why? Okay, because, Well, let’s just eliminate item one. Now why do you say we cannot put it hold Because of the last time. So we haven’t You have an order from the Attorney General’s office to Yeah. Oh, is this the one that um, that’s been questioned? No. So you can, you can only be back so many meetings. You have to stay up to date. Oh. So we, Well either, either eliminate number one, can’t eliminate number one. I would just turn number one into the sentence being the board will meet with the town charter committee on October 22nd and eliminate all the stuff about roles and everything.

58:07 I don’t think that has anything to do with the charter committee. Uh, okay. So where do you wanna, so talk, take out all the way to where you writing in the, Can we just eliminate One? Okay. They, your meeting minutes. So they just wanna make sure that you’re, you’re carrying, you know, you’ve covered basic information, votes, taken motions and all that. Self discussions. Okay. I would just look forward all of the discussion under item one. I would just have the words, the Board of Health will meet with the Town Charter Committee On a certain date On October 22nd, I think is, that’s when we met. Okay. Or later in the month. ‘cause that it, we had to reschedule it twice

58:55 ‘cause it had nothing to do with the rest of this. Okay. And the only, we need a verb under three.

59:09 Um, the first sentence is fine. Lisa Sugarman is a well-known suicide prevention advocate. Once guest Zaist. Sorry, Was Aist. Is that what you want? Okay. Yeah. And then, uh,

59:31 Was A guest. I would take the word I, we’ve got the $90,000 two grants. 45. 45. It, it’s not over 90. It’s exactly 90. So it’s just 90, Just totally nine. No, it’s over two Years. Yeah, it’s over two years. That’s what it says. 90,000. This, it says over 90,000 too. Mine. Oh. Oh. I didn’t have that because we had a vote. You had a Vote. I see that. No, I apologize. You, you had a vote. 90,000 when I read less, but it’s okay. I just took out the word over to Remove it. The word over? Yeah. Yeah. I think the other one, isn’t it 45 and 45? Yeah. Correct. That’s what I meant over two years. But the one prior is, is incorrect. Yes. Okay.

1:00:26 You okay with that one? Yeah. All right. So I’m gonna ask for, uh, For your motion. Motions are made. Motion withdrawn. All right. So we make a motion to motion To approve with Tom’s Corrections. Corrections. That’s corrected. Uh, second frame. You please. Oh, second. All those in favor?

1:00:48 Unanimous with the two corrections.

1:00:54 Okay. Uh, number, uh, October 22nd. This was the charter committee meeting. Yeah. Uh, I think that tells, it says what happened. Okay. If I move that we accept that, except that there are actually four questions. And so, uh, sec sentence two. Could you change three to four?

1:01:18 Say that again? Switch them around. No, just have it says Amy. Oh, you was just saying the sentence too. It says three questions. Yeah, but there’s four questions below. Oh, That’s it. The charter committee talks about it being three questions and any other suggestions is an but in the way I wrote it, it was board Western. So, So can we say the committee asked for any other suggestions? And just take up the four,

1:01:50 Change that word and make it four. We change it three to four. Yeah. Let’s say three to four. Good to go. Well, except they only asked for three questions.

1:02:00 Well, she says if, if you have any other questions. Oh, okay. The, the formal. All right. So change it to favor. Alright. All right. Again, so you make a motion to accept these as corrected. So the word four, Uh, second. All those in favor. So are you getting these, Marty? Mm-hmm. Um, November 12th. I’m looking for motion to accept the minutes of November 12th.

1:02:32 Uh, motion to accept the minutes. Accept as a yes.

1:02:40 Yeah. Okay. Make a moment.

1:02:51 I, I, i second. Okay. Alls in favor? Yep. Okay. So those are done. Um, December 10th.

1:03:16 These are just about what you put.

1:03:25 Oh, um, I think under one, the Association of Health Board training. The second, the last sentence in that it says Seth Safe 2.0. Mm-hmm. It’s S-A-P-H-E all capitals. Okay. It’s, in fact, I’ve asked that to be on the agenda for next time. Sa You do, It’s, I’ve got it right here. Yeah. It’s, it’s the public health component of the Governor’s State Development Program. Yeah, that’s exactly right.

1:04:11 That’s what we have to spell it the same way. Okay.

1:04:16 A PHE. Mm-hmm. With Cap. Cap. Okay. 2.0. It’s an acronym 2.0. Objection. All right. Um, what, what, so is there motion as corrected or are you still finishing?

1:04:38 I, this, I think this is exactly the way I was. What, how does it come from the health Safe law push was discussed to allow for training for the health department staff that does not currently exist. Yep. I didn’t write that. I know that. What does push mean? So this is discussing the conversation that went, that they’re trying to allow this to be in play so that there’s trainings for staff that doesn’t currently exist. Much like our current staff that don’t have certain trainings. That’s what that’s involved. You don’t have the training, you don’t have the staff that, Well, in this case, it’s training for the staff. So, but what’s, why is the word pushed in there? What,

1:05:26 I can make it whatever you want, but what would you like to push it to? It was just the discussion. So the, the safe, the S-A-P-H-E 2.0 law is a push to have discussions to allow for trainings for the health department staff that doesn’t currently exist. Pushes that’s what it’s doing. Oh. If there’s something else that’s, if that’s not the case, then I need to change that. But that’s the information that I have.

1:05:50 SAP Hd, that’s the safe 2.0.

1:05:58 I just get, I would just say that Safe 2.0 encourages training for the health Department staff that doesn’t currently exist. I think that’s the issue.

1:06:09 So, encourages training. Yeah. I, I bel there’s a section in there that upgrades the requirements for all positions in The health. So we removed, uh, the phrase push was discussed to allow for training. Just encourages training for the health department staff. Correct. And changed that to correct caps. S-A-P-H-E. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. 2.0, correct.

1:06:46 Yeah. I think what I rewrote is the item two. This is the one you wrote This Item two? I didn’t, I didn’t. If, uh, if this was what was there? I didn’t. Anyway. You might wanna check. Uh, lady, uh, we’ve got different few meeting changes, so check with the office afterwards. ‘cause we’re gonna go, I’m online to see what time you’re talking about. Time for meetings and dates. Yeah. I, I checked online before I came. I know, but what I’m saying is that there are some dates that are not gonna be different. Thank you so much. I be nine.

1:07:34 So you’re a motion for December 10th? Yes. Has modified? Mm-hmm. Yes. I moved. Second. Second. All in favor.

1:07:45 So those, again, all, all the minutes are done.

1:07:50 Oh, I don’t have it. The 13th And January 14th. I might cut No. January 14th. Yeah. December 10th is two pages. And then, Oh, there it is. I’m sorry. Oh, December 10th is two pages. Sorry. December 13th and January 14th, right? Yep. Yep. Okay. Sorry. All right. Um, a motion for prove December 13th. That was, uh, uh, Uh, the think is that one, correct. One 40 should be 1 25, right? Yes.

1:08:27 It was 1 25 that we had. Yeah. Yep. I told you that at the time. But also remember that, yeah,

1:08:34 it was 1 25 and 40. Is that how was the first vote? Correct. Yeah. Went to,

1:08:47 what was the final motion? 125. I’m sorry. 140. A hundred for the primary and 40 for the secondaries. Okay.

1:08:58 Motion to approve with that collection

1:09:04 There. Second. Correct. All in favor? Yep. Moved passes. Right now the January 14th.

1:09:13 This was who came with the counseling center. Of this was a, a, a great improve of organization to the extent that we can make them bullets like this. Yes. I think were better off. And I, I’m approach it, make the report amenable to bullets.

1:09:38 So one of members are saying they like this format. It, it is clear. I, um, is there motion to accept the January 14th? So second. All in favor? Yes. Unanimous passes. I, I wrote the things down. Did you want your I want two. I run even for that first week.

1:10:07 Yeah. Yes. All right. Um, okay, good. Before we go to, uh, they, some comments, I’d like to just go over the meetings because it seems like that there are some different ones. Um, last meeting I asked. ‘cause as you know, we didn’t start setting up second meetings until two months ago. And, um, I’m unable to be at, um, the 24th if people, and the 24th is the week before the March 4th meeting. So next week is February 18th, which is a week after today’s meeting. So either way, the meeting is gonna be a week

1:10:54 from either today or from the following regular meeting. Um, so, and um, is it possible that, I think I asked everybody to put it on the calendar for February 18th. Can you come February 18th for the second meeting, which is next Tuesday? It cannot be Monday because it’s a legal holiday.

1:11:17 Is that, I think you put it In your calendar. Is that the third meet, third Tuesday of the month? That Is, yes. I can write the third Tuesday. On The Tuesday. So that’s our ne Fourth Tuesday is when charter meetings. Right. So that’s our next meeting. The following the March meeting, instead of being, we changed this early on in the fall was March 4th instead of the regular second Tuesday. Mm-hmm. So we’ve got March 4th and then, um, Monday. Um, So we’re meeting on March 4th rather than March 11th. Yeah. And that’s been on the calendar for about six months. Maybe. It’s not on my Oh, okay. Alright. Are you able To make that? I just need to put it there.

1:12:07 And then the Monday, I’m looking at Monday, March 24th because it’s a Monday and that’s when we’re trying to get Mark Labin and he can only come on Mondays. So if you can put March 24th down instead of the 18th.

1:12:27 Can I confirm those? So I have, yep. February 18th, I have March 4th. I have March 24th And March 4th. Yep. March 4th and March 24th. Correct. Okay. Yes.

1:12:40 And that Monday we’ll try and get Dr. Labon. Yes, Dr.

1:12:48 That’ll be good. ‘cause that’ll be before your, We’re not doing it in March anymore. I know, but it’ll be be, yeah, but it March 24th is not March. I mean, it’s the end of March, so it’ll be before whatever. Oh. It’ll be me and Mark talk anyway, so it’s, what’s the February meetings? Uh, at the 18th and the, um, tonight in March 4th and March 24th.

1:13:15 Okay. So not, not the 17th. The seventeenths a holiday. Oh yeah. It’s President’s Day. Okay. It’s a real holiday for the kids family day. They have off all week if they, I can’t say the rest of the sentence.

1:13:37 All right. So, um, have the comment. So I, I do have one more thing. So, oh, I’m sorry. Uh, Tom asked about Tom Rro asked about budgets today. So I have copies of the proposed budget for FY 26 for the board members. Oh, wow. So generally, so generally the state of the town is the kickoff to the budget, Susan. Mm-hmm. After that, that sets the tone, that sets the general, we’re level funded again, or this is what we’re looking at. It seems like we’re This is the one same as the one we already had, right? Yeah. Okay. Just wanna make sure. Yeah, Same as you already have. Oh, this is the one Oh, the next year. Yep. We receive this already. Yep. Okay.

1:14:24 Um, but with this I have to submit revolving account requests. So we have a waste revolving account, and we have a vaccine revolving account for the health department. The vaccine revolving account has been at $10,000. We do a small number of vaccines. We purchase high dose flu for seniors, and we do some, uh, flu vaccine for employees. Most people at this point get their vaccines either from the primary care physician or from CVS. Public health used to be more into the vaccine game. There’s not that much as, you know. So we don’t buy a large amount of vaccine at all. So we buy $10,000 worth of vaccine. We administer it, we collect the health insurance, and we recruit our money. It goes back and it’s a continuing thing.

1:15:12 I just wanna make sure everybody understands that. And that’s for flu? It’s for flu. Yep. You’re not talking about Covid At all? Not talking about covid. Nope. And how many of you issue We get? We purchased $10,000. Yeah. How many? It’s about a hundred. A hundred. And that’s mainly for your public town employees, Seniors and town employees. Yeah. But you really don’t even have enough for the scenes. So we do high dose. High dose. High dose is expensive to purchase. Um, again, you have a lot of primary care physicians. The main point CVS is the second point. We do hold a clinic in the fall. It’s early in the fall to try to make sure, you know, we do have some seniors that have a hard time getting to their primary care and they use us. It has been a, you know, a benefit.

1:15:57 The hard thing with the high dose flu vaccine is that there’s a high cost. We don’t recoup as much money as we do with some of the other vaccines. But in The past you’ve had more for the seniors? No, we got the same number every year. Okay. Because this year I, I asked for it. They didn’t Have it. Yeah. So you weren’t, you didn’t attend the flu clinic for the seniors. And so we used it all up that day. And so unfortunately, I, I didn’t have an extra boost for That’s correct. And I usually get it here. Yep. Uh, the waste revolving account. Um, so when we do the budget, obviously there’s two sides for waste disposal. There is townside, which is curbside collection, all the stuff that comes into the transfer station, all the rentals around town, the schools, the offices, the,

1:16:46 that’s what the town is responsible for. Disposing. We have the commercial side, which is the way of pay all the commercial accounts that gets paid out of the, the waste revolving account. We also have additional waste that we need to account for. So we, we consider that we could be potentially getting rid of 13,000 tons a year annually. Currently we’re doing anywhere between 10,011. We keep those a couple extra thousand tons in case we had a flood event, a hurricane, and we needed to get rid of extra waste. So we’re covering ourselves, but we use waste revolving account money to, to pay for that offset. We don’t inflate the budget. We’ll continue to look at the budget as we go down the next couple of years to take a look at that.

1:17:32 Uh, this year, the cost to cover those additional tons, uh, is $925,509. So that is allocated in the waste of revolving account. We also pay for, uh, lease equipment for the backhoe up at the transfer station, $29,916 and 6 cents. Uh, we also cover for the cost of a transfer station operator, um, at the cost of 53,000, $70. All those things added up is, uh, and then we wanted to allocate a large portion to continue on for our project. I’m allocating a million dollars to just make sure we have plenty of extra money to finish off this project and keep everything running. Um, and, and just work it that way.

1:18:19 So I’m allocating $2,008,495 out of the Waste revolving account to be spent in FY 26. And so that letter has been submitted. It will get, be voted by the select board next year. We will, we’re able to allocate those funds for those different resources. That doesn’t have to go to town meeting, though. It goes to town meeting, but it, it’s done in this way that it’s in the waste revolving account. It’s not taxed dollars. It’s coming from, um, commercial waste, weighing pay. That’s where the money comes from to go in there. Mm-hmm.

1:18:58 Any questions regarding that? So, yeah, it gets voted on by the selectman goes to town meeting in the past. You sometimes get some questions about waste revolving accounts. Generally it’s a very quickly pass through because it’s non-tax dollars. Yeah. I that down. Yep. Yep. So fiscal year 27 is the year that the, the contract is up. So Yeah, 27. So

1:19:30 yeah, so the contract ends in September of 2026.

1:19:41 And so yes, you will see some huge jumps. That’s something so that, that I’d like to talk about a talent meeting and make sure it’s crystal clear with everyone in town. So we began to talk about that with FinCon this year. We had a preliminary meeting with the select board at an open meeting mm-hmm. To just make sure that the public, I’ve been talking about this every year Yep. Of the contract to say, Hey, we have a great contract, but when this is over, there’s gonna be a huge change. Yeah. And so we’ve tried to outline this, um, in a look, you know, look forward. Um, so I’ve outlined that in this document. Perfect. So take a look at it and then you guys can ask him questions. So a State of the town will also mentioned he, That he mentioned it briefly.

1:20:26 Yep. Patrick Mentioned it and the chair mentioned Correct. In summary. Yep. So I thought Yeah, you you had gotten your point. Yep. So yeah, I’ve looked at contracts across the state moving forward with other communities. We try to look at, you know, similar communities. Um, but lower down you can see collection costs per households for other communities. We’re currently about $127 per household for the year. Other current, other communities at this time are a hundred eighty five, a hundred seventy eight, a hundred eighty six, two twenty eight, two oh four, two three seven.

1:21:06 So that gave us an average of 2 0 3. And that’s why when you look at the preliminary for FY 27, you see that huge jump of o of over or about $600,000 for curbside collection. That’s just collection costs. Obviously. There’s gonna be an increase in, in, You haven’t tested those waters at all, like reaching out? Yeah. So I, I’ve gathered all the contracts. So all No, You’ve gathered all those, but you haven’t contacted any of the companies? No. So we would wait, um, and this next fiscal year we would be content. So essentially what you’re gonna do is we put out an RFP and it’s gonna be to Republic Waste Management, castel, the big companies, and maybe some additional ones to say,

1:21:53 this is the contract we have, you know, do we need any changes, but we need a price to move forward with this contract. Now the Ones you got, the numbers you got, do you know how many of those are kind of grandfathered in similar to us to, or if they’re new contracts? They’re all, these are all new contracts. These are All brand new Contracts. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And they’re all higher Than us. Yeah. They’re all higher than us. Oh yeah. Well Except this 1 78 Over there, that’s still higher than us. We’re paying $127 perhaps. That’s 180 5. Oh, well, isn’t the 180 5 from ours? Nope. No. Okay.

1:22:32 Yep. So that’s just one piece of it. The second piece is that we currently do not pay to dispose of any recycled material. Curbside. That’s a huge saving in itself. Um, and so you’re, you know, you’re talking another couple hundred thousand dollars to deal with that material as well. Mm-hmm. And so you’re gonna see this large jump and FY 27, and then you can potentially see another jump in 2030. 2030, the state of Massachusetts is scheduled to close a considerable number of landfills. Mm-hmm. So at that point, a lot

1:23:17 of our waste will be being shipped out of the state. Mm-hmm. Um, big companies like Republic owned car, and they’re doing this currently. So some of their waste is going as far as Michigan, Ohio. And so that’s just the next, these are the next coming, big pieces coming. Mm-hmm. And what’s happening with recycling, The recycling market is the commodity based market. As long as there’s some, there has to be somebody that wants to buy that material and turn it into something else, there’s still a high cost to process it all. Mm-hmm. So you’re seeing costs, again, we’re paying nothing. You’re gonna see cost of 109 a ton and 119 and rising. You’re almost ma you’re essentially matching the cost of waste disposal at this point for recycling,

1:24:09 But we’ve gotta do it. That’s correct. Mm-hmm. And otherwise Right. Be inundated. That’s Correct. How soon do we have to talk to Jack about getting time to talk about this? Uh, uh, we had tons of talking for that. Yeah. Yeah. So generally in the very beginning of time meeting, there’s an update and we can give an update at that time. Okay. He has a whole day where people can come and for people, for people who wanna speak. But again, like we’ve been trying to, you know, we’ve, we’ve talked about it and you know, a month ago at a select board meeting, we talked, they want up during the state of the town. We’ll talk about it when we meet with the fin comm and we have our fin comm budget hearing, and we have, we’re trying to make sure that we continue to talk about it. Um, and it’s not a surprise to anybody. Yeah.

1:24:55 The, the hard thing is that obviously it’s always gonna be a hard hit. ‘cause it, yeah, No, that’s why I wanna hammer it at the town meeting. Maybe some local papers could write about it in the newest edition. So, But that’s, we not to be confused for the 26th year. Correct. Correct. It’s all a year down the road. 26 years starts in 25. Right, right. So we’re talking 18 months or so. Yep, yep. Is when they hit. But like, they don’t want, they don’t want to happen a year from now to have a surprise. You’re still gonna get half the town surprised no matter what. So it’s, it’s Always gonna be a sticker shock. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

1:25:41 So public comment. Well, thank you for that. Yep. Anything else? Nope, that’s it. So, um, I see that, uh, I reported Heather her hand up. I, uh, yep. Quick question. And it’s later than I find thought was expecting for public comments. Well, maybe we can address this next time. But you were, you mentioned the tobacco regulations and I was wondering if Marvel had ever considered, um, fan, like in Brookline, for example, that no one born, uh, in 20 the year, any in the year that begins in 2000 is allowed to buy cigarettes. Um, is that, has the town ever considered any more stringent, uh, regulations around smoking? Nope. As public health, We’re gonna be reading it. I mean, if it’s something they desire, we desire, I’m sorry, thank, if it’s something we desire,

1:26:27 it is a good time to bring, bring it up. That’s when we’re gonna be looking at the regulations. Thank you for asking. Okay. Okay, cool. So maybe I’ll see what you guys thought after you read the stuff. Oh, at their, at your next meeting when you guys discussed, we Had, um, Joyce Redford here in the fall. Uh, was it, oh, a year ago. That was, Yeah, it was a year ago. A Year ago. My roommate. Did she bring it up in her, uh, comments? I don’t think that had happened then. No, it had not happened at that time. No. Can I just, Um, real quick, go ahead. Could you identify yourself? ‘cause we, we haven’t seen you before. Yeah. So I’m Amanda. Lori, I’m at the daily item. I just moved here from the West coast. Hi, Amanda. Yes. Good. Hi. Um, when will substance abuse night be discussed again? Will that kick to march? Uh, so it’s not, the original date

1:27:13 for it was gonna be March 12th, and then we made the suggestion of strategic timing for it. So I suspect it’ll be June. I’m handling most of it. So, um, outside of the meeting we have open meeting laws where if two people talk about something. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s a little more difficult. But I have a side group with the two people that are sitting in front of you are involved in it. And, um, mark Vonne, who’s, uh, on mental health and substance abuse talks, uh, he’s part of it too. So we’re talking outside. So more information There. Two people that were in front of her, not this current idea now. Right. That’s what I said. Yeah. Yeah. Those, thank you. Um, I can ask another thing question. You had said in the past, at our, the last meeting, I think that the transfer station’s losing $4,500 a day in

1:28:00 commercial fees with the compactor down. Um, is that money, did you budget to have that money and I mean, what’s it been now like a month? So what’s the total, and, and if it’s another month, how will you make up that? So we did not, can’t budget for lost revenue. Um, we didn’t budget that for, Was it in your budget? Was it in say it’s, No, it’s, you don’t put lost revenue in your budget, But you didn’t know it was lost last year. So you did, you, let’s come up with a round number. It’s a hundred thousand dollars that you’re gonna lose. So Is Do you have to cut anything to make up that a hundred grand? No, I do not have to cut anything to make up that a hundred grand. So, so that money is commercial waste that comes in right. From the commercial disposal that’s being done.

1:28:46 So obviously, so January is our lease, busy time of the year. Um, so it is the best time to do construction, best time to have these issues that come up, unfortunately. Um, yes, it’s lost revenue. So what means is that that revenue goes into the waste revolving account. So eventually the town’s gonna have to, so currently we’re splitting costs off between what the town’s responsible for and what the waste revolving account can cover. At some point, the waste revolving account might not be able to cover some town expenses.

1:29:24 What town expenses do they cover now? Sorry. So they’re covering a, the lease payment for a backhoe that’s used at the transportation. Oh, okay. Alright. An employee. So the town will have to pick up those expenses. I’m not Saying possibly. Okay. All right. Um, and then last question. You said you have the new FYP Again, like you, we don’t, we we allocated money into that. There’s a chance we won’t spend all that. We, we allocate large sums to cover potential incidents. So we’re, we’re putting in there 2000 tons if there’s a hurricane. So we might not have that event. And again, I’m probably not gonna have that hurricane between now. No, I’m just, I’m just doing the math of 4,500 times every day that it’s closed.

1:30:09 No, you know, it’s just a math question and then where, how does that money get made up? And you explained, so I get it. Um, last question is, well, but could We, I think this, so the revolving fund will be less by four times how many days we’re done. Yep. So, So it’s only less whether It shows up in the budget that we submit to the fin income, the town is losing income, but by four times whatever. Okay. Yeah. Wanted to make sure I understood. Yep. But that’s potential, it’s not guaranteed that 4,500 estimate too, that was the average over the year. Yes. Yeah. So it’s, if January’s less, it’s gonna be less, which, okay. That’s good. So that’s, yeah. Uh, last question. You talked about the FY 26 budget.

1:30:58 Um, can I get a copy of that on my way out and um, is, So I don’t have a copy for you tonight. Okay. So you Can request. Awesome. Okay. Um, is it level funded? I’ll Give it mine. No, we, we can waste cannot be level funded because there’s always a 3% increase in curbside selection and waste disposal. Okay. In The Contract, in the contracts. Okay. So it’s, does is the budget 3% higher than it was last? I would have to, I did not calculate the percent increase of the budget, no. Okay. Um, doesn’t the town tell you what it can be? Doesn’t the town give you an allotment like they do with the, You need to look at the history of my, uh, waste department ex, you know. Okay. Okay. And so the FinCo hasn’t seen it yet

1:31:44 or anything like to vote on FinCo? No, we, this again, we just got through the standard of the town. Yep, yep. Which is technically the, the kick off to the budget season. Right. After that, generally we would develop our budgets based on that information. Right. This year we did it back in Ste. Mm-hmm. And in yeah, early the summer. Um, they had copies of that to make projections. We’ll begin to meet with them, take a look at what they say. Right. Um, again, it’s wastes. You have to deal it. Totally Get it. I a hundred percent understand. Can you tell me what the total budget that you have for FY 26 is? No, it’s in front of you, right? Nope. Don’t they have it? They don’t have a total, I don’t have a total. Oh, okay. Do You, do you mind giving this to her or you rather she Could have it? Yeah.

1:32:29 So it’s every, it’s all in there. You just didn’t add it up? Correct. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that’d be great. Sure. Yes, you’re control. Thank you.

1:32:39 Come to the tables. You go. It’s at minimum 3% higher in the last Year. Right. I cannot see that. Okay. Didn’t do the math. All right, cool.

1:32:54 All right. Thank you. All right. Uh, anything else before we ask for adjournment? I, a couple. That’s Okay. Oh yeah. But I do that When we get our disposal thing. Yes. Good place. We put a couple of balls or something, put in a different location that was, that was tragic it beautiful. And, um, a few months old, every still usable. Yeah. I need to try to find a couple of ballards that aren’t gonna interfere with, with the parking. Okay. Um, yeah, I, I need to try to figure something out. I’m trying to find a couple, um, I think those smaller jersey barriers that, like the sections that I could kind of put in that area to try to prevent that from that. Yeah. And the other thing,

1:33:41 what’s going on with the metal pit? It seems like the, the metal bin’s always overflowing. People throw all sorts of crap outside there. Are you having trouble getting rid of it or No. So I, the company that does the metal bin will only do collection once a week. Okay. So that is filled up quicker than they can dispose. Really? Um, okay. Yeah. The great thing about the metal vin is that, you know, it’s revenue for the town. I don’t pay for trucking for that. I don’t check it myself. Generally it would be a $400 per week item that you’d have to pay for. Again, I have a really good deal with the company and so they’ve agreed to one collection a week, but there’s no cost to it. Okay. That makes sense, Steven. But what I’m saying is stuff that shouldn’t be going there,

1:34:30 there is a lot of stuff that is being placed there that should not be there. There is a sign, um, people can’t read.

1:34:41 That’s what I figured, but I wasn’t sure. Yep. There’s dressers and stuff like that that are getting left there and no thank you.

1:34:49 Thank You. A question. No, welcome. Thank you. Uh, there were for the fires or, but not that part of California or Exactly that part of California actually, but my family’s alright. Okay. You had left prior to that, what? You had left before the fires? Yeah, I lived in Oregon the last five years. Oh, okay. I, well welcome. I was east to the, this weekend and, um, west all day. I’ll see you next week. Right. Literally where the fire was. Oh, George. George. Yeah. So my dad, my grandparents are Santa Monica. So thankfully none of us still live all states. We now why don’t you put this.