Board of Health: April 8, 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.

0:04 We’ll start the meeting of April 8th. Uh, this is the beginning of, uh, an early meeting because we have executive session, uh, later on. So we’ll talk about that later. Not right now. And, um, the first thing on the agenda tonight is the Sexual Assault Awareness Month proclamation that we’ve gotten. And I would like to read it. I think it’s important, and it is a proclamation that the, um, select board have signed. And I hope that we’ll make a motion at the end to the talk Sexual assault awareness on ourselves. And that would mean the community that will abide and listen to this proclamation.

0:49 I don’t know if it was printed in, in the, uh, in any, the press by the Selectboard, but I’m gonna read it up to now. Whereas sexual violence is a pervasive issue that affects an individuals of all ages, backgrounds, and communities with last need until found effects from survivors, families, and society as a whole. And whereas the month of April is nationally recognized as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness, educate communities, and promote prevention efforts to end sexual violence. And whereas according to national statistics, one in three women and one in six men experienced some form of sexual violence in their lifetime, highlighting the urgent need of awareness, support, and action. And whereas organization, organizations such

1:36 as Park Healing Abuse, working for Change, the National Sexual Violence Resource Resource Center, and Local Crisis Centers provide vital services, ad advocacy and education to support survivors and prevent future innocent incidents. And whereas every member of our community can play a role in preventing sexual violence by promoting a culture of respect, consent, and safety, and by standing in solidarity with survivors. And whereas the Town of Marblehead joined advocates, survivors in organizations across the nation in recognizing the importance of sexual assault awareness month and reaffirms its commitment supporting to supporting survivors and working toward a future free from sexual violence.

2:24 Now, therefore, we, the Select Board of Marblehead, do hereby proclaim 2025 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Marblehead, and encourage all residents to participate in activities, educational programs, and initiatives that raise awareness and foster a community dedicated to ending sexual violence. And witness. We are off, we have here unto here, unto here, unto set our hand and cause the official seal of the town of Marblehead to be affixed this 26th day of March, 2025. Signed by chair Erin Newan, Moses Greater, Brett Murray, Dan Fox, and Alexis Singer. And at this time, I would like to, uh, ask for a motion, uh,

3:12 for the board to join the select board in proclaiming April, 2025 sexual Assault Awareness month. But, uh, first I think we should give credit to, uh, Megan Sweeney, who’ve been pushing really hard for this. She did all the work presenting all in from the select board. So she’s really the, been the, uh, engine behind this, so Thank you. She did. She’s the one that that actually asked me to, uh, to take this on, so mm-hmm. Thank you for saying that. So we’re just endorsing this. We’re gonna endorse this and state, we will make our state that this, that the making a motion for the, uh, board of Health to join the, uh, select board in proclaiming April, 2025 sexual Assault Awareness month. You, you move that.

3:59 Well, but we don’t proclaim months, do we? Shouldn’t we just say we agree. Conclusion. But anyway, we decided, decide what you wanna say. I, I thought I’d like a motion for the Board of Health to join the select board and proclaiming April, 2025. I don’t, so moved. I don’t think there’s anything second, uh, legally incorrect about that. All those in favor. And, you know, I would also like to set one moment of silence for all those who experienced sexual assault.

4:29 One, one in three women and one in six men in their lifetime.

4:38 Thank you very much. So we’ll go on to the community health update. Yes. Um, for, um,

4:51 creating a healthier marblehead comm. Um, we continue to meet with different groups to introduce comm to the town. Um, I think over all these meetings have gone very well. There’s genuine interest. I, I’m really surprised actually how much interest there is in, um, strengthening public health services, especially on the assessment and promotion area. This past week, um, uh, we met, uh, with, I met along with Marvel Head Pediatrics. They said they really were very pleased that somebody from the board actually had the time to come to, to talk with them. They made some suggestions.

5:36 Andrew was very positive about some of their suggestions and things like that. So, um, anyway, Marblehead Pediatrics, uh, we met for the second time with the Female Humane Society. This time we included Dr. Coyle because the Humane Society had some questions about, um, the survey, its process and those issues. Um, Kaitlyn is on top of her game. She did a great job. And, um, I think everyone left the meeting feeling very positive about things. Um, we, um, because, so that’s past week. We’re we, oh, no, I met with the Marblehead Ministerial Alliance on

6:23 Association. Is it association? Yeah. Just for the press. I’m sorry. Yeah, it’s okay. I’m, I can Google it later. What? It’s okay. I can Google it later. Oh, okay. Okay. Um, okay. I had Googled it too. Hmm. Uh, well, anyway, we, we met with the faith groups and, um, again, a very engaged and positive, uh, reception. Um, and so, um, we can call on them for advice if we need. They, they will help us, uh, uh, fill out the, get the surveys filled. They will identify if necessary people for the leadership group and that sort of thing. It was, it was quite a pleasant time. Um, in addition to those that are, we’ve done,

7:09 we are in the queue to speak with the select board. I exchanged emails with Erin Newton. She’s happy to have our presenting. Uh, we haven’t fixed the date yet. Um, those of you who know the town better, are they gonna be tied up between now and the town meeting, or pretty much will still be a good time to do it? No, They’ll pretty much be tied up between now and town meeting. They only have a month, which Is Town meetings in a Month. Okay. Well, we’ll see. All right. But I think the select board is important, uh, for us, uh, because we, we’ve actually reached 50

7:57 percentile in our fundraising and, um, uh, Congratulations. Um, I’m learning. I, I You like doing the streets, huh? Well, a actually, I think I’m getting better at it, so I guess when I don’t feel foolish, I, I enjoy it more. Um, but, uh, we, we’ve reached a halfway point, and the core group that we meet and talk with have suggested that, um, we, I prepare a document. Um, we’re calling a template to give a hard copy background to people we talked to before we leave. And actually, one of the groups we talked

8:44 to a couple weeks ago suggested if I had had one, he’d give more money. Um, but, uh, so I’ll be working on that and try to have it ready for the board to review on the 28th. Um, I, I don’t think we have the time to do it professionally, but I don’t think anybody expects us to be that, um, that professional, uh, marketable professional. I think the information is what we want to get out and have people know how to ask questions. And I should have said also, in addition to the queue, we’re in the queue for the select board. Um, one of the officers of the Female Humane Society is also connected to the Chamber of Commerce,

9:31 and she has contacted the Chamber of Commerce to, um, invite us to, to talk about Kong. I I actually think that’s really an important thing. The business community w it, it will be an important part of shaping the overall wellness. So, um, I’m hopeful that, that we do, we actually do get invited and that, um, we can set that up, uh, as quickly as possible. Okay. Uh, so that’s calm. Any questions? Just, I, I forget. Have, have you reached the banks? N no. Uh, I actually have emailed one of the banks and, um, Kristen, uh, Orta Go Banks at the other bank,

10:18 and she’s gonna talk to that bank. Oh, good. And we’re gonna try to, that’s what we’re gonna, once we now know it, that we’re, we’re where we are, I think going to smaller groups and, uh, more community oriented, uh, even if they’re not necessarily in the health business or vulnerable per people business, we’ll start trying to do that as much as possible. So, yes. And did the pediatricians give you any feedback about their feelings about our topic? And if they, are they interested in knowing the findings? Or more? More Oh, oh, yeah. Oh, no. The medical Part of it, as opposed to the fund fundraising part? No, no, they’re much, I mean, we asked them, I mean,

11:07 you know, we have this little grant to, to deal with, try to develop a landscape for child and maternal health in Marblehead. Well, we asked them, is that again, Kristen helped a lot with that. She set up a group of questions and, and we asked them, what’s it like to be, what is your sense of what it’s like to be a kid in Marblehead today as compared to 10 or 15 years ago? And that was really a very interesting conversation. What’s it like to be a caregiver for kids in this town? Um, they were, they were, I don’t think I’m saying anything out out of school ‘cause it’s so positive, but they said them absolutely. The best thing about working in Marblehead, um,

11:53 is they’re dealing with smart people that who care about their kids and really, really wanna know. So it’s very eager for them to say, well, you got parents who wanna know about things. They’re gonna wanna know what you’re gonna find income, so they’re gonna help without question. We, um, we are in the queue to do that. Same thing with the OB GYN department at Salem Hospital. As I’ve said here before, I think part of the future of public health is to work more closely with the delivery system. And, um, Michael Goldstein from, uh, JCC has been very generous in offering to introduce us

12:39 to physician community at Salem Hospital. That’s very nice. Yeah. So, uh, we’re, we’re hopeful we’re gonna see O-B-G-Y-N as soon as possible. Um, and then I would like to see if we can actually work with them about their, um, they have to do an catchment area survey every three years, and this is their third this year. They’re gonna be doing something like that. So I think we’re, they haven’t said I, I’ve never met anybody over there, but that would be one of our goals. So that’s, uh, any other questions about call? Any, any measles? Measles? We had, uh, interesting short conversation last week, week.

13:26 I’ve actually had three people, um, say how interesting, um, Andrew’s conversation about contagiousness is actually, we had one, uh, uh, uh, host staff at one of the restaurants saying they, they actually meet for the Board of health, um, and sit and watch and you become a rock star a little bit. And it was, uh, it was very pleasant. So, um, uh, the, um,

13:58 the, the idea of bringing, you know, small

14:05 resonant interest issues about health and wellness, I think is getting somewhat reinforced. Um, um, we talked a little bit about maisel’s last time, last time. Um, the current did a summary of measles vaccine. There was one thing that me, they, they left out was that more and more families now are thinking about if, certainly if they’re doing any traveling normal MMR, it, measles mumps re be a vaccine is given at 12 months of age. Um, the, the recommendations have always been in special circumstances,

14:52 you could go down to six months of age and more and more, uh, families certainly if they’re traveling in the southwest now, um, are electing to do that. But there’s an important caveat there that if you get a, uh, vaccine for your eight month old, that will be an extra vaccine. It will not cover for, it will not be an early vaccine. They will have to get three. If you get a vaccine right at 12 months, then you can get the second one, um, at 16 months, and they’re covered through grade school.

15:40 And I haven’t had time to look at what’s the immunology of that, why you can get it when in, but clearly the, uh, yes. Do, do you have, well, Just, this is from old time stuff. The reason why 12 months was picked versus earlier times is that, uh, maternal antibody to those hangs around. I don’t think people realize, obviously when a baby is born, maternal antibodies get transmitted. Some of the antibodies, um, quote, disappear faster than others. So things like pertussis, diptheria, tetanus, any of those disappear quickly. So that’s why those immunizations are given so early measles cont tend to hang around. And if, if you, if there are antibodies are around it, it,

16:29 you won’t develop an antibody reaction. So that’s why it was originally delayed 12 months just, Well, I know that firsthand because I brought a child home from the hospital with three kids at home with measles, and they, and the child didn’t get it. The infant didn’t get it Right. Can I, can I add one other thing about the MMR, which we’re all neglecting just as a pediatrician, is the, uh, the second, um, uh, m mumps, but the r rubella German measles, remember, if anybody remembers that when pregnant women get rubella, um, that they will may likely have a baby that then has, uh, birth deformities or, or worse.

17:15 So it’s not a nothing. Okay. So that’s why it’s so important to get the MMR, not just the measles vaccine. Well, speaking of not nothing, another, a complication of an infection with measles for a child or adolescent or adult that, um,

17:41 we, we’ve come across, I mean, all three of us have read the article in the New York Times, um, and it’s called Immune Amnesia. And what it means is that if you get an active measles infection in a small percentage, not everyone, but in a small percentage of people, you lose your protection against other infectious diseases that you’ve had. And it in effect, it wipes out your immune system for a, a subset of, um, of, of antibodies that, that Dr. Kruger was talking about.

18:27 So I spent a fair amount of time with this.

18:32 I’m geeky enough that I really enjoy that kind of thing. Um, so I wanna present that next week, the, the lineage of it. And what I’d like to pre presented in the context, the context of, um, public health science. We, we read about follow the science, I would say as a former hard scientist to, you know, chemistry, physics, those, those kind of people are hard scientists. The public health science is enough different that we should talk about the difference. And if people understand the difference, then they’ll be able to appreciate the difference between the stuff that we might quote in this room as opposed

19:18 to things that might be quoted, um, in a internet or somewhere else that doesn’t have the kind of work in back of it. So I’d just like to go through that. I’ll try to make it as quick and interesting as possible. But I think with all of the questions now out there about, um, about almost everything in public health, I’d like, I’d like to do that so people can understand a little bit about, um, why we, when we’re comfortable with our science, we sort of have a right to be ated. It, it was just stated about measles vaccine only. Is that still, is that still available in measles only vaccine?

20:06 I, I don’t, it’s You said not. It would be hard to find, But, so there’s not any reason to worry about that. There, there Is now an mm MRV, but the CDC is pretty clear that that should not be given before 12 months. Chickenpox is a, is a different, it, it, the, the immunological stuff with chickenpox is very different than it is for measles. But I don’t believe, and I think Merck makes mm, RI don’t think anybody makes just measles. That’s continue. Okay. Alright. The, the last is, um, the Marblehead Mental Health Task Force. Uh, last night we talked about their proposal to try to get a closer relationship with the,

20:52 uh, counseling center. There’ll be a meeting, uh, with the counseling center, uh, this coming week, uh, to talk about the Counseling Center perspective, to learn about the Counseling Center perspective on that. So we’re moving forward and I should be able to have a report, um, for the next meeting. So the mental health task force is going to hear from the, Yeah, Dr. Dr. Dr. Labon has set up a meeting with, with Terry. And we’re gonna, a couple of us are gonna accompany him, um, to just see their, hear hear what she thinks of What she has to offer to the mental health task force, or, well,

21:38 That’s one way of saying it. Transaction. What’s the partnership? Yeah. Okay. And I’d be interested to know if they’re going to have a staff person, uh, placed with you or, or not. I mean, whether there’ll be more leadership than there’s been here. I mean, we haven’t, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve, um, we, uh, have spun you off, so to speak, even from the get go. Set you up. Not, not me, I’m, I’m here. I mean, You as a group. Yeah. That’s not my group. I’m the, Dr. Labon is the chair and you and I’m the liaison, the representative. The liaison. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and they’ve invited me to join. So I, I actually don’t know, but I, I think we’re meeting at the blue canoe,

22:24 so I wouldn’t guess that there will be, uh, too many staff people with the three of us. Well, you only need Terry to explain Yeah. What they, what, what the situation is. I, I think this is brainstorming of how we can best work together and, um, the, the sense is that the community needs everything we can do to strengthen mental health services. The counseling center, everyone sees the counseling center as the most robust, uh, concentration of that kind of skill.

23:07 I think our strength over here is far more policy, strategy, those sorts of things there with the clients, with the patients. They know the business. And so we’ll have to see how we can make it work. Well, I think it’s a, as I said last time, I think it, it’s a phenomenal opportunity because I don’t think that the Board of Health, after we built this, um, task force, that we really have the time to give much direction. We love hearing what’s going on and what you’re doing. And we’d like to continue to hear, because I think it’s critical at this time. But, Uh, well, I think when we, when we get to five, unfortunately it’ll be next year,

23:54 but when we get to five, we might be able to have a group of two members of the board who will look at mental health from maybe a different perspective than the counseling center might. Again, if we’re talking policy and strategy as opposed to actually the delivery of care. The, um, I, I think that’s where, from my perspective, that’s where the mental health task force got, um, challenged because there were so many things it wanted to do. And, uh, so let, let’s see how they cut the pie with, slice the pie with, uh, counseling Center and see if there’s a place for us in, uh, in, uh,

24:42 what would it be, 2 26. Well, I think it’s, I hope it’ll be a very symbiotic relationship because we have a lot to, or the mental health task force has a lot to offer, as does the counseling center. So I think that, um, with, with those two groups, it will, it can only get better.

25:01 Thank you. Um, anything you to say? All right, so I actually talked this out. You won’t have to worry about minutes. Uh, transfer station update. We’re going to the directive. Yeah. Transfer station update. Uh, so our compactor is now installed. Uh, the new chute has been installed. Um, we have a little bit of an issue with, um, what was called an overload for the electric motor. Um, we had an electrician from the company come back out, take a look at that. What happens, or what was happening was that as the compactor pushes the trash all the way out on the return, so when it’s not technically under full load, but you’re talking hydraulics. So it’s slightly different. We were running into an overload

25:48 situation and it was popping the breaker. Um, they came out, they made some adjustments. They showed us how to reset the breaker if this happens, so we wouldn’t be down as much. Um, again, they came out on Monday. We haven’t had an issue since then. Uh, but they did make some adjustments to it. We will continue to monitor it. We’ve talked to a couple different electricians to see what their thoughts are. Um, so we will proceed with that. Um, but, you know, we, we are in a much better place than we were before. We have a brand new compactor. We have a brand new shoot, we have a brand new tipping floor. So those are three huge accomplishments and putting us on in the right direction. It’s Just a breaker switch more or less essentially that,

26:33 That should be the quote on Friday’s weekly news. We are in a much better place. Yeah. So essentially it’s just like a household breaker where it pops a switch. You gotta go down and push it back in. Okay. Yeah. So you’re not too nervous right now? I’m not too nervous right now. All alright. I, you know, I believe I would’ve run into issues, you know, yesterday afternoon, today, um, it was when we were running the, the compact, like the, the large trash truck load through it. Um, so we’ve done that a couple times now since then. Okay. I, I would’ve probably run into some issues and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Again, we’ll continue to monitor it. See, there’s a couple things that could be causing that. So as the power comes in, if the power is not coming in at a steady rate

27:20 and there’s fluctuations to it, if you have a high point so it fluctuates high where, so you’re having more energy coming in, then what’s kind of a, what you think you can also run into that high phase and, and overload phase. That’s one piece you could have, um, across wire somewhere. Yeah. Something very small that could be causing it. Something’s not grounded properly. They took a look at all that stuff. Again, it’s running. We haven’t had any issues. They are able to adjust the load on the fuse itself. So they made some minor adjustments to that and we’re continuing to operate. So does it make any more sense to run it more frequently or No, because it was on the return Yeah. That gave us the problem. So it’s not even when it’s pushing the load into the trailer. Yeah. Which you would think is the larger load on the

28:08 unit, but on the return. Alright. Yeah. Is is business, uh, come pick coming back? Yep. Business is definitely coming back. We’ve definitely been very busy up there. Um, you know, obviously again, you know that with that comes with the need for trailers and all that stuff. But we, we’ve been able to stay with, uh, with all that work. Um, the idea is that we fill two trailers a day. So two 18 wheel wheel trailers a day. Is That what you’ve been doing? Yeah, we’re we’ve been pretty close to that the last couple days. That’s just interesting that it wouldn’t be steady coming back. Right. You think it would be not steady going out. Correct. Yeah. Do you think you’ve lost any customers? I don’t believe we’ve Lost. You can’t tell us. Yeah. You’re now feeling too a day. Yeah. Yeah. So that, If anything, I think we’re gonna start to see customers coming from greater distances

28:56 Because you, they’re hearing that we’re doing a Great job. Not, not necessarily in the trash role. It, it’s harder and harder to get rid of waste mm-hmm. Across the state. So there’s less places, there’s longer lines. People are trying to find locations that they can get rid of material land. So the the electrical Motor issue is Yeah. Is contained with the compactor. We don’t buy a motor and a compact compactor. No. So you, you have, you buy, you do, so you buy a compactor and with that comes a power pack. So the power pack is the electrical motor that’s pushing the hydraulics into thehy, you know, into same vendor. Yeah. It comes as one unit. Yep. That’s what I was, it’s Just two, two pieces.

29:41 Um, with one, you know, a couple Yeah. Sorry. OEM original. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A dry, huge hydraulic. They can’t say it’s the other guy. No. Yeah. Um, so we’ve been working on that. Um, there’s a couple fine thing, you know, fine tuning pieces that we need to do. The tipping floor. We have a safety gate that needs to be installed at the, uh, at the top of the new ladder. Um, we have a safety gate for the pit. Um, that was all proposed by the architect when we did the original design. So we need to have those items installed. Um, at the very edge where the tipping floor goes to the asphalts. Um, there’s a slight gap there now. There’s al, there always was a gap, um,

30:26 in the past it was full of dirt. Um, we are gonna try to put a piece of metal there, essentially piece of diamond plate to kind of fill that in. Um, we don’t need to fill in that void of any, you know, for any reasons, um, that we’ll just kind of what we’re trying to do is fill in some areas, maybe do some additional welding on the floor to try to keep some water out from going down to the basement. Again. There’s other people do that. What can our own people do? We don’t have any in-house welders. No, we don’t. Yeah. So again, it’s not a totally sealed floor on the edges, so water can always get in there. Um, but we’ll take a look at this and see if that’s something that we need to do. We’ll monitor the amount of water that’s getting down there. Um, it’s always easier to work in a, in a dryer environment. Um, but this is just something that we deal

31:13 with on a regular basis. Um, did you see a good amount of water from this past week? A little bit. Not a huge amount. Yeah. So doing pretty well. Mm-hmm. So e even if I weld it all the floor, I’m still gonna get a little bit water down there. Yeah. Um, so it’s just a matter of, I really care about that transition from the tipping floor to the asphalt. Yep. Making sure that’s a smooth transition. So that’s an area. And then obviously doing the safety gate and the safety mm-hmm. Um, rail for, um, the open pit area. Mm-hmm. Um, recycling, we were notified last week, um, that Republic, they operate Greenworks in Danver, um, that they are shut down for construction. Um, we got noticed notification essentially five days

31:59 before they were shutting down for quite a bit of time. They’ll be down for, they’re doing a large, um, upgrade to their recycling facility. So $25 million is going into Greenworks. Um, but that means that we need to move our recycling no longer to, uh, Danvers, but to Bill Ricka. Um, we’ve worked, we’re working with Waste Management, um, to deal with that. Obviously that’s some additional trucking. We have waste management coming in and hauling bins for us on a regular basis at this point, um, to stay up with all the loads of recycling coming into the facility. So that’s gonna be an extra cost for us. There is an extra cost to it, but we’re not paying any, we weren’t paying any cost to, um, Greenworks for the last year. And so we have a little bit of extra money

32:45 to deal with this issue. Mm-hmm. Did they say how long they were you said a while, but They’re, they’re telling us December. Yeah. They, they’re, they’re catching everybody in the northeast off guard. This one. Yes. A little bit. Yeah. So, So if we don’t have a contract with Greenworks, So Curbside Republic owns the material and that material was going to Greenworks, they still own that material and has to figure out where they’re gonna bring that for themselves. The only other closest large recycling plant is owned by Waste Management and Bill Ricka. So Greenworks putting $25 million is positive. At least it means that we’ll in probably have somebody

33:31 in the future to work with. Correct. What, what what they’re trying to do is that they are working on building a polymer factory, a polymer recycling plant, and partnering with the two big companies, Pepsi and Coca-Cola. The idea is that Pepsi and Coca-Cola will now recycle up to 50% of plastics back into their bottles. Mm-hmm. So yes, it, it is a positive move. Um, and yes, we want them to make these upgrades. That way we can have a better recycling market in the future. So does that mean in the short term it’s more, it’s better financially for us if people do curbside, then bring to the transfer stations?

34:17 It, it is technically, but you know, obviously we can’t overload curbside. Right. You know, it, it will cause some issues with that because even with the recycling going to Greenworks, they were only able to do, fill up their whole truck and go there essentially twice a day. So mm-hmm. Fill up in the morning, go there, fill up in the afternoon. If they fill up in the afternoon, they’re done for the day. Even if they have another mile of road to do, and they would have to come back the next day, grab that. We would get phone calls to say, Hey, like, leave it out. They’re coming back for that The same street every time. No, you know, it, it is not the same street every time, but it, it tends to be the same. Very. I see. Yeah. Yeah. We’re, we’re, we’re the, I think one of the very first,

35:04 and they are at our place in gone by six 30 every Friday morning. So They, they’re not, They’re not supposed to. I don’t, Yeah. So we, we’ll go back and talk to Megan about that. They cannot start their route before 7:00 AM Yeah. But what you just said, you can understand why they’re doing it. I understand. But our rules say that you have the right to put your recycling out there up to 7:00 AM in the morning. So what happens is, if people don’t get it out there and we get phone calls and be like, Hey, you didn’t pick up my recycling, we need to make sure it gets off the street and figure out why he wasn’t picked up. So what’s, what, what’s the time? I, you can’t put it out before 7:00 PM but Either can’t put it out before 6:00 PM the night before 6:00 PM Yeah. So, um, traffic flow,

35:54 we’re ready to move to the next phase. We have our transaction huts set up in the recycling area. We have our compactor hut set up in the commercial recycling area. We’re ready to change the traffic flow at the transfer station. Okay. Um, we have signs ordered. We’re ready for temporary signs to go up. We’re recommending that the change of flow begin next week. So re any permitted vehicle. So permitted, um, recycling, you know, permitted commercial recycling, permitted resident, um, and permitted landscaping company will now need to enter into the Green Street entrance starting on Monday. The way that the agreement works is

36:39 that the gate opens at 7:00 AM but the facility’s not open till seven 30. So they’ll queue inside the facility. So we will have them run all the way up that hill and at the top of the hill we’ll have it conned off so they can’t enter. And our employees continue to do work, but we’re ready for this changeover. Um, and moving to the next phase. Now, are we gonna advertise that, uh, on our website or anything? Yeah, we will need to advertise that. Obviously the paper here is tonight, but yes, we will be making changes to our website to say this is how it works. So it’s bas basically construction material going in. Anything going into the pit is coming up from the top end. You, if you just have a sticker or you’re a landscaper, you’re coming in on Green Street. Yep. How close are we to the license plate reader? So

37:29 We’re a couple months away from the license plate reader. Um, they’re just finishing up the fiber optic this week or beginning of next week. Um, once that’s complete, um, we need to install the pole and then, um, our company has, has all the pieces in place for the camera. We just need to install that and set up the system. We have computers coming for the transaction. Hu and the commercial, um, for the com commercial control pill cut itself Now in the transaction. The transaction hu I I’m going to confuse them for a while. The transaction hu is the one down by the recycling area? Yes. Okay. Yep. Is that gonna have any, um, cameras in it or anything? Yes. Okay. That was the concern of the workers being like,

38:16 they, they, they’re into it, they’re into the idea. They were just wanting to make sure that they could see a view of like what people are bringing in rather than, you know. Yeah. So the person sitting in the transaction hut at the recycling area will have an access to all the cameras in the facility. Yeah. They’ll have the license plate, reader, camera, um, screen at their disposal. So yeah, when that person drives in the facility, it’s gonna read the front plate, it’s gonna read the rear plate. It’s quick enough that it’s going to tell the person looking at the screen that this person has a permit or this person does not have a permit. Yeah. If this person does not have a permit, they’ll have to deal with it. Mm-hmm. Um, which means if they don’t have a permit, they could be throwing an item away that’s a pay for item, like an appliance, things like that.

39:03 Mm-hmm. Um, you can come to the window, you can do a transaction. So you can pay for, Hey, I have a refrigerator that I need to get rid of. I have an AC unit, I have a washing machine. Any of those things you could technically come, um, we will have all that set up with the computer so you can pay by credit card. Again, we’re no longer taking any cash up there. Yeah. Now, will there be enough area that it won’t cost, like tr a pile up if you have a couple people? Yep. So we’ll be creating parking. There’s gonna be a parking space on the left. So as you drive up the hill Yep. There’ll be a parking space on the left hand side so people can park and do your transactions. Mm-hmm. Everybody else moves to the right. Obviously most people will drive straight and park there to do your household trash, your recycling.

39:52 Yeah. Or drive up to the yard waste area. Would you say that the, so there’d be someone in the hut unless someone, unless they’re coming out to talk to someone or whatever. Yep. Would you say there’d be another employee close by? Yep. There’s gonna be another employee close by to take a look at everything so they get to continue to walk the line. Yeah. Um, make sure items are being disposed of properly. Yeah. Make sure items aren’t being left where they’re not supposed to be. Um, so yeah, there’s always kind of a shift of employees. Yeah. Um, but again, we’re very close, you know, being short on employees, but Yes. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Mm-hmm. Okay. Most of that design with the parking and all was in our new design. That’s correct. And so the other piece with that is that the swap shop, which is very popular on Saturdays. Yeah. That’s gonna be crazy. We

40:38 Will be creating an additional parking on the exit. Okay. So as you’re exiting the facility now that nobody’s driving in on that left hand on the entrance, that will all be parking. Okay. We will be creating a, you know, a painted walkway across. Yep. Yeah. Um, and yeah, so it’s gonna take some time for people to get used to this. Mm-hmm. Um, but obviously, you know, we feel that the flow is correct. Mm-hmm. Um, and that this is gonna be a good thing for everybody in the flow. Should be, you know, what we’re trying to prevent is really that crossover traffic Yeah. Up the commercial section. Yeah. What percentage of the, uh, of, of the people that generally buy, uh, stickers have bought them up till now? Because We’ve sold a tremendous amount of stickers to this point.

41:26 So, um, I mean, we’re close to the, at least 60% of the sticker sales have occurred at to date. That’s amazing. It’s the Fourth month. I, I know. So our popular times obviously are like right away in January. I, you know, I, I want my new sticker and stuff like that. Our second popular time is closer to the summertime when people are looking for beach stickers or yard waste and stuff like that as it comes out. And then our third most popular time is the fall with fall leaves. They still wouldn’t wanna buy them then when It’s still, they still buy them then when they want to get rid of their fall leaves. Yep. They, that’s interesting. Yep. The beach is going to, from what I understand, beach is gonna be really popular this year.

42:12 We heard of one of the subcommittees in the charter committee. They, they got a big grant to really make the beach area much nicer, particularly for disabled people. Correct. So yeah, they’re doing a big a DA project down it’s ever Hill Beach. They’ve made some upgrades to that center bathroom that’s kind of in the center of the parking lot. Yeah. Um, there are additional handicapped in bathrooms there. Um, but yes, there are gonna be some large, um, they call ‘em Moby mats, um, that allow disabled people to access the water. Um, and so yeah, there are gonna be some big changes down there as well. And since we’ll be, I know that the beach is talking about moving to a license plate reader too. I don’t know how far along they with that. Yep. We’ll obviously be doing it for them. Yep. So there will still be a physical sticker that people

42:59 that’s get Yep. But if you’re only using the transfer station and you don’t want it on your car, you wouldn’t need to. So it’s really just like, if you’re using the beach, then Yep. So when you purchase your sticker, there is a, a question that says, do you want this for the beach? Do you want the physical sticker? Yeah. But yes, because we don’t have the license plate reader up, we didn’t, you know, give out a sticker to everyone that was purchased. Right, right, right. With the caveat that yes, we were moving to LPR cameras. You do not need to install this on your car at this time. Right. Yeah.

43:31 Well, things are moving along. Yeah. We’re trying to keep everything moving. Um, you know, just so everybody’s aware, we did have a medical incident in town today. Um, the transfer station is a dedicated MedFlight landing pad, and we did have MedFlight come in this afternoon. Um, it, it is relatively pretty quick. We close off the area, they land, they leave, we open back up. How much notice did you have? Um, it, it’s not too much, but we, you know, we’re, it’s something that we’re able to handle. Okay. One more question. When you’re saying you’re opening up the Green Street on, on Monday, are you going to have any traffic officers there or anything? Or You think No, we did. Generally do not. So we, we’ve had to change, make some

44:17 of these changes to, to construction in the last couple weeks and we make notification at the access, um, on Beacon Street with a sign. So we post a sign there, open the gate, and people get, they’re pretty comfortable with that, this access at this point. That’s why it makes sense to be moving in this direction at this time. Did You notify the landscapers? I know you can’t notify everybody, But, um, I mean, essentially, you know, everybody will be at, we will try to notify everybody. Yeah. So yeah, Any landscapers that have access, I’ll have their email, they’ll get notification from one. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That’s an like, you know, there’s 60 landscaping stickers, um, you know, smaller number of companies. That’s a pretty easy mm-hmm. Notification for us. Mm-hmm. Um, again, we’ll try to use as many signs at the beginning,

45:04 in the back, um, to try to alleviate any issues with landscaping trucks and stuff like that. Yeah. I can’t imagine it’d be, I mean, if, how many cars do you think cars, not landscaping trucks fit between where the entrance is on Green Street and I can count them, but it, it’s quite a bit. Okay. Yeah, because I, I mean, I’ve been up at seven 30 at the top and you never get more than like 10. Oh yeah. From the top of the hill all the way down. Yeah. So I, I can’t imagine it’s gonna spill out on Green Street before. No. Yeah. Right. So I think that’s, that’s the good move up There. Yeah. That was the agreement with the neighbors. There was concern about queuing up on the street and causing traffic issues. We said this is what we would do to alleviate that problem. Yeah. Yeah. No complaints last week. No complaints. Nope. Started.

45:51 Well, we’ve done some of this during construction for when we, you know, when we’re installing the tipping floor, we had to shut down that area because we were moving steel around. Um, for the last, you know, month, two months, we’ve had to make some arrangements and use the Green Street entrance. Mm-hmm. Uh, curbside collection. So obviously we’ve, we’ve talked a lot about this. We’re moving into our last year, this great contract that we have. We will be talking about this at town meeting. It was brought up again last night at the finance committee warrant hearing. I’ll be talking to the finance director, um, finance committee direct, uh, chair to see who wants to make this, these, you know, announcements at town meeting. Um, it might be through the finance committee chair.

46:36 I might assist him with this announcement. So, but yes, no matter what we will be talking about, this is the last year of this great contract that we have. And we will be working towards a new contract, um, that would effectively start in FY 26, I think. Should I still be ready to talk to? We can talk about that in the next couple weeks. I think he was very good and very firm. Yeah. Alex was very good and very firm about this. Now there’s a, a lot of things that we’re gonna need to do to get ready for this. So obviously we will be speaking with, you know, our current, uh, Republic to see if they’re interested. We will give ‘em a period of time. But after that we will essentially release a RFP request for proposal from large companies to complete this work.

47:22 We would be looking at a three year contract, a five year contract, and a 10 year contract. Um, the things that we really need to be taking a look at is under our current operations, we do not limit recycling. We will need to limit the amount of recycling going forward. Currently we have a limit for trash, which is essentially 65 gallons or 2 35 gallon barrels. We will need to do a similar thing for recycling. Also. Currently we have some businesses that are putting the recycling notes. We can no longer allow businesses to put recycling curbside as there’s gonna be a charge for all this material. We need to take a look at that. The final thing that we need to look at is that how do we

48:08 recognize issues? How do we recognize too many barrels out there? We’ll need to investigate, or the best way to try to handle that. And most likely you will need to put your address number on your barrel. Again, we, we have some, you know, we have over a year to be looking at this stuff, but we’ll need to talk a lot about this a lot over the next year. Um, we will need to start to talk with the finance committee probably during the middle of the summer to say, Hey, we need to start to meet and start to talk about the finances of this. How are we gonna get through this? How is this gonna be spread across the tax roll? How, you know, what is the best way to move this forward? Is it gonna be an override? Is it, you know, what are the options? We wanna explore all this and everybody needs to be talking about it

48:54 and comfortable with before we get to town meeting and have that decision. Over the past couple of years, have you noticed a, a decrease in recycling? No. No. Okay. We, we need to make sure that everybody’s following the Recycle Smart, which is the Massachusetts statewide recycling brochure and what we, they allow. Um, so there’s a couple little things, but the recycling piece is the biggest piece that we’re gonna have to change some rules and regulations on. ‘cause right now we accept unlimited recycling. And as far as the businesses, are you charging them the ones to put Out? That’s something we’re gonna have to talk about. But You, you aren’t Right now. We are not right now. It’s on the Street. They pick it up That they pick it up. That’s not a very good thing to be saying on tv. Uh,

49:42 We just need to be honest with everybody about this. Mm-hmm. You know, we, we have a downtown district where we have a business district that Yes, I know some businesses are putting their recycling outside for collection. It’s not costing us any money today. But in the future it will. There’s, there’s gonna be more businesses than you think because like Yeah, for me in Salem, like you LLC something as a business. Yes. Right. So it’s, And so we, there could potentially be a way that we figure out a way that people pay a monthly fee and they can continue to do that. Mm-hmm. But obviously we couldn’t service restaurants. I could only service, um, you know, ‘cause I can’t handle restaurant trash. They need to be able to deal with all that. And they also have a, generally a larger amount of recycling

50:29 that’s being put at place out. But that will be something that we’ll explore. Is there a possibility for, in the downtown district, could we potentially charge for businesses to put their waste curbside? We could charge ‘em on a monthly basis, but again, we have to take a look at all this, look at all the laws and how, and what the feasibility is of doing All that. Well, maybe that’s what’s slowing out our, our people at Trex down by, by picking up extra loads. Again, it, it’s, we don’t have any rules and regulations in place today. So it’s merely impossible for us to go out there and start to identify these issues. So again, we’ll have to start to develop some new rules and regulations around curbside collection and start to, to talk about some of these issues.

51:17 So again, a lot of things to be discussing in the future. So today a restaurant doesn’t, uh, if the restaurant’s been abandon the rules, they don’t use us at all. They’re technically not supposed to.

51:31 None of the businesses are. Gotcha. None of the businesses are, even If they have a little Gift shop, this, this is residential curbside, a Gift shop isn’t supposed to use It. Okay. Yep. Alright. But that, I’ll say, Tom, like it’s in sale at least when, I mean, because Andrew says that ours is what, one, uh, per household? One. Yeah. 1 65 down the tip. 65 In Salem for a business, it’s like 40 bucks a month. And so it’s not like it ends up being a little bit more a year, but it’s not, not like an egregious number. Yeah.

52:07 Um, we have the household hazardous waste coming up May 31st. Um, and um, again, you know, same idea. You’ll be able to get rid of your household hazardous waste, um, paints, um, gasoline, all those items that we’ve collected in the past. We will have a flyer that we’ll put put together again. This time we will be working with another company called Recolor and they’ll be recycling our latex paint this time. Um, we did it last event. It’s a great way to recycle the paint rather than having to go in the trash. Alright. What do they do with recycle paint? So, recycle paint. So latex gets mixed together as a, a, you know, a unique color. And then it’s sold at bulk.

52:48 And this is not door to door anymore. It’s not door to door anymore. No. Where, where is this? So this will, again, we’re back to using the transfer station for a household hazardous space day. And the date again, Uh, May 31st. May it, it creates a very busy, busy, busy day up there. So we, we always recommend that if you don’t need to use the transfer station that day, I would advise trying to stay away from it. Um, we have leaf collection, curbside leaf collect leaf and grass collection coming up, um, for the weeks of April 21st, May 12th and June 2nd

53:25 tip for curbside collection. The last piece I have is that we have the final drafts for tobacco control and body art. Um, I’ll send the final documents out to everybody, um, and we can set a public hearing date for April 28th, if that’s what you guys would like. I think we would like to get it done, wouldn’t we? Yeah, I think it was. Yep. Yeah, I think we’ve all, okay. So we, we will, um, post that, we will put that in the paper and we’ll have a public hearing April 28th for both tobacco and body art. Are are you done? Yep. As while we’re talking about dates and, uh, Mr. McMahon has this calendar out, but let’s go over and if you don’t mind, um, you’ve got 4 28, the next meeting here.

54:11 Mm-hmm. And then town meeting is, um, may, May 6th. It says it’s Tuesday, May 6th. It’s not gonna be Monday, is that correct? It says Monday somewhere. I thought it, yeah, I thought it was Monday. It really, Monday can clarify that

54:27 I looked on the, on the warrant, uh, last night. It didn’t have the date. It had last night’s date on it.

54:42 Monday’s the fifth. If that’s the first night. Yeah. May 5th. Yeah. So I don’t know why 7:00 PM Yeah. So Monday, May 5th. And do you have to post that for us to be There? They go back and forth. Um, generally no. Um, but we’ll talk to the town clerk on how they wanted to do it. Now, if I post the meeting, you technically have to take notes. So you have to, you know, Well, you have to open the meeting. That’s, and then you have to I don’t, I think that’s the only call, uh, call the meeting to order. Yep. And then you just have to, not to, uh, when you’re done to, yeah. So, so that’s, so the three of us can go. So the Three, so there, there’s always the debate about, you know, do you have to post a meeting, um, for town meeting if three board members are there.

55:28 Um, a lot of times it’s no, you know, you guys won’t be deliberating together on decisions. You’ll be there voting on articles, but not as a board. I would feel more comfortable. We posted it. I we can talk to Robin and see. Okay. And seems like a pretty extensive, uh, warrant. Yeah, we have 52 articles And I stayed till 10 last night, but I heard it went till quarter 12. Quarter 12. Yeah. Yeah. So that was, uh, that’s a long time. So the, um, the two meetings in May, uh, on the sec, second, uh, two May 13th and the fourth Monday, which is May 26th. So What was that Memorial Day?

56:13 Oh, wait a minute. Yeah, that’s Memorial day. So, um, That’s why we had it as we were thinking. May, uh, June 3rd. June 3rd instead. Yeah. So just the one meeting. And then June 3rd, which will be the first Tuesday, but it’s not the, so we’ll meet the first and second Tuesday of June. No. So the second Tuesday is election night. Election. So, and you can’t on election. So this will be, we’ll, we’ll lose the, uh, the Monday 26th of May. Unless you feel that there’s something that you want, wanna do. I Is your, uh, charter committee meeting on the 27th? The, the Tuesday. The last Tuesday of the month. So now that’s done. So and so let’s just skip it for the, I think having the two on in may just go, just go

57:01 with the one on the 13th

57:04 And we’ll do the, the June 3rd because, which would also ‘cause of the election, because the elections six 10 can’t meet. That can’t meet on election. And also, um, it will be good that we won’t have been meeting since the May 13th. So 4 28, 5 13, uh, in between is May, May 6th, May 5th and sixth. You think it’ll go a third night? I don’t think so. Anything’s possible. It’s, I don’t, I haven’t seen a third night in a long time. So, um, to repeat that again. 4 28 and then town meetings the fifth and sixth. Then our meeting is May 13th. We go from there to June 3rd.

57:50 And that, that’s as far as we go, I think. And then the sixth 10 is town election. All right. So the doing that, and it is 7 58. Um, if, if we have a, uh, quick comment, uh, many meeting minutes. I, I don’t even have any Did you pass them out?

58:12 I, I did read them. So, uh, because I gave you two corrections, but, but I, I didn’t know what right on top. Oh, I didn’t know you had right on top that we get our names out for the, uh, lawyers. The same thing. Thank you. Oh, we just gave this.

58:31 I have. Oh, okay. You’re set. Yeah. Thank you. Um, have been an opportunity to read this. Mm-hmm. Because if they have not, um, I will delay. But defense, have you had an opportunity to read the minutes? Uh, Dr. Zaro Right? I’d like a motion to accept the minutes of March 24th. These are the ones that are distributed? Yes. Yeah. So moved. Second.

59:02 A motion to pass unanimously. Um, there’s one quick question I think we can do. Otherwise we had to, it’s actually eight o’clock, so I don’t think that we should delay. So I’d like the motion to, um, I’m sorry. Um, we have a motion to, uh, to adjourn. You can go into executive session. You gotta read that whole scheme. I will go. We adjourning or you still wanna do executive? It’s, well, I’ll read it. The board of health will now go into executive session. It’s really adjourn at this meeting, isn’t it? So yeah, you’re, you’re closing your public hearing. You’re going into an executive session and the board’s not gonna reconvene in an open session. Oh, it’s not? No. So adjourn.

59:48 I’d make a motion to adjourn this meeting. We are now going to go the second session. I second of the second state Almost in favor the back. Oh, alright. The lawyer. Um.